Nickled and Dimed getting carried away

[my3kids]

Here's a new one which I discovered after getting my long distance bill the other day. It's a 99 cent paper bill charge. Now I'm getting charged for getting a bill. I'm cancelling my long distance. It's costing us $10 per month just to have the service and that's without making any calls.

Look into Qwest. I signed up a number of years ago and pay 5 cents out of state, 10 cents in state with no monthly charges or fees. They just do an automatic draw for payment. I don't know if I got in on a great thing that is a plan not offered now, but after battling MCI and AT&T for years, Qwest was a great change!

 

[Cindy B]

Has anyone else noticed how slowly but surely we're getting nickled in dimed in our monthly budget? Just look at all the services we pay for today that didn't even exist a few years ago:

XM/Sirius: $12.95/mo
OnStar: $15?
OnStar or other GPS: $20
Cell phone: They charge $5 for voice mail, 2nd cell phone for $25
Local phone: Also charge $5 for voice mail
DSL: Reasonable base , but another $10 a month if you want more bandwidth
Cable: $10 more for digital, another $10 for more channels, $10 for HBO..$4 for another box....another $5 for DVR, etc.

Am I forgetting any? It just seems that before you know it, you're paying another $100/month for all these "extras." I recently looked at all my bills, and I was amazed how many extra "service fees" "processing fees" etc. are added in addition to the ones above.

QUOTE]


First off you can cut these expenses quite easily.

XM Sirius we dont have this expense because we have Ipods and use that.
Onstar-we don't have that either.. we have AAA which was paid off a year in advance
Cell phone don't use the voice mail feature and do a less expensive plan. Do you really need two phones?

An expensive answering machine is about $30, with higher onces being $60-90. You would do better buying one outright that can last about 2-5 years versus a monthlybill.

DSL- price shop

Cable--get rid of HBo. Do you need the extra channels? DVR? Is it needed?

You can get ride of the nickel and diming better by doing these things.

 

[CheapMom]

First off, those w/PTAs who ask for direct donations instead of fundraising...do you know what they "suggest" for those minimum donation amounts and what percentage of kids actually contribute? As a PTA board member for the last million years, I can tell you that, though everyone groans at the fundraisers, we do very, very well at these for funding our programs. We earn between 40 and 60 percent (two different companies for our rotations) and end up making enough to pay an entire teacher salary every year plus playground equipment, school materials, reader board, etc, etc.

I am an executive board member on my school's PTA- We suggest $75 per family- which would give us just under $40,000 budget. Some give more and some give less and usually we have about $30K from the donations. There are other places where money comes into the budget, too but no fundraisers.

 

[WIcruizer]

Nobody is forcing you to have any of these luxury items and services.

First off you can cut these expenses quite easily.

Perhaps you missed my 2nd post addressing this:

Some of them I have cancelled, others I'm willing to pay for. I'm not complaining about the charges, I just find it intereting that as consumers we are paying for all these things that either used to be free or didn't exist a few years ago. And I also find the marketing technique very interesting.

I have cancelled HBO, never had XM, never had GPS. I was just listing common items many people pay for every month. And I just thought it was interesting that so many of these "must have" items didn't even exist in the past.

 

[dvcgirl]

Sorry, but I can't resist jumping in to this.

Nobody is forcing you to have any of these luxury items and services. You've listed about $100/month of charges that I have none of (not counting the taxes that get tacked on). We seem to be getting by just fine without all of them.

We don't have OnStar, no GPS (we carry a map), no voice mail on our home phone (just a $20 answering machine), only basic DSL service and no cable TV at all. We also don't pay an extra fee for voice mail on our cells.

It seems to me that folks are nickle and diming themselves by signing up for all of these unnecessary services. I say Just Say No and direct the money you save toward your investments/college/retirement accounts.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Heh, I was waiting for someone to post this . We have no on-star, no Sirius/Satellite Radio, no voicemail on home phone (but I really find it a necessity with my business line), no GPS and NO BLACKBERRY. We're resisting that one at all costs.

