Author Topic: Tracking baby steps  (Read 4690 times)

begood

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Tracking baby steps
« on: April 08, 2014, 12:17:02 PM »
Hi! So when I introduced myself over in the welcome thread, I outlined a few baby steps (really, tiny itty bitty baby steps) that I'm starting with. To help me keep track, if y'all don't mind, I thought I'd put them here, where I can see those little bits start to add up. I'm rounding to the nearest $ since I'm good with multiplication tables but not decimals. :)

In the past few days, I've done away with:

Netflix: $96/year ($8/mo)

Pandora One: $36/year

Magazine sub: $69/year

XM Radio: ~$54/year (I only ever renewed if they did it for $24 for 6 months, plus the various fees/taxes/blahblah).

And I figured out how to "check out" an e-book from my local library and have it zipped right over to my Kindle. That's AWESOME. I have bought (a large number) of e-books over the past few years, so this is really very good news.

My next step--and I might need someone to hold my hand and explain to me why it really is the best thing to do--would be to consider ditching my unlimited data plan on my iPhone and going on a "share everything" plan to save $10/month. My husband uses negligible data but is paying for 3GB every month anyway. He's also paying by the text for text messages. My daughter just has a wee flip phone at the moment, and only uses it for emergencies - I had AT&T block internet access on it so we wouldn't get unexpected data charges.

My unlimited data has been my security blanket for FIVE YEARS. We live so far off the main road that we cannot get cable, FIOS, or even DSL, so I pay through the nose for mobile broadband. Expensive and limited -- what a twofer!

So my iPhone, with its grandfathered unlimited data plan, has been my salvation. No limits! No checking obsessively to make sure we haven't "gone over." But the truth is that I use somewhere between 3 and 5 GB a month, and my spouse uses way less than 1 GB. We can easily keep under the 10 GB limit and save money. Right? I'd love to be either talked into it or talked out of it.

In the meantime, I'll be over here in a corner, petting my unlimited data while I still can.

Oh, and feel free to add your own baby steps here; I can't be the only person feeling their way here. :)

jordanread

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2014, 01:47:02 PM »
You want telecommunications advice? Look no further. Daley has one of the most comprehensive guides I've ever seen, and it's available right here, for free even.

Congrats on the little steps. They add up.

begood

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 02:11:04 PM »
You want telecommunications advice? Look no further. Daley has one of the most comprehensive guides I've ever seen, and it's available right here, for free even.

Ooh, thanks, jordanread! I will definitely check that out.

One more baby step for the day: I've been buying Annie's Organics granola bars from Amazon at a cost of 72 cents per bar. Today at Costco I got Kirkland granola bars for 14 cents per bar. Not organic, but a perfectly acceptable (and reasonable) substitute, I think! If I ate a bar a day, which I pretty much do, that would  be a savings of $211 over the course of a year (assuming I did the math right - I took the difference - 58 cents per bar and multiplied it by 365).

jordanread

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2014, 02:26:59 PM »
One more baby step for the day: I've been buying Annie's Organics granola bars from Amazon at a cost of 72 cents per bar. Today at Costco I got Kirkland granola bars for 14 cents per bar. Not organic, but a perfectly acceptable (and reasonable) substitute, I think! If I ate a bar a day, which I pretty much do, that would  be a savings of $211 over the course of a year (assuming I did the math right - I took the difference - 58 cents per bar and multiplied it by 365).

Simple enough. But don't forget that you can earn interest on that $.58, so the actual "savings" is even better. :-)

Cassie

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2014, 04:46:07 PM »
I would also shop around for things like car/house insurance, etc. I compare every year to make sure I am getting the best deal.

begood

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2014, 07:26:20 PM »
I would also shop around for things like car/house insurance, etc. I compare every year to make sure I am getting the best deal.

Good idea, Cassie. I do have both auto and renter's insurance with the same company, so we get a small discount.

begood

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2014, 10:28:45 AM »
Today's baby steps:

1) Pressing the Eco Assist button on my Honda.

Eco Assist™ helps car and driver work together as never before to improve fuel efficiency. First, when you push the green ECON button, your CR-V will automatically configure its engine and other energy-consuming systems to operate more efficiently. Eco Assist™ also features a feedback system that tells you how efficiently you're driving, while you're driving. Instrument-panel lighting changes from white (inefficient) to green (efficient), helping you get more from a gallon of gas.

The green/white light thing is a little misleading -- hey, look, it's white when I go uphill and green when I go downhill! -- but I can tell when the button is pushed that some of my get-up-and-go got up and went, so maybe it's forcing me to go through the gear ratio more slowly? IDK.

2) Replacing the incandescent bulbs in our bedside lamps with LEDs. Only problem is I really want 60W equivalent but got 40W equivalent bulbs. Debating whether to return those to Costco and keep looking. They were a great price: $11 for a three-pack = $3.66/bulb.

ZiziPB

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2014, 11:12:51 AM »
I would suggest you try out the 40W and see if they are sufficient.  I find most LEDs "brighter" than the stated replacement wattage.

begood

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2014, 11:49:21 AM »
I would suggest you try out the 40W and see if they are sufficient.  I find most LEDs "brighter" than the stated replacement wattage.

Funny you would say that, ZiziPB, because that's exactly the conclusion I have come to. I traded out still-functioning 60W equivalent CFLs in both our bedside lamps and we're going to try them for a week. We don't try to read by them; they're just ambient light as we watch TV (shhhh! baby steps!!!) in the room.

I then put the CFLs in other lights that still had incandescent bulbs. \o/

Last night I wrote several god-awful checks to various gov't agencies (ie, paid taxes). I'm still trying to shake that off, since it was WAY more than I'd been prepared for. We have the moolah, so it's not like it's a huge problem or anything, but holy COW, it made my little savings here and little savings there feel awfully... little.

Mr. janiebegood did his best to bolster my spirits by saying we'd basically taken out a loan from the gov't and now we've paid it back.

begood

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2014, 08:12:22 AM »
So I used the time the forums were down to take a couple more baby steps:

1) I changed out our five remaining incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs I found in the garage. I also ordered a six-pack of 60-watt equivalent LED bulbs from Home Depot (free shipping to home!) to put in our outdoor lights and in two lamps where the 40-watt equivalent bulbs don't seem quite bright enough.

2) After Thursday, my satellite TV bill will be $35 lower per month. Without high-speed internet (long story short: too far off road for even DSL), this feels like a reasonable step for now. We cut our channel lineup from 200+ to 55 and we're paring down from two DVRs to one. Our daughter is the one making the real sacrifice here: the new package does not include Disney or Nickelodeon! To me, of course, that is an upside...

We'll revisit the decision if in practice it doesn't feel like a "no-sacrifice savings" step. We can change plans without any penalty every 30 days. We've got 140 episodes of various shows we like stored in the DVR; I figure that will get us through the summer at least! We're unrepentant TV hounds, but we have less and less time to watch these days, and it seemed like a good place to make some cuts.

begood

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Re: Tracking baby steps
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2014, 03:12:51 PM »
Well, I ended up saving $25 a month on satellite TV, not $35, but I'll take it for now. We plan to work our way through our DVR recordings over the summer and then see how we feel. My guess is that we will not ramp the plan back up, since the reduced plan still includes ESPN and ESPN2, where most of the college basketball we follow in the winter airs.

I did not give up my unlimited data on my phone, but I did lower our minutes threshold, thereby saving $8/month. We can switch to the "share everything" plan and save an additional $7/month, and I may do that eventually, but... baby steps!

I'm also trying to be conscious of combining trips.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!