Cutting Expenses

Today I cut $35 out of my monthly expenses.

I have had my landline forever and before it was mine it was my ex's forever. Two years ago I got a cellphone (yeah I am a late bloomer). 9 months ago I got a company Blackberry. I have no earthly need for my landline and in fact the ringer has been off since I returned from South America June 1. I have kept it only because it is the only number Miss Jessie knew and would call. I gave her my cell number several times but she refused to use it.

Today I called to cancel my landline. Because I also have my DSL through AT&T the guy (very nice - very unusual for AT&T) told me that since I would not have a phone line an additional $5 would be added to my monthly DSL bill. Because they can. No biggie - $5 still would save me a good amount. Then he looked at my history (PERFECT PAYMENTS) and offered me a deal for the next six months. For only $3.00 more than it would cost to carry the DSL with no landline he would cut my costs for both and I could have 6 months to make my final decision. So my monthly AT&T bill has dropped from $72 to $41. All it took was a phone call.

Then I got rid of usenet at $5.00/month. When I was in SCL and totally bored and looking for distraction I bought into it to download movies and TV shows in English to amuse me on the weekends. Not terribly user friendly and I managed to download one thing and then never was able to download anything else and yet I never cancelled. Now it's gone.

$35 a month might not seem like a lot but it would buy a week's worth of groceries if I was very careful. Or $420 in savings in a year.

I'm on a roll. I've made a firm decision to begin using coupons as much as possible (the stuff I buy rarely has coupons). I am going to make calls and cut my expenses as much as possible. I do this about once a year and missed it last spring when I was away. High time I get back to it.