Former super saver is now a super spender. Help!

[barkley]

it might be worth a call to or some time playing around on both direct tv and dish's websites to see what kind of deals they offer for internet/tv. with both i regularly get offers of locked in rates for up to 2 years and a $300 visa gift card. even if you don't want to go with them-turn around and call customer service at your current provider and tell them you are considering canceling unless they can meet or match the best offer you have elsewhere (i used this tactic with our former internet provider and cut our bill in half with a multi year lock).

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Sounds like fun...NOT! No basements here--we live coastal--but was did have to get our crawlspace sealed up and there's a dehumidifier down there. Some poor schlub has to inspect it twice a year, but it's been working fine.

Our house just needs a lot of TLC. It's not horrid, just aged/dated. But, we were able to get a huge house, and with 4 kids, we figured we were only going to put more wear and tear on it, anyway. There's no shortage of projects on the list.

Our house is 18 years old and we are the original owners. It is great in the beginning and then it seems like one day you wake up and everything is "old".

 

[4luv2cdisney]

I was going to suggest this. I have mold allergies and can't stand high humidy. So when the humidity is high we turn on our portable dehumidifier. I run this even with central AC on. It's amazing the buckets of water that little thing can pull out of the air in one day.

How do you drain the dehumidifier in your crawlspace? Our unit has a hose hookup vs. manually emptying it but we have no drains in our crawlspace.

I am like the humidity police now. We are using a dehumidifier in the basement and I have another in case we need it on any other level, but have not so far. I have hygrometers in every single room of various brands and types and check them daily.

Even though our basement dehumidifier has a pump and it drains, we clean it out weekly and disinfect it every other cleanout. It gets kind of gross because it never drains completely. There's always a little water in the bottom and it will eventually get murky. I can't imagine leaving it alone for 6 months. The other poster must have something a little more high-tech!

 

[4luv2cdisney]

it might be worth a call to or some time playing around on both direct tv and dish's websites to see what kind of deals they offer for internet/tv. with both i regularly get offers of locked in rates for up to 2 years and a $300 visa gift card. even if you don't want to go with them-turn around and call customer service at your current provider and tell them you are considering canceling unless they can meet or match the best offer you have elsewhere (i used this tactic with our former internet provider and cut our bill in half with a multi year lock).

I spent nearly all of yesterday looking at streaming services and compiling lists of channels my family wants. I think we are going to try ditching cable knowing we can always just sign back up if we hate it. As of right now, Fubo is looking to have most of what we need.

Still trying to figure out the tech stuff though. Do I need anything to stream on my older TVs? How does the DVR work? Do I have to go buy my own? What speed internet do I really need? Still have to look into all that!

 

[DLgal]

I spent nearly all of yesterday looking at streaming services and compiling lists of channels my family wants. I think we are going to try ditching cable knowing we can always just sign back up if we hate it. As of right now, Fubo is looking to have most of what we need.

Still trying to figure out the tech stuff though. Do I need anything to stream on my older TVs? How does the DVR work? Do I have to go buy my own? What speed internet do I really need? Still have to look into all that!

You will need to buy a DVR with streaming capabilities like a Tivo. You need really fast internet or else it will buffer all the time. You will need to also keep in mind that if you have other wifi devices that will be used at the same time as your TV (kids using phones or tabletd) you need to have enough bandwidth to handle it. Our cable provider internet tells you how many devices can be streaming simultaneously with each internet package. We have one that allows 6 devices to be streaming at the same time. That is still problematic when we stream on the big TV. Expect your internet to cost at least $100/month. We found that considering we would have to upgrade our internet if we went full streaming and then would have to buy a DVR, and subscribe to all the services, we would only be saving like $20/month and that just didn't seem super worth it. Some of those streaming services are almost $50/month!

