YouBet said:

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Fireman said:

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Fun thread - I may have missed it, but what do you pay for Internet / Wifi each month? Seems like that should be included.

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Yeah, I haven't included "bills" to date because I consider those "fixed costs", however there is obviously opportunity there (my mobile example above being the best cost cut I've done) so I do work those on my end.

I pay $95.50 per month for Gig internet with AT&T. I could get that cheaper by downgrading my bandwidth and probably wouldn't notice the speed decrease, but if I was hesitant to jack with mobile....I'm really hesitant to change my internet.

I'm extremely gun shy jacking with network/telephony. I can look at that stuff and something changes and then I spend forever trying to get it working again.

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What is that, like 112 with taxes. No one needs gig internet for general household type connectivity. I've been streaming 3x tv, smart tstats, wifi security cams, tablets, phones, etc for several years, all on 100-150mb. I refuse to pay more than $35ish for signal and shop it around for teaser rates every year.

JSKolache said:

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YouBet said:

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Fireman said:

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Fun thread - I may have missed it, but what do you pay for Internet / Wifi each month? Seems like that should be included.

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Yeah, I haven't included "bills" to date because I consider those "fixed costs", however there is obviously opportunity there (my mobile example above being the best cost cut I've done) so I do work those on my end.

I pay $95.50 per month for Gig internet with AT&T. I could get that cheaper by downgrading my bandwidth and probably wouldn't notice the speed decrease, but if I was hesitant to jack with mobile....I'm really hesitant to change my internet.

I'm extremely gun shy jacking with network/telephony. I can look at that stuff and something changes and then I spend forever trying to get it working again.

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What is that, like 112 with taxes. No one needs gig internet for general household type connectivity. I've been streaming 3x tv, smart tstats, wifi security cams, tablets, phones, etc for several years, all on 100-150mb. I refuse to pay more than $35ish for signal and shop it around for teaser rates every year.

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That includes tax. Got an offer for Spectrum yesterday - $50 a month gets you 125 channels and 500mb internet.

That would save me $115 a month after switching from AT&T Gig and YTTV to Spectrum.

Very tempting but I don't know much about Spectrum TV other than we use their internet at other house. It seems to work fine there though.

I'm bumping this to help out someone on F16 assuming they make it over here. While I'm here I will post a quick and dirty update for the hell of it. All numbers are annualized.

Headline:

• Total Cuts: - $2,083.36
• Total Adds: + $3,775.92
• Net: + $1,695.56

We rejoined our very expensive gym which blew up the cuts I've made since we last talked. However, we found it to be a necessary move in light of some rehabilitation type things I need to be doing that I can't replicate at home. Plus, my wife can't make herself work out at home. Regardless, I review all subs every month and make cuts and changes where and when I can.

Negotiate everything you can. Create a spreadsheet to track everything that includes: Type of Expense, Description, Amount, Bill Frequency, and almost most importantly Contract End Date so you can stay ahead of it.

(Thanks to Sea Speed for reminding me to check my Mint sub as it was about to reup next week. He saved me $30 / mo by me simply changing my plan from a 3mo to 12mo. Contract End Date for this one got by me and has been added to my subscription / bill tracker in Tiller.)

Sorted by most expensive Expense Group to least:

Health: $4,520 - Up $3,672

• Pvolve
• Shred
• Gym (New) - Big, big add. It will also go away or reduce much in cost after we move in 2024.

Streaming: $1,970.68 - Down $60

• Amazon Prime
• Apple One Family Premier
• Hulu Live + Disney + ESPN+ YouTube TV
• Disney+ Bundled this with Hulu Live
• Hulu Basic Bundled this with Hulu Live
• Netflix
• Sirius Radio (2)

Bills: $1,686.24 - Down $900

• Mobile: Mint / AT&T Mobile - Down $960 with switch
• Internet: AT&T Fiber - Up $60 with price increase starting in Aug '23
• Electricity: we plan to move or I might pay my cancellation fee and get a new plan; always shop rates when your contract is up
• Note: Not all of our bills are listed here obviously. Current situation is complicated with two homes so it's confusing to show it. We have saved a crap ton of other money in this area relative to that situation but it's apples to oranges for this list.

