Speaking of phones.. I spend $5 a month with Ptel... Airvoice wireless is $10 a month.. You don't need data (you can't afford it).. texting is the cheapest, just get a $13 phone from Walmart.
You can't afford car repairs.. learn how to do your own.. I never had a car go into a garage yet!.. oil changes,timing belts, engine rebuilds its ALL DIY (except for tire changes and wheel alignments)
Also start comparison shopping when your insurance comes up.. the Hartford was cheapest for us for both home and car.
Check your getting the best deals on internet access.
Always take lunch to work, never eat out etc etc.
It CAN be DONE.. It HAS been done.. check out my link below for proof... $160k in debt to almost $2M Networth (counting the house) in 17 years.... It CAN BE DONE!
As for internet and cable, we don't have a choice at the moment. This isn't our house, our cable account, nor our TV. I think we maybe be able to get the owners to call in and cancel cable/internet for us, but internet is useful. I asked wife tonight if she wanted to cancel cable and she doesn't want to do it. She is the only one that watches TV. We both watch Netflix, but that's on a TV we brought and keep in another room. Someone mentioned that most modern TVs have a connection in back that would let it function as a smart TV, more or less, if connected to a laptop feeding the signal to it. I'm going to look tomorrow to see if I can do that, then if it is possible I'll run the cable cancel idea past her again.
I'm going to call Verizon and find out how much it will cost to break our 2 year agreement, which is up next February. Getting a cell phone like you said for 5 or 10 per month would be fantastic. We are paying for her mother's phone as well as our 2 phones, currently paying 176 per month. Dropping that down to 30 would be wonderful, a savings of 140 or so per month. Depending on what it costs to break the contract it might pay to do it, as long as we don't have to buy new cell phones.
I DO change my own oil. The last repair was a transmission rebuild, and it had to be done quickly and done right, and I have no idea about any of it. It was challenging for a transmission shop, as it took them 10 days to get it right. She needs that vehicle to work and I need mine to get to work, so we needed two vehicles back quickly. As it was she rented a car 3 or 4 different days when she needed to be out and about for massage. We go in opposite directions for work.
We got a very cheap deal on insurance. I'm eager to sell this Sentra (when I hear about this CA job) and seeing that insurance drop like a rock to having only collision on the Landcruiser. I did shop around for the Honda FIT and just by seeing pictures of it I know my wife won't want it. I don't want to hit her with too much at once, so I'm going to keep looking around and include her in on the search.
The more I read what you tell me and what others tell me, I'm excited to go all in. If I was single, it'd be easy. I'd live on beans, never use heater/air conditioner, walk or bike everywhere, no cable, nothing. But she is a little skittish at tons of change at once, and I need her buy in or this is going to get nasty fast.