Penny pinching progress

Sorry it's been a few days. I haven't had internet at home...again. Here's the best advice I can give anyone:

DON'T PURCHASE AT&T DSL!!!

I warned them that if they continued to upset me that I would slander their name in every publication I write for, including my internet blogs and profiles...and they now say that even though my disconnect was their fault, I have to wait in line for my new order just like everyone else and won't get it back until Jan 12...so here I am, "slanderizing." Not only are they really incompetent, their service is some of the slowest internet I've ever had.

I'll be getting clearwire and trying them out tomorrow. So we'll see.

Anywho...

The whole reason I went with them was because they offered me a much cheaper deal than Comcast and everyone else. $19.95/mo for high (enough) speed internet. The problem is yo get what you pay for.

But on the other hand, I really am going to miss having such a low price. I prefer to keep my bills as low as I can without sacrificing too much quality on things that are givens like TV, Internet, and other monthly expenses. It helps keep us above water and on our feet, or in my case, my toes :)

That's really my biggest secret to share: penny pinching. I literally have a porcelain pig piggy bank filled with pennies, and recently counted, it adds up to over $50. That's pretty significant for pennies. I take every cent I'm given and I save as much of it as I can. I use coupons that seem small like 35 cents here and 55 cents there. I wait to buy certain foods or things like printer paper and laundry detergent until there is a good sale like BOGO or half off, and I'm usually not picky about brands.

While this makes people refer to me as a "penny pincher" this has also saved me TONS AND TONS of money over the course of a year. Think about it. I spent $1.99 on my last bottle of laundry detergent and it has lasted me about a month so far with still a bit left to go. Typically, laundry detergent costs around $6 a bottle. Even if I buy one bottle a month, that's $4 a month I saved. $48 a year. in 5 years that's almost $250 I saved on laundry detergent.

My greatest advice to anyone who needs to start saving (for anything) is to realize the value of a penny. We throw them away, toss them in fountains and smash them into trinkets (although that last one can be cool for cheap souvenirs). Even though it's value may be small, it still has value and if we save them, they can add up to be as valuable as large paper currency. But we have to care enough about them to pick them up and put them away.

Like our bodies, we tend to forget how important pennies can be in daily life. Don't just ingest sodas and candies and high fat foods because it's cheap and tasty and that's how you want to save your money. It does no good to save money on food quality now just to spend triple the cost on medical bills later. Save your pennies, start a savings, be smart with your money on the necessities (detergent, phone service, gas, etc.) and then you'll have enough to put your money where your mouth is...literally.

Just don't use AT&T. If Comcast or other cable internet is too costly for you (and it's seriously downright grand theft at the current prices they charge at Comcast right now), keep looking for other alternatives. Before I bite the bullet and go with $50/month for Comcast internet, I will try everything I cna find that might be comparable and save me $10-15/mo at the same time. Let's hope clearwire works. In the meantime, I'll keep saving these pennies just in case. ;)