I have been feeling the financial crunch lately and has sparked my pursuit to cut as much waste as possible from my life. (I desperately want to quit my current job... It is slowly and painfully killing me to remain with my current employer) My goal is to reduce our family expenses enough that I could survive working part time in food service... In my pursuit to cut I have been looking more closely at all of my utility bills since they have always been a bit exorbinant for a family of 2 living in a 1000 sq. ft. home. My Electric bill ranges between $115 - $350/month. The highs are easily explained by an ineffecient home to heat and cool and a mismatched central A/C unit. However I have been questioning the lows of $115/month... Well after using my trusty Kill-A-Watt device and my handy dandy calculater... $74.20 (65%) of the $115 bill are the computers!?!?!? I knew that they consumed a bit of energy but to make up 65% of my bill is impressive. Well no more leaving the machines on perpetually... I think I can limit usage to 40 hours a week. Gas usage... During winter gas is a killer... Generally November - April averages $225/month... Easy solution for this. Be cold... I have lots of covers and plenty of coats... My wife is more likely to kill me before the weather does :) I think we can manage keeping the thermostat around 50 degrees. We will have to see how well we can manage this. Next bill is my combined Satellite, Home Telephone, and Internet through AT&T. I have been spending $197.00/month on these combined services. The Satellite accounts for roughly 50% of the monthly bill... Phone and Internet account for about 25% each. Well to start off on the reduction I called customer service to cancel my home phone service since I never use it. Well, the first customer service representative said "Oh, you want to cancel... I need to transfer you to our Disconnect Specialist Team." I braced myself for a high pressure salesmen trying to discourage me to not remove services but add services. I was pleasentatly surprised by a very nice and knowlesgable individual that simply asked me why I wanted to cancel my service. She listened, and asked if she could make a suggestion. I was in a good mood so I listened (I am so glad I did). She explained that if I was just looking to save money she could help me out. She introduced me to a plan know as Measured(Metered) Phone Service for $8.00/month. It would have cost me $10.00 extra with no phone line to keep my DSL service... Metered phone service allows unlimited incoming calls and 15 free outgoing calls (I never use my phone). She then informed me that a special promotion for existing customers was being offered for "Elite Package" DSL customers could receive 50% off for 6 months!! That is hard to beat. Tomorrow I tackle the Sattelite TV package. No more pay channels. It kind of makes me sad since I was really getting into "Tru Blood." Not alot I can do about my car payment.. Except pay it off. I plan to make the final payment by January 1st... Everytime I have a little bit of spare money I make an extra payment. I am really proud of myself we are currently 1 year ahead of schedule on paying the car off. If things keep going the way they have we will pay it off 1 year and 3 months early! I have considerable student loan debt and I am just not sure what to do about it. I can make minimums untill I get out of school and then pay like crazy to pay them off... I could consilidate by taking a home loan at a reasonable interest rate and be able to make more reasonable payments and have a better interest rate... I don't know... The second option is probably best, however, am I in a position to obtain a new line of credit when I am getting ready to quit my job? Well that is enough financial talk for today... I am tired and desire my bed... |