 

[crisi]

You will need to buy a DVR with streaming capabilities like a Tivo. You need really fast internet or else it will buffer all the time. You will need to also keep in mind that if you have other wifi devices that will be used at the same time as your TV (kids using phones or tabletd) you need to have enough bandwidth to handle it. Our cable provider internet tells you how many devices can be streaming simultaneously with each internet package. We have one that allows 6 devices to be streaming at the same time. That is still problematic when we stream on the big TV. Expect your internet to cost at least $100/month. We found that considering we would have to upgrade our internet if we went full streaming and then would have to buy a DVR, and subscribe to all the services, we would only be saving like $20/month and that just didn't seem super worth it. Some of those streaming services are almost $50/month!

We use a Roku, but don't have a DVR because we don't watch anything live - when we do we use a plain internet connection and usually YouTube - things like the inauguration (which we did watch live) are usually streamed. We have a pretty fast internet connection in the house, but when the kids are home, we can have four streamers and not have any issues with buffering. Streaming has gotten a lot better.

 

[firefly_ris]

I spent nearly all of yesterday looking at streaming services and compiling lists of channels my family wants. I think we are going to try ditching cable knowing we can always just sign back up if we hate it. As of right now, Fubo is looking to have most of what we need.

Still trying to figure out the tech stuff though. Do I need anything to stream on my older TVs? How does the DVR work? Do I have to go buy my own? What speed internet do I really need? Still have to look into all that!

I pay $79/month for 100mbps cable internet. We do not have cable television (and have not since I moved to WNY in 2006). We have a rooftop antenna for local stations. We have a couple of Fire Sticks and a Roku hooked to our (three) TVs. Kids have devices as well. Haven't had any lag issues, even last year when there were sometimes 3 of us all on Zoom calls at the same time. I would love to get that bill lowered (I was only paying $49.99 for the same service 3 years ago), but I don't have any alternatives to Spectrum in my area, so they pretty much have me for now. I could upgrade to 400mbps service for I believe $10 more per month, but haven't had the need yet. Then our only other cost is the Disney/ESPN+/Hulu bundle which I think just went up to $13.99/month. We sometimes watch PlutoTV as well which is free. We are not huge TV watchers however, so this is all more than sufficient. If you're really big into certain TV channels and specific shows on those channels, recording shows, etc, then something like Sling or Fubo or Philo or Hulu Live are something to consider and compare.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I need to get back on track. I used to be a budget queen. Now I don't even look at where our money goes.

We've just paid off a car and DH got a raise. Those 2 items put $1K / mo back in our pocket. I don't want it to get pissed away.
I need some baby steps here. Off the top of my head, here's some things I think I need to look at. Where to start / what to choose????

Where to direct the new found $1K / mo. (Options: pay extra toward mtg, put into retirement, household improvements, more DVC points - lol)
- I feel like we do have some immediate needs on the home - been neglecting things while paying cash for college tuition
- I'd like to pay off the house ASAP. I keep life insurance policies on each of us solely to pay the mortgage if either of us died. My DH just turned 50 and is a smoker. His life insurance is astronomical. I'd need the help paying off the house more than he would. My policy is cheap, but he could technically pay all necessary bills without my income. I think I will give up my policy as soon as DD#2 is done with college, regardless of mortgage status. But life insurance is a $200/ mo line item I would also like to dispose of. If we directed 100% of the $1k to the mortgage, we would have the house paid off in 5 years vs 10. It is a 3.625 interest rate. But then home projects sit for longer. Should I be considering a refinance, roll home repairs in and then pay the extra to the new mortgage? Or just get the home improvements done (maybe a year to year and half worth of the $) and then start addressing the mortgage?
- Investments would earn back more than paying the mortgage, but we already fund our retirement very well. But still....is that a better choice in the long run?
- DVC points will happen eventually, but it doesn't have to be now. 1/2 kidding on that one. I know it should be low priority, but it makes us happy.

Comcast. Holy crap. Our bill has ballooned to nearly $300 / mo and I don't watch TV. DH is a sports guy, so he will freak out without ESPN. Obviously, we need internet. The kids use mainly streaming (some of which they pay for, some of which I do.) I think because I only need internet, I can't wrap my mind around how to get everyone what they need for a better price. I need some serious guidance here.

