well here's some little tips in case you feel like trying to save some cash...
- if you're paying your mobile phone company a monthly fee for insurance to protect said mobile phone... and have a contents insurance policy for where you live... check whether or not your insurance policy covers 'accidental damage'.
Mine in particular does and it turns out I've been paying $10ish a month for the last two years to the mobile phone co unnecessarily... i know that ultimately that's not much, but hey, $10 a month is $10 a month. Why pay two companys for the same service? Silly.
So I cancelled it's arse. - check the connection rates and rates per kwh on your electricity and gas bills. if you have two companies providing your utilities, check if one will provide any discount for you to have both services with them. even if their quarterly connection fees and kwh pricing is the same, no harm in getting 5 or 10% off for having both services with them. besides, convenience of one bill would be nice. less paper and less time.
i e-mailed a couple companys that i have services with and asked them some questions that i couldn't answers on from their website. hopefully they'll get back to me soon.
well, i guess if they want to keep my business they will get back to me. poosers. - see if your bank offers a lower rate credit card. I was getting sprayed with interest every month in exchange for having a frequent flyer program connected to it. now the frequent flyer points were useful when i used to fly more often, but i barely use them now. turns out i can save 8% in interest by switching to a different one. (in my case initially that will be about $34/month)
and so i have.
if you have a service like this you are really seeing no benefit in, just get rid of it.
by the way, flybuys is for chumps. it seems to be to follow what people are spending their cash on and is way hard to ever redeem anything. hence the reason i got rid of mine like 10 years back! - make your lunch.
i am the first to admit I am crap at this. it's been quite humid and almost too hot to cook so i've not bothered, but consider that i work in an office, sometimes stop for a toasted sandwhich for breakfast, am obsessed with coca cola which is really expensive unless you buy it in bulk, and usually go out for a sandwhich at lunch. even tho it doesn't seem like much before you know it it's honestly $20 a day.
so, in essence, i spend $100 a week just for lunch. which is totally lame. i am the first to admit it. I used to be really good at making big meals and taking them to work and am not sure why i became so complacent. this will change. - well the other thing is... if there is stuff sitting in your house (or in boxes under other peoples houses) that you never use / read / play with but that are in good nick and someone else will appreciate more and use rather than having them sit under your house, sell them on ebay.
i've been doing this for a while (i guess gumtree is another good option too) because when i spent 3 months in adelaide i was finally able to go through the 16+ boxes of stuff left at mum and dads. there were plenty of collectable books and such that i had kept for the 'collectable' reason but when i thought about it, they'd been sitting there for 4 years... and that's just stupid. mum and dad need their shed and i don't need to keep so much random stuff.
anyways, i like ebay, people have been thrilled to get their hands on some of the music and books i have had stashed away, and it kind of gives me a feeling of satisfaction having sent it to someone who really appreciates it.... plus that little bit of spending money.
be warned tho, you'll probably see something YOU like on ebay and spend some of that cash you earned. hehe. - i guess 6 should be quit smoking, but i'm not that worried about it.
more soon. i know that was all silly and self indulgent and possibly more like self-help, but i felt like sharing.
much love, xJ