Ramit Sethi shows how to save $1,000 in 30 days. One woman negotiated her way to $179 in recovered fees and $2,000 in annual savings. A family saved $3,446 in eight days by packing lunches, taking spend-free days, cutting memberships, and negotiating their utility bill.
$0.70
$39
$179
About $2,000
Save $1,000 or more in 30 days (30 tips challenge).
Let's do Apple.
Just a few months ago, Carrie Langford of Corinth saw something slicing into her family's finances.
Didn't really know where all of our money was going. You want some goldfish too? You wanna go sit down?
The mom of four took a close look at the family's bills. And it turned out a small mistake on a credit card payment was adding up to big bucks.
I'd left off $0.70 and they charged me a $39 late fee.
And the credit card company raised Lankford's interest rate. But with the help of financial guru and author Ramit Sethi, his blog and his book, I Will Teach youh to Be Rich, Langford fought back.
I saved 179 in interest that they reimbursed, plus the $39 late fee, plus they reduced my interest. So over the course of a year, it would have been around $2,000 just in interest.
Saiti says he can teach anyone what it takes to be rich. His first big tip, Be a fearless negotiator.
You can call up your car insurance companies and negotiate those fees down. Same with your credit card, same with your bank. You don't have to be spending money the way you're spending it right now.
With every credit card that we had, every bill that we had, and negotiated all of it.
Through his blog, Sat offers a challenge. Follow his 30 tips and save 1,000 or more in just 30 days. For Royce and Lena, Sunny, following Sat's advice was a walk in the park.
At first it sounds hard, but when you actually do it, you realize, well, it's not, you know, it's not that hard to do.
But can Seti's Tips really save $1,000? The Sunnies say they saved that and much more. A total of $3,446 in the first eight days alone. Here's how both Lena and Royce regularly grab lunches on the go.
We don't have meat yet. I thought we had some Cheetos or something.
They switched to home packed lunches and.
Close to $300, $400 a month.
Let me tell you, choose one day per week where you don't spend a penny.
Just one simple day. One day a week. And this is part of the 30 day challenge.
50, $60 that we spend a day just on meals. That's not even including going out to a movie or anything else like that.
For the Sunnies, their weekly spend free day added up to another 250 to $300. Saved another part of the challenge.
The a la carte method, only paying.
For things you actually use and cutting those you don't like gym memberships, decided.
To cut the membership altogether and just join the local recreation center membership, which is, you know, like $50 a year.
Saiti stresses that it's not all about cutting.
Being rich to me is about spending extravagantly on the things you love as long as you can cut costs mercilessly on the things you don't.
For the Sunnies that love means travel and hopefully with their newfound savings, a trip to Thailand next year.
With higher utility bills coming soon, Sait says this is a perfect time to compare utility rates, find the best and then call your provider and negotiate a better deal. The Sunnies did just that and cut their bill in half. We have a link to help you compare rates and Ramit Sethi's complete list of 30 money saving tips on our website, cbs11tv.com Tracy Cornett, CBS 11 News.
