I was talking to my neighbor a couple of weeks ago and she asked how much I paid for my trash. I found out she paid $35 more for the same service I had, she just used a different company. She decided to change companies but first called her old trash service and told them she was canceling and why. They immediately said "Oh, we can give you the same price as theirs. How much do they charge?"
It always, always pays to ask whether it’s because your credit card interest is too high, a hospital bill doesn’t seem right, school supplies cost too much and on and on.
Ask.
The worst they can do is say no. Remember the old saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never harm me." Hearing the word NO can not physically harm you so call and ask.
Jill
Thank you for that. I needed the reminder to do that today…I will be calling my TV provider on Monday! Keep your fingers crossed!!!
that is awesome some have a choice… unfortunately in my area, we only have one company for the trash service… not sure what they charge per household bc this is a rental property that i live in…
the tv service in our neighbor we do have lots of choices but we do not take any of them… either too expensive, or for the reception not worth the money they charge and in one company the service is not the best (on the tv)… so we choose not to waste our money on the tv … altho i do miss alot of my shows but i can find a bunch of them on surf the channel… my son likes that and hulu… i go to hulu and i cant seem to find my shows … maybe i am not looking in the right place … and my daughter goes to another site but i cant remember which one she said… i will ask her and then let you all know…
thanks for posting this :D
rose
On top of that, I continued to play the ‘game’. I asked both companies what they would offer if I paid up front for 1 year’s worth of service. I got an additional 10% off. Worth it!!
our taxes cover the garbage pickup. We pay $1. for a 45 lb bag.
I use one bag a week. We have recycling but not really worth it.
They pick up cans, paper certain types of plastic and cardboard if it is flattened.
Wish they did jars but that is in the future.
Sure glad I don’t have to decide on garbage pickup.
In our area we only have 1 trash company. I did save a few dollars each quarter (we pay every 3months) by asking to downsize to a smaller container. They dropped off the new smaller container and picked up the larger one (no charge).
On another note, just switched my home phone service to Vonage. Saving $42/month. Vonage plan for 200 minutes/month (local and LD) is $9.99/month and no setup fee right now. Since I have a cell phone, it didn’t make sense to have full local service and I still can keep my home number. Yea!
Irene I used vonage a few years ago and found that the service was hit and miss. We mainly got it for long distance calls and one day it was good the next it was non existent.
When our son moved to China we discovered SKYPE. can talk to my son there for free via the computer. He can call on our regular phone for 2 cents a minute. We talk almost everyday.
My other son lives closer but we talk on skype to save the money.
I can call any phone in Canada and the States and most cities in Europe for $30 a year. Many companies even small ones now have skype numbers to save themselves and their customers money.
For long distance calls I can’t use skype for I use visa talk and save plan. They take your phone # and any long distance calls you make they compare them with the other phone companies and give you the cheapest rate.
In 4 months of using it our bills have never been over $15.
Living where we do I was paying around $50. in long distance.
Also with the visa plan they give you I think it is 30 free minutes for your cell phone. We don’t have one but I transferred it to my sons account. Nice feature that is.
I like being able to save money when I talk to people as we don’t visit much and my family is all long distance away.
We pay our electric, water sewer and trash to City Hall. Everyone pays the same amount for trash, which is $17.00 a month. Of course the electric and water varries from month to month, as well as the sewer.
We pay $1. a bag for garbage.
Water is not metered so it is $228 a year.
Hydro is paid to Hydro one and it is outrages. about $180. a month during the summer over $250 during the winter because of heating.
Always trying to save on hydro we use kerosene heaters so the furnace is not used since the hydro to run it puts the cost with the fuel included over $2000 a winter. With the kerosene we pay about $1000.
I have just come across this posting and have a comment for anyone who happens to see it almost 2 years later: You are wise to contact your service providers and ask for a discount. I called our cable company after seeing their advertisement which was considerably cheaper than our current service. I was told it was only available to new customers. The lady pointed out that for my “convenience” they were still charging me the same rate that I had in 2008 (it is 2012 now). I mentioned that I was sorry but I did not feel that “convenience” when I was trying to balance my budget and I could get the cheaper rate with their competitor who was running a special. She excused herself to speak with a supervisor and came back and reduced our bill by $20/month for 6 months. Always ask!
We save money by not subscribing to curbside trash pick up at all. My compost heap will handle most of the biodegradable garbage and food scraps. As a consequence, I have a beautiful garden! It’s great food for my plants!
We recycle steel and aluminum cans, hard plastic, soft plastic, cardboard, papers, glass jars and bottles, etc. (recycling center is free for county residents) Some soiled paper or cardboard scraps go in our fire pit, if I don’t have the patience to shred them for the compost pile.
Whatever is left over, ends up being extremely minimal. Our landfill trash consists mostly of dryer lint, the occasional broken glass, ceramic, etc., little bits of this and that, random pieces of unrecyclable plastic, etc. Because of our minimal garbage, we don’t buy trash bags either. The little bit of trash that we have can go in some other type of repurposed bag. My kitty litter bags make great trash bags.
The landfill charges $2 per 32 gallon trash can of household trash, so we simply haul our own trash to the dump and pay per use. It takes us at least a month to fill up a 32 gallon trash can, so our trash costs no more than $2 per month. The price of curbside garbage service is $15 per month, so that is an 87% savings for us.
Since I have to make a trip out anyway (recycling has to be hauled to a drop off point, since there’s no curbside pick up for that in my rural area), curbside garbage service wouldn’t save me a trip to town, so there’s not much convenience factor there.
You never know unless you ask! It’s so funny, I almost never think about saving money with simple things like trash service.