Frugal Living - April 2017

Here is my April edition of money saving tips.  Subject matter - my road to recovery from 10+ years of cell phone contracts!

I've been an AT&T subscriber for more than 10 years.  I can't remember what my bills were in the beginning but I know they got more expensive once my husband and I got hooked on iPhones.  My first iPhone was a 3GS 8gb.  I adored that phone until the space got so small that it couldn't accommodate email, photos, upgrades and everything else I wanted so I upgraded to the iPhone 4 with 16gb and stayed happy with that until 2 years ago when the same problem occurred.

A very helpful man called me over at Target and made a very compelling case on how we should upgrade to the iPhone 5.  I guess he caught me right when my contract was about to end because the bill came out to only slightly more than what I was already paying, approximately $130 per month for two phones.

The new plans 2 years ago were showing that we would have paid considerably more per month on the iPhone 6 so I thought we were getting a great deal on the 5's. I realize now how sadly naive I was.  Here is how it breaks down:

We paid $130 per month for 2gb of data total.  This past month our contract ended on April 17th.  Our bill would have gone down to $84 if we had stayed with AT&T.  Subtract $130 - 84 = 46.  Take 46 x 24 months and the total is $1,104.  We paid $1,104 for two iPhone 5's.  Excuse me while I curl into a ball and cry myself to sleep.  But wait, I don't have time for self-pity, I firmly believe that we must be constantly trying to make ourselves better at everything so I will take this as a wake up lesson that I finally managed to learn!  

Even before I did the math, I was already feeling uncomfortable with 2 year contracts so I started looking into other plans a month ago and promptly ran out of time due to travel and illnesses so I decided to start with Cricket who was offering $70 p/m with 3gb data each for two phones that we brought into the store .  There is no contract so if we find a better deal elsewhere, we can walk away at any time.  I did later find that GoPro is offering $50 for two phones at 2gb each and Freedom Pop has a similar deal so maybe I'll try them later.

I went on eBay a few weeks ago and bought an iPhone 6 with 128gb of space for $255 because I was once again running out of room for email, photos, upgrades, etc.  My husband decided to stick with his iPhone 5 because he was not running out of space.  I can honestly say the difference between 5 and 6 is very little in terms of how fast apps run or operate so for me it was simply a choice of more space that was the critical factor.

Lessons learned:

• buy phones online after scouting the best deal
• no more phone contracts - EVER!

Earth Day is Every Day!

I love Earth Day as a reminder to be kind to our planet.  Regardless of where you might stand on global warming, it's still wise to be kind to the space we inhabit, for ourselves and future generations. 

I'm excited to share a few ways that we combine living frugally with being environmentally responsible:

1.  We take our trash to the dump twice a month and pay an annual fee of $166 VS our prior cost of $384 to Apple Valley Waste.

• We recycle all cardboard, paper products, plastics and glass.
• We compost all food (except meat) which includes scraps, forgotten leftovers (really trying hard to minimize these) and egg shells.
• We shred all bank documents along with any paper that is not saturated in color ink and it all goes into the compost bin.

2.  I make a weekly menu which includes home cooked meals for 95% of what we eat.  We save money and reduce packaging.  Examples:

• Refried Beans - with just 2lbs of dry beans, we make 6lbs of Pinto Beans that are frozen in 1lb containers and thawed for making quick refried beans. 
• Homemade Yogurt - with 1/2 cup whole milk, I can make 1.5 quarts of yogurt.  It's not as thick as store bought yogurt, but it taste wonderful with homemade smoothies which we make almost every day.

3.  We garden a small 10x10 plot in the summer and can/freeze the following to be used throughout the year:

• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Pinto Beans
• Sweet Potatoes
• Sweet Red Peppers - we go through these too fast to save
• Onions
• Garlic

4.  Mowing with a push mower rather than gas.  We have both, but my husband prefers to use the push mower as much as possible.

My goal for the next year is to eliminate (as much as possible) zip lock bags.  They've been a weakness of mine for years and while I don't think the savings is significant, it's more of a desire to reduce our trash/landfill contribution.  

Update

There has been more travel and sickness in this year that I would have initially imagined.  The March Asia trip ended with a few days in California to meet with a client and review all the plush toys we had worked on the prior week in China and ended with me getting the most horrific cold I've ever gotten!  I couldn't even sleep the night before my return flight home, it was that bad!!  I called a doctor from our Telehealth plan and they assured me I'd be fine flying home but to try and get as decongested as possible.  I bought Afrin the next day in the airport and that completely cleared my head.  I will keep this in my "required medicine travel bag" from now on!  I had a netti pot, cough drops and other meds with me but none were effective in loosening the clog.

The jet lag and cold combined made it an almost two week sickness after which I returned to California for another quick two day trip.  Thankfully I have no more travel until the 2nd week of May!

Last week our 5 year old got a stomach bug and now this week the oldest has it!  I can't wait for everyone to be healthy again!

I missed writing about finances last month and I've got a great report to write this month so stay tuned!  This one is about our changes in cell phone coverage and I'm excited to share how we've grown in this area.  I think most financial changes involve a certain amount of will power to change bad habits along with bravery to try new things.  Let's face it, isn't it just easier to live with what we've always done?