nickeled and dimed

NICKELED AND DIMED
thats what i said to my wife she
the other day
we are getting nickeled and dimed you know

i said that after looking at our bills
they all come in at the end of the month



what really triggered this was my dish bill
i noticed over time that it just slowly slowly
eased up each month so that suddenly it was
$25 more a month
we have no choice its either no tv or tv with antenna only
or these two satellite companies
no tv for me is not an option
ever
i have to have tv

then
i looked at our verizon wireless bill
now we took our old land line number and converted
it to a cellphone
it was just really now just an answering machine
thats the number we gave out to companies
when we ordered stuff
if they dont leave a message we dont respond
we never answer it
then
i noticed that this phone started out at about $12 a month
thats the reason we changed in the first place
verizon had increased the landline price up to over $35
now the cell phone line was costing us $37+ a month
expensive answering machine it was

then
i get a daily newspaper and have always gotten it
but i noticed over time all i was reading was the
business section and sports page
and
last month i said ok lets keep up with how much
you are reading this
not very much
i was mainly using the paper for landscaping and
composting and starting our fireplace
maybe i could get my news on the internet
i was anyway


then
magazines i get at $30-$50 a year
i was getting 6 of them but have dwindled down to 4
maybe i dont need them
well now i have to keep the texas gardener one

then
we pay $45 a month for trash pick up
we recycle so much that we only produce about
2 bags of trash a month
so
yesterday i met a neighbor who doesnt use the trash
company
he aggressively recycles everything
then burns the little bit thats left


then
we have a company we have used for our insurance
for years
we use to get a multiinsurance discount since we got our
car home and umbrella policy from them
but
when we moved to the country they wouldnt insure
a country home
so
we are looking at a company that covers all three
and gives us back the multiinsurance discount

so i added all these up as per year savings

dish-dropped a fee for my equipment protection and
decreased downwards to the next level of service
money saved $300

verizon-dropped the never used home number
money saved $444

newspaper-now this one was hard to do
money saved $312

magazines-will stop 3 of them
money saved $105

trash-will stop this and build a burning stove
money saved $552

insurance-will change to a company that gives us
the 3 insurance discount for car home umbrella insurance
money saved $500

so the totaled saved in a year is
$2213

now we plan to take that money and apply it to
home improvements
doubling our solar power
adding central heat and air system
replacing all our window

we expect our energy use to drop significantly with
these changes
saving maybe $50+ a month
some months we may not get an electric bill

we are getting energy tax credits and credits on our
electric bills for adding energy improvements
total $4500

so we are getting all  these improvements paid for
by cutting out all the nickeling and dimeing
and tax credits

so i started looking at our grocery bill some
my wife she said
forget it

there will be
no cheap generic toilet paper or cheap lotions or
cheap detergents

ok so i tried that once but it didnt go over so well
maybe i better stop while im ahead huh

the energy efficient cheap

the organicgreen doctor