Gaming/Social: $430.12 - Up $103.92

• MS GamePass
• NYT Crossword (New)
• TexAgs.com

Petcare: $389.76 - No change

• Barkbox - toy sub for my dog; LOL

Professional Development: $389.52 - Down $519.48

• MS LinkedIn (1) (2) - will probably cancel my sub and save $389.52 / yr

Reading: $276.93 - Down $496.20

• Apple News - could upgrade to Apple Premier and bundle above but no price difference
• B&N
• WSJ
• DMN

Productivity: $229.64 - Down $48

• MS 365
• Tiller
• Apple Data Plan - I can't figure out why we are being charged this. It's attached to wife and shouldn't be necessary. Could be $35.88 per year to save.
• Todoist - Loved it but redundant with Google at work and MS 365 at home

YouBet said:

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Gaming/Social: $430.12 - Up $103.92

• MS GamePass
• NYT Crossword (New)
• TexAgs.com

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YouBet said:

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Apple Data Plan - I can't figure out why we are being charged this. It's attached to wife and shouldn't be necessary. Could be $35.88 per year to save.

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I guarantee this is a data storage plan that was opted into for $2.99/month by someone on their phone, maybe your wife since you mentioned being attached to her. Likely when someone ran out of storage on their device for pics/vids.

Ag CPA said:

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YouBet said:

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Gaming/Social: $430.12 - Up $103.92

• MS GamePass
• NYT Crossword (New)
• TexAgs.com

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I think about it every day.

Chipotlemonger said:

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YouBet said:

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Apple Data Plan - I can't figure out why we are being charged this. It's attached to wife and shouldn't be necessary. Could be $35.88 per year to save.

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I guarantee this is a data storage plan that was opted into for $2.99/month by someone on their phone, maybe your wife since you mentioned being attached to her. Likely when someone ran out of storage on their device for pics/vids.

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I am sure. I guess I thought that became redundant and went away on its own once we signed up for Apple One. We have 200GB on Apple Family plan and I'm only using 46GB of that and I see she is using none.

So, I guess I just need her to switch her stuff to our Family iCloud backup and then I can kill that 2.99 charge.

Sea Speed said:

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YouBet said:

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Ag CPA said:

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YouBet said:

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Gaming/Social: $430.12 - Up $103.92

• MS GamePass
• NYT Crossword (New)
• TexAgs.com

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I think about it every day.

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Get the basic subscription and still get the watchlist and PMs and find out news 2 minutes later than everyone else for half the price

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Second time in 2 days you've saved me money and again right before a current contract expired. Both were renewing in next 5 days. I thought you had to have Premium to get the Watch List. I swear it used to be that way.

That is $290 you have saved me over the next year. I owe you drinks!

HA! glad to hear it. The watch list is the only reason I pay for texags anymore. It is definitely worth the few bucks per month. I dont drink these days so a nice cup of coffee will have to do. Just glad to help!

YouBet said:

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Sea Speed said:

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YouBet said:

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Ag CPA said:

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YouBet said:

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Gaming/Social: $430.12 - Up $103.92

• MS GamePass
• NYT Crossword (New)
• TexAgs.com

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I think about it every day.

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Get the basic subscription and still get the watchlist and PMs and find out news 2 minutes later than everyone else for half the price

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Second time in 2 days you've saved me money and again right before a current contract expired. Both were renewing in next 5 days. I thought you had to have Premium to get the Watch List. I swear it used to be that way.

That is $290 you have saved me over the next year. I owe you drinks!

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I think there was actually no charge for the watch list at one point, worked for all users. But I'm not certain on that.

