My new years resolution for 2010 was to look at every "necessary expense" and cut it down this year. I was able to trim over $300 a month, or $3600 a year. That pays for a nice vacation. I did pay upfront costs to reduce my monthly expense. I can not stand the long term contracts. Here is what I did.
Cell Phones: My wife and I had two cell phones each with a 2 year contract with T-Mobile. We were paying $165/month for unlimited talk/300 text/internet each. I went back over the previous 6 months looking at my usage patterns.
We did not use the internet on the phones, and I realized I did not use my phone that much and would be much better to switch over to T-Mobile prepaid. They offer .10 minute on calls and .10 on texts. I realized that if I switched my phone over I would use about $12/month in prepaid usage. I still had over 14 months on my contract and it cost me $200 to break it. I bought a $100 card an T-Mobile switched my phone from post-paid to pre-paid. I have used about $12/month it call time.
I waited to convert my wife's phone over until this month as she is now off contract. She uses it alot, but they offer a prepaid unlimited talk/unlimited texts for $50/month. This is $15 less than postpaid.
Keep in mind we did lose the internet on the phone, but we lived without it on the phones back in the early 2000s anyway.
Phone 1:
Initial cost: $200 cancel contract+$100 card: cost recouped after 4 months
Initial monthly expense: $85
New monthly expense: $12
Savings:
$73
Phone 2:
Initial cost: $100 card
Initial monthly expense: $85
New monthly expense: $50
Savings:
$35
Cable TV: I was spending over $110 a month on cable TV just to watch 4 or 5 favorite shows. I decided it was time to cut cable TV off last year once they raised the prices, again.... I do love to watch local sports. Here is what I ended up doing:
1. Purchase antenna for over air HD broadcasts. I live within 20 miles of the tower so I am able to receive all the network programming.
2. Subscribe to Netflix + Streaming.
2. Purchase a mac mini ($600) and install Plex(free). This cost of the mac mini paid for itself in 6 months. This allows me to do several really cool things with Plex.
I can:
- stream netflix show/movies right to my TV,
- play DVDs in the mac Mini,
- stream hulu, and just about any other web page that offers video from a very nice interface
- use the mac mini as a DVR and record live over the air broadcasts( like football) This allows me to watch a football game in less than an hour. I love fast forwarding through all the commercials.
Initial expense: $600, + $30 for antenna : cost recouped after 6 months
Monthly expense: $9 for netflix
Monthly saving:
$101
Home Phone: This was bundled in with the Cable provider. I was paying over $40 plus tax for home phone service. I researched and tried several different VOIP phones. I decided the best one for me was OOMA. They provide a box that looks liek an answering machine that plugs into your Internet connection and then it connects to your phone. The device cost $200 up front but only costs $3 a month for taxes. The call quality (if you have a decent internet connection) is superb. I work at home and use the phone several hours a day and nobody even knows that I switched.
Initial expense: $200, cost recouped after 5 months
New monthly expense: $3
Monthly Savings:
$37
Internet: Since I had one of those triple play packages (Internet/Phone/Cable TV), I had to pay a little more since I canceled the other two services. I still need the high speed internet as my phone (ooma), and now TV (streaming netflix, hulu,etc) rely upon it. At least now I get my moneys worth....
Old monthly expense: $65
New monthly expense: $65
Monthly Savings:
$0
Insurance: This one made me mad. My insurance company of almost 10 years sent me a premium increase of over %15 for my homeowners insurance (included in escrow, so I really didnt see it. Once I saw that the insurance premium on my house was double what it was within 5 years, and the house value has fallen by 25% I called my agent to see what was up. He stated that rates are all going up among all insurance companies... I didn't believe him, and shopped around. I ended up saving over $100 a month in home/auto insurance by switching companies. Oh and it was fun to tell my current agent... "Time to get competitive or lose my business.... " He said he could not match the price and I was able to tell him goodbye.
Initial expense: a day of time calling insurance agents
monthly savings:
$100
Electricity I purchased a KillaWatt (meter you can plug your device into) to measure certain appliance power usage. I know, but I love little gadgets like that... Anyway, I was surprised by the fact that my aquarium uses quite a bit of power. So I put it on a timer and only have the light go on a little less every day. The bonus is that less algae grows in the tank now.... I also have setup my computers to sleep a few minutes sooner and that helps a little bit. The poster who drys clothes outside, this is a good idea, the clothes dryer uses the most power in the average home.
Initial expense: $30 killawatt, $5 timer: payback time 4 months
Monthly Savings:
$10
Oh the other comments about canning. I bought a canner this summer and made jam/jellies, and canned peaches. It was alot of fun and was easy. Now I have more jams/peaches in the pantry than ever before....
