Friday Financial Fun

Don't you just love my use of alliteration in today's blog post title? I couldn't help myself. I'm taking a sick day and being away from my English classroom makes me more prone to use literary terms in everyday life.

After a healthy dose of Nyquil and a good night's sleep, my fever broke and I was motivated to get a lot of things done. First, my cell phone stopped working yesterday and I needed to get a new one as well as cancel my TMobile plan because I had already switched to WalMart's Family Mobile plan. After I finished paying some bills, I got in my car to drop the payments off at the post office. (Yes, I still write checks for most of my bills...more about that later). As soon as I turned on my car, the "change oil" signal was going off for the millionth time and my low tire pressure signal turned on. Ugh! These things were just making my day more complicated than it needed to be. I'll spare you the details of stopping to get gas and cleaning out my car...you're welcome.

At TMobile, I learned that my phone had stopped working because the SD card and battery got wet. The salesperson also informed me that it appeared my account was already canceled once I switched companies. Whew! I was dreading having to talk to the corporate office or signing papers. That's the kind of hassle I had to go through when my ex-husband and I were splitting our cell phone plans.

On my Wal-Mart to pick up a new cell phone, I drove up to a oil change place and got that and my low-pressure tire(s) taken care of. Picking up a new cell phone from Walmart wasn't that difficult because there weren't a lot of choices. I went with the Samsung t369 and it only cost me $104.96. It's not the most "cool" phone on the market, but it does what I need it to do--call and text. Now that I'm on the Walmart plan, it's only $45 per month which is about $20 less than what I was paying before. Y'all know me. I'm all about saving a few bucks wherever I can. A savings of $240 a year on my cell phone plan is pretty awesome.

The only downside I can think of is that they don't do paper billing. To me, there's something that makes me feel financially in control with writing my checks and mailing them off. So I decided that since I was in the store, I would just get in line at the Money Center and pay my bill. Ugh. They couldn't do anything for me since I didn't know my account number. This was actually a good learning experience for me: standing in line at Walmart is not something I want to do every month. It's more beneficial to me and my sanity to pay online in this case. Who knows? Maybe I'll start paying ALL my bills online. Baby steps!

Cutting Expenses: Part 1

Earlier this week I received my lease renewal notification letter from the apartment company. My rent is going up $75! Last year I got the apartment with a "March Madness Move-In Special." Now the rent is back up to "normal" which actually includes a discount for me since I'm a teacher. Part of me was hoping to keep paying the discounted rate while the other part of me knew that a rate "increase" was inevitable. How in the world was I going to find an extra $75 when I already feel like I'm living paycheck to paycheck?

First, I took a look at my bills. What services could I cut or trim back? Today I went to my cell phone company's store and changed my plan. Currently I have an "unlimited talk, text, and web" plan for $79.99. I dropped to the "unlimited talk and text" plan for $59.99. My cell phone is my primary phone and some months I use a lot of minutes and other months not so much. I didn't want to risk going to the lowest plan and then going over my minutes. I'll definitely monitor this over the next few months and readjust if necessary. I also dropped the insurance on my phone. I don't even know why I had signed up for it in the first place, but it's $6/month that just needs to go. Total savings with cell phone company: $26

After I finished at the cell phone store, I went over to the cable sales store. This is one area where I can shave a LOT of money off my bill. I removed HBO ($15/month) from the bill. I'm also looking at removing DVR (about $12) and downgrading to the most basic cable package they offer. It would be an adjustment, but I think I would survive. Growing up, we had no cable television. It was 7 channels and rabbit ears for us. My family would go on vacation and just marvel at the hotels/beach houses that had cable TV. I think I could get used to basic cable and it might actually be good for me!

Second, I'm in the process of getting an insurance quote with a different company. If I can lower my insurance bill without compromising too much on the quality, I'll definitely switch.

Finally, I realize that cutting expenses to save up for the extra I'll be paying in rent is a good idea, but I have to look towards the future. It's very probable that rent will go up again next year. I want to be in a place financially where I could move out into my own place if necessary. My plan is to teach summer school this year. OMG. I can't believe I just typed that. I've NEVER taught summer school before. This was something I was NOT planning on doing, but times are tough and I've got to make tough choices. The plan is to teach summer school this year and put that money towards a house down payment while living off my normal paycheck (I'm on a 12 month plan).

I also have my car accident insurance settlement money coming in, but I don't know when or how much that will be. When it does, it will be a nice surprise and I'm hoping to add that to my house down payment or maybe for a well-deserved vacation.