So far, so good with the one paycheck family. We've cut way back and we're doing okay. I feel that if we had just a little more money, we could go on like this forever.
In fact, if we got rid of our $143/month cable bill that would make things bearable. (This includes cable, Internet and landline.) So I called Cox yesterday to see what we could do. I was willing to just have a few -- what I consider basic -- cable channels like BRAVO, TNT, Lifetime and of course ESPN. Well Cox has a different definition of basic cable. To quote "basic cable is channels 2 through 22." Two through 22????? Wow, that means ABC, NBC, CBS, C-Span plus WB, Fox and a couple of spanish channels. The thought of a life with basic cable (and without the Kardashians)gave me a headache.
So then I decided to go the other route and see what we can do about some of the phone add-ons. We pay $29.90 for a package that includes caller-id, voice mail and call waiting. We could buy a $20 answering machine (then we could screen calls anyway).
I can never find the call waiting button because I have to pull it away from my ear and then I have to hold it at arm's length to see the keyboard. I rarely do this because I can't hear what the caller is saying and unless it's my mom, it could be something I haven't heard before.
As to caller-id, I think we could go back to the old fashioned element of surprise. So I thought I had saved us $29.90 and I told Dave the cable operator to remove that package. He said he could but then we'd lose our $32.43 monthly discount because we have everything packaged together and it includes those add-ons. So instead of saving $29.90, we'd spend an extra $2.53. Hmmmm. This is harder than I thought.
The DVR costs another $18/month but I'd rather walk to work than lose that. Besides the DVR makes my tv watching much more efficient so I'm saving time and time is money, right?
Does anyone have any money saving ideas that won't interupt my lifestyle? Something that has to do with cutting back on exercising or cleaning? We haven't been to church in weeks so we've saved a little there...
2 comments:
Well the only positive so far with having fair skin and fair hair is that I don't need to color my hair yet! I've been relying on my ped-egg and do it yourself pedicures too. I do have a gift card for Dolce salon so I'm looking forward to a facial in the near future unless they'll trade it for a month of cable!!!
Here's what we just did yesterday: Called Cox and dropped the whole TV. Period. All we pay now is $46 for high speed internet. We got rid of our land line (phone) years ago and only use our cell phones. We have a new Netflix subscription for $17 a month - 3 DVD's at a time. So we will always have 1 movie and 1 TV series (we're starting Weeds) on hand to watch at a time. We will supplement that with what we can check out for free at the library (tons of DVD's - especially old moviess). We just slashed our bill by $120 and added $17 so we're down over $100 !! (we had three tv's and cable boxes, including high-def). Scot says we will cut out the booze as well, but I say this is exactly the time to RAMP UP the alcohol consumption!!!
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