We Were Bloated, Are You?
We’ve neglected our budget for a few months. My wife has been teaching additional classes resulting in extra income each month, so we haven’t felt squeezed. I suppose the extra money explains why we’ve been so lax. Regardless, when I sat down to try and get ourselves back on track, it struck me at how bloated our budget had become. We’ve been paying for several things on a monthly basis, all of which we thought were a good idea when signing up. But over time, we began using these services less and less. Here are three things that I’ve recently canceled, and won’t miss for a second:
Trimming The Fat
- Netflix – $20
- Equifax Score Watch – $8
- ESPN Insider – $7
- **Checking Account Service Fee – $12
**I also called my bank (Wells Fargo) to find out why I was being charged a $12.00 monthly service fee for my checking account. I knew that I hadn’t always paid this fee. After visiting with the Customer Service Representative, it turned out that I needed a monthly automatic transfer of $75.00 from my checking to savings account to have this fee waived. I quickly reestablished this automatic transfer on the 1st of each month, and set up another automatic transfer for the 2nd. The transfer on the 2nd will move the $75.00 from my savings account back to my checking account. Don’t worry, I asked the CSR if this was ok. He explained this happens all the time and is perfectly legitimate.
Total Saved Each Month – $47.00
What about you? Have you ever been surprised at how many unused services you’ve paid for each month?
Way to trim the fat.
Here’s my advice on Netflix. Keep it. Go w/the one DVD out at a time plus streaming option for like $7/month. Then stop going to the movie theater and stop going out to eat. The latter two will save you over $20 every time you employ them.
Then you have to keep the Netflix sub so you don’t go crazy while choosing not to go out anymore.
Wife & I did this and we are saving around $6,000/year. We only go out to dinner or movie on special occasions now.
$6,000 is awesome! I completely agree, sometimes you have to spend a little (Netflix) to save “alot” (movies/dining out.) We’ve decided to keep cable TV for that very reason and when we just have to rent a movie, we’ll more than likely use Redbox.