Spending Fun Money

2010-07-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Once a month I put a set amount of money into a savings account labeled "long-term fun." The amount of money has varied over the years as my budget has been adjusted, but it's usually in the $25 to $50 range.

The point of the fund is to save for the expensive things I want, so I can pay cash for them. $25 to $50 every month doesn't give you instant gratification, but it'll get you there eventually.

For example, today I spent some long-term fun money for the first time. I purchased a new receiver. My old receiver comes from pre-HD days so I had to decided between a high def picture and surround sound.

In a stroke of luck (and because of some internet research), the model I bought became "last year's model" a few days before I bought it - which significantly reduced the cost. So I've also a nice jump on the next goal.

Savings calling

2010-06-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry, that was a terrible pun on “Avon calling” but the title “The 5 minute phone call that saved me $5 a month” was too long.

As a stated a little bit ago, I’m going to have to get creative with how I continue to plug away at my car loan. ebay has been a good source of extra income – selling old toys in the attic, etc – and I’ve still got a few things to sell. But eventually that well is going to run dry.

So I turned to my bills to see what could be cut. I had to adjust my monthly budget anyways since a bus pass costs more this year so it was the perfect time to dig into the math.

The bill that looked most out of sorts to me was my cellphone bill. I’m not a big phone user, but the bill was pretty high. A friend who’s also not a big phone talker recently went to pre-paid and loves it. So I decided to look into the option.

After looking at past phone bills I figured out that I used around 225 minutes a month and 50+ text messages. My current plan had me at 400 minutes with unlimited text for $50.

Looking into pre-paid plans, I could get 200 minutes a month for $30 plus $5 for unlimited texting. (No matter where I went, it was cheaper to do unlimited texting.)

I checked online with Verizon, but I was already on their cheapest (advertised) plan. So I called Verizon to see if they could lower the bill. When I got a person I simply said, “I’m calling to see if you have a cheaper plan. I’m not using all of my minutes a month.” I figured I’d break out the big guns of, “I’m going to switch to a pre-paid plan with another company” only if I needed to.

The lady took a minute to look at my plan and usage and said, “It looks like you could easily use our 300 minute plan. It will save you $5 a month.” So we got that set up and now I’m paying $45 for 300 minutes and unlimited texting.

It’s still not as cheap as a pre-paid plan, but switching seemed like it was going to be a pain in the ass. Plus, I can leave any time and this way I don’t have to make sure I don’t go over 200 minutes.

Urban Frugalist

Spending Fun Money

Savings calling