A GREAT Month!

Usually, December is a hard month in which to really "pay down" debt. With Christmas shopping (which, for us, includes driving = $ for gas) and the electric bill starting to rise, this just usually isn't a very fun month.

But December 2007 will go down as a great one in the Faughn house!

We budgeted for Christmas throughout the year and are going to be right at the budget. We still have a couple more gifts to purchase, but we still have money left, too. So that came in right on schedule. Our family helped very much. We all set a limit (that was equal for everyone) on what we would spend on Christmas presents. We set a limit where we could get each person something he/she wanted, without feeling the pressure to buy anything huge. It took some savvy shopping, and some online work, but we met that goal.

Also, our electric bill (for November; paid in early December) was low for this time of year. We have been staying around 50 degrees and have actually been up in the 70s for a few days in late November, so our heater didn't have to run all that much. Also, when we went out of town for Thanksgiving, we turned the unit way down, so it would hardly run. While our water bill was a bit high, it was more than covered by the lower electric bill.

We have had two negatives this month, though. First, we have had to travel a bit more than expected, so we are going to barely make our gasoline budget (if we make it). Gas prices have come down just a bit, which is helping, but we are still paying quite a bit (about $2.85 on average). Also, our DirecTV bill had a mistake on it and the mistake was ours. We had been paying it, but we had been unintentionally late a couple of times. We just did not realize that our payment was due on the 1st of the month, and we had been waiting until the 2nd week of the month, because we pay all our bills out of that one paycheck. We had to pay the extra money, but we also had DirecTV move our "due" date back so we can continue paying without the late charge. We also went ahead and paid January's bill early.

Now, for the big "upside" factor. For the past 3 months, I have been teaching a class for Faulkner University, one night each week, on the Book of Acts. I finished last week and quickly graded all papers and sent in the necessary paperwork on the night of the final. I was hoping to get my paycheck before Christmas (kind of a "special" holiday treat). They were good to me, and we got the paycheck yesterday.

Add all these up, and December became a banner month for us:

1. First, we got cash to pay for our entire trip to the Freed-Hardeman University lectures in February. The trip is already taken care of, which will be a big help in January's budget.

2. Second, we are up to date on all bills (since we got our mistake taken care of with DirecTV). We have never been behind before--and still haven't intentionally--so this is a great relief.

3. Finally, and most exciting for us, is the fact that we paid off...are you ready for this?...over $1100 in debt this month! We did that while going Christmas shopping and taking another 2 trips out of town! By sticking to out budget and using the extra money from my class, we were able to attack our debt.

When you have good news, you just have to share it. And this was great news to us. We're not debt free, yet. But we are working on it, and this month really pumped us up to work even harder in 2008 to finish our journey out of debt!

Don't Pass Up Free Referral Money

We've all seen the DirecTV commercial with the play on 'Speed Dating.' "Do you want to make 50 bucks the easy way?" While the commercial was annoying long before the 100th time I saw it, the point should not be forgotten. When I signed up for DirecTV I knew at least 10 families who had DirecTV service. Many of them knew I was planning to get DirecTV. It was only after I was a customer that I found out about the referral program. Had I simply stated when signing up for service that I was referred by my friends with account #: xxxxxx, we both would have received a total of $50 in bill credits. Instead, since no one mentioned this to me, we all passed up on free referral money. It is really quite sad to see how many companies offer free referral money, and then to know how many times service is obtained without anyone getting a referral bonus.

When you are planning to sign up for new service with a company that a friend or family member already has service with, check to see if the company offers referral bonuses. Some that definitely do:

• DirecTV as mentioned offers $50 to the referring customer and the new referred friend.
• Dish Network offers $50 for the referring customer, though I'm not sure if the new customer gets a credit.
• Charter Communications offers $25 for each person on new phone service.
• AT&T offers a variety of $25-50 referral bonuses to the referring friend on new phone service, or new features on phone service (ie. adding long distance or high speed internet).
• Earthlink offers one month of free service or $25 cards for the referring friend on new internet or cable packages.
  
• AT&T Wireless (formerly Cingular) offers $25 for the referring customer and the new referred friend on new wireless plans.
• Many Credit Cards (at least Citi cards) frequently offer referral bonuses to the new card member and the referring card member.
  

I have personally taken advantage of the offers through DirecTV, Cingular (now AT&T wireless) and a Citi card. So, using this frugality tip may benefit you, or at least a friend. Don't pass up free referral money!

Oh, and by the way, if you need someone to refer you to DirecTV, AT&T residential, or AT&T Wireless let me know, I'd be glad to give you the referral info needed to get the credit!

Photo: Sufi Nawaz via stock.xchng.

Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #4TMTM - Too Many Text Messages

Teens today use text messaging like our generation used instant messenger and e-mail. Text messages are sent, saying "God is so Good. If you love God, forward this on to ten friends and the person who sent it to you. If you don't love God, you don't have to do anything." When I receive forwarded e-mails like this, I immediately delete them, before even reading them. If my life doesn't show people that I love God, don't want people to have cancer, value their friendship, etc., etc., then sending them an e-mail that says such won't convince them. So I find chain letters and mass forwards through e-mail to be useless wastes of my time. Many people are now sending these through text messages though! Now no one sends them to me, but if you have a teenager in your home, you probably have come to realize why they send/receive so MANY text messages!

A friend recently called me concerned about his text messages. A friend of his had begun texting him massively, running up a $200 bill in text messages! Not too difficult at $.15 per message - each way! Allow me to take a moment to say, that charging for text messages was a brilliant move on part of the wireless providers! I know it takes some of their bandwidth to move these messages, but there is no way receiving a message with "Hey! :)" in it is worth 15 cents to me! So, if your cell phone bill is massive, and you've already cut the frills, check the usage section to see how the text messages are treating you. At 15 cents to send and receive they add up quickly. Even if you can curb your own sending, you pay any time someone sends a message to you. If you send or receive more than 33 text messages a month on average, you ought to be considering a text message plan. For $4.99 (the cost of 32.6 text messages) you can get a starter plan from AT&T that allows up to 200 text messages (sent & received combined). Additional text messages then drop to 10 cents each! If you send/receive more than 300 text messages a month, you ought to be using the "Messaging Unlimited" plan from AT&T that allows you to send/receive unlimited text messages to anyone on any wireless carrier. If you have a family plan, and two of your teens have a problem, though, you have to get the family plan at $29.99/month to cover all of your lines with unlimited texting.

So, for an individual plan, to have unlimited texting, you'll spend $20/month, or $240 per year. Is there another way to handle TMTM? Yes...ask your wireless provider to disable this option on your lines. You won't ever be able to send/receive text messages, but neither will you pay $240 a year for your friends to be able to send you those annoying little forwards!

If you want to cut your cell phone bill, take care of TMTM (too many text messages)!

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #3Cut the Frills

Many cell phone users today have an extremely large bill, which can be cut if some of the frills are cut. Wireless service providers sell all kinds of extra 'services,' knowing that the profit-margins from these extra services is much larger then the main wireless service.

As an AT&T customer, let me focus on their extra services, though I'm sure most wireless providers have similar services.

• AT&T Mobile Backup - gives you the ability to back up your phone numbers so that if your phone is lost/stolen or you upgrade you will not loose numbers. Price? $1.99/month ($24/year)
  
• Roadside Assistance - Towing, jump starts, flat tire changes, fuel delivery for when you run out of gas, lockout assistance, and key replacement services provided up to 4 times per year and up to $50 per event. Great service, but the price? $2.99/month ($36/year) This is like paying by the month for 1 service call every 1.5 years.
  
• TeleNav GPS Router - If your phone is GPS enabled, receive live routes and directions over the phone. Price? $9.99/month ($120/year)
• Enhanced Voice Mail - Increases maximum voice mail length by 1 minute (like I want that!), enables you to store 40 instead of 20 voice mails, gives an extra 7 days storage time, etc. Price? $1.99/month ($24/year)
• Voice Dial - Dial *8 or *08, and then speak the name you want to dial, and AT&T will automatically dial that person so that you don't have to look up the number while driving. Price? $4.99/month ($60/year) - and many phones include voice dial abilities!
• Push to Talk - Makes it possible to use the PTT (walkie-talkie like functionality) of some cell phones. Requires PTT phones on both ends. This makes the communication almost instantaneous. Price? $9.99/month or $19.99/month for family plans ($120, 240/year) Quite expensive when you could just wait the few seconds for the calls to connect.
• Early Nights and Weekends - Extends the period of 'night' calls that are unlimited to 7pm to 7am instead of 9pm to 6 am. Price? $8.99/month or $16.99/month for family plans ($108, 204/year). You have to be making a lot of calls in those three hours of the day.
• Data Connect Plans - Connect your smartphone ($9.99/month for 5MB or $19.99/mo for unlimited data) or PDA ($24.99/mo for 10MB or $39.99/mo for unlimited data) to the internet. Price? Between $120 and $480 per year. Quite expensive considering my DSL is about $20 per month, and I'm going to have that anyways!