We often talk about how we all seemed to manage before constant e-mail, cell phones...all of it. And cell phones have really become incredibly imbedded in our lives. And I'm as guilty as the next person. I'm on it *all* day. But I'm on it mostly for business purposes. It amazes me how many people are on their cell phones in the grocery stores, malls, everywhere. And they're not having business conversations, but personal ones. I hear them all of the time. I may have those conversations in my car while wearing my headset, but I don't want everyone in ailse nine hearing my business

I forward my business calls to my cell when I'm out of the office...so I'm always available. But that's really a necessity now. I think we made a bad call there. If you're *not* available nearly every hour of every business day, you're labeled as "inaccessible". And if that caller is a new potential client and you don't pick up....in many cases they'll hang up and move on.

We really and truly try and buck the trends though. I detest all of these little extra "monthly" fees. And I do believe that they're a reason that some people have tight budgets.

 

[PaulaSue]

Sorry to go OT....talking about PTOs. In our school district, each school can only have one fundraiser a school year. This doesn't give us much of a budget, about 3,500 this year for 370ish kids for our school.

This is nice (not 4 times a year like preschool) but the parents can't really afford to donate more so it is bad in a way. Our fundraiser comes out the SAME week as our preschools, friends dance, friend's gymnastics and our brownie troop. We can do box tops and other little things like labels and recycling but that is only a few extra dollars a year.

 

[kerry34]

Perhaps you missed my 2nd post addressing this:




I have cancelled HBO, never had XM, never had GPS. I was just listing common items many people pay for every month. And I just thought it was interesting that so many of these "must have" items didn't even exist in the past.

It is interesting since, it was a mere 20 yrs ago most of these things were not commonplace in the home, but now have become such a neccesity for so many. It is so easy to fall into too, without even realizing how much it adds up. I just had this very same discussion with DH the other night because we just put on an addition to our home and are undergoing some major renovations. It is time to out some of the luxuries. We have the following and I was really shocked when I sat down and looked at the total every month:

Digital Cable (2 receivers 1 of which is DVR), all the premium channels which I am getting rid of .......84.00

Cell Phone with 2 lines and 1000 min a month....80.00 month (cutting down the number of minutes on this one also)

Land line with unlimited long distance, voice mail, and caller id...39.00

DSL 29.00

Blockbuster online 14.99 month (also cancelled as of Dec 12)

Scholastic book clubs by mail (these also are going because I have enough books to fill a small library now...13.99 per month for each)

Just for all that alone it is just about 275 month and that is without all of the extra fees that go along with them. That is equal to my car payment every month Wow.

 

[dcfromva]

I do feel like there is a lot of nickel and diming on the phone bill. For one thing, the quote you a base price, but that is before they add all the taxes (such as federal tax, recovery surcharge, local tax it seems there are state and local and regional taxes) and misc fees (such as relay center surcharge, Public Right of Way use fee, 911 fee, universal service fee) onto it.

I have been thinking about switching to one of those flat fee packages for about 3 years, but I can't make a rational comparision because they don't tell you what those additional taxes and fees are going to be under the new plan--(are some of them a % of the base rate? Will the taxes and fees remain the same?). I want to know the bottom line with all the additional charges added in when they quote a price, but they always tell me they don't know. (It seems no one can tell you until you've made the switch and your phone bill turns up.) So, I assume if I added all those same items onto the new flat fee, it would come out to more than what I'm paying now...but, I wish I knew for sure.

-DC

 

[disneysteve]

Perhaps you missed my 2nd post addressing this:
I have cancelled HBO, never had XM, never had GPS. I was just listing common items many people pay for every month. And I just thought it was interesting that so many of these "must have" items didn't even exist in the past.

Sorry if I misinterpreted. I saw your 2nd post but it still sounded like you had all of those services at one point.

My point is just that all the things you listed are NOT "must have" items. They are all LUXURY items that people have convinced themselves they need for some reason.

What upsets me is when I'm talking to friends or relatives and they're telling me how much credit card debt they have or how they can't afford a vacation this year, but they have all of the things you listed and more. They just don't realize how much money they are blowing every month - like the $275 kerry34 mentioned. That's $3,300/year - $1,000 more than our trip to Disney cost this year!

