When I realized that I was paying an extra $5/month for the “service” of paying for my car insurance monthly, I was surprised. Even worse was thinking about how long I had been doing this without paying attention.
Paying for six months of car insurance isn’t any easy thing to just rip out of most of our budgets without warning. Instead, I saved an extra chunk of money (about $20 at first, then $40 in time) in my “Car Insurance” bucket every month that would roll over to the next month, where I would continue adding money in that would roll over. Eventually, I had 6 months worth of car payments sitting there!
I was energized after that, where else could I find missing money!?
As it turns out, lots of places.
- Runkeeper Subscription $10/monthly vs $3.33/month up front
- Headspace $12.95 vs $7.99/month annually, $6.24/month biannually, or $419.95 forever
- YNAB $5 vs $4.17
I increased my monthly Runkeeper Subscription budget to $15 (saving an extra $5/month towards that $40), Headspace to $15 (I should increase this), and YNAB to $10. YNAB only offers annual subscriptions now, though, so keep that in mind.
Some others I’ve seen
- OnStar
- Prescriptions by mail (check your insurance site)
I’ve actually increased this habit into other areas, like groceries, after HelloFresh ran a Black Friday promotion to buy 6 boxes up front to get 2 free. FREE FOOD DELIVERED TO MY HOUSE. All because I had been slowly hoarding extra money in places.
Any other ideas on things that are better annual payments?
Madison Sites 
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