Debt-Less.com

It’s been a while since I last posted, things have been hectic, and with the savings I’ve found so far it’s left me a little lazy because of the extra cash ;~). I must press on though as the economy tanks things will get tighter again and there’s lot of work to do yet.

One thing that has always bothered me is the huge cost of keeping entertained, it’s like magic, you go to a movie with your lovely wife and adorable kids, Poof! a $50.00 bill is gone, grab something to eat before the show and Poof! better part of $100.00 is gone. As we are big movie goer’s around our house this becomes a big expense, and when you add in the cost of cable or satellite TV, movie rentals, etc it becomes even more expensive. On average we rent about 10 movies a month @ about $5.00 a pop ( $50.00)…. Ouch.

I have found some alternatives for anyone who has a newer tv with a PC hookup on the back, which I found mine does ( I never looked before). With the PC hookup I can get unlimited movies via down load from Netflicks for $8.95 a month VS the $50.00 I pay for movie rentals, which doesn’t take into account the gas and time it takes to get to the store.

Another source of TV based entertainment is GUBA and VEOH TV, where I watched episodes of a childhood favorite ” Have Gun will Travel”, “the Prisoner”  and “77Sunset Strip” for free. A third is “The Internet Archive” where there’s a huge pile of classic movies, cartoons and documentaries. I found a pile of classic B&W movies there. I’m sure there are many more sources I’ll dig up, January is the perfect time to develop one’s couch potato Yoga stance.

Entertainment savings found this month

$41.05

Debtmaster

With the price of gas continuing to climb the money has to come from somewhere, in our case it was obvious…. our clunker of a second car. Our old faithful was demoted when our new car arrived, it’s one time good gas mileage of 30mpg was clearly over shadowed by the 50mpg the new one got. The fact it was paid for, was reasonably reliable and was handy to have around when car number 1 wasn’t available made us keep it. The thing was, it became clear very quickly that since I had a home office and virtually every thing I needed was only a 15 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride away, car number two tended to sit in the driveway.

The costs of keeping it were not very high, insurance was only about 625.00 a year, but it was getting to an age where any repair was likely to be a major one, and replacement of parts was beginning to creep up. I could tell that a new exhaust system, break pads and tires were on the horizon, which was going to be about $800.00 ( about it’s book value ;~) After some wrangling we decided old faithful would have to go, it would involve making some changes to our schedules, who went were and when etc., but the savings would free up money for debt payment and gas for car number 1.

Car number 2 is now gone and there have been some problems adjusting to the fact trips have to be planned a bit more in advance, so we now use a big calendar in the kitchen with all school trips, doctors appointments and shift changes clearly marked. We have also noticed that the better gas mileage of the new car is a great saving. Getting rid of the old one is now saving a minimum of $52.08 per month (Insurance @ $625.00 per year)

**Current Monthly Savings = $237.48

**No Charge Banking -$28.00

**”Brew My Own” Coffee - $110.40

** Compost the trash- $20.00

**New Internet Provider - $27.00

** Ditching the Second Car- $52.08 Insurance @ $625.00 per year

Debt Master

Hi All,

After yesterdays run in with my ISP I wondered what else I was overpaying for that was provided by my friendly telephone company. It had been a while since I even looked at the phone bill and it was a bit of a shock when I did. Way back when added services such as “Call Waiting/Answer/Forwarding/Blocking” appeared I signed up for “Call Answer”, because I was on Dial Up and no one could get hold of me on the phone when I was online. At that time the fee was a miniscule $2.95, so I’ve never given it a thought until I found out what a hosing I was getting for internet access. Checking my latest phone bill I find that they are now charging the price of a cheap bottle of Merlot ( $8.00 per month). I didn’t mind so much paying the price of a donut and a coffee, but when you cut into my wine budget it’s serious business ;~) and demands action.

