Miserly Cost Cutting

The faster I pay my debt the faster I can enjoy financial freedom. If that entails short term sacrifice, so be it. In January I reduced two recurring expenses: mobile phone service and Internet.

1. I cut my mobile phone service to the lowest plan available through AT&T. I reduced my free monthly minutes from 700 to 550, saving $10 per month. Even though my partner and I are on a family plan, this should be enough minutes. I have "rollover minutes" so that should help, too.
2. I also lowered my DSL from 6MB to 768kB. This reduced my monthly bill from $47.95 to $19.95. The only reason I had not done this sooner is because I stream a lot of movies from Netflix, which accounts for almost 100% of my entertainment expense. I did buy a new antennae for my TV for $20 which picks up twice the channels as the broken one I had been using.

I'll see whether this slower speed is adequate for streaming movies. I have my doubts (it just went into effect so I haven't tried it out yet) but can easily switch back if necessary.

I doubt my job will last much longer so I want to be proactive about cutting costs now. These two cuts reduce my ongoing expenses by $37 per month... More than $400 a year!