Like Sea, I keep the one star to hold on to the watchlist. For me, the site would be pretty much unusable without it. Hmm….in that case, maybe I should ditch it.

double aught said:

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YouBet said:

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Sea Speed said:

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YouBet said:

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Ag CPA said:

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YouBet said:

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Gaming/Social: $430.12 - Up $103.92

• MS GamePass
• NYT Crossword (New)
• TexAgs.com

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I think about it every day.

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Get the basic subscription and still get the watchlist and PMs and find out news 2 minutes later than everyone else for half the price

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Second time in 2 days you've saved me money and again right before a current contract expired. Both were renewing in next 5 days. I thought you had to have Premium to get the Watch List. I swear it used to be that way.

That is $290 you have saved me over the next year. I owe you drinks!

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I think there was actually no charge for the watch list at one point, worked for all users. But I'm not certain on that.

Like Sea, I keep the one star to hold on to the watchlist. For me, the site would be pretty much unusable without it. Hmm….in that case, maybe I should ditch it.

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To me, it's one of those how did we live without it features.

Texags costs wayyy too much for the services provided.

Carlo4 said:

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Lol. Also how I think about streaming options.

YouBet said:

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Carlo4 said:

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Lol. Also how I think about streaming options.

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We started just paying for max one at a time.....

We don't have a whole lot of spare time to watch shows, so 1 is enough....Right now we have Netflix because of the JFF documentary, so are catching up on a couple shows there. We've already set it to cancel when this month is up.

We have Apple TV as we got a code from the Astros to get it free for a couple months since they were on it.

Then we have Paramount + for free through Walmart + which is free through our credit card....So recently watched Yellowstone and 1883

Walmart plus gas savings are legit. We have it free through amex and now only get gas at Murphy. 10 cents off per gallon and then 6% cash back through amex really adds up.

10 cents off at Exxon, too. There's one 1/4 mile from our house and where we always get gas.

Other plus is just scanning the barcode and paying through the app so never have to worry about scammers and credit card skimmers.

Didn't know that about Exxon bit the one by us is usually 50 cents higher than Murphy and we are by it enough at the grocery store that it isn't really an inconvenience.

Haven't had the TV on but a time or two in the past 9 or 10 months, so cancelled Comcast/Xfinity today. Internet only now. Saving about $140 a month. My wife got rid of something this week that was around $10 a month, not sure what though.

one safe place said:

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Haven't had the TV on but a time or two in the past 9 or 10 months, so cancelled Comcast/Xfinity today. Internet only now. Saving about $140 a month. My wife got rid of something this week that was around $10 a month, not sure what though.

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How?!?!

Our Xfinity TV & Internet combined is shy of $140....

ETA: just looked it up, it's $128

My post seems to have disappeared but Disney announced a price hike to the Hulu packages today.

We will be back to old DTV prices before long.

YouBet said:

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My post seems to have disappeared but Disney announced a price hike to the Hulu packages today.

We will be back to old DTV prices before long.

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Isn't Disney + increasing, too?

htxag09 said:

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YouBet said:

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My post seems to have disappeared but Disney announced a price hike to the Hulu packages today.

We will be back to old DTV prices before long.

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Isn't Disney + increasing, too?

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Every option is increasing.

htxag09 said:

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one safe place said:

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Haven't had the TV on but a time or two in the past 9 or 10 months, so cancelled Comcast/Xfinity today. Internet only now. Saving about $140 a month. My wife got rid of something this week that was around $10 a month, not sure what though.

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How?!?!

Our Xfinity TV & Internet combined is shy of $140....

ETA: just looked it up, it's $128

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Our tv and internet and the fees for tv box and adapters (along with all the fees and taxes) was $212.98 and now will be $73.44. Looking at some of the crap included in the old monthly amount causes me to want to kick my own ass for not ditching this sooner, lol.

I would imagine the new DTV prices aren't the old DTV prices, either.

PeekingDuck said:

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I would imagine the new DTV prices aren't the old DTV prices, either.

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Out of curiosity, I looked this up and DTV is still offering SAT TV at same prices as their steaming. I thought they had killed new SAT installs.

