Have you ever watched one of those TV infomercials that seem
incredibly too-good-to-be-true!
You think to yourself, “Wow!
If I just have that (fill in the blank) life will be so much easier.” Then, the more you watch, the more that
they offer! “But wait! If you order in the next 30 minutes we’ll
send you not just one “Sham wow”, but two!” You know what I’m talking about! Keep watching the commercial and they may finish the ad by
offering you 4 of the item as well as 2 other completely different items
altogether! What a deal! (Please notice my sarcastic undertones…)
Recently, as we were combing through our own monthly budget,
and trying to find places to save costs, we determined to contact our “variable
cost providers” and see what else they could do for us. You see, we realized that we were
paying for nearly 700 minutes a month MORE on our cell phones than what we use
on a regular basis. There wasn’t a
lower plan advertised online, but hey!
It’s a phone call and the worst that they could say is “no.” I called and much to my surprise, they
found a cell phone plan that provided us with all of the “perks” and benefits
that we needed and still saved us $20 a month from what we had been
paying!! As you can imagine, we
were thrilled!
Well, it didn’t stop there! We decided that there are a BUNCH of channels on our TV that
we rarely ever watch, so we gave our TV Company a call asking if they had any
plans available that would match what we needed. (We didn’t want to extend or re-up a contract at all, but
wanted to drop our bottom-line bill amount.) Much to my surprise, they DID have a plan available which
offered us all of the main channels and many of the fun kids channels that
Caleb likes to watch when I let him (Sprout, Disney, etc!) and it was another $20
less PER MONTH! That means,
between our TV and Cell Phones alone we saved $40 PER MONTH ($480 per year)
with just a simple phone call. Neither adjustment really changes
our normal life at all, but we can do a lot with an additional $40 every
month! (Not to mention an extra
$40 this month to spend on Christmas gifts – YAY!)
Here’s the point.
It’s easy to get roped into the biggest and the best products, thinking
that we need all of the bells and whistles that are offered. Many times, though, we just don’t end
up using those ‘bells’ as originally thought. Perhaps its time to take a look at your cell phone bill and
see how many minutes you’re ACTUALLY using on average every month, compared to
how many you’re paying for. Just
because “unlimited” sounds great, doesn’t mean it’s necessary! Who knows! Maybe you just want a landline phone to use for emergency
situations, but you’re still paying $30+ for that service! Why not check out magicjack.com and do
away with your monthly phone service altogether! (Disclaimer: I haven’t ever used magic jack myself, but have
heard rave reviews.)
As Christmas gets closer, and we’re all trying to make “miracles”
happen with our gift-giving, why not look at other areas of your spending first
to see where you can free up some money without making any sacrifices. You’ll be glad that you did!
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