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Trimming Costs

April 7th, 2011 at 10:06 pm


When I quit my job at the end of last year we decided we needed to trim our monthly expenses even more than we had already done while following Dave Ramsey's plan.

The first thing we looked at was our cable. While we were doing the debt snowball we had 10 basic channels, but once we finished paying off the debt we had increased the number of channels because we were offered a "deal". We decided we could do without the cable completely because most of the shows we watch regularly are available on the internet. So by cancelling the cable, I trimmed $39.95 off of the budget. We bought
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this connector which has worked great to watch on our television. I subscribe to my favorite shows on Hulu and watch when they are available.

We also got rid of our phone plan, saving us over $60 a month and got a Magic Jack. We've been using it for a month now and have had no problems, besides trying to remember our new phone number!

Expensive Weekend (By Our Standards, Anyway)

April 4th, 2011 at 12:28 pm


We had a houseful this weekend. One of our sons and his fiancee' came to visit, which also meant that the kids that live close were here too. Many mouths to feed.

I thought I had planned well. Friday night I made sloppy joes and waffle fries. I knew that Saturday for a lunch/dinner we were going to take the 2 visiting out to eat and use a gift card my last Financial Peace University class had gotten for us. I assumed that they would leave Sunday after church so I didn't have to worry about lunch. Wrong. We ended up with a full house again and no food prepared so we ended up ordering pizza and wings. Granted, it only cost us $40, which really isn't bad, but it was $40 I hadn't planned on spending.

Oh well. They only come home a few times a year so I guess we can spare the extra out of the budget. ;-) It was good to see most of the kids together again. That doesn't happen often.