Hundred bucks in a half hour

Save Your Money!

Panels

Yesterday we finally got the solar panels installed on our roof! Woot… unfortunately yet again the solar company messed up and didn’t send me the proper paperwork to finalize the project. Here’s hoping its up and running by Christmas. Anyways that’s a horse of a different color.

Now that we have our panels on the roof, I have to change our house insurance so it covers them as well. So I called our insurance company and was shocked to hear they are going to now cutoff our house insurance. They claim the roof is now commercial since it’s generating money for us and they wont insure commercial properties. I was shocked to say the least. I know the insurance would go up a bit but never thought we would straight up be cut off. We got until December 6th to re insure with a new company.

Its been awhile since I last shopped around for auto and house insurance. As I mentioned to the company they would be losing the insurance on our 2 vehicles as well then. Bundling always saves you a buck. Some people in our neighborhood talk about the cheapest insurance for our area and our current insurance company never comes into the discussion. Unfortunately I was unable to contact the potential Insurer’s during their business hours but am hopeful I will find a better deal overall.

Long Term Clients

I go to a lot of Landscape seminars listening to speakers and successful entrepreneurs. I remember one guy talking about quotes or services mentioning how in general people are lazy. If your starting a landscape job or any other kind of job or service either you call someone you have previously done business with, word of mouth or you call to get 2-3 quotes for the job.  1 or 2 companies actually call you back so now you just settle with their quotes vs calling more companies. Therefore you only get the choice of 2 companies.

If we get a lawn maintenance contract (or any other monthly service) generally the client will never shop around for prices if you do a great job. Once you get that client they should be a long term client and you do your best to not screw it up. You will try hard to keep that client. Its a lot less work or  less costly to keep a client vs finding new ones.

Do you want to save a hundred bucks??¿?

What if I told you one simple call to each service you use can save you a nice chunk of change. Plus most you can do every year! Now not every service will do something if they have a monopoly. I cant bargain with hydro one or union gas. They know I have no other options. I pay the bill or I get cut off. Simple as that. But the others…….

Water Heater/ Furnance/ Ac

We actually rent our water heater. A lot of people do. It kind of drives me nuts, they really don’t cost much to get a new water heater or tank less one. I have heard so many stories of water heater leaks and the amount of damage they can do. Renting one essentially eliminates that cost to repair the damages. From what I understand they will fix the damages done by a leaking tank.

Anyways our tank costs us 75$ every 3 months. Every year I call them and ask about buying our tank out. What it will cost now? how much for them to take the tank and I put in my own etc? They will then say is there anything to do to keep my business. Eventually they bring up giving me the next 3 months rental free. I agree but in return I need to commit to their tank for the rest of the year. Every year I do this, I’m sure they can see I do it regularly now on my account. Not a hundred dollars but hey 75 bucks in id say 15 minutes!

If you rent your air conditioner or furnace for some reason, I’m sure you could use the same tactics and save even more.

Cable and Internet.

This one is huge, call them and say your thinking of moving to another provider in the area. You will be surprised what they offer you to stay with them. I think I save about 10 dollars a month per service with just this one call. 2 services times 12 months – Boom! 240 Dollars. Not bad, I find these ones may take a little longer since you got to agree on the packages. Let’s say 30-40 minutes on the phone. Again with this discount they will probably lock you in for a year. Once you see that price rise, you know it’s time to call again!

Cell Phones

We all know they will bring you in with that shiny new phone 0 dollars down just sign with them for x dollars a month for 2 years. After 2 years remember to call to get a bring your own phone deal saving probably 30 bucks a month or rinse and repeat and get another new phone. It’s too easy to go over 2 years with your phone while paying the same bill. I have called after a year asking what the buyout or cancellation fees would be to move to another company. Its generally 20 bucks a month for each month remaining down here. Anyways you would be surprised that they will offer you a even cheaper plan all the sudden. Again no one wants to lose a long term client. Free money is the best money.

Bundle Cell Phone, Internet, Cable / Insurance

Having the same provider for multiple services generally will give you a better deal. This works for insurance as well.

Banking

Ok this is not a simple one. I hate bank fees! Banks profit from me keeping a balance in my account. Technically you are a liability to them if you carry a balance. They don’t want you pulling money out, try pulling out over 5000 cash at one branch. It’s not possible, at least not here.

Anyways I was paying $10.95 a month at royal bank in service fees. After I got a credit card, a mortgage and a saving account with 500 cash they eliminated the service fee. I was really frustrated doing all this to save the service fees but it worked out good. We got a cash back credit card (we didn’t have cash back before) and our current mortgage rate was lower than what we were paying. This is not a quick process by any means but I love that all my banking is now free. Saving me $131.40 a year in service fees!

The Grand Finale

These are just a few examples of little things you can do, to save yourself a buck. While some won’t reward you with 100 dollars in savings, no complaints right? 50 is still alright. That’s more than I make in a half hr! If you do business with Telus, Shaw, Td, National Bank or BMO don’t do these things. As a shareholder I appreciate you giving them your money. =) How many of you do these things? Do you shop around often?

Have a fantastic weekend, we are kid free for the first weekend in 4 years. Time to sleep in until 9am, go to some nice restaurants, see Thor and clean up all these dam leaves around the yard!

Cheers….

Rob

Hey I’m Rob, creator of Passive Canadian Income.

In 2011 me and my wife had almost $60,000 in debt and a negative $7,000 Net Worth. Through hard work and financial education we paid all that off. Now we are focusing on increasing our Passive Income Streams to make the money work for us. Feel Free to Follow along the Journey by clicking the Social Media links below or subscribing to get notified of new posts on the sidebar.