Slimming down for the New Year

Each Friday, in honor of "Frugal Friday", I plan to post some tidbits about being frugal and saving money in various aspects of life. As I stated in another area of the blog, if there were an 11th Commandment, I'm pretty convinced it would be "Thou shall not pay full price for anything". {insert laugh}

Since we have just entered a new year, the time when many people vow to make changes for the good including slimming down the wasteline, I thought it would be helpful to give tips to get all of us thinking on how we can slim down our expenses. Isn't it a good thing to constantly reevaluate where those hard earned dollars are going?!?

There are probably several ways we all could save money in order to be able to save more, give more and manage less stuff.

Here are a few tips to get you thinking:

• Cable/bundle packages - TV (one of the biggest time stealers we have), do you need all of the channels that you actually pay for? What about something like Netflix where you can pick and choose when and what to watch. Or even more radically....what about no TV this year?!

• Landline telephones - can you forego the landline and just use cell phones if you have them?

• Cell phone plans - do you use all of the minutes and messaging you pay for each month?

• Memberships - are you regularly paying for memberships that you are not taking advantage of; gyms, clubs? Can you work out it home or just enjoy the great outdoors this year?
• Insurance - are you getting the best deal to protect your cars, home, family, and possessions? Shop around.

• Fees - are you paying fees for services you can get for free? Bank accounts, late fees, annual credit card fees. There is a lot of competition out there and most likely you can get the same or similar service for cheaper or for free.

I've found one thing that really challenges me is to dig a little deeper than the surface and actually reevaluate perspective. What is necessity, really? Unfortunately, our American culture thrives on bigger, better, faster, stronger and newer. The things we sometimes think we cannot live without are luxuries that most people around the world will never possess in a lifetime.

Do you plan to slim down in 2012? If so, share some of your tips with us.