FREE Home Phone Service

In a previous post I wrote about how to save on your cell phone service.  In this post, I'm going to take it one step further and explain how I managed to get FREE home phone service.  Yes, free.  Now before you get all excited there is a small hardware cost, but after that all of your calls within the US and Canada are free.  

Many people these days do not own a land line phone and there are many reasons for that.  I guess I'm kind of old fashioned though and feel like I should have a land line phone just because I should.  Well, that and I absolutely dislike talking on a cell phone.  I was paying about $25 a month for basic phone service which did not include long distance capabilities.  I was looking at my expenses one day and thought to myself, "I'm going to get that cost lower".  I looked at the options my current phone company offered thinking that I would just ask for the cheapest option they offered.  Unfortunately, I realized that I already had the cheapest option they offered!  That wasn't good enough for me though, as I was determined to find something cheaper.  So the research began...

Eventually I came across VoIP (voice over IP) service and found that many companies offer this option.  Well, you know what comes next in my quest to be thrifty...I started a spreadsheet!!!!  In the end, I decided that ObiTalk110 was best for my family.  

Below are some of my reasons for this decision.

• Low initial hardware cost ($43.99 from Amazon)
• FREE calling to anywhere in the US and Canada using Google Talk
• It plugs directly into your router so there is no need to keep your computer on to make or receive calls
• Great call quality
• Pick your own phone number
• It's small!! It's only about 4.5 inches by 4 inches so it can be easily tucked out of the way.
• Easy setup.  I had mine up and running in less than 10 minutes.  I would also like to add that I was able to set it up with a very active toddler in my midst. :)

The only negative I can find with this device is that it does not have the ability to call 911 through Google Talk.  However, with the popularity of cell phones that do have that capability, is it really a negative?  That is for you to decide depending on your situation.

Given that this device pays for itself in less than two months, I'd say that it's a pretty thrifty purchase.

I was able to save about $25 a month ($300/year) by switching to a VoIP service.  How much can you save?


Thanks for reading!

Little to No Cost Television

If you are like me, you love television.  However, just as everything else these days, it seems like the price to watch TV just keeps rising and rising.  I became tired of paying about $60 a month for cable TV.  That equals to about $720 a year just to watch TV.  I could find a much better use for all that money.  Enter my thrifty side...

I began by researching other cable companies and analyzing their packages.  It all just seemed way too expensive, in my opinion, for television.  So I did a little more research.  This time I turned to streaming television.  There are many options out there today.  I checked out Hulu, Amazon and Netflix.  In the end my husband and I decided to choose Netflix.  It fit all our needs and for $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming, it was the perfect price.  


In addition to our streaming service through Netflix, we also have an antenna on top of our house that picks up local television.  For those of you wondering if you need to go out and get a fancy digital antenna, the answer is no.  The antenna that we currently have is the same antenna that was there when we purchased our house about five and a half years ago, and by looking at it, I'm guessing it was probably installed in the 70's sometime.


Antenna television is not your antenna television from when you were a kid.  No longer is it only about seven channels.  We currently receive 40+ channels with quality television being broadcast on them.  What surprises most people when they are browsing through our antenna television is that the picture quality is in high definition.  It is actually clearer than the high definition television we received when we paid for cable.  In my opinion, that is pretty awesome...and thrifty!


I saved $52 a month ($624/year) by cancelling our cable, signing up for a low cost streaming television service and by watching free TV through our antenna.  How much can you save?


Thanks for reading!

How To Save On Cell Phone Service

It seems like everywhere you look you see someone on their smartphone.  It’s turning into an epidemic.  People can’t go or do anything without their cell phone.  Cell phones and corresponding data plans that are a recent necessity for people aged 5-95 are, let’s face it, expensive!  I was recently researching new cell phone service because I was tired of paying $75 a month for our two phones on a family plan.  A lot of you are probably thinking that $75 a month for two phones sounds like a great deal, but it wasn’t good enough for me.  I knew that there had to be a cheaper alternative out there without compromising good service.  I searched through every major cell phone provider’s plans and created spreadsheets (I love spreadsheets).  I looked at their individual plans, their family plans, their pay-as-you go plans.  Nothing was cheap enough for me.  Then one afternoon I was talking to my parents about how expensive cell phones and wireless plans are and how I needed to find something cheaper when they suggested that I look outside the box.  They suggested that I look at companies that offer ONLY pay-as-you go plans.  I must admit, I was leery at first.  How good is the service?  How good are the phones?  Like many people, I immediately assumed that when you choose to go with a pay-as-you plan, then you will get stuck with an old fashioned, un-cool looking phone.  Hesitant as I was, I decided to do my own research on these types of plans.  I was shocked at what I found.  Not only were the plans exactly what I was looking for, but they had cool phones!  Below is the phone that we chose from www.net10.com.  At only $40 it has a ton of features we were looking for.

