Saving Money on the Urban Homestead

I got an email from my cell phone company the other day saying I had gone over my data usage. I knew instantly it had to be my stepdaughter because I have unlimited data on my phone and neither my husband or my father would have any idea how to get on the internet from their phones. I went online to check my account status and there it was—she had used the internet on her cell again even though I've told her at least a dozen times we don't have a data plan on her phone. Nothing out of the ordinary. In some areas of her life, my 27-year-old stepdaughter is more like a rebellious teenager. It's as if she's compelled to see how far she can push us. So I sent my usual stern message to her, letting her know I was aware she had done it yet again, and reprimanding her for not being more responsible at the age of 27. And then I went back to checking my work emails.

About 5 minutes later, another email from the cell company came in, this time telling me I had gone over my plan minutes for the month. Now I was getting angry. So I went back online to check our plan minutes, assuming it had to be my stepdaughter again, and was taken by surprise when it turned out to be my father. Quickly glancing at the details of his calls for the month, I realized that he had been talking with his new lady friend for long periods of time on a regular basis. So I sent my dad a stern email, asking him to please try using Skype or the like, and thought to myself, "I've got 2 teenagers to deal with now!"

Festering over the cell bill reminded me that I had a phone on the plan that needed to come off that had to be past contract, so I decided to quit procrastinating and call the cell company. It was ready to come off and I was lucky enough to get a customer service representative who knew what she was doing. She took a hard look at the details of my plan and said she could save me $30 a month without changing the services we currently have. I ended up saving an incredible $480 a year—the $9.99 phone that came off plus the $30 a month. And I'll be darned if that same customer service representative didn't save me even more by telling me about a new free service where I could assign frequently called numbers not related to the cell company (landlines, other cell providers) to a new list and calls to and from those numbers would not count against our plan minutes. I added my dad's lady friend's number right away. I don't think I've ever been more satisfied making one of those dreaded service calls. And yes, I got smart and blocked the use of data on my stepdaughter's phone.

So I smiled for 2 days thinking of my money-saving accomplishment. And then I realized there had to be more I could save if I just gave our monthly bills a once-over. I did just that over Thanksgiving weekend. I pored over all the little charges that add up. An extra $5 a month here and an extra $19.95 a month there. I weighed the pros and cons of keeping things and dropping things. Were they accomplishing what I had intended when I signed up for them? Were they providing a service of value to our little urban homestead? In several instances, the answer was a resounding NO. In the end, I was able to eliminate another $75 in wasted monthly charges. That's $115 a month. Over the course of a year that's $1,380! Add to this that our Prius will be paid off in 2 months and that equates to an annual savings of $7,635. Yes, there is a proud smile on my face.

So let me propose that you take the time to sit down and scrutinize your monthly bills. Really go over them with a fine-tooth comb. You won't believe how much wasted money is lurking in those pieces of paper filling your mailbox every month. Urban homesteading is about simplifying your life. It's about doing away with the unnecessaries and becoming more self-reliant. It's worth the effort.