Reeling It In....

Before I start my blog today I have to say, the truly best thing about getting up really early every morning is the off chance that the sunrise will be breath taking. This morning it was stunning and I don't care what anyone says, the sunrises over the desert are spectacular!

So, reeling it in...yesterday was a day to figuring out ways to reel it in financially. There are ways the we and others spend our money without really thinking about what we are getting for the expenditure. So in an attempt to be a totally concious spender and opposed to spending unconciously, I took a look at 2 areas of our monthy bills. Phone and Cable. My phone serves is changing without my control in April. My company was bought out by another. I spent half an hour in line to talk with someone about the new service provider and got the distinct impression it was going to cost me more from the literature I was reading in line. I realized that this was going to be a bigger decision than I could make after a day at work.

Next I moved on the Bend Broad Band. Stood in line there to find out why my cable bill went up by $25. Come to find out I had living on a special price plan that ended on Dec. 31. So I sat down with the customer service person and reviewed my cable bill. Bottom line, I am paying for a cable program that Greg and I rarely use...we just don't watch TV often enough to pay for The Bronze package so I axed that and went back to basic. We watch any television programs that interest us on the Internet...so cable is a waste for us. Next...do I need a land line...I was too nervous to ax that, because with a cell phone only home it takes 911 longer to figure out where to come to save your life. So with the rate increase and the decrease in what I subcribed too, my bill is now back to where it was last month...go figure pay more, get less.

The upside of reeling it in is that I now get half the junk mail. It cost to much for businesses to send out those pretty colored sales ads and I my newspaper is filled mostly with news, not ads because of the economy...so there is an upside.