Net10 LG900 Prepaid Cell Phone

Before you make the switch, however, you need to do more research.  This research involves researching yourself.  How many minutes do you typically use in a month?  I would suggest getting an average of a few months since usage per month can vary.  Do you need a smartphone?  Or can you do with a phone that you can make calls on, text and occasionally go on the internet with?  Once you decide exactly what you need then it’s time to start looking at what you can get to fill your needs.  Pay-as-you go providers offer tons of options.  Prices range from approximately $15/month for 300 minutes to $50/month for unlimited talk/text/data.  Yes, you read that right; you can get unlimited/talk/text/data from a pay-as-you go provider for $50.  What’s better than that, you ask?  Well how about using all those unlimited minutes talking and surfing the web on a smartphone?  Yep, pay-as-you go providers offer smartphones, and pretty awesome ones too!  Another advantage of pay-as-you go plans is that they offer great service.  Many of them share towers with the big companies, so you get the exact same service for a fraction of the price.

In the end, my family was able to save about $45 a month ($540/year) by making the switch.  How much can you save?


Thanks for reading!

Give Yourself an Allowance

I know, I know…You  are probably thinking, “I’m not 5 years old anymore”, but think about it.  Using your credit or debit card is sooo easy, isn’t it?  It’s a magical card that you swipe and you can buy anything you want with it? Right? Wrong-o!  One of the top ways people get in financial trouble is by using their credit card like there are no consequences.  Money isn’t this magical imaginary thing.  It is tangible, and I believe that the best way to get back to really believing that is by having it in your hand. 

So what I’m suggesting is giving yourself a weekly cash allowance.  This allowance is to be used only on miscellaneous non-essential items such purchasing a magazine, a coffee in the morning or buying your lunch instead of brown-bagging it.  By using your allowance money to purchase these non-essential items, you are visually seeing how fast your money is being spent and you have better control to maybe say no to that coffee in the morning if you only have $5 left of your allowance money for the week.

The amount of your allowance will depend on various factors however I suggest that you challenge yourself.  Start with $40 a week.  From there, go to $30.  Can you go as low as $20?  Maybe, maybe not.  It all depends on each person’s unique situation.  However, I have found that the more I challenge myself to be thrifty, the better I get at it.  The better I get at being thrifty, the more extra change I have at the end of every week.  

Thanks for reading!

Creating A Plan And Seeing The Future

Seeing the future? Come on Thrifty Maven, you are starting to sound a little crazy.  I don’t mean literally seeing the future, I mean creating a sort of cash projection spreadsheet so that at any given moment you can see how much money you will have in your bank account in one week, two weeks, three weeks and so on.  I began using a spreadsheet to help guide my finances about eight years ago when I was still in college and trying to find a way to pay my tuition.  It has helped me tremendously through the years. 

The spreadsheet I created is basically an excel document that is dated across the top and on the left hand side has categories.  The top categories are income categories and the middle categories are expense categories and the categories at the bottom are savings categories.  You can divide the categories by color or by simple lines.  The screenshot below is an example of how I set up my spreadsheet.  

The beauty of setting up your own spreadsheet rather than using an online budgeting tool is that everything is 100% customizable.  I’ve found with a lot of budgeting tools, you have to lump in a lot of your expenses into one broad category.  I like to see exactly where I’m spending my money so a custom spreadsheet works best for me.   Feel free to play around with the categories adding and deleting as you go until you find what works for you. 

One of the main benefits of a creating your own spreadsheet is the ability to put in all your incomes and expenses that you know will be coming up in the future.  This allows you to plan what you can afford based on current and future income/expenses.  For example, I want to make a $100 purchase tomorrow.  If I already know that I have a big electric bill coming up in two weeks and that expense is already entered in my spreadsheet on the date it will get paid, I will easily see if my current $100 purchase will affect my ability to pay that electric bill.

Another advantage of making a cash projection spreadsheet is the ability to see how much you’ve spent in a particular category during any given time frame.  You can easily see if you’ve spent too much on groceries, going out to eat, clothes, etc. 

Once you create you spreadsheet, play around with!  Don’t be afraid to add and subtract categories as you go.  It will take some time to get your spreadsheet where you want it, but it will be well worth it in the end.  There are endless possibilities!


Thanks for reading!

How It All Started

I think it’s important as I start my blog that I tell a little back story of how I came to be The Thrifty Maven.  I’ve always been a very money smart individual.  My parents raised me to know the real meaning of a dollar.  However, what the real meaning of a dollar was didn’t really hit me until I was an adult and paying for everything on my own.  As with a lot of people in recent years, my family has been a victim of the recession.  My husband, a carpenter, was laid off more times than I can count and our trending analysis for our house value would best be described as a downward sloping arrow.  It was at that time that I decided I needed to step up my game.  It was do or die and anyone who knows me personally knows that I do not go down without a fight.  Since failure wasn’t an option for me, I decided that I needed to take a serious look at my finances.  So was born my Thrift Maven side.  


Thanks for reading!