Skip to main content

Saving Money

This week I've been focused on saving money because I'd like to stretch our budget further to allow for more traveling. Here is a quick list of fast and easy things I did since Saturday to lower monthly/annual expenses. Perhaps some of the tips will work for you as well:

1. Current cable bill was $54/month for basic analog cable. Called Comcast and negotiated a promotional rate- $39/month for digital cable PLUS HBO, good for 6 months. In another 6 months I will call back and negotiate again to extend promo rate. Savings over initial 6 months = $15/month*6= $75.

2. Began conscientious driving. Less use of the stop and go braking by maintaining more distance between myself and the car in front of me. Also using cruise control on the highway to maintain better fuel regulation. Finally, keeping speed to 65mph or below (80mph as I like to go kills fuel efficiency). I was getting 25mph and I am now getting 29mph with the changes. That's about $6.40 a week in savings based on current gas prices, $27.66/monthly or $332 annually.

3. In the process of convincing my employer to pick up or share the cost of my wireless network card since I use it primarily and frequently for work (to work remotely). Savings will be a minimum of $20 a month depending on whether they spring for full or 50% reimbursement. Annual savings (minimum)- $240.

4. Gave up my garage parking space to park on the street. Now I will be walking 4 blocks to the office, which is also good for my waistline. Monthly savings = $70 which translates to $840 annually.

5. Opened up a new American Express credit card and transferred $10k (my student loan debts from grad school, our only high interest debt) to the card at a fixed interest rate that is more than 2% lower than my current rate of 7.5%. That's $615 savings over the life of the loan or $140 a year or $11.66/month.

6. Called Comcast a second time to let them know that FIOS is now available in my area for only $30 a month (this is true) and asked what they could do for me. They lowered my monthly hi-speed bill from $43/month to $33 a month for the next 12 months. At 8mbps (compared to FIOS at only 5mbps) that's a good deal. Savings is therefore $10/month or $120/annually.

 

I'd estimate that it took me less than 2 hours of free time to make the calls and do the research to make all of these changes.

Total savings from this small effort:

$ 154.32 month

which equals

$ 1851.34 annually

 

What kind of savings could 2 hours of calls and research do for your household?

Comments

30something said…
dude. i love this.
LOTS.

good job with your finagling(sp?)...
Unknown said…
where did you hear that fios was available?? marc is dying to get it.
buzzlittleone said…
that's so awesome and gives me ideas of what i need to do to save us some $$$ for our trip and in the long run. Good job!

Popular posts from this blog

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind   and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream).  On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Obsessed with Obsession

I'm completely obsessed with Obsession! I received a review copy of the updated second edition along with all the expansions (Wessex, Useful Man, Upstairs Downstairs) and from the moment I took everything out of the boxes, my excitement was over the top. Actually, that's not even the half of it - I remember I was already quite excited before the game even arrived. I'd wanted to get my hands on a copy as soon as I learned there was a game that brought the lifestyle that we all fell in love with watching Downton Abbey to the gaming table. Back in 2021, I was having a great time at the Dice Tower Summer Retreat and a new friend Bonnie sang the praises of Obsession. She had seen me eyeing the box on the shelf and gave me a summary of the game mechanics as she owned the first edition. She explained that the theme is centered on running an estate in Derbyshire and competing against others to have the best home, reputation, gentry guests, etc. Based on her enthusiasm and descripti

Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a