I haven't looked at our cell phone plan in a long time, but I think we pay about $180 for 4 phones and our service is fine. Is that a lot?

I'm a Costco-aholic and my food bill is outrageous, but we used to eat out nearly every night, so I think this is low priority right now. However, I'd like to be more "aware" of what I'm spending. How much is typical food budget for a family of basically 4 adults?

Insurance in general seems to eat a LOT of our money. Car insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance... any tips on shopping around? Our car and home is already bundled but not life. Honestly, starting over on life insurance seems like a time-suck. I think focusing on just eliminating life insurance asap is better plan....?

We have no other debt.

Basically, I feel like we could free up a lot of money if I got my sh** together. Life has just been really hectic, we are not "hurting" and I haven't cared. I'm struggling with how to not stress myself out in an already stressful world, but not just burn money needlessly. Basically, I don't want to take away all joy and convenience, but I feel the pull to be a little more financially responsible.

I'm also trying to get my young adults financials headed in the right direction. I'll post separately on that.

Opening myself up to strangers on the internet.... where would you start? Any other fairly simple tips to redirect more $ toward our goals?

We are in the same boat.. I am glad we are not alone!
My DH pay depends on his stores gross, so lately it's been going up up up. We directed money to a savings account that comes out right when its deposited so we never see it. Out of sight out of mind.

We did not want to change our car insurance company. So I called them they found some more discounts so I did not leave one including adding renters insurance for $12 a month it brought my car insurance down $20. We did 10k insurance to keep the price down. The car Insurance came down a total of $40

Our internet cable bill is 149 a month
Where we saved money is we only have one box. The rest of the tvs use a app for xfinity plus hulu and D+ and ESPN.

Moved our electric to average billing so it's the about the same every month.

I have been over paying the car payment to pay it off faster and less interest. I suggest the same with your mortgage if you have one. Any money over goes stright to the principle on our loan.
We have 2 house currently 2 diffrent states.

Our ESPN/hulu/d+ is 22.00 a month Amazon is $15 I cant decide if I should drop Amazon. I keep going back and forth on this one.

Our food Bills are crazy too. I have been doing curbside for walmart. And instacart for costco.
I spend too much when I go to Costco so I order everything and you dont need a membership to order Costco from IC.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

We are in the same boat.. I am glad we are not alone!
My DH pay depends on his stores gross, so lately it's been going up up up. We directed money to a savings account that comes out right when its deposited so we never see it. Out of sight out of mind.

We did not want to change our car insurance company. So I called them they found some more discounts so I did not leave one including adding renters insurance for $12 a month it brought my car insurance down $20. We did 10k insurance to keep the price down. The car Insurance came down a total of $40

Our internet cable bill is 149 a month
Where we saved money is we only have one box. The rest of the tvs use a app for xfinity plus hulu and D+ and ESPN.

Moved our electric to average billing so it's the about the same every month.

I have been over paying the car payment to pay it off faster and less interest. I suggest the same with your mortgage if you have one. Any money over goes stright to the principle on our loan.
We have 2 house currently 2 diffrent states.

Our ESPN/hulu/d+ is 22.00 a month Amazon is $15 I cant decide if I should drop Amazon. I keep going back and forth on this one.

Our food Bills are crazy too. I have been doing curbside for walmart. And instacart for costco.
I spend too much when I go to Costco so I order everything and you dont need a membership to order Costco from IC.

I just set up the post-tax amount of DH's raise to go directly from our checking to the mortgage company every payday. I don't know how much they're going to like processing extra weekly payments, but I don't care. When we figure out the cable - vs - streaming stuff, I'm hoping to add that savings amount to those payments, too. And to keep going....snowballing it as we reduce fixed bills.

