Cut back on dining out at nice restaurants or buying your favorite coffee from an expensive coffee shop.
You should be saving dining out for special occasions or do it a once a week or once a month. A dining out experience in Northern Virginia can range from $30-$300 for a single person for a single meal. A family of four could spend upward of $200 on a dinner out.
Average monthly savings for one household = $300-$500
Check out adjusting and reworking your technology usage.
Unbundle your cable, or ditch the TV part entirely and watch what you want on streaming services over the internet on your laptop—or from your laptop to your TV. Americans spent an average of $103 a month on cable TV, or $1,236 in 2016, according to a report from Leichtman Research Group. Check out deals on your mobile phones, where sometimes you can get a free phone or hundreds of free minutes depending on your plan. You may even want to change carriers. Mobile deals can change dramatically, are usually time or date sensitive, and tend to become more competitive during holiday season, so stay vigil. Additionally, look for set times of the day to adjust the levels of heat and air conditioning, and adjust your electricity usage as well with various internet-controllable apps using Wi-Fi devices that attach to each appliance or through power socket plug-ins for appliances that enable internet app control.
Average monthly savings for one household = up to $500
Shop rates for your home and car insurance, even landscaping.
If you haven’t had a major insurance claim in the last three or four years, check other insurers because they are very competitive. Don’t just “set it and forget it.” Landscaping rates have also become very competitive in Northern Virginia. You can negotiate rates down from, say, $300 a month to just $50 or $75 a month by citing the number of choices you have to your current landscaper.
Average monthly savings for one household = $200-$400
