Tired of being broke, or at least having much less disposable income than I used to have, I've taken on the attitude of the big corporate and governmental agencies and am looking at reigning in my spending. Wait. That's not like government at all. They only cut services, but continue to spend like madmen.
Anyway, the first to go is cable. I'm keeping broadcast basic, which is just the four major networks (if you include Fox), some local stations, and shopping network crap I don't watch except when "Esteban" is trying to sell his cheap guitars (I've actually considered one of his packages, but went with an Ovation instead). It's fifteen bucks a month for this, which is perhaps more than it should be, but I don't get good reception without cable so it stays... for now.
A couple of years ago I cut out HBO. Ten bucks for one channel was unacceptable to me. Yeah, HBO is great, but not ten bucks great. Just yesterday I pulled the plug on Family Cable or Family Basic. I forget exactly. It's all the cable channels that show commercials. That was costing me about thirty-three bucks a month in addition to the fifteen for the broadcast stuff. I love The Daily Show. I enjoy Fox News and their collection of knuckleheads. I dig that Fuse actually plays music videos when I feel like watching that crap (so does BET, I guess, but depite being Black, BET doesn't entertain me). But I don't spend enough time on any of that to justify thirty three bucks, so out it goes.
Just about anything on TV that I miss for one reason or another I can downlo* - uh, I mean, do without. I still pay my cable company for internet access and will continue to do so for the forseeable future, though if push comes to shove, I'll go to DSL or even back to NetZero (I was with them when they were free).
Next on the chopping block is phone service. Verizon's out, Lingo.com is in. I can save about thirty to forty bucks, gain unlimited national long distance (as opposed to no long distance on my plan with Verizon) and apparently keep my phone number. Time will tell if I actually like their service. I've read good things so far. I'll make the arrangements in a day or so.
If I'm not careful, my Altoid addition could cost fifty-four bucks a month or even more. Some weeks I may purchase up to four two-packs, but that's a rarity that's never kept up for a whole month. Still, I should keep track and try to spend less than thirty bucks a month.
Labels: Altoids, home economics, tv
# posted by Edshugeo The GodMoor : 1:15 AM