 

[808blessing]

Check out Ting for cheap mobile service. I’ve been using it for 5 years. I pay less than $20 for me. DH and DD don’t use data much so they are on a separate plan for $30 combined. Sometimes less. Internet is very low because I negotiated with local company long ago. We stream and currently only have Disney plus. We never do more than one subscription at a time. Car insurance is negotiated for as little as possible. Around $600 a year for 3 cars. 2000, 2008, 2015. We have a solar water heater which cuts electricity by 1/4 or 1/3. Our house has a lot of natural lighting. Low mortgage interest rate. 2.62. Could be lower maybe but we have little balance and refi to get that long ago. Anyway I hope that gave you some ideas for where there are negotiable things. DvC dues aren’t negotiable. Haha. Check out Ting.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Check out Ting for cheap mobile service. I’ve been using it for 5 years. I pay less than $20 for me. DH and DD don’t use data much so they are on a separate plan for $30 combined. Sometimes less. Internet is very low because I negotiated with local company long ago. We stream and currently only have Disney plus. We never do more than one subscription at a time. Car insurance is negotiated for as little as possible. Around $600 a year for 3 cars. 2000, 2008, 2015. We have a solar water heater which cuts electricity by 1/4 or 1/3. Our house has a lot of natural lighting. Low mortgage interest rate. 2.62. Could be lower maybe but we have little balance and refi to get that long ago. Anyway I hope that gave you some ideas for where there are negotiable things. DvC dues aren’t negotiable. Haha. Check out Ting.

$600 / year for car insurance!! I'm so jealous!!

We pay $300 / mo for 3 cars but all are newer and 2 drivers are under 25. One D does pay for her portion, but I was paying it all thru college. When our kids move out (some day), maybe we will only pay $600 year! I actually can't even imagine that though!

 

[808blessing]

$600 / year for car insurance!! I'm so jealous!!

We pay $300 / mo for 3 cars but all are newer and 2 drivers are under 25. One D does pay for her portion, but I was paying it all thru college. When our kids move out (some day), maybe we will only pay $600 year! I actually can't even imagine that though!

I just looked. It is $540 a year. Geico. I go very low on the coverage so yah, that’s probably why.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I just set up the post-tax amount of DH's raise to go directly from our checking to the mortgage company every payday. I don't know how much they're going to like processing extra weekly payments, but I don't care. When we figure out the cable - vs - streaming stuff, I'm hoping to add that savings amount to those payments, too. And to keep going....snowballing it as we reduce fixed bills.

I'm pretty sure it's all done by computer if you're scheduling payments online. We were doing really good paying our mortgage down like crazy, making several payments per week sometimes. No one ever complained that I shouldn't. From August to New Year's Day it averaged out to an extra $2500-3000 per month. We were kicking butt until some other things came up that took some time to pay off. We are just now getting caught up and I can't wait to start attacking it again next week.
Just go for it and don't worry what they think.

 

[808blessing]

We live very close to our work too. Let’s hear it for parents who pay car insurance through college. My mom or dad didn’t pay for my college (grants Bc of need) but she did pay for my car insurance through college and I was so sad the day I was “cut off”. She covered some of my travel for awhile cause she was in travel business but was cut off of that too when I married which was around the time she retired (I married later). Sigh. That car insurance was so appreciated. Keep doing that!!

 

[ScottOKW2K]

I hear you on the cable/internet bill. Mine has ballooned to $250 and just keeps going up, but I have had NO luck trying to negotiate it down. At this point, our only hope will be to move and establish a "new" service location and start over with the super low introductory offers. This one is a non negotiable in our home.

If you want to try for the "New Customer" offers, simply look at which spouse the service is in. Look at cancelling the service and starting it back up in the name on the other spouse. Rinse and Repeat each year.

I'm single, but I am doing something similar for my internet service. I am fortunate that my location has more than one provider (this was something I actually planned) and I simply use the new customer promo each year. Just signed up for 50M service with Xfinity for $25/mo last weekend. And I'll see what AT&T offers next April.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

My DH had no idea how I paid for our last two Disney trips.. swagbucks, pre owned/ new giftcards , working one doordash or Instacart a day. Well he knew I worked for DDand IC for 10-20 a day. But now he got a big promotion so I stopped working for tax reasons. I can not stop being thrifty I just love getting a good deal... but its driving my DH crazy. He now doesnt care about me buying Disney giftcards at a discount he told me dont do all that I will just pay for it.. I feel bad because behind the scenes I'm still ordering giftcards for landrys and Disney.

