Decluttering Monthly Bills

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Started 10 months ago by themusiclivez
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themusiclivez
Member

Are any of you trying to declutter bills? If it were up to me, I would even eliminate cable TV although my husband would freak out if I even suggested that. Decluttering has officially made it's way into just about every aspect of my life and I think how wonderful it would be to have almost no monthly bills at all! I don't have any credit card debt or expensive luxury items so I don't have a lot to cut out but wouldn't it be great to have almost no monthly payments at all? A fantasy, I know!

Are any of you trying to declutter bills?

Posted 10 months ago #
jlynnewell
Member

I'm in the process of it as my husband and I have recently relocated. Actually, the hardest time I've been having has been keeping track of everything in the transition. I found this site a few days ago that look great for doing exactly that. It's called http://www.manilla.com.

As far as cable goes there are a number of options to get great TV without having cable that are still under the radar. Here are a few:

http://www.boxee.com

GoogleTV - you can check it out at any Best Buy

Amazon now has streaming movies and tv as part of one of its membership programs

BluRay players now have access to hulu, netflix, pandora, sports, etc that wirelessly connect to the internet.

And finally... if you like the cheap and dirty way get a HDMI cable to hood up your computer to your TV. They just both need to have a HDMI hook-up. And I don't mean dirty by illegal -- i just mean that their is a big stinkin' wire involved.

Although there are small monthly payments for Hulu, netflix to get the full monty, the costs are way below what cable charges. Plus it allows you to curate it to your interests.

Posted 10 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

Thank you for all of the suggestions! I appreciate it!

Posted 10 months ago #
lucy1965
Member

We got rid of cable two months ago when DH was laid off, and we honestly haven't missed it: the vast majority of what we want to watch is available on the 'Net (though sometimes it's a royal pain to get it legally -- this article sums up the problems quite well), and we have Netflix for the rest. Even with the price hike, it's still cheaper than cable.

One of the reasons we want to move to that particular apartment in Portland is because it's a new build and LEED Gold certified: the utility payments are negligible and fibre-optic Internet connectivity is included. The natural gas bill has gone up by $17 this month, and that's on the monthly fixed payment, so I'd like to be in a place where between the mild climate and the shocking amounts of insulation, I wouldn't have to lose sleep over heating the house.

Posted 10 months ago #
pkilmain
Member

I'd love to declutter my cable bill - however, it's tied to my internet bill and if I cut back to the basic network channels, the price for my 1M speed goes up by almost the same amount. Grrrr. My TV, internet, land line and cell phone are all a package from the same company and I get a discount on each by having the bundle. Still, my basic bill is about $150. There are only two companies to choose from here, and the price is about the same for both, though the service with the one I have is much better judging from the complaints I hear from friends who have the other.

We work at keeping our electric use low, and use a wood stove for supplement our natural gas heat to keep that bill down. We have a well and septic system, so no city water/sewer to pay (though the well pump contributes to the electric bill), and we take our trash to the local landfill which costs us about half what home pickup would.

Posted 10 months ago #
susanintexas
Member

We're lucky in that our house and cars are paid for :)

We are looking into the possibility of solar panels to lessen -- perhaps even eliminate -- the electricity costs. Here is S. Texas we get plenty of sunshine and there are some great rebate programs that help underwrite the installation. My brother in Pennsylvania is thinking along the same lines, and we are sharing our research.

I'd love to get rid of cable (satellite in our case) -- we went for years without it -- but I don't think that is going to happen. DH has become quite a fan. The raise in Netflix prices was quite a shock.

Posted 10 months ago #
pkilmain
Member

Oh yes, house and cars paid for here as well. Really helps when you're living on Social Security/pension/savings....

Posted 10 months ago #
Rosa
Member

Susanintexas, have you looked into any of the places that continue to own the equipment and you either pay them a little or split the profits from the electricity, depending how much there is? I keep reading about them and they look like less work for the homeowner.

I don't think I can declutter my bills any more, all we have are utilities and the mortgage. I'm super happy to live in Commie Socialist Minneapolis, where we can have city internet that doesn't have to be bundled with anything.

I keep flirting with giving up the land line but I don't want to give my 6 year old his own cell phone or make it so he can't get phone calls.

Posted 10 months ago #
Irulan
Member

music, I also gave up cable when I moved last year. I use Netflix and although I'm with susanintexas re: price increases, they're still much cheaper than anything else. The only thing I miss is sports, so I'm getting a Roku box for my birthday so that I can watch live ice hockey on NHL Gamecenter next year. I also get ~30 channels OTA.

As for decluttering bills, outside of rent and utilities I only have a couple of subscriptions, e.g. AAA, Netflix. I automate these to my credit card so that they're auto-paid but also disputable in the case of double or mistaken billing (this has not happened so far).

Posted 10 months ago #
Sky
Member

Our cars are paid for, thank goodness, but we have a house payment. I work at keeping our electric/gas, water bills down but the one I hate is my cable tv and internet bill. It runs $115 a month and we also have Netflix that has gone up to $16 a month. I'm ready to cut off Netflix and cut back to basic cable but DH doesn't want to.

I pay all my bills online which makes it easier.

Posted 10 months ago #
Mimi
Member

within my no-spend-5-weeks i made an excel sheet and to explore what i spend money on. so i checked all my credictcard bills and statements of account of the last 6 months to make sure not to forget about anything. there were some montly/ regulary bills that i got rid of without hestitation. that was an easy way to "earn" money.

Posted 10 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

@Mimi - That's how I feel about it - like it would be earning money if I could find more things to cut!

