How to Boost Your Emergency Savings by 100% in 2024

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Want to replenish your emergency savings fund in 2024? Start by saving money on three monthly bills — here’s how. 

In the past two years of high inflation and “revenge spending,” many Americans have depleted their savings. Blowing through savings sometimes happens because of unemployment or unexpected emergency expenses. But often it happens because of lots of smaller monthly bills that keep going up. Want to save more money in 2024? Chances are, you can boost your savings by cracking down on your monthly bills.

According to The Ascent’s research, the typical American has a savings account balance of $1,200. Let’s say that you’re a “typical” American, with $1,200 of emergency savings. Let’s set a goal to double your emergency savings in 2024 — a 100% increase. By saving an extra $100 a month, you’ll have an extra $1,200 in your savings account by the end of the year.

Here are a few ideas for how you can replenish your savings by cutting your spending on three monthly bills.

1. Switch home internet service (save $30-$50 per month)

High-speed home internet service is a must-have for most Americans in 2024, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay high prices for it. If your internet service provider (ISP) has been jacking up the prices in recent years, it might be time to shop around for new home internet service.

Costs of home internet vary widely depending on where you live, what kind of internet service you have, and how fast your internet speed is. For example, I currently pay $142 per month for cable internet, and I’m perfectly happy with it. But some new fiber internet providers recently started offering service in my area, and one of them is offering much faster internet speeds (1 gigabyte) for only $75 per month! I could save $67 per month by switching!

Not everyone can save this much by switching internet providers. You might not have much cheaper options where you live. You could also try calling your current provider and asking if it’ll give you a retention discount to keep you as a customer. Home internet service is one of the bills that you can negotiate. What if you could save $50 a month, or even $30 per month, by switching or negotiating? Saving $30 per month on home internet would save you $360 in a year.

2. Switch mobile phone service (save $45-$100 per month)

Are you paying way too much for mobile phone service? According to a 2023 survey from WhistleOut, the average American spends $160 per month on their cellphone bill. Many people have signed up for unlimited data on their cellphone plan, but end up using wifi most of the time. This means that they’re paying for a lot of data that they don’t use. For example, the survey found that 72% of Americans use 15GB of cellular data or less per month.

If you want to save more money in 2024, consider switching to a cheaper cellphone plan with less data. Check your phone’s data usage to see how often you’re actually using that cellular data; if you spend a lot of time using your phone while at home, at work, or in public places with free wifi, you might need less data than you think.

And if you want to keep your unlimited data plan, you can still save big money on cell service: Mint Mobile (owned by beloved actor Ryan Reynolds) offers unlimited data for just $30 per month (with an introductory offer of $15 per month for three months). For example, I currently pay $75 per month for cellphone service, so if I switched to Mint Mobile’s $30 unlimited plan, I would save $45 per month (for $540 per year).

Cellphone service is essential for everyday life, but you don’t need to pay 1990s prices for it. Shop around for a cheaper plan — or call your provider and ask if it can give you a better deal.

3. Change streaming subscriptions to watch ads (save $6-$42 per month)

Streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ have recently been raising their prices for premium ad-free subscriptions. But they also have started to offer lower-cost subscriptions that show ads. If you’re feeling the pain of streaming price hikes, you don’t have to cancel your subscriptions — you can sign up to watch ads (and save money).

Here’s how much you’d save on each of these popular streaming services by switching from the highest-price ad-free plan to the lowest-price ad-supported plan:

If you switched to ad-free subscriptions for all four of these streaming services, you’d save a total of $42 per month ($504 per year). Your exact savings will depend on how many services you subscribe to. There also might be options to save money by bundling multiple services together, such as the Disney Bundle of Hulu Live TV, Disney+, and ESPN+.

Bottom line: Monthly bills can sneak up on you. When prices of home internet, mobile phone service, and streaming video subscriptions go up, before you know it, way too much money is flying out of your bank account. With just a few changes to your monthly bills, you can easily save over $100 per month, or $1,200 in a year — and double the typical American savings account balance in 2024.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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