There are a lot of options above, and a lot more available. My point here, is that all of these things are great, and may at times be helpful, but are for most of us unnecessary frills. I would love to be able to surf the internet and check my e-mail from my smartphone. But it just isn't worth $20 a month to me! Especially when I know it will be slower and more difficult to navigate than the computer. It is a convenience, a frill.

If you want to cut your cell phone bill, cut the frills, many of which you might not even be using!

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #2Cut the Minutes

Many cell phone users are afraid of getting too few minutes, and end up with many more minutes a month than they need. If you have had a cell phone for several months you should be able to look over past bills, and determine how many minutes you actually need. Cutting the anytime minutes will cut your cost. In keeping with the first Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill post, I'll be comparing family plans.


AT&T, Nextel/Sprint, and Verizon Wireless have the following family rate plans:

• 700 Minutes: 69.99 (9.99 each additional line); .45 for each additional minute
• 1400 Minutes: 89.99 (9.99 each additional line); .40 for each additional minute
• 2100 Minutes: 109.99 (9.99 each additional line); .35 for each additional minutes
• 3000 Minutes: 149.99 (9.99 each additional line); .25 for each additional minute
• There are other higher plans. Sprint/Nextel has a different method of calculating additional minutes - if you go over every block of 30 minutes is $5, up to 300 additional minutes, and then .20/minute.

Alltel has similar rate plans, but more minutes at each price level. Click here to see Alltel's family rate plans. With all of these companies, the plans now being sold include free nights and weekends and free mobile-to-mobile calling.

With the high cost of additional minutes, you can't afford to be going over your monthly allotment. But if you generally use 600 minutes per month, and are paying for 1400, you could cut your bill, saving $240 a year!

I'm a AT&T customer, and I am very glad to have rollover minutes. Rollover minutes make it possible to have a much smaller minute package. We have our 5 lines on 550 shared minutes per month. We currently have over 1,000 rollover minutes. Some months we go over, and use up those rollover minutes. Other months we go under, and build rollover minutes. If you have an AT&T account, use this system to your advantage. You can change plans as often as you like, without extending your contract. Anytime you switch, though, you can only keep the number of rollover minutes that are alloted per month in the plan you are switching to. SO....let's assume you generally use about 1,000 minutes per month. You have several options:

1. Get the 700 minute plan, and pay the extra minutes, adding up to about $204.99 per month. $2,459.88 per year.
   
2. Get the 1400 minute plan, and pay $89.99 per month, building your rollover minutes that you will never use. $1,079.88 per year.
   
3. Most people go with option 2 without considering option 3! This is a little more complicated. Switch back and forth between the 700 and 1400 minute plans, using your rollover minutes. Below is a possible scenario for the 1,000 minute user. The cost will average $78.56 per month. $959.88 per year. It's a little more trouble, but I believe it is worth saving $120 per year!
   

• Go with the 1400 minute plan for one month, you will build 400 rollover minutes.
• Switch to the 700 minute plan for one month (leaving 100 rollover minutes).
• Switch to the 1400 minute plan for a month, adding 400 rollover minutes (to make 500).
• Switch to the 700 minute plan, using your rollover minutes for a month (leaving 200).
• Switch to the 1400 minute plan for a month, adding 400 rollover minutes (to make 600).
• Switch to the 700 minute plan, using your rollover minutes for two months (leaving 0).
• Start over

Due to the rollover minute option, I believe AT&T to have the best plan options. If you have AT&T, utilize those rollover minutes to save you money! And no matter who your carrier is, be sure you have a large enough package that you won't be spending hundreds of dollars for extra minutes, but a small enough package that you aren't paying for many many minutes a year that you never use.

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #1Multiple Lines

Let me give you a glimpse of my cell phone bill for several months in the past: 10-05: $50.03; 5-06: $88.78; 10-06: $97.04; 7-07: $108.97. It was cheaper each time it changed. No that’s not a typo, it was CHEAPER each change. The first bill was when I had an individual cell phone plan, the cheapest Cingular individual plan for 39.99 per month, with all the taxes worked up to about $50. By May of 2006 I had three lines on the plan, so the $88.78 breaks down to about $29.59 per line. By October 2006, I had four lines on the plan, so the $97.04 breaks down to $24.26 per line. Last months bill represented five lines, at $21.80 per line. As most of you know, we’re a young married couple, with no children. So why do we have five lines? Frugality.

In December 2005, my father and younger brother finished their contract with another cell phone company. They asked if they could join on to my cell phone plan. I agreed, and we split the bill three ways, each paying for our text message usage. By July 2006, Stacey and I were married, and so we needed a phone for her. We added her onto the bill. Some time after that, my parents decided to get another line as a gift for my sister. Each time we added a line, we made each line cheaper. We are now at the maximum number of lines that AT&T wireless will allow on one family plan bill, and we are saving a lot of money to do it this way. My part of the cell phone bill each month is around $40 for two lines! Let’s say that we had all kept our cell phone plans separate from one another.

