Free

Today is the first day of a cable and DVR free house here at Casa De S. Por que some might ask? (I am thinking I might take Spanish lesions during this time – I obviously have a desire to speak it?!?! – that will be a whole other story!) Back to my story at hand.

Well, there are several reasons we decided to go sans cable in our homestead. First of all – okay a little back story here – I RARELY look at our monthly bills. When Eric and I got married we decided only one of us could have our hands in the bills because we do things completely different. I like to have money in the checking account and can ignore that there is credit card debit – as long as I have money in the checking account, I felt good. Eric on the other hand, pays all the debit off monthly and doesn’t concern himself with how much is left over in checking. So, knowing his approach is the best approach for the long run, I gave it all up to him. This was really best for all involved because honestly, I HATE doing bills but in return I never really pay attention to how much I spend.

Hey, I don’t see it going out of checking so in my mind it didn’t matter. OH, but it does matter. Once these damn medical bills starting coming in, I started questioning our “budget” – now, I use that word very loosely. We don’t adhere to any kind of budget we just like to think we do! So, looking at all these bills I started to realize my weekly office visit co-pays and our max out of pocket were really going to add up and we needed to figure out a way to cut back.

There are some things you just can’t save on – or I haven’t figured out how to yet. The grocery bill – Marci swears I can do it if I just look on line and see what stores have what deals for the week – I haven’t tried that yet! I need to get myself organized (oh, that is a whole other mess!) and then I will. Marci will have to walk me through it, but she is used to that! I can’t take Ian out of daycare while I am home because I don’t have the energy to play with him all day like he needs.

But there are many things we could cut back on, so we did it. We started with cable – we will be saving $70 a month. Yes people, SEVENTY BUCKS a month. That is $840 a year we will be saving and no telling how much time we will save not sitting in front of the boob tube.

Other ways I am saving the family money – well, I won’t need to get my hair cut every 6 -8 weeks – hey, that adds up over a year also. I have no need to get pedicures every 4 – 5 weeks because my toe nails will stop growing. I will get one more though and it should last until our cruise (which I will have to get a new one before that! – Sara, only 107 more days!) I am saving a ton in gas. I don’t drive downtown daily and when I do drive, I am very conscious of my driving, meaning I have (well, Eric also) have gotten the gas mileage in the Escape up to 25.5 mpg – hey, I am very proud of that! So I figure while I have my weekly co-pays, I will find a way to save that much money and hopefully more. I am learning it is easier than I thought it would be because spending money doesn’t make me happy nor does acquiring more stuff. Actually finding ways to save money is much more exciting than buying something new!