I agree that we are really doing the baby steps to reach our long financial journey (my goal). Because of our unnecessary spending habits, our journey is going to be longer than we expected. Actually, I was thinking we are spending less than $3000 per month including my student loan, but it looks like more than that. Honestly, I don’t track my expenses, but I will do that from now. There are so many ways to save money without changing our lifestyle.
My last wireless bill with overage charge actually alerted me about my spending, so I spent a day to review my fixed expenses such as rent, cable, internet, cell phone, car insurance, etc, and realized the spending is much more than I thought.
We married one year after we graduated from university and moved into the one bedroom apartment where we are living right now. We bought almost everything for a new family (furniture, kitchen items, etc) and were really excited to start our new life. I called Rogers to get an internet connection only, but ended up with a package because I was told if I get a bundle I could save some money. The bundle costs us $164.12 per month for internet, cable and a cell phone. My cell phone and home phone are not included.
Without a question, this is really too much money for TV and internet which we don’t use very often because of our work.
So, I am planning to start a spending diet to reduce the unwanted fat in my monthly budget with few sacrifices. First, I will start the spending diet with my fixed expenses.
Hers is my fixed spending:
- Rent: $1125
I can’t reduce this. We will move to our new home in 6 months.
- Bus pass: $133.75
I can’t reduce this.
- Student loan: $295
This can be reduced by paying down the loan.
- Cable +Internet +cell phones: $243.21 ($164.12 + $22.59 + $56.65)
We can reduce this. I will call my service providers and ask them reduce the price or change the plan for a low cost. I will consider other options such as NetFlix, voice over ip, etc.
- Car insurance + life insurance: $165
I am going to check with some other insurance companies and compare the price for my car insurance.
It is really worth if I could save at least $100 per month in my fixed expenses with few phone calls. I don’t want to spend my hard earning money like this anymore. Rather, I will let the money work for me by investing in dividend stocks.
Hey FJ, from what I can tell it looks like you have a lot of room to negotiate with Rogers about your phone, cable and internet package. I did the same with Cogeco last Fall and they reduced my monthly bill by a little of $30. So it pays to negotiate. While it is possible to build wealth without budgeting, I’ve always found that tracking our expenses were important to help us maximize our saving. I look forward to seeing how you trim those expenses.
Thank you MRSF,
I am working on to reduce my bills. I reduced some bills, but still the negotiation is going on with my service provider.
Cheers,
Is internet really that expensive in there? Or is there some extra services included? I just checked our costs for internet in Estonia and found out that internet cost varies between 5€ – 30€ (7 – 40 dollars).
Thank Tauri for stopping by,
Yes, internet connection and wireless services are pretty expensive in Canada. Unfortunately, we have only three major service providers, and they have no real competition. You are lucky that your can get internet connection for less than $10.
Cheers,
You can trim that rogers bill easy. Internet go down to the tier U need space wise as even the low tiers are fast. Cut out that home phone as it is redundant with cell phone packages now. For car insurance shop around rates and delete what is not essential. Also boost your deductible for further saving!
Good Luck!
Thank you Asset Grinder,
Currently, we have unlimited internet, but the maximum we used is 80GB per month. So, I may find some saving on the internet. As you said, I’m thinking to cancel the cable and home phone line and looking for some voice over ip lines.
For my car insurance, I am getting some quotes from different insurance services. Let’s see how much I can save by making few phone calls. 😀
Thanks again for your kind advise.
Best Regards,