We’re Slashing Prices Expenses!
As part of my goal to make some changes in my life I have to take over the mortgage payments and all of the bills for my household. My income doesn’t cover the current bills so it’s time to take action.
First thing to go: telephone. Not only have I been paying for regular telephone service with a long distance plan, voice mail, call waiting, and so on but I’m also paying for cellular phones for myself and my kids. Something had to go so the home phone was the one to take the hit. Savings: $60+ /month
Next thing to go: DSL internet service. With no home phone I have to switch to cable internet. I’ve gone from my $50/month Ultra highspeed DSL to $25/month for highspeed lite cable. After a month on the highspeed lite I can state that I’ve not seen any noticeable difference in speed except when downloading large files which I don’t do often. Savings: $25/month
Next up: Unnesssary cable expenses. We had a package that gave us all of the digital channels, movie networks and rental of a digital receiver with built in DVR. I’ve shaved off the movie networks @ $17/month and the rental of the receiver @ $20/month. I’m still looking at cancelling some of the digital channels in the near future. Currently savings: $37/month
In addition to these savings I’ve started using a programmable thermostat on my furnace. I’m one of those people who are always cold in the winter and I tend to keep the temperature between 7 5 and 80 degrees F from October to April. You can imagine what this does to my hydro & gas bills. I’ve now set the temp to go down to 50F at night and up to 70F during the day while I’m home. I often turn the furnace off completely during the day and put on an extra sweater. Ok I’m starting to resemble Shamu with the 3 sweaters I’m wearing but it’s helping my bills and it’s helping the environment by using less hydro and gas.
Over the next few months I’ll be doing more posts to outline the small changes I’m making in my daily life to not only cut my expenses but also to cut back on the energy that’s wasted.
I am sure you would make Michele Singletary proud.( She writes for the Washington Post and gives money saving tips)Great tips for everyone else. My 2 cents - I wanted to keep my land line for emergencies so I chose a dial tone plan $7/month plus taxes makes it $14/month vs the $60 I was paying before. I never sign up for anything that has a recurring payment unless absolutely needed examples - cellphone add-ons, protection plans etc.
I will mention this post on my Blog as others can benefit from it.
Shashi