Thursday, May 29, 2008

Belt Tightening.......







Times are tough... No doubt about it. With gas prices reaching $4 a gallon, we're all skrimping to make ends meet. I thought about staying extra weeks in Hilton Head to save a few bucks here and there, but I have a few reasons to go up there - and it would be a bit rude to not let Matt have his place all to himself just a little bit.






Oil prices aren't going to drop any time soon, so I did the next best thing - I went down literally every expense I have, and made changes to a bunch of them to lower my monthly bills, and boy did it work. I urge you guys to do the same for yourself. Here is what i did....


Car Insurance - I raised my deductible, and saved $10/month

Internet - I went from DSL Super to DSL Lite, and saved $18/month

Health Ins. - It finally kicked in, and I dropped AFLAC, saving $43/month

Cell Phone - I switched to a more effective plan, and saved $20/month

Direct TV - I dropped Showtime, and saved $15/month

Motor Club - forgot I had it, dropped it and saved $18/month

Water Bill- never used the irrigation, so i cut it off and saved $11/month

Mortgage - paying it early saves me $33/month....





After doing this, I am saving a whopping $168/ month !! That's about 2/3 of what I spend on gas. Maybe your bills are less flexible, but I bet if you take a peek into it, you'll cut you bills down a lot as well. Now I have more cash on hand for other things - like paying back everyone I owe money to.....
.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

good ideas man. will you be in columbia friday and saturday if so tell my son these

Anonymous said...

which is why part of your garage will be turning into a storage facility for me this weekend, saving me $85. i dropped Starz from Directv...$13. Dropping cell phone and just using my work cell at the end of the year...$70. Mike's in Hilton Head during the week, so no lunch meetings...$20. Download free porn on the computer...$254,098.

thats quite a savings!!!

earlcapps said...

Mike - if you ever want to stay the weekend in Hilton Head, I can get you a room at a major hotel on HH for just $44 plus tax a night. Special deal I got for our traveling work crews.

At the rate things are going, fuel costs for a round trip to Florence might be more than that.

Thoroughbred 401k said...

I forgot, I also dumped XM, because POTUS 08 is free, and that's all I listen to.

I could stay at Matt's on the weekend, but I have reasons to go home right now anyway.

Thoroughbred 401k said...

Moye, I'll be there Sat., but I have stuff in HHI tonight, so i'll be missing the Silver Elephant.