I will agree with you on one thing. Some of these services get more expensive each year because they add more features whether you want them or not. We used to have a very basic cell phone family plan that was $45/month for 4 phones with 300 shared minutes. For technical reasons, we were forced to upgrade in January. We had to get 4 new phones (which were free after rebate). But the cheapest plan was now $90/month. It does include caller ID, voice mail, text messaging and a bunch of other crap that none of us ever use. And we now have 850 shared minutes. As of our last bill, we have 4,000 rollover minutes. On the old plan, we weren't exceeding our 300 minutes - what did we need 850 for? I would happily give up all the extra features and minutes to pay less each month, but that just isn't an option.

 

[tlbwriter]

My point is just that all the things you listed are NOT "must have" items. They are all LUXURY items that people have convinced themselves they need for some reason.

Yeah, that's what my great grandmother said about indoor plumbing.

 

[WIcruizer]

My point is just that all the things you listed are NOT "must have" items. They are all LUXURY items that people have convinced themselves they need for some reason.

This is true, yet I consider some them pretty close to need rather than want. Cable TV is something I have decided I will not live without. I'm at a place in my life where we spend more time at home, and I "need" ESPN, Fox Sports, DISC, Bravo, A&E, etc.
BUT I do have the basic digital package, with no pay channels, DVR, or extra boxes. Cell phones are also a near necessity. Mine is paid for by employer, but my DW "needs" one, and my DD will have one soon. I would love to have DVR, OnStar, GPS, and other toys but they're just not important enough for me to pay for it.

Someone mentioned school fees, and that is getting out of control as well. PLUS whatver activity they're in- MORE fees. Everything is a club, and they want money. Soccer, basketball, cheer, dance, football...you name it...if they join there's constant fees.

 

[disneysteve]

This is true, yet I consider some them pretty close to need rather than want. Cable TV is something I have decided I will not live without. I would love to have DVR, OnStar, GPS, and other toys but they're just not important enough for me to pay for it.

Someone mentioned school fees, and that is getting out of control as well. Soccer, basketball, cheer, dance, football...you name it...if they join there's constant fees.

I get what you're saying. We certainly have some wants that we pay for regularly - DSL, Netflix, cell phones, Girl Scouts, etc. As long as you enjoy them and can afford them without neglecting other more important financial obligations, that's great. Like I said earlier, I just get annoyed when folks are crying poor but have all of those toys and extras that none of us truly need. You'll never hear me complain about what I pay for any of those special things because I have them entirely by choice. If I didn't want to pay for them, didn't think they were worth the price or couldn't afford them, I wouldn't have them. Sounds like you and I are in agreement there.

 

[challada]

I will be able to give you some figures by the end of the month. We are a PTO in a title I school. Our first fundraiser made us $3000 less than the first one last year. The carnival made $2000 less than last year's. The new principal said that she only wants 2 fundraisers this year so that is another $3500 that we didn't make last month. So that puts us 8500 behind what we brought in last year. We are starting a donation appeal tomorrow. We have put up a 3D Christmas tree on a huge bulletin board outside the front door. We spelled out that we could do another fundraiser where only 40% goes to the PTO. (That is the best return we can get around here. ) If they don't want to do that to make up the deficit then we can ask for donations. We have not set an amount. We didn't want to limit it. If 75% of the 406 students bring in $10 each, we will have an additional $3000 in the account. Each student who brings in a donation will get to put a paper ornament on the tree. Each class has designed their own ornament. The teachers will be encouraging a competition to see whose class will have the most ornaments.

Thank you! The tree idea sounds great too! We have a PTA for an elementary of 550 +/- kids...our mix in our building is the very richest kids in town and some of the poorest (gerimandered district lines, a whole separate story). We have worked out deals w/our fundraising suppliers in the past to get extras of the low level prizes to give out to kids whose parents choose to just contribute money instead of sell and this has worked out well for our wealthiest parents (who end up giving only $20 while our poorest kids sell $600 in cookie dough). Our biggest issue, though, if we went straight to donations is that I fear people would not contribute. AND we have the highest PTA budget in our area (we take in between $60,000 and $100,000 every year and spend between $50,000 and $100,000), so I would rather we have some of our money set aside in savings before we undertaking a project where we could lose out.

Again...thanks to everyone for responding! I am so thankful for the wonderful folks here!
THANKS
Chris