• My payments from December 2005 up to last month would be: ($50 x 8) + ($70 x 7) = $890.
• If my father and younger brother had gotten a new contract together, their payments in this time would be: ($70 x 15) = $1,050.
• An individual line for my sister would have cost: ($50 x 5) = $250.
• All together, as a group, this would add up to: $2,190

Instead, we joined the lines together. So:

• Stacey and I have paid about: ($30 x 8) + ($40 x 7) = $520
• My father has paid: ($30 x 10) + ($40 x 5) = 500
• My brother has paid about ($30 x 15) = $450
• For a grand total of: $1,470
  

We have each saved money - I have saved $370 in just less than two years, my father has saved $275, and my brother has saved $300 over what he would have paid to have an individual contract for all of this time.

You can really save some money by getting together with close family members and joining lines on cell phone plans. There are of course some catches that you need to recognize:

• The bill will be attached to ONE person’s social security number and credit. I am legally responsible for all five of these lines and the usage on them. This is fine with me because I can completely trust all of the individuals on this plan. Entering into a 2 year contract with extra people you can’t completely and totally trust would be a mistake, though, and probably end up costing you much extra in the long run (just watch the People's Court to see some examples!).
  
• It takes a little work for one person each month to get the figures straight. I spend a few minutes after each bill comes out calculating how much each person owes, and send them an e-mail showing how much they owe for the cell phone that month.
• The payment has to be worked out in a way that will work for everyone. Each month we pay our parts online with credit cards. This makes it simple for the whole bill to be paid, and at the same time for no one to be paying more than a month at a time.
  

If you can work out the details, and have some people you can completely trust not to ruin your credit, combining lines can be a great way of saving money on the cell phone bill!

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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August Financial Goals

We currently are working on several financial goals that have taken some time, and may take more time.

1. Pay Immediately - we are working on building up our checking account so that any time a bill comes in we will be able to immediately pay it. Right now we could do this, but we'd have to take money out of savings. We always pay our bills on time, but usually near the end of the on-time period! I've seen family members with this ability to pay immediately, and it generally helps lower financial stress.
   
2. Give More - Stacey's internship has turned into a paid internship, and as we begin receiving some income from this, we intend to give back to God more!
3. Pick Up Long Term Savings - This probably won't happen this month. We've already contributed a significant amount towards our IRA's this calendar year. Right now with both of us in Grad school, our student loans are all in deferment, and only one of three is even gaining any interest (the smallest loan :). So this comes after goal number one and of course number two, meaning it will probably be next month before we are again able to contribute to the IRA's.

Saving Stamps

Postage rates consistently go up, time after time. When I was born (not so long ago, I know), stamps were 20 cents, now they're over twice as much at 41 cents each (though according to a Wikipedia chart, the rate has consistently stayed the same when inflation is considered). While a 41 cent stamp really isn't at all costly, they add up quickly - a booklet of 20 is $8.20. How can we save stamps to in turn save money? Frugality should cause us to look for ways to save stamps. While one way to save stamps would be through utilizing e-mail as much as possible, I encourage you to consider a way to frugally cut your stamp usage and take advantage of a beneficial tool in today's world.

Pay as many bills as possible electronically. If you are looking at this blog, you have at least limited access to the internet. Thus, this is a tool available to you. Each month, I pay as many bills as possible electronically. I login each month to pay my DirecTV bill, a student loan bill, my Cingular cell phone bill, and my Credit Card bill. Additionally, each month another student loan payment, the XM Radio payment, 2 life insurance payments, the car insurance payment, and the phone bill are automatically debited from my credit card or bank account. Making electronic payments is frugal in several ways:

• I save stamps! 10 bills are payed electronically each month, saving $4.10 per month, or $49.20 per year! That's not huge, but remember frugality is all about saving in little ways which adds up huge over time. Each bill you begin paying online will save you $4.92 per year!
  
• It is more difficult to steal financial information shared over a secure encrypted internet connection than out of an unsecured and unencrypted mail box in front of an empty home.
• If you keep enough funds in your account to set up the payments to go through automatically (and hopefully you do!), you will save by not having to pay late fees because you forgot to send in a bill. I have paid late fees on water, gas, or electric probably 5 times in 2 years, simply because I forgot to mail off the payment in time. That wouldn't happen if those bills were paid electronically automatically.

A final word of advice, don't pay to pay electronically. I could pay my gas or electric bills electronically, but it costs $2.95 each, each time! That definitely isn't a way to save money.