After chatting with many entrepreneurs and even those who work for big corporations over the last couple of weeks during COVID-19, the biggest question and concern on everyone’s minds (besides staying healthy) is “How am I going to pay my bills if I’m not working and not bringing in money?”

Here are a few ways that I have come up with in order to be able to save money right now and defer payments to auto loans, credit cards, insurance, utilities, and even mortgage payments. Also, many subscription-based companies are waiving monthly fees to help their users save money!

Deferring payments allows you the opportunity to push the current month’s payment to the end of your loan. Some companies, like the utility companies, are allowing people to make payments on bills that are becoming due.

First things first, be sure that you turn off any auto payments that you may already have scheduled on your current bills.  Then be sure that you are not paying for subscriptions that you no longer use, I went through and unsubscribed from four different subscriptions that I personally had that I hadn’t even logged into for over three months.

Remember when you call (or email) these businesses, you need to let them know that you’ve been financially affected by Covid-19 and that you’re looking for options and their assistance.

Please note that I am not a financial advisor. The ideas below have come from actual things I have personally done and/or is the info I have been given from companies that are offering to defer payments and waive payments for their clients. If there are any other suggestions provided, I will link below who it came from so that you can do your own research as well.

Car, Home, and Liability Insurance 

• You can suspend the monthly reoccurring payment and get a couple weeks of grace before the policy lapses.
  
• You could increase deductibles to lower the rate
• You could suspend coverage if you won’t be using a car. 
• You also have the option to skip a payment, but it will then be spread over the next 3 bills.  

Credit Card Payments 

• Ask to have your payment broken into two payments.
• Ask to have a lower interest rate instated.
• Request to have any monthly/yearly reoccurring fees from the credit card company paused.

Auto Loans

• Ask to have April and May’s payments deferred to the end of the loan without penalties asserted.
• Request to have interest rate lowered

Showit

For those that are using Showit websites for your businesses, you can now apply for relief to get 60 days FREE! Per the Showit website, “For current Showit subscribers who have been most impacted, we want to provide the next 60 days of their subscription for free, in order to help them get back on their feet.” Complete the request for relief by going to: https://showit.co/together

CloudSpot

CloudSpot offers galleries designed to help you succeed. Made by photographers to simplify your online sales, proofing, and delivery. If you are looking for unlimited storage, galleries, and client mobile apps, plus a gallery company that allows you to sell prints with 0% commissions taken… you need to check out CloudSpots newest offer!

Adobe Creative Cloud

If you’re using Adobe Creative Cloud you can get 2 months FREE! 🙌🏼

Go to: https://www.slrlounge.com/use-this-hack-to-get-2-free-months-of-free-adobe-creative-cloud/ (Thank you Jess of Wayfaring Wanderer )

Essential Studio Manager

The Essential Studio Manager is offering a year free of studio management software with her code free365 no credit card necessary.  Sign up here: https://essentialstudiomanager.com/

Please do not take advantage of the generous offers that are listed above by companies who are trying to help in any way they can. If you don’t need to request free services or deferred payment because you are not facing financial struggles during the time, please don’t request it.

I highly encourage everyone to share this blog and the graphic below with your family and friends. Even if you’re not being financially affected by Covid-19 chances are, you know someone who is.  There are many people who don’t realize there are ways to stay afloat during these times.

As I continue collecting ways to help you save money during this time, I’ll keep updating this blog post.

#WaysToSave

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate link(s).  An affiliate link means I may earn advertising/referral fees if you make a purchase through the link, without any cost to you. It helps to keep this little blog afloat. Thank you for your support.

Heather J. Keys

Along with being an “elder millennial” wedding and lifestyle photographer, I’m also a family gal. I’m recently engaged to my best friend of 10 years, mama to a rad teenage daughter (who happens to photograph weddings with me), the owner of (2) cute little pups, and driver of a yellow Dodge Challenger. On non-wedding days, you’ll most likely find me in the gym by 7:30 am getting my cardio on and then hitting up my favorite local San Luis Obispo California hotspots with my fiance, daughter, and friends. Traveling adventures are my jam, there’s no place I won’t go with my camera in hand.