Still has best picture of any service, bar none. I suspect most on here have forgotten how much better their picture was on SAT vs streaming. We've all downgraded on that front, normalized it, and forgotten what we had.

I only realized this because my FIL still had DTV SAT at his house until recently. PQ was just incredible.

I cut Directv a year or two ago because the price finally creeped up and they wouldn't budge. But for years I was paying them a very fair rate (I think under $60 everything included). Product quality was always good.

Apple Family sub is going up 14% next month and Apple News as a stand-alone is going up a whopping 30%.

billikenag said:

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I used to work with a mountain bum at Boy Scout Camp in the Sierra Nevadas. After camp season ended, the squares (me) would head back to college, while he would get in his Tacoma, climb Yosemite in September, Kings Canyon in October, and head down to Hueco Tanks to keep climbing when it got too cold in the Sierras. By opening day of the ski season, he'd be back at Mammoth to work and ski for the season.

He used to e-mail pics to the rest of us back in school every couple months or so of him sleeping in the bed of his Tacoma and eating hot dogs he'd heat with a blowtorch between climbs. Mountain bums are not the types to have many recurring subscription expenses.

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These days, that guy/gal sleeping in the bed of his Tacoma has a remote job in either digital marketing or tech. We're all working from Starlink or coffee shops in places like Moab, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite. I'm so impressed with this younger generation - they were on it - while my generation (millennials) kind of transitioned in to it.

My living costs are about 20% of after-tax W2 income and my investment income will exceed my spending this year (not touching it of course). I dropped Spotify premium but still with Mint Mobile at $15/mo.

With Hulu raising prices for all of their content next month, I finally decided to move back to YTTV. I've been complaining about Hulu Live for months because the experience is trash. Finally did it today.

While doing so, I updated my spreadsheet to track costs and the various configurations for buying content.

It's actually cheaper to use YTTV + Disney + ESPN rather than paying for the Hulu bundle with same content.

Even when YTTV ups their price to mimic Hulu it will still be better than Hulu simply because the UI experience with YTTV is far superior.

Also, you can get Max via YTTV for cheaper than if you buy it individually or through a Hulu bundle.

So, going month to month and largely remaining out of bundles is the way to go...not that everyone didn't already know that.

I'm sure this has been more than covered in the thread but I wanted to chime in. Apparently I had been on some grandfathered AT&T plan, and not at a good rate. Really took a look at what I was being offered and what I actually needed/used and went from a plan that was pushing $100-$120 every month to a prepaid plan for $300 all-in.

Unlimited talk, unlimited data. Based on my averages the last 12 months, I won't come anywhere near going over 12 gigs limit before data throttle. Even has 10 gig of hotspot. Saved myself a grand a year just by not assuming whatever plan I was on was reasonable.

I assume you mean $300 per year. Who is it with?

We moved from ATT to Mint over a year ago and saved all kinds of money doing so. Only downside is that coverage is not as good and there are dead areas in rural Texas.

YouBet said:

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I assume you mean $300 per year. Who is it with?

We moved from ATT to Mint over a year ago and saved all kinds of money doing so. Only downside is that coverage is not as good and there are dead areas in rural Texas.

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Yes, $300 year (advertised as $25/month).

https://www.att.com/prepaid/multi-month-plans/

Not great if you stream a lot over cellular, but 90% of my streaming I'm on WIFI so I don't touch the 16GB/month throttle limit.

One thing that might prevent people from doing it is I believe you have to own/paid-off your phone.

YouBet said:

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I assume you mean $300 per year. Who is it with?

We moved from ATT to Mint over a year ago and saved all kinds of money doing so. Only downside is that coverage is not as good and there are dead areas in rural Texas.

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Yeah we switched to Xfinity Mobile from AT&T.

We have unlimited data and our all in bill (2 lines, wife and me) is $60/month. Throttling of speeds starts when a line uses 20GB in a month.

With AT&T pretty sure it was over $150/month.