How to Best Cut Your Bills - Track Personal Finance Savings - Billshrink Personal Budget Software

In a world where we worry more about a place on the credit rating scale rather than our ability to pay our expenses understanding personal finance savings is critical to financial survival.  I have spoken of changing habits and spending caps. The next step is implementing those benefits. This time I am looking at personal finance savings from shrinking bills. Once we have identified habits we need to change we then need to find ways to shrink our existing bills. In that research I came across a free website with a personal budget software called Billshrink.com.

It is perfect for what we are aiming to achieve here. We are aiming to achieve personal finance savings by shrinking our bills. Three areas we aim to shrink bills are on credit card bills, gas stations and mobile phones. BillShrink has dedicated free modules for those three areas. They also have a service to get you better rates on CDs and savings. These are genuine personal finance savings, I checked to find a catch and couldn’t find one. The site gets rebates on some account switches it says but not at the detriment of the consumer.

BillShrink uses a number of algorithms that goes through the options for your individually unique circumstances and then comes up with options to save money. BillShrink scans “millions of data points and constantly re-calculating your usage and needs against all the possible product combinations. “It began when one of the co-founders and his wife tried to compare “Billshrink saves the average user $1500” The site also says money-saving recommendations are sent as email alerts.

They identified four areas that we can cut spending on cell phones, credit cards and gasoline. These are all costs that are necessary evils for many of us, sure there is some waste but we don't want to apply an all or nothing attitude that would be deemed to failure. As these habits are at least hard habits to break. What I like about this free software is it saves time by working out solutions for you simply by processing your information. They have a strict privacy policy so your “personal information is safe and respected.” There are other free Web sites that can help you with your finances in other ways.

Personal Finance Savings on Credit cards

Credit card bills seemed to have gone up despite being more prudent, despite the government bailout to banks it seems we are paying more. We need to save money on our credit card bills, with the aim of cutting up our credit cards eventually. Personal Finance Savings with BillShrink for credit cards is very straight forward. They begin with two questions. The first is do you pay off your credit card each month and the second is “on average how much do you charge a month?” From here the site immediately gives you with a list of credit cards in corresponding order of how much money you will save by switching to them over a year.

Personal Finance Savings on Cell Phones

Cell phones are everywhere, iPhones, Androids, Palms, Blackberry’s you name it. They all have gimmicks that get you in and the brilliant marketing cuts through a rational mind. You end up signing up for features you will never use and can’t afford. Does that sound familiar? BillShrink makes the claim that 8 out of 10 people overpay on cell phone service. They start off with two questions. The first is ‘Who is your current carrier?” and the second is how much do you currently pay from that service. From there they search all the possible combinations to find the best savings for your plan.

Personal Finance Savings on Gas stations

Remember the days when your gas bill was but a passing thought? Well Gasoline prices over $2.00 and $3.00 a gallon seem the norm now but there are savings to be had. BillShrink has a free service for this also to tell you which gas stations close to you have the cheapest gas. Again you just answer simple questions. Firstly it asks you what your most frequent trips are, then what kind of car you drive and whether you fill your tank up or not.

Personal Finance Savings on CD rates and deposits

There is so much jargon out there it can take a bit to wade through the small print to find which banks have the best savings and CD rates without a catch. BillShrink has a free tool for this also, which I particularly like as it helps you attain your saving goal. First question is how much money has you already saved and then how much can you save every month? The simple answer would be how much you save from the habit changes we discussed in “Track Personal Finances with Personal Budgeting Software”.

This is the second new spending habit we are developing, personal finance savings from shrinking bills. The idea is to shrink current and necessary bills to maintain a certain lifestyle to make your habit changes lasting and not stressful. It continues along the vein of the recognition of discretionary spending and capping it. This is the second in a new series on rebuilding your personal finances.