One Thin Dime

Save Money by Paying Bills Online

If you haven't already, it's time to set up a checking account with online bill payment. There are several advantages to using this type of account rather than an old fashioned checking account; the most obvious is cost.

Online checking accounts generally carry no fees. There are some that do, but it's simple to find one that does not. Some national banks that offer them are Bank of America and Wachovia. My credit union offers this service, as well.

Because you will not be writing checks on an online account, there is no need to pay for costly checks. I know, I know... you liked your custom Dilbert checks, but do you really think they put a smile on the face of the Accounts Receivable person at the electric company? Really?

An online checking account works like this: you set up your payees by entering their name, address and phone number and your account number. Your bank saves these payees and each month you pay your bills by signing on to your banks website and telling them how much money to send to each payee. Large companies like the electric company or Visa are paid electronically. Small companies, like your landlord, are issued a check by the bank and it is mailed by the bank. With stamps now costing 42 cents each, this is a substantial yearly savings. Assuming seven regular payees per month (in my case: water, electricity, cable, health insurance, cell phone, gas and mortgage) this is a savings of $35.28 a year, plus whatever envelopes cost.

The other bonus to paying your bills online is ease. First of all, you have an automatic record of when and how much you paid each bill. There is also none of that writing out the check, putting it in an envelope with a stamp and then leaving it on the kitchen counter for a week, thus incurring late fees. (Annual savings of much more than $35.28!)

And then there's the environment. For the most part, these payments are paperless and don't require transportation in a postal van, which uses precious gasoline. Annual savings: priceless.

Lower Your Electric, Water, Cable, Gas and Phone Bill. Today.

Even though I am debt free and have managed to save $11,500 this year, I am always looking for ways to lower my monthly payments. Basically, any expense that I can control will be controlled.
So, here we go...first off, cable. Yes, I know the best way to save money on cable is to not have cable, but that's not really a viable option. My "live-in lover" (for lack of an even yuckier term) and I are both addicted to the stuff. Cable, that is. We have both cable internet and TV, including HBO. We are online a lot  and use TV as a cheap form of entertainment. We split the bill as we split everything else.But, we were paying $124.68 a month for the digital cable with the DVR (the company's equivalent to TIVO), the HBO, the sports package, and the high speed internet.
How to lower this bill? Simple, it turns out. After reading a post on getrichslowly.com about how to lower your cable bill, I merely called the cable company and said I was thinking about switching to DirectTV and within minutes the Customer Service Rep lowered our bill to $87.88 a month, for six months. This is a total savings of $222.80. And I, personally, am paying $43.94 for internet service, DVR, about a million channels of television and HBO, which would be hard for me to discontinue as I am addicted to Flight of the Conchords.

I should mention here that I pay the cable bill on time every month. We have had the service for over seven years. I was warm and friendly to the customer service rep. I think all this facilitated her lowering the bill so quickly.

What will I do after six months? Certainly the first thing will be to try the exact same thing again. If that doesn't work, we'll possibly switch to introductory offers from DirectTV and Bell South DSL. If nothing else, the rate will go back up to what we are paying now. We still will have saved the $202.

Electricity. Aside from the obvious, (turning lights off when leaving a room, etc.) the major idea I have stumbled upon is converting to compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs. You've seen them before. They're those swirly looking light bulbs that kind of look like Mr. Softee. The other day, I went to Costco and asked one of their floor walkers (is that even a term anymore?) where the compact fluorescent lights were. When he said, "uhh," I further explained, "you know, the swirly looking light bulbs," and he said, "oh yeah..." and proceeded to show me where they were.

I bought a bunch. They had ten packs and four packs, and oddly, the four packs were less per bulb. I had a calculator in my purse and was able to figure this out. They also have the unit price prominently displayed, but I never trust those and had to figure it out by myself.

We are in the process of changing all the lightbulbs in the house. My significant other thinks we should wait until the existing bulbs blow out, but I think it's better to change them now as they last seven years and use a fraction of the energy. I intend to freecycle or craigslist the old bulbs.

How do they look? Well, in one of our ceiling fans which has a colonial vibe, they look ridiculous and futuristic. The light takes a millisecond to come on when I flick the switch. The glow seems slightly yellower than what I am used to; I would have thought it would be bluer than incandescent. Perhaps the manufacturer is over-compensating. I don't mind. It has the effect of being outside on a nice, sunny day, rather than being inside in my office, writing about light-bulbs.

The gas bill. We live in Nashville, and today, December 2nd, it is 60 degrees outside. Our heating bills should not be that large, but of course, they are. I grew up in Maine and was recently there for Thanksgiving. Everyone in Maine is used to wearing a lot of layers, keeping the thermostat down and generally just dealing with the cold as a way of life. Before we went to bed in the lovely guest bed my Mom made up with (handmade!) flannel sheets, a down comforter and a (yes, handmade) quilt, the boyfriend commented incredulously that he checked the thermostat and it was set on 56 degrees!

I was not surprised. First of all, I grew up with these hippies, and second, my nose was cold. I grew up wearing layers of thermal long underwear, wool socks, turtlenecks, flannel pajamas and sometimes even a hat, to bed. Once you're in bed, it's not cold, especially if you can convince one of the cats to sleep with you.

At any rate, this inspired me to keep our thermostat lower here in the South. We have a programmable thermostat that automatically lowers the heat at night and when we are at work. It had been on a balmy 68º, but after coming back from Maine, we went Jimmy Carter on its ass, and lowered it to 60º.

Finally, the phone bill. We each have a cell phone, with separate plans. We have no land line. We did for a while, realized we never used it, canceled it and never looked back. We are in our forties, and therefore have no idea how or why to text, so paying 10¢ for individual text messages makes sense for us, on the rare instance that we decide to go through the excruciating process of typing a msg on thos tiny lil btns. (Why? Isn't it easier to call someone and leave a message?)

My next step is to combine our plans into one. My contract expires in January; his has already expired. We are each paying $75 a month and I'm pretty sure we can do better than that with a combined plan. I'll keep you posted.