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Random Ish

I took Hustler's advice and called Vonage to change my rate plan. I currently had the $24.99 Unlimited Residential Plan and changed it to the current promo which was the same exact plan but for $14.99. So I just saved myself $10 bucks a month. I have unlimited minutes, free long distance, and all the features and I only pay $15 a month. You can't beat that! Thanx Hustler!

I am on the fence with what to do with my cable. I currently have both my internet and digital cable through Brighthouse. I pay $20 for Roadrunner and $50 for digital cable. I don't watch that much television and when I do it's specific shows. My fav shows are Prison Break, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, House, House of Payne, Burn Notice, and Monk. All but the last two are shown on my local channels. And from what Saving Diva says ( I think it was her), some of the ones I just listed are also shown online. I am tempted to cancel my cable and go without it for the entirety of my cc debt snowball. Doing so will free up $600 total in that time, therefore allowing my to reach my goal a month earlier and save about $42 in interest. This dilemma reminds me of Single Ma's post titled, "What will you sacrifice?". Is going without cable for a year and missing some of my beloved shows worth a month and $42 bucks???!! Do I want to make that kind of sacrifice? Right now I don't think I want to. I mean I have gone without cable before but thats because I had to. It was either that or food on the table for me and my daughter. Another option is that I can go and get satellite cable for cheap. Hustler had a post on how you can possibly get Direct TV and only pay $60 for 12 months. I called in but got discouraged when the rep wanted to do a hard pull on my credit BEFORE she could even tell me if I was eligible for any of the promos I mentioned. Uhh, no sweetie! Anyways, I'll stick with the cable for now unless something cheap comes up.

I finally created the blog for single mothers. It is called Single Moms of Florida. It is going to be real hard keeping up two blogs. I am hoping to bring on one or two other folks on to write guests post or something once I get everything ironed out. Hopefully I can provide some kind of insight, assistance, or just inspiration to a single mom out there. Wish me luck on that.

I am trying to find other ways to trim my budget. I found this article @ Money Central, 50 Ways to Trim Your Budget. I found it via someone's blog. I forgot who so sorry if I don't give you your props. I haven't read the article yet but I plan to. My expenses currently take up 89.5% of my monthly income. I would like to get this number down considerably by both increasing my income and decreasing my expenses. We shall see.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I say can the cable, especially if your expenses are killing 90% of your take-home pay. I remember reading that entry by Single Ma, and it's SO real, sacrifice is the name of the game.

If most of the shows you watch are shown on local tv, you're essentially paying $50/month for Burn Notice and Monk, and other random stuff that you get sucked into watching just because it's there. $600 is a lot of money...

In the last few months I've been watching more and more tv online, and if I wasn't moving in with friends next month, I'd definitely be canceling cable. Split 3 ways it's not so bad, but cable packages are a total rip off when you're paying solo.

Plus, look at it this way, less distractions (i.e. Law & Order marathons which I'm a sucker for) means more time to put your time to better use, like listing and selling stuff on Ebay to bring in extra dough.
SavingDiva said…
I don't think Monk and Burn Notice are available for free on USA's webpage. However, you can purchase the episodes on iTunes for $1.99 each. If you guess there are new episodes starting in January, 4/month, you would spend $8/month for Monk...Burn Notice wouldn't crop up again until next summer...
SavingDiva said…
Also, congrats on cutting your Vonage bill in half!
Dimples said…
@ Mya

What your saying makes sense. I do have a lot of things I would like to get started on and I keep blaming my "lack" of time on why I keep procrastinating.

@ Saving Diva

I gotta look into iTunes. I've heard it mentioned a couple of times. $2 a episode isn't bad. Do I get to keep it and rewatch when I want? I have never tried so I am clueless on how it works. I'll look into it. I might try the library like you have talked about.

Hmmm.....I may just can the cable. I'll let yall know. This is why I love the blogosphere. You get all this advice and resources. :-D
Anonymous said…
Girl I understand. Cancelling cable is hard! I'm an A&E junkie and one of my favorite shows is Snapped on Oxygen. I had to stop myself from uncancelling my service last week. You can do it! Just watch more movies instead of tv if you get bored w/ the basics. I'll be borrowing dvds from friends I just know it lol.
Anonymous said…
I forgot to mention, if you're not *ahem* opposed to file-sharing, you can consider investing in a Rapidshare account. $24 bucks gets you fast downloads for 3 months, and there are good sites I could point you to that have movies galore and new episodes of shows up almost immediately.

Not that I am in any way advocating pirated material. *halo*
Unknown said…
Another Burn Notice fan. I just posted about my Post Burn Notice Blues the other day. :-)

I couldn't agree more on the dilemma over cable. I hate my cable company with a passion. I feel like we're being stuck up and robbed every month. Not to mention the fact that they've merged with every other company in the area and taken away CHOICE.

Unfortunately, except for CSI, CSI Miami, and 30 Rock, most of my favorite shows are on cable. I'd better read that post of Single Ma's on sacrifice.
Dimples said…
@ Dream

Girl its hard but I may just have to do it. I been working over time on decreasing my expenses and the cable just might be icing on the cake. I'll blog about it later.

@ Samara

Girl aint that man sexy. I liked him in that one show he had where he was the cop who was shot in the head and came back with this 6th sense time mess going on. I hate my cable provider too. They are dorks. Gonna call them in a minute. *sigh* Gotta do it.
Single Ma said…
I love, love, love your "Single Moms of Florida" idea!!! Sooo fabulous!! I'll definitely be reading that one.

On the cable front. Haven't had it since I moved in May. Thought I'd be miserable, but I don't even think about it anymore. My fave shows (Girlfriends & Everybody Hates Chris) are on the net, so I'm good. Doing without it is a lot easier than you think. Trust me, I have a teenager in the house. Imagine no MTV, VH1, BET, etc. *shock* LOL
Dimples said…
@ Single Ma

Thank ya mam. Once I get going on this I would love for you to do some guest posts. I pray that I will be able to do that blog some justice.

And I am sold on the whole 'no cable' thing. My daughter has so many videos and dvds she will be str8t.

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