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Going Into Frugality Mode -- What are your Tricks and Tips
Darwin:
Ah yes, I cancelled cable on Jan. 1... potential savings?
How does $730 a year grab ya? We had the top of the analogue package with no pay-tv options (move channels, pay-per-view, video on demand), which amounted to about 65 channels. 99% of the week the only channel that the tv was tuned to was Treehouse (young childrens' programming - Franklin, Little Bear, Dora the Screeching Explorer, etc.), so we decided to save money off our childrens' backs ;D
40hz:
we decided to save money off our childrens' backs ;D
-Darwin (January 26, 2009, 03:57 PM)
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Like it! ;D
(Don't worry. They'll get you back when it's time for college.)
40hz:
If you live in the USA, read Gotcha Capitalism by Bob Sulliven.
A friend told me about this book after attending a financial fitness seminar.
It's amazing the number of fees that get tacked onto things if you allow it to happen. Now you can fight back.
Check out the excerpt up on Amazon for a better idea of what's in it:
http://www.amazon.com/Gotcha-Capitalism-Hidden-Every-Day/dp/0345496132/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233010026&sr=8-1
What is Gotcha Capitalism?
Coughing up $4 fees for ATM transactions. Iron-clad cell phone contracts you can’t get out of with a crowbar. Paying big bucks for insurance you don’t need on a rental car or forking over $20 a day for supposedly “free” wireless internet. Every day we use banks, cell phones, and credit cards. Every day we book hotels and airline tickets. And every day we get ripped off.
How? Here are just a few examples of how big business can get you:
• You didn’t fill up the rental car with gas?
Gotcha! Gas costs $7 a gallon here.
• Your bank balance fell to $999.99 for one day?
Gotcha! That’ll be $12.
• You miss one payment on that 18-month same-as-cash loan?
Gotcha! That’ll be $512 extra.
• You’re one day late on that electric bill?
Gotcha! All your credit cards now have a 29.99% interest rate.
But not for much longer. In Gotcha Capitalism, MSNBC.com’s “Red Tape Chronicles” columnist Bob Sullivan exposes the ways we’re all cheated by big business, and teaches us how to get our money back–proven strategies that can help you save more than $1,000 a year.
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It will set you back about $10 on Amazon. Well worth it. Especially for the model letters you need to send in order to protect your rights under the Fair Credit Act. I've successfully used some of the ideas in this book to get decent reductions in interest rates from my bank. Gotta love that.
If you're really looking to economize, try reading it while sitting in a Borders or Barnes & Nobel coffee shop.
Just make sure you don't go and buy one of those $4 cups of coffee because you're feeling guilty. :-[;)
mouser:
Nice. :up:
I think it's even worse than your examples illustrate. More and more i see evidence of companies and services charging fees that they KNOW are erroneous -- and it's just a matter of letting those who catch the error complain, at which point they remove the charge without issue. Then the rest of the people who never notice.. they pay the price.
Perry Mowbray:
It may seem obvious, but: Don't use Credit.
We also use VoIP for all our Phone calls, which reduced our phone bill from hundreds to less than a hundred.
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