Do you pay for your things monthly? Semi-annually? Annually? When choosing how to pay, do you look for the least amount you can pay right now, even if it means you pay more overtime? Or do you look for the least amount you can pay for a product or service in total?
Paying in full saves you money overtime on many different things which can add up to a lot of cash! It also creates habits and values around money to keep more of what is yours and avoid spending on interest from credit cards and loans.
Paying monthly makes you comfortable with spending more to get the things you want now. Deferring a purchase until you can pay in full, and in turn pay the least amount possible for a product or service will make you more aware of where your money is going and teach you to value your dough!
Here are five ways we save by paying in full:
Car Insurance
Depending on the company you can save the most on car insurance by paying for 6 or 12 months upfront. Our current company offers the best discount for paying twice a year. They offer no additional discount for paying for a year upfront, so we stick with every six months. If you are opting to pay your car insurance monthly you are definitely paying more than you would be if you paid up front. Call your insurance agent or company today and ask what the discount or savings is if you were to switch to paying every six months. It will be a good amount and since we have to have car insurance the savings will keep adding up!
Amazon Prime
We use Prime for the free shipping, music, movies, and photo storage. If we were just using Amazon to shop I probably wouldn’t pay a subscription fee to shop, but since we use the other services as well we get our use out of it. Paid once a year it’s one payment of $119.00 which is $9.92 per month, versus the $12.99 per monthly paid by monthly subscribers! Totaling $155.88 per year. No thanks!
Microsoft Office 365
This allows access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote all conveniently saved in OneDrive for access anywhere, on any device. Paid in full is one payment of $99.99 for a year versus the monthly payment of $9.99 per monthly, totaling $119.98 per year.
Emeals
I can’t rave enough about this service enough! Choosing our weekly meals and grocery shopping is a breeze with this app! #grocerypickupislife This is NOT an ad. If you struggle with coming up with meal ideas week after week after week I highly recommend checking out Emeals.com. Paid in full eMeals is $60 per year, totaling $5 a month. But if you choose to pay per quarter for $30 you are paying $10 per month, DOUBLE the annual subscription.
Subscription Boxes
Now I’ll never promote buying something you can’t afford that you don’t need, but if you’re already paying for any type of subscription you might as well save if you can.
Ipsy is $10 per month, but yearly is $110 = 1 month free by paying annually.
Birchbox is $15 per month totaling $180 per year, versus $156 annually, saving $24 per year!
Bonus Tip:
Do you have Sirius XM satellite radio? CALL them and let them know you don’t want to make a monthly payment for their service and they will offer you a lower 6 or 12 month lump sum payment to keep you as a subscriber! Normally satellite radio is $20.76 per month with taxes and fees and totals $249.12 per year. For almost 3 years I was able to get the monthly cost at $5 per month paying $60 per year in a semi-annual or annual payment. The last time I called in the deal wasn’t as great but it was still half price! I was offered $128.60 for a years subscription!
Our personal savings just on the items listed above totals about $600 per year.
There are many things to pay in full and save on, and sometimes you just have to ask! Look into:
Insurances
Monthly subscriptions boxes
Music subscriptions
App subscriptions
Fitness memberships
Gaming subscriptions
Do you save on anything not listed here? Drop a comment below, I’d love to hear from you!
