Frugal Living: Periodically Evaluate Everything

It’s so easy to fall into a rut. To just chug along and not realize how some things could be better, especially in the budget department. I’ve recently started to look at things we pay for on a regular basis, shopped around, and made some changes. 

The first was car insurance. We recently replaced our old standard transmission pickup with a newer automatic model. We had Travelers for car insurance, which had recently just up and doubled our premiums. So Dan did some calling around and Progressive came up with the best rate, which put our payments back to where they were before. 

Grocery shopping is another one. We grow much of our own food, but for other things I’m a bargain shopper, and I keep track of prices for the items I buy. I used to shop mostly at a locally owned grocery store and Walmart, and would go to Aldi occasionally. But it got to a point where Aldi prices were better for everything. I got a fuller cart of groceries for half as much anywhere else. So Aldi is my main store nowadays. I also periodically browse the shelves at Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and Ollie’s, where I often find good stock up bargains. I still buy a few things at Walmart, although that list continues to get shorter.

I find it interesting that Walmart recently announced a downward trend in profits. They blame current events, which I find amusing. Do you know how often I didn’t buy something because I’m worried about what’s going on somewhere else in the world? Never! If I am concerned about something, I buy more to stock up, not less. Another factor is that too many items are locked up with no sales associate conveniently handy. My time is too valuable to traipse around the store to find someone and then have to wait on them to come unlock the case. I just buy it someplace else. 

For me, shopping is all about price. I look at the price and decide if I will or I won’t pay it. If I won’t, then I either find a better price elsewhere, choose an alternative, or just decide that I don’t need that thing after all. The bottom line is that Walmart no longer has the best prices. I suspect others are figuring out the same.

Another area of frugal living evaluation is prescription meds. We only have these occasionally, and I’ve found it really pays to call around before filling the ‘script to compare prices because there can be a huge difference. I used to assume Walmart pharmacy had the lowest prices, but after shopping around, I discovered they don’t. Walgreens was the winner for the prescription I needed awhile back. CVS was best for Dan’s post-surgical prescriptions.

Along those lines, healthcare systems vary in their pricing schemes. We travel a little farther for doctor visits, but our out-of-pocket costs after insurance are lower than the closer system. 

Internet. Spectrum has been raising rates every so many months and when my bill hit $130, I said enough is enough. That’s $100 a month for internet and $30 for a connected house (not mobile) phone. So I started shopping around and switched our phone service to Straight Talk wireless. It works with our basic VTech handset phone and is half what I was paying with Spectrum. For internet, I switched to Earthlink, which is giving me faster speeds and cut our internet bill by 20%. I also appreciate that they don’t use gimmick pricing to bait new customers. It was $50 to set up the account.

Next will be homeowners insurance. Ours has jumped every year, which I partially understand due to so many people moving here. That has meant real estate prices have risen a lot. Some people love that their house value has more than doubled in recent years. Unfortunately, higher insurance and taxes follow that increase in value. So we need to shop around for that as well.

My point here is, it’s worthwhile to occasionally evaluate the things that we pay for. Am I getting the best rates? Am I getting the best value for my money? Can I find better rates somewhere else? Is there an alternative? Is it something I really need (we dropped paid TV years ago for that reason.) Sometimes we stay with what we’ve got, but sometimes we find it isn’t worth it. We need to take advantage of having choices while we’ve got them.