 

[The WDW 3]

You will need to buy a DVR with streaming capabilities like a Tivo. You need really fast internet or else it will buffer all the time. You will need to also keep in mind that if you have other wifi devices that will be used at the same time as your TV (kids using phones or tabletd) you need to have enough bandwidth to handle it. Our cable provider internet tells you how many devices can be streaming simultaneously with each internet package. We have one that allows 6 devices to be streaming at the same time. That is still problematic when we stream on the big TV. Expect your internet to cost at least $100/month. We found that considering we would have to upgrade our internet if we went full streaming and then would have to buy a DVR, and subscribe to all the services, we would only be saving like $20/month and that just didn't seem super worth it. Some of those streaming services are almost $50/month!

Just got a Google Chromecast

 

[808blessing]

I suggest starting with the lowest plan and then upgrading if necessary. I’m surprised we don’t need much bandwidth where we are.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

It's looking like we can make the switch to Fubo @ $80/mo and 500 mb fiber internet with whole home wifi @ $65 /mo.

We give up home phone (not a big loss) plus CNN, TNT, TBS, and TruTV from DH's list. We also have to watch the CW from an app which has only the last 5 episodes of the shows (I don't thing this is a big deal).

If DH is miserable with the loss of 4 channels (out of a 3 page list he provided), they can be had on Sling for another $35. I really hope he can live without.

We will keep our Netflix and Disney+.

Looking more closely at our Comcast bill, it was $250 before taxes, fees,etc. So, we cut $105 unless we need Sling, which would reduce savings to $70 at which point I'm not sure it will be worth it. DH is pouting a bit. He's not sure he's going to like it.

We will have to buy a Roku or Firestick or something for an older TV. That's the last thing I need to figure out.

I don't know. I was thinking it would be easier and a bigger savings. The internet price is guaranteed for 2 years (still no contract) and the Fubo looks like it went up recently, so hopefully it stays the same for awhile, too.

If we save $100+ I guess I met my goal, but it has been a pain so far and I'm guessing DH learning something new will be even worse!
DH is used to all the sports channels and he won't give any up. So, hopefully I don't do all this work and then realize we're missing something he can't live without.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

My DH had no idea how I paid for our last two Disney trips.. swagbucks, pre owned/ new giftcards , working one doordash or Instacart a day. Well he knew I worked for DDand IC for 10-20 a day. But now he got a big promotion so I stopped working for tax reasons. I can not stop being thrifty I just love getting a good deal... but its driving my DH crazy. He now doesnt care about me buying Disney giftcards at a discount he told me dont do all that I will just pay for it.. I feel bad because behind the scenes I'm still ordering giftcards for landrys and Disney.

My husband doesn't care if I do these types of things as long as it doesn't affect him / he doesn't have to participate. He would rather just try to find a way to make more $ than save $ on something.

I was talking to him about shopping around / looking for sales on material to finish our basement. Everything is so overpriced right now. I was actually trying to get some kind of estimate / budget out of him for at least some of the things we need. That's not his vibe. He has always been the type that if he needs something, he walks into whatever store is closest and buys whatever he needs/wants/finds.

So, anyway, after our chat, he went to the garage and started pulling out all his scrap metal and stuff he had been hoarding, took it to the metal recycling place, and came home with $1500. I know that was his way of saying, "I'm not wasting my time trying to save $20 on this and $50 on that. Here's some more money for the project."

Sigh. He doesn't really get it. I want the $1500 & the sale prices! lol He is willing to DIY a lot of stuff and he even trades services with other contractors sometimes, so I really can't complain. That obviously saves us money, so I have to let some stuff go.