I recently made a few changes in an effort to reduce expenses….
1) Reduce water costs
I’ve been buying bottled water since I don’t know when. I’ve lugged two 2.5 gallons bottled water up 2 flights of stairs countless times. I’m like a camel when it comes to water….I drink more than 8 glasses a day.
I calculated that we drink about 2 to 3 of those 2.5 gallons bottled water a week. When the Safeway brand water is on sale, they’re $2.10 for one 2.5 gallon bottle. Assuming, we drink 10 of those per month, it comes to $252/year!
I figure we can definitely save some money there. Not only that, we’ll be helping the environment by now throwing away 120 of those bottles into the recycling bin every year.
The problem is that I’ve never liked the Brita filtered water. I didn’t like the way those filtered water tasted.
So I looked around and I bought the Pur water filter dispenser.
The dispenser costs $29 and the filters cost $20 for a 3 pack (though I have seen it on sale at Amazon for $18).
The filters are supposed to last for approximately 40 gallons but since we drink so much water, I figured we’ll need to change it once a month.
Even with that, the cost would be $29+($20×4)= $109 for the whole year versus $252. Even if we’ve to buy a new dispenser every year (unlikely, right?), we’d still come out ahead.
Of course, the savings won’t get me to switch to the Pur water dispenser if the water tasted bad. I’m happy to say that we’ve been using the dispenser for 3 weeks now and the water tastes great! I cannot tell the difference between the spring water and the dispenser water.
Savings = $252 - $109 = $143 for 1st year.
If dispenser last past 1st year, Savings in 2nd year = $252 - $80 = $172/year
2) Eliminate AOL costs
I don’t even know why we pay $6.95/month just to keep the AOL email address. I remember that AOL announced they were now offering free email but I don’t remember why we didn’t switch to this free service. Anyway, after a few minutes with customer service, the AOL email address is free!
Savings = $6.95 X 12 = $83.40/year
3) Eliminate ATM fees
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I hate ATM fees!!! Through the years, the ATM fees have really gotten out of hand (should I start a petition to cap ATM fees?!) and with BofA, if you use someone else’s ATM, BofA charges $2.00 and the other bank charges $2.50!
So if you take out $40 at a non-BofA atm, you’re going to pay $4.50 in fees which is 11.25% in fees!!!
While I try my best to not use other ATMs, sometimes you just can’t help it and if you use ATMs abroad, the fee is $5 per ATM transaction (for ATMs outside their global alliance network).
On top of that, BofA charges a $6.50 monthly fee if your account balance drops below their minimum balance.
Anyway, I’ve had it with BofA and decided to look around. We’ve at least 3 major credit unions here in the bay area - Tech CU, Meriwest and Key Point CU. Tech CU and Meriwest appeared to be the better for personal since they offer free checking, free online banking, no minimum balance and you can use any of the Co-op ATMs for free. You can even make deposits at some of these Co-op ATMs and it’s free!
Key Point appeared to be the best for business banking since their unlimited checking only has a minimum requirement of $500.
See ya BofA…
Savings = approx $40/year (for ATM fees only)
With those 3 changes, I’ve saved about $266/year!
