

“When determining how much of your monthly income to allocate toward common expenses, the 50/20/30 rule can be a helpful place to start, i.e., dedicating 50% of your monthly income toward needs, like food, rent, utilities, transportation, etc., 30% to non-essentials, and 20% to savings,” said Brittney Castro, a certified financial planner with Mint. Then, you’ll get a clear picture of whether or not you’re spending too much. Going over your bills piecemeal is one approach, but another strategy is to tally all your monthly bills together to find out what percentage of your income or budget is dedicated to your necessary expenses. “Although our home can become a bit stuffy toward the end of that time during the heat of summer, saving 30% on our electric bill was certainly worth it for us,” he said. They precooled their home and then didn’t run the AC at all during the most expensive energy times, which was 3 p.m.-6 p.m. Robbs said his own family reduced their summer electric bill by 30% when they installed a smart thermostat. Most families could save a considerable amount over the summer by doing this one simple thing.” “Using a smart thermostat, you can preheat or precool your home and then not run your heat or AC when the energy costs are the highest. “In regards to utilities, a great way to save money is to buy a smart thermostat and then switch to a time-of-use plan with your energy providers,” said Matthew Robbs, founder of Smart Saving Advice. No matter your fuel source, there’s one surefire way to lower those bills if you’re above the average or want to be far below it - and the same goes for the cost of cooling in the summer. Energy Information Administration (EIA), this is what the average household spends to heat its home from October to March: Poll: Have You Skipped Any of These Essential Expenses Due to Rising Prices?Īccording to the U.S. “Alternatively, for some people who don’t use the internet all that much, you might be able to save money by ditching your broadband plan entirely, and using the 4G or 5G hotspot on your phone to get online,” Paton said. To save money on your broadband bill, Paton recommends using a bandwidth needs calculator, like the one his own site offers.
#Most common bills to pay download
ISPs might have a plan with a 100 megabit download speed, but how do you know if this is too much or too little bandwidth, based on how you use the internet?” For most people, it can be very difficult to work out exactly what download speed you need when buying broadband, which is why nearly a third of households pay more than they need to each month. “But 31% of people pay too much for broadband, in that they shell out for much higher speeds than what they actually need. “The average person has to spend about $35-$45 per month to get a fast internet connection in the U.S.,” said Tom Paton, founder of Broadband Savvy. For most of America, high-speed internet is a necessity, not an amenity - but people tend to pay so much for it that you’d think it was a luxury.