To rid myself of this wine stealing expense was pretty easy, I just went down to my local discount electronics store and purchased a wireless phone/answer machine combo ( on sale for less than $50.00). I need a new cordless phone anyway, so it seemed like a no brainer. Once it was up and running I called the Phone Company to yank my “Call Answer” forthwith. The helpful fellow in Bombay asked me the required question “were you experiencing problems with the service” and I responded that I thought that a rate increase of over 250% in four years was just a bit excessive. He didn’t have much to say , the standard script didn’t seem to cover such logic ;~)

Debt Master

**Current Monthly Savings = $193.40

**No Charge Banking -$28.00

**”Brew My Own” Coffee - $110.40

** Compost the trash- $20.00

**New Internet Provider - $27.00

** Getting rid of extra phone services- $8.00

Today I faced another monthly expense, my internet provider ” Our-Customers
-Are-Sheep.com” has decided to drop access to Usenet groups. For those of
you not familiar with Usenet it is a throw back to the way the internet first
started out, a form of bullitin board you posted messages to. The beauty of it
was and is that there are tens of thousands of Usenet groups that cater to
every possible group, from nudist skydivers to collectors of zooilogical
specimens. If you need information regarding any topic you can often get
a multitude of answers quickly via Usenet, from people all over the world.

Usenet had been provided as part of my ISP’s the basic package since I signed
on about 1996. I’ve used it daily, developed relationships with people half a
world away, some are now old friends I’ve even visited while travelling in
Europe. But my ISP claims all is not lost, according to the email I received:

“We have recently upgraded our USENET service so we can deliver the
highest quality of service. You will receive one free GB every month and
have access to extended retention. You also have the option to sign up for
a premium service”.

What they don’t tell you in the email is that with the upgraded Usenet
service is “Read only”, you can no longer post any messages to your favorite
group. In order to actually post messages the “premium service” is an extra
$10.00 a month.

Following that wonderful news about the “Upgraded” service I get another
email:

“Please note that we are making changes to your Our-Customers-
Are-Sheep High Speed Internet service. Effective August 2008, the regular
monthly rate of your Our-Customers-Are-Sheep High Speed Internet service
will increase from $44.95 to $46.95″.

So in effect an “Upgraded” service is one where I have to pay an extra 10
bucks to get what I have been receiving for almost 10 years for free, plus an
extra 2 bucks just for fun.

Now the purpose of this Blog is not for me to vent, whine and complain
( well maybe a bit), but to confront these expenses with alternatives.
Doing some checking on those same Usenet groups I have been bragging
about I’ve found a free Usenet server here @http://www.aioe.org/and a
site that compares ISP’s costs and services @http://www.canadianisp.com
The second link shows me I can get the same Highspeed DSL Access at a
rate far cheaper than I’m paying now @ Our-Customers-Are-Sheep.com,
and STILL have free access to Usenet.

How much cheaper you say? Well let’s do the math:

Current charge from Our-Customers-Are-Sheep.Com -$46.95 + $10.00
for Usenet= $56.95 !
Best deal from We-Love-Our-Customers.com- $29.95 + Usenet Free!

$56.95
-$29.95
——–
$27.00 per month or $325.00 per year!

From the above you can guess what I’m going to do, kick Our- Customers- are -Sheep.com to the curb. For the short term until I transfer my account to We-Love-Our-Customers.com I’ll use my Usenet account @www.aioe.org and save ten bucks.

**Current Monthly Savings = $185.40

**No Charge Banking -$28.00

**”Brew My Own” Coffee - $110.40

** Compost the trash- $20.00

**New Internet Provider - $27.00

Part of getting your financial house in order tends to bring out the ZEN in other aspects of your life. Getting rid of debt is a lot like getting rid of bad Karma, or in my case getting rid of Junk that clutters up the  physical part of my life  like debt has my financial life.

There something  very appealing of letting go of stuff that you have been carting around forever, like that Comic book collection you haven’t even looked at in 15 years, the china service from great Aunt Hilda that is still in the box she put it in in 1946, or you older brother LP’s you inherited when he went to University….in 1971.

Now the best part of this is some of this stuff is worth money, not great amounts, but depending on the comics you collected, great Aunt Hilda’s taste and your older brother’s favorite bands, it could easily be enough to pay off the Visa.

For example, the early issues of X Men and other Marvel comics can sell for over $3000.00 each, good China services nearly always sell for over $300.00 at auction, and 1960’s-70’s LP’s are starting to develop dedicated groups of collectors with even some Classical LP’s selling for over $25.00 each.

How do I find out what my junk is worth? Well now it’s far easier than it ever was. There are a number of online appraisal services that charge less than $15.00 an item, but this one Antique-Appraise.com has been around the longest online and claim that of all the items they have looked at since about 1997, over 90% of them have been worth more than their fee ( $11.95).

Debt Master