This one seems like a no-brainer.
Give up cable. It's a drain on the pocket book and not even remotely necessary these days.
We had a very popular national "brand" of cable, high speed, telephone and were originally paying $125 per month two years ago. In those two years, the initial offer wore out, so we went up to $140 per month. But it didn't stop there: they continued to raise the rates so often that according to last notice we received, we were scheduled to be paying $170 per month. That's $2040 per year - and we didn't even have the larger package or ANY HD channels at all whatsoever. HIGHWAY ROBBERY!
So, we researched and found a great deal on a telephone/high speed bundle through Suddenlink. We moved to this and are paying $62 a month for this. We bought an AppleTV for our main television (or rather "Santa" bought it for me as a Christmas gift), and we were already paying for Netflix.
If you don't know this already, you are 1) living in a box, and 2) missing out: Netflix streams TONS of stuff for free. Well, sort of for free. We pay to have two DVDs at a time sent to us, and the streaming is free.
AppleTV streams Netflix so seamlessly that my four year-old knows how to use it. You can also purchase television a la carte through the AppleTV, but we haven't done much of that. A few seasons of some children's shows so my daughter still has her Team Umizoomi, Oswald, and Sesame Street. We haven't ventured into buying any Disney seasons because they are way too expensive.
I also have a Mac Mini that I bought a year or so ago, and this computer is hooked up to the bedroom television. I have to watch my Young and Restless, along with my How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement: I do this via the CBS website. LOVE YOU CBS!!! Thank you for keeping free television, well...free!!
We pulled out an OLD antenna and use that, too, but it isn't used often. It is there for things like Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year or President Obama's speeches. That sort of thing.
If you think of it on a long term scale, paying for cable is ridiculous.
"BRAND NAME" cable/high speed/telephone: $170 per month, $2040 per year, $20400 a decade.
Suddenlink high speed/telephone coupled with streaming Netflix: $78 per month, $936 per year, $9,360 per decade. Over the course of ten years, that's an $11,040 difference! That $99 AppleTV has already paid for itself within the first month, by the way.
Where are we now with monthly savings?
Tip#1 - Dish Towels $5 per month
Tip#2 - Dump Cable $92 per month.
Total per month: $97
Total per year: $1164
I'm not sure how GREEN this tip is, but it obviously keeps the green in our pockets!.
And we're only on tip #2!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Money saving tip #1: Dish towels versus Paper towels
I'll start with a simple one.
Get RID of as many paper products as possible. We stopped buying paper towels and paper napkins a while back. Instead we invested in dish towels and cloth napkins. Honestly, I just got tired of throwing money away every time I used a towel or napkin, and I have to say, I don't miss they at all. It's not toilet paper after all: THAT I might miss. But even then, I get sick of knowing that I'm literally throwing $15 a month down the toilet.
We were using paper towels and napkins for the convenience. So, what I did was make the use of dish towels as convenient as possible, all the while not endangering my family with germs and bacteria on dirty dish towels - a selling point of paper towels for years. I keep a basket of dish towels close to the sink so I can easily grab one to use. I happen to have this basket on a shelf on my kitchen island. A side note: I bought this kitchen island at Ikea for $350, and it is the BEST kitchen purchase I've made - Well, one of them anyway. More on that later.
I have a basket of hand towels on top of the refrigerator and a TON of cloth napkins in the buffet next to the table. My daughter has the job of getting napkins for us at dinner time: makes dinner feel a bit Donna Reed, and I LOVE that!
I also keep a small trash can under my sink for the dirty kitchen laundry. I empty it and wash these towels with the regular Sunday wash. I'm not spending any more to wash them because I'd be washing bathroom towels anyway.
Dish Towels: I bought two sets of towels at WalMart for $3 each, for a total of $6. I replace these every six to eight months because of high usage.
Hand Towels: lucky enough to get most of these for gifts, but I two sets of 5 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond using one of their coupons. I bought these about seven years ago, and aside from some puppy tears, they're still in good shape. Buy them at two different transactions for the full benefit of the 20% off when you get coupons in the mail. I paid about $16 for two sets SEVEN YEARS AGO.
Cloth Napkins: I had starter sets of these that I got as wedding presents. My mother-in-law donated some to me, and the rest I bought on clearance aisles at Walmart. I have about 40 napkins, give or take, and spent no more than $20. So, some of them are cheap looking and wrinkle easily. Big deal! We're not entertaining the Queen: just feeding a toddler!
Total cost: under $50 per year. Remember, I replace the dish towels regularly, but I haven't replaced the hand towels or the cloth napkins in several years.
Paper towels: We were paying approximately $1.50 per Bounty roll: although we bought the half sheets, we were still going through four rolls per month easily.
Paper napkins: To get a softer feel and a stronger napkin, we were paying about $2 for 100. With three people using these two to three times per day, we went through two packages a month. Not too bad.
Total cost: $120 per year.
Savings in a year: $70
But this is just the beginning....
Get RID of as many paper products as possible. We stopped buying paper towels and paper napkins a while back. Instead we invested in dish towels and cloth napkins. Honestly, I just got tired of throwing money away every time I used a towel or napkin, and I have to say, I don't miss they at all. It's not toilet paper after all: THAT I might miss. But even then, I get sick of knowing that I'm literally throwing $15 a month down the toilet.
We were using paper towels and napkins for the convenience. So, what I did was make the use of dish towels as convenient as possible, all the while not endangering my family with germs and bacteria on dirty dish towels - a selling point of paper towels for years. I keep a basket of dish towels close to the sink so I can easily grab one to use. I happen to have this basket on a shelf on my kitchen island. A side note: I bought this kitchen island at Ikea for $350, and it is the BEST kitchen purchase I've made - Well, one of them anyway. More on that later.
I have a basket of hand towels on top of the refrigerator and a TON of cloth napkins in the buffet next to the table. My daughter has the job of getting napkins for us at dinner time: makes dinner feel a bit Donna Reed, and I LOVE that!
I also keep a small trash can under my sink for the dirty kitchen laundry. I empty it and wash these towels with the regular Sunday wash. I'm not spending any more to wash them because I'd be washing bathroom towels anyway.
Dish Towels: I bought two sets of towels at WalMart for $3 each, for a total of $6. I replace these every six to eight months because of high usage.
Hand Towels: lucky enough to get most of these for gifts, but I two sets of 5 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond using one of their coupons. I bought these about seven years ago, and aside from some puppy tears, they're still in good shape. Buy them at two different transactions for the full benefit of the 20% off when you get coupons in the mail. I paid about $16 for two sets SEVEN YEARS AGO.
Cloth Napkins: I had starter sets of these that I got as wedding presents. My mother-in-law donated some to me, and the rest I bought on clearance aisles at Walmart. I have about 40 napkins, give or take, and spent no more than $20. So, some of them are cheap looking and wrinkle easily. Big deal! We're not entertaining the Queen: just feeding a toddler!
Total cost: under $50 per year. Remember, I replace the dish towels regularly, but I haven't replaced the hand towels or the cloth napkins in several years.
Paper towels: We were paying approximately $1.50 per Bounty roll: although we bought the half sheets, we were still going through four rolls per month easily.
Paper napkins: To get a softer feel and a stronger napkin, we were paying about $2 for 100. With three people using these two to three times per day, we went through two packages a month. Not too bad.
Total cost: $120 per year.
Savings in a year: $70
But this is just the beginning....
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