Posted 10 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

the bulk of our phone/internet/electricity is consumed by our business....i have those bills set up to be paid via direct debit each month.
every now and then, i call the phone/internet co. to see if they have a new/better plan for us, and often they do.

we've had solar hot water for almost 7 years....supplemented with a woodstove wetback, it has given us free hot water reliably.
it all costs a heap to install, but i take the long view on it. ditto on the rainwater tanks.
i am always on the verge of installing more solar....but i keep thinking that the next big solar tech leap is just around the corner.

we don't have cable or pay tv.
netflix etc hasn't made it to australia.
i pay twenty bucks a month for dvds to be posted out, and we share the dvds with my parents, then post them back.

we don't belong to any monthly wine or book clubs.
the only mag we subscribe to is the economist, although my husband may pick up an issue or two of whatever has caught his attention for the moment (gemini).
i have an emusic subscription at around $15 per month.
i get two or three classical music albums, and i am happy as a clam.

we live very simply. our biggest expense is travel. and cat food :)

Posted 10 months ago #
pkilmain
Member

I'm on the verge of quitting Ancestry . com, but then what happens to the information I have on there? I've reconnected with several cousins through it, and find it a good place to store the information - just a too expensive place for the amount I use it!

Irulan - if I could get 30 channels OTA, I'd be there. I can get 4! We don't get Netflix, but we do rent DVD's a lot in the winter, either through Redbox or a local independent.

The nearest city/town to us has free wifi in the downtown, but it's very limited. You can browse and read your email, but you can't download much (your bank or credit card statements) and of course, you can't print directly.

We also pay all our bills online. The natural gas company charges to do this, so I've set up my account so they take the funds from my checking account (same with the credit card). It was truly funny one month when they tried to say I'd paid my bill late - they were most apologetic when they realized that someone in their office hadn't submitted the automatic withdrawals. :) The only checks I write are to church and if I'm paying a friend for portion of a gift or meal, etc.

Posted 10 months ago #
chacha1
Member

I decluttered by simplifying and paying off debt. From five investment accounts to two, from three bank accounts to one. Paid off the car loan a few years ago. Paying off the timeshare (by the end of August!). One credit card left (of mine). Cancelling two term-life policies since both DH and I are now covered elsewhere.

I wish we didn't have to have a landline, but we do. So we have a bill for that, one for our internet/satellite, electric, gas, car & renters' insurance, and the cell plan. I pay all of mine online. DH is still writing paper checks and still has some credit-card bills as well (we are on track to pay off all debt by the end of 2012).

I also have an Etsy account, domain registrations, my blog, and Norton Security bills - all of which are online bills, and mostly automated.

In spite of all these financial commitments, I feel uncluttered since the only paper bill coming in for me is AT&T. :-)

Posted 10 months ago #
Irulan
Member

@pkilmain: Ouch, 4 channels! I know I'm lucky with the OTA. A few of them are redundant, though - I get DC and Baltimore versions of a couple channels. For printing off of the free wifi, have you tried cutePDF? Erin had a blog post about it on the main site last year and I've found it really useful. You "print" to pdf and then you can print the stuff out for real when you get home.

Posted 10 months ago #
hlg
Member

Ancestry won't delete your family trees, you just won't be able to use their databases for searching any more (other than rootsweb.com which is still free.) Nice thing about Ancestry is that you can rejoin at a later date for a month on the same account, do your research for whatever (plan ahead! :) then you can kill off paying for the account again for a while. I've done this a number of times because I can't afford to pay them every month.

My hubby is the only one that watches cable TV here at home - me, I can live without it. We have the Time Warner/Roadrunner bundle too and if we kill cable, our Roadrunner Internet will nearly double in price.. at that point, it won't be much less than what we're paying now. And hubby is also a rabid MMORPG gamer, so cutting the net back ain't happening. (did I mention that he HAD to have the fastest hookup available when it came out recently? :p) Verizon is our only other choice in this area and while we could save maybe $40/month by switching to their bundle, hubby says their Internet is too slow compared to RoadRunner. :p

I use PrimoPDF's free program to make PDFs of web pages that I "print" off the web. Love it and have never had a problem with it. I have saved SO much paper! PDFs take up little room and I have a special set of folders on my hard drive.. one is for genealogy, another is for knitting, etc.

Posted 10 months ago #
cottagegirl124
Member

I finished the house decluttering last week and while I was off for the 4th of july my husband and I agreed to downsize our other items. We sold the 4 wheeler yesterday. And 1 of the motorcycles will be put up for sale on Monday after a good polishing. We will still have 2 cars, 1 is for my mail carrier job and the other is our personal vehicle. 2 motorcycles and a utility trailer, the trailer stays but the other 2 motorcycles will probably be sold also. It is to much to keep up with taxes, tags inspections and maintenance require alot of time. As for other bills I have them directly paid out of our bank. Pretty simple I think just get rid of everything that is sucking your life out of you.

Posted 10 months ago #
Rosa
Member

Pkilmain, it's still 4 even with the digital TV? That sucks.

I live in a city now, so we get a ton of free channels (it was, like, 10 in analog - the big 4, 2 public stations, Univision, and a clutch of different Christian stations). We lost a few in the digital conversion - Univision and 3 Angels and the shopping network - but we got 3 new pbs stations, 2 music channels, the local station that was formerly The CW (which has a whole channel that just shows old movies, which is kind of awesome)...it's like I imagined having cable was, back when I was a kid.

I used to really like staying in hotels partly because of the cable TV, but now that we have the kid our choices are less limited with broadcast TV than with cable, seems like.

Posted 10 months ago #
Sky
Member

DH and I canceled our Netflix tonight. One less bill each month. Last month we changed our cell phone plans and saved $45.00 a month. Every little bit helps!

Posted 10 months ago #

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