Savings During Hard Economic Times
jah819
14 Posts
I wondered if anyone had creative suggestions on ways to save during hard economic times.
jah819
14 Posts
Comments
Salary.com just had an article:
(1) Stop drinking bottled water -- tap water is much cheaper
(2) Stop getting frou-frou coffees each day
(3) Group errands so that you only go out once
(4) Clip coupons
(5) Don't eat out as much....brown bag your lunch
(6) Check all bills to see what excess charges could be cut out...for example check your local phone service for a long distance fee...instead use your cell phone for long distance calls. See if combining phone, internet access and tv/cable will save you money.
(7) Increase deductibles on insurance policies -- but only if you can afford it! Also check premiums...shop around ...we saved close to $1000 a year on car insurance alone...same deductible, different vendor. The new one looked at our credit rating (which is very good) and the old one rated differently.
(8) Make a list before going shopping and never go shopping hungry or thirsty. Don't shop just to have something to do.
(9) Drink water at restaurants...some places around me are charging $2.29 per soft drink...some don't even have the price on the menu anymore! For a family of 5, that gets pricey!
(10) Walk or ride a bike wherever you can or use mass transportation if it exists; carpool if it doesn't.
(11) Cook in quantity and freeze extra/leftovers....that way you have something to pull out and heat up on those tiring days that you just don't want to cook.
(12) Instead of spending change, throw it in a jar and when the jar is full, take it to the bank/grocery stores and convert it into dollars.
Just some things we have done!
Here are some things to look at from the employer prospective:
1. Shop around for office supplies - a great example is printer toner. I had my receptionist shop around online to find the best price for the toner. Before we did this we ordered it all through Staples. Now we order mostly from Amazon.com or databazaar.com. Remember you have to facter in shipping, but many places will offer free ground shipping. Another example is paper. We buy in bulk when the paper is on sale per case so we spend less money per ream of paper.
2. Benefits - I just got a rate renewal for my STD. There is no increase but the rate is only good for one year. I asked my benefits broker to ask them for a 2-year rate guarantee and they gave it to us. You will never get what you don't ask for. The worse they can say is no.
3. Travel - if your employees are traveling and staying at different hotels, look around at different hotels and then call the hotel directly to see what rates they will give you. We had someone staying at one hotel and was going to check out to go to another hotel that they found was just as nice but a lot less expensive. When they told the hotel what they were doing, they beat the price to get them to stay. If you are booking more than one room then ask if they can do anything about the price. We just booked 4 rooms at one hotel and we asked them if they could do anything for us. They took off $10 per night per room. That adds up after a while!!
4. Recruiting packages - I just came to the end of my yearly contract with a national online recruiting source. I asked them for pricing as I was looking around at other sites. They gave me a good price to which I was paying for quarterly. They told me I could take $1500 off that price if I paid all at one time and they gave me 60 days to pay. I put half on my corporate card one month and half on the corporate card the next month so it hit in two different billing cycles and two different months to spread out the expense, yet I was able to save $1500 over what I spent last year!
Sorry...I was thinking on the article that I read from an employee perspective.
We have been cutting back on (1) office supplies
(2) meal reimbursements
(3) cell phone reimbursements (only paying business usage and the employee must pay the full bil and then turn in an expense report to get reimbursed),
(4) limiting more employees to only business use of the company cars rather than personal use (although we have always taxed them on it)
(5) Majorly cutting back on employer provided benefits (things to move from 100% employer paid to 100% employee paid include dental, STD/LTD and life insurance)
(6) Unfortunately we also all just took pretty hefty pay cuts...it wasn't pretty but almost everyone understands the need.
One other thing we are doing (as is GM) is suspending company match in 2009. We have match written into our 401k plan document as discretionary...therefore we can do so without issues. If you do not, you would need to amend your plan prior to the start of 2009 to take advantage of doing this. It can not be a retroactive amendment.
I am not sure whether we will freeze the plan...I think as long as a few employees are still participating, we will continue to have it available. If the plan is frozen more than 5 years, you move into a plan termination situation. If you plan terminate, your company has to wait 2 years (?) to start a new plan.