360 in 5

I've always heard about people calling their cable company and trying to lower their bill by telling them they want to downgrade due to cost or threatening to cancel.  Heck, even my elderly mother in law does that, so why haven't the Cheapo Ninja household done that?  Well, the short version is, procrastination.  We are experts at procrastinating around here.   Unfortunately, procrastinating costs money...lots of money.  After getting our cable bill, I had my husband call the cable company and demand a lower rate. (Confession: I made him do it because I didn't want to. :p)  He wasn't even sure how to go about it either having never done it before.  I told him to press the # prompt that would get him to the downgrade department.  He did.  I heard him say, "well Jim, I feel we're paying too much for our cable."

pause

"Uh huh...ok, $30 less a month less for the next 12 months?  Ok, thank you Jim."

And that's how we saved $360 a year in five minutes.  Well worth the time, don't you think?

If you haven't tried it yet, give it a try.  Call your cable company and phone company and tell them you're paying too much.  See what kind of deals they'll offer you.  Chances are they'll temporarily lower your bill and you'll have to call them back in 6 or 12 months to renegotiate.  Be sure to set a reminder for yourself so you remember to renegotiate!  I'm an avid user of Google Calendar so I just set a reminder there to email me 12 months from now.

Now if you have contacted your cable and phone companies in the past, holla!  How much were you able to save?