Broadband and Money

Yes, I have been stuck while posting about my cruise. We have been using dial-up for the past 12 years. I hate having to pay more for things that I enjoy when there is a cheaper option. And for the past 12 years, the cable company here was more expensive for broadband than was paying for a land-line phone and AOL. Yes, our cable company is expensive and it is a monopoly where we live. No one else has been allowed to provide cable for us. I hate monopolies because they do what they want when they want and charge what they want. I like competition because it keeps everyone in balance. There should always be at least 2 of everything to choose from like grocery stores, gas stations, doctor offices, dentists, etc. It keeps the costs down too.

That being said, it has finally gotten to where the cable company has come down on their price some. So we finally called and got broadband. We are now saving a whole $15. That's because we can now take AOL up on their free stuff instead of paying for AOL So yes, our cable company is still $10 higher than paying for our land line, and they just came down in price. If it wasn't for AOL's free service now, we would not be able to do this. Thank You AOL!

And yes, I do know about AT&T's high speed internet options. But I didn't know how that worked thru my phone line. And it was just now available here in this area. I think that's why the cable company came down in cost. I still have my Direct TV though. I'm not paying the cable company anymore money than what's necessary. Direct TV is still cheaper than them. And yes, we do like AOL a lot. We've tried many other dialup companies that are cheaper, but AOL comes without all that other junk like popups, spam, etc.

That being said, I was finally able to get the last of my cruise pictures online in just 10 minutes. In the past, every post had been taking at least 10 minutes for every picture I uploaded. So for a whole post, I have been spending like 2 hours on each. A big time waster, but it was worth it. It makes me happy to look back on my cruise at the faboulous stuff that we saw. And the beautiful nature that we observed. And I'm sharing it with anyone who stumbles upon this blog.

We had a ball on our cruise and can't wait to take the kids on one. If it was up to Chris, we would be taking them this next year or perhaps this year if the prices stay down. But Chris did himself in before he knew it. For Christmas he gave me the book by Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover. A lot of what Dave says in the book, I have tried before. I have came up with the idea of snowballing the debt back when I was a teen. I've never been able to implement it because there's always something I needed. I needed a new car when we were just married. I was tired of my used one breaking down every month even though we really could not afford it. Yes it did take us 6 years to pay off the first one and 7 years to pay off the second one. It seemed like everytime we got on our feet, something would happen. It would get to where I was afraid to pay bills because when the last check cleared the bank, Murphy would show up. Now I know about the Baby Emergency Fund (BEF) to keep Murphy away. So now we are not buying anything else we don't need. We are not taking any expensive vacations anymore. We will however still go camping with Chris's parents. That's not expensive and it's family time well worth it. However, it does look like we will be having to get our house remodeled this year and buy new appliances that are about to break. I will try my best to make sure we don't go overboard. Chris is not quite on board with all of this yet. But he does like the idea of us getting out of debt. He just wants all his comforts too. Sometimes you have to get uncomfortable to get somewhere. Sometimes, you need not to eat out so that you can save that money for a baby emergency fund. One thing we are working on is that we don't need to go to the Movie Theater every month. We can rent the movie. We just have to wait for it to come out. We are not very big on waiting. We are spoiled kids. Patience is a virtue. Patience will keep you out of trouble.

BTW, getting out of debt does not count the expenses of living like electricity, water, groceries. Those are monthly expenses that you don't have to pay. You have a choice there. Debt is the credit card bills, revolving credit accounts, house payments, car loans, etc. Yes even though we are poor people, we do have debt too. Too much of it for what we bring in, just like every other American out there. Yes we have been living the American Dream of having a credit card and other loans and trying to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Or better yet, to pay for groceries and clothes and hope that you have enough money left to pay the person who is yelling the loudest because you are late on everything. Because you are not telling your money where to go, but you are allowing the money to dictate everything. Yes, we have been living on a budget for a long time. We had to. If we didn't the electric, water, and gas bill would have never gotten paid. It's that I've always had to budget down to the last penny, trying to get out everything that we could. The difference is that now that last penny goes to the lowest debt that we are snowballing on. And before you know it, its a whole dime that is going to the lowest debt. It does feel good when you come to find out that you are sending one dollar extra. It does feel good when you have money for every bill way before the bill is due.

So if you are out there, living like every one else, and have way too many bills, you have to stop and think. Is having a credit card to pay for groceries, then paying the grocery bill the next month the best thing to do. Is getting that car loan for a brand new car a good thing to do. Every car that we gotten on a loan has always had something to go terribly wrong on it before we got it paid off. Just to think, that if we didn't have the car payment to make, we could have taken better care of the car. Then the car would not be on it's last legs just when we get it paid off. It's a fact of life: Any car will break down when you need it to the least. That's called Murphy. Now a house is a different thing. Everyone needs a house. You need four walls and a roof. However, you don't need the fanciest thing out there. You need four walls and a roof. When you save up for it, you can have the best thing. But you need to save up for it.

It has always amazed me when I see people who make $100K a year who are struggling. I've always said that if I had $50K, we could live a whole lot better. We have never made more than $35K in our whole life. And that was when we were both working 40 hours a week. That didn't last long, because then we are too tired to pay attention to the kids, and too tired to do a budget, and the money just runs thru our fingers. America has lived on credit way too long. We need to get back to basics like saving for the things we want. Buying the things we can afford. Not hoping to pay off things 10 years down the road. Credit is the reason this economy is going downhill. We have way too much credit! We have no net worth.

It's time to tighten the ship so we can fly!