Shopping for Services (An Effort to Spend/Pay Less)
Recently I posted about shopping around for veterinary services for one of my dogs diagnosed with bladder stones. My regular vet wanted over approximately $1,000.00 for a surgery I wasn't convinced my dog needed. Turns out she didn't need it (the stones dissolved on a special diet (YAY!) and I ultimately ended up switching vets. The visits and special diet cost me around $350.00, but I saved $650.00 and my dog from recovery from a major surgery, which to me was the most important part.
Moving on, I took a look at our financials and the area that I think is worth shopping around for lower rates is insurance. We carry multiple policies so I thought a look through was necessary. After gathering my paperwork for each item we insure (i.e. house, automobiles, etc.), I called my mom.
Trust me, you're never too old to call your mom! She gave me some good advice. She said to raise my deductibles. Now I realize this isn't the best choice for everyone and I am by no means suggesting to anyone that you do this. Her thinking (and now mine) is that families should get together in this economy and work together to help save each other money. Should the need arise to actually need the insurance coverage (which hopefully it will not) then the question becomes how much of a deductible can you afford? If you have a large family, then what if everyone could pitch in a little if it was an event large enough that you needed help anyway? Surely if your house burnt down, your family could help with a larger deductible because chances are they are going to be the first ones to help you anyway, whether it's buying clothes, housing you etc.
By just raising our deductible a few hundred dollars we were able to save $40.00 a year on homeowner's insurance.
Auto insurance is the same idea. Since we would never turn anything in that would be a small repair we figured that a $500.00 deductible sounded fair. So by simply by raising our deductible to $500.00 we saved more than $350.00 a year on our policy!! We did not and do not suggest lowering any limits on liability etc. So we were able to keep the higher limits, but save on the deductible.
That's almost $400.00 a year folks!!
Again I'm not suggesting you raise your deductibles, but if you can afford or have enough help to do it, then it can be a real money saver.
I'm finding more and more that shopping for services can be a BIG money saver! Businesses want and NEED your business these days, so they are more likely to match or beat competitor prices.
My second deal was so I could take advantage of the high dollar Finish coupon.
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