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Telephone, Internet, and television service are all examples
of elective utilities. These utilities, though many times
necessary, are not essential to basic living standards in
the United States like gas, electricity, and water. Elective
utilities are no less important to a household budget.

When budgeting elective utilities, the trick is to find a
company offering the same service or better for a lower
rate. This may sound like a statement from Captain Obvious,
but it is amazing how many people are willing to pay a
higher rate for the same service, and for no good reason.

Some people fear change, others feel they don’t have the
time to track down lower rates for service, and still others
think they won’t save a significant amount of money and
don’t want to be inconvenienced. Of course there are also
those who just don’t have a need for saving money. I’m not
one of them.

One could always cut down on the amount of usage for
services, however, this is not usually very practical. You
have those services for a reason, you use them. Some
elective utilities don’t even have a usage rate but a
monthly fee regardless of usage such as television service.

Consider this, if you were to take just three of your
elective utilities and cut your bill by ten dollars on each
one every month you just saved enough money to pay another
small bill. When you look at it that way, thirty dollars is
nothing to sneeze at. That’s a whopping $360.00 a year.

It doesn’t sound like such a small amount of money now does
it? What could you do with an extra $360.00? Make a car
payment? Pay your car insurance? I would bet you know
exactly what you would do with that money if you had it
right now. If you’re like me you’re probably thinking of
ways to save even more.

Let me share with you a few of my favorite ways to save
money on elective utilities. The first thing to look at is
price, that much is obvious. Though price is important,
there are other variables to look at other than the bottom
line rate, usage is probably the single most important
factor.

Unlimited usage is king in budgeting. I used to use MCI
Neighborhood bundled with unlimited local and long distance
for fifty dollars a month. At the time it was a good deal,
but cost me around eighty dollars a month after the hidden
fee’s taxes and surcharges where added into the equation.

I took the leap to broadband telephone service which cost me
twenty dollars a month for the exact same thing minus hidden
fee’s and sir charges. I have had broadband phone for over a
year and absolutely love it. I saved sixty dollars a month
just on my phone bill alone. In a year I saved $720.00 on
phone service!

When looking for cheaper elective’s think price plus usage.
Unlimited usage is of course better than a rate plan unless
you use very little of the service to begin with but need it
from time to time. In that case it is better to go with the
bare essentials. If your usage increases you can always
upgrade.

Sometimes it will cost you a little extra money up front to
get started with a new service provider. There may even be a
few minor inconveniences at first. Try to stay focused on
the end result and the big payoff. Chances are good you’ll
get back any money spent to activate new service in a couple
months.

Editor at cheapest-service.com.