You are welcome to join me in yet another frugal monthly budget challenge:) for the month of October 2018. I am declaring October the month for optimizing.
Never mind the long post - I'm just strategizing:)
You know those damn painful cable TV expenses that you know you might be able to slash, but aren't quite sure how - you know it isn't going to be easy and the other half may not be entirely on board but is beginning to crumble?
Well, it is that time - I'm ready to tackle this one previously "unchallenged" item, but I am still looking to slash the grocery budget by 10% - find a little side income - or if your own budget is already rock bottom: find a min of $10 plus, somehow - somewhere.
1. I'm cheating just a little with the side income - because I already have $140 lined up for Oct. It's a $20 gig x 7, evaluating a Health Insurance presentation.
I'll look into going to a presentation on my own as well before I start, since in the past they have given out $10 in Publix (grocery store) gift cards to the attendees. I'm not allowed to accept those when I'm on the job, but it will be easier to do the evaluation when I had a trial run and ten bux for groceries is always welcome.
2. The cable bill will be the bear - I've started looking into digital antennas and found tvfool website, which lets you determine your signal strength and which cable channels you will be able to receive with a digital antenna. I also found a review site with lots of good tips.
Next will be looking into sling tv - I'm really not sure I grasp all the concepts yet, but I understand that we want certain channels so Mr. can watch his NFL football games.
I signed up for Netflix (free for 90 days) which is really all I need, besides a couple of local channels and CNN/BBC world news and I assume I should be able to access those via internet - will check.
Our local provider, Spectrum went all digital as of Oct 1, so our small TV in the kitchen no longer works. Apparently, we could get a cheap digital antenna just for it, which would be around $30.
Not sure yet how to deal with the other two big TVs in the house...?, the old boxes work, but I sure hate that cable bill.
So my job this month is to find a solution to the cable TV expenses.
3. If available and my car is ready for an oil change (it's close) - I'll get a free oil change and tire rotation and $20 for the report - probably will put that off until November, so I have time to pick up any last minute health ins eval's - someone always flakes and the company will pay extra for doing a report last minute.
4. Will need to make sure that Mr. R's credit card rewards points don't expire and order gc's. He keeps forgetting and the points disappear - lost money.
5. May open one new bank account for the $250 bonus, but also because I'm not thrilled with one of my current banks - still looking into one other bank.
6. Last thing on my list - I can't resist quirky challenges - so I am starting this month on a new $1K challenge that I've successfully done before. It's quirky, it's fun and all you do is save a random amount on a chart once a week - more if you can that week. Cross off each box as you save that amount - from $3 up to $60 max.
Of course, I try to hit several boxes at one time whenever I can. Most of the amounts are so ridiculously low, it's fun to see them crossed off.
You can get it at
https://www.mediumsizedfamily.com/a-money-saving-chart-save-an-extra-1000/The idea is to save $1K in a year - but hey, who wants to wait that long - so I find little online things to do that pay a couple of bucks via pay pal or do a amazon Turk gig to fill up all the $3 to $7 boxes.
So far I crossed off $20 as of Oct 1 - $980 to go:)!7. Set one last challenge for our dining out budget this month: - we must either have a coupon-discount or take advantage of the weekly special or early bird special - BOGO.
8. Thinking about increasing my piddly passive income stream - will do some brainstorming.
Well - that is all the optimizing I can think of for this October - go ahead and share some of your own strategies and projects for this month!
I'd love to hear what you have done about your cable bill.