How to make cutbacks in order to pay monthly expenses
The back story
Recently, my financial situation took a big hit last month My wake up call arrived when it was revealed that there was $1.70 in my checking account. There were several wrong turns taken when trying to quick fix my computer. When the smoke cleared, there were three companies vying for the repair of my laptop.All of these companies had to go. The expense of upkeep took a big chunk of my funds.
What would become of my blunder? Would my mother be mad? There was panic, but only momentarily. There were two weeks left in August Barring major medical issue, even this could 've been mangedMost of my cushion the last two mess ups were taken because of those other problems. As a matter of fact, there was a few hundred still needed to have gotten out of the other situation.
The companies grumbled but gave back some money
Avangate was the most expensive in that not only did they charge $349 for the repair and driver update to this laptop they tried to convince me to cover the desktop in my bedroom, which was another $300. Since Jobz For Writers was breathing down my neck to finish a 50 page project, and the due date was less then 24 hours away, desperation settled in even though they read to me a certification statement on the contract.
There were two other charges from Answers By and Speedy PC The last person actually called me on the phone and tried to “fix” my access to the internet. The problem never was solved after five hours of trying to get into my computer. My calling the company before them to fix my problem revealed that they didn’t even know who that mysterious person was. Needless to say, there was a lot of suspicion over this incident.
When the bills came due, they were not only unwanted, some were fraudulent, .or done by coercion. Thankfully most of the companies agreed to give me back a big chunk of my money, even after grumbling about what was known to have been given. Avangate gave me the biggest refund. of $450 out of $688.05. They took about $199 because of my calling twice. Answers By gave me back $50 because of my calling the tech for help also. Speedy PC had no toll free number. After telling the credit card company all that happened, they gave me all of the money charged to the card back. If there was no contact from them by October 21 of this year, the dispute stayed final and in my favor. This cut my bill from what it was to $148.12.
Cutting the unnecessary
After looking at my bank statement, there were several things that did not change. Consequently these expenses like Medicare A, B and D did not change, as well as my life insurance policy or my renter's insurance policy. Neither did my magazine subscription. These weren't to be tampered with.
- One of the Income Solutions credit card payments was sent back to my checking account. There was no need to make two payments a month.
- Canceling my monthly digital subscription to The Times Record News saved $9.99
- Canceling the monthly Empower Network charges saved me $44.95
- And canceling my monthly CBN donation added another $20.
This only gave me a a little bit of what was needed to pay the bills in September. One of the credit card minimum payments was $104.27. It made me look at other reductions that could be made.
Taking a hard look at other expense reductions
The task wasn’t finished yet. There were other cuts that needed to have been made to maintain survival. People joked about my cell phone being the most expensive charge of my bills. They were wrong. My cable and internet bill was a major chunk with Starz Encore Movie Channels and Turbo Internet. They said by cutting the above $20 was to be saved but it made me happy seeing the bigger decrease.
- Cutting the Starz Encore Channels and reducing my turbo internet by half saved me $32.50. My cable and internet bill went from $152.76 to $116.56
- My cell package was over a year old. Somehow my entire data got used up earlier in September. By moving up to 4G, my savings was $5
- Groceries were need based only and paid out of pocket instead of by check. It made me happy staying within the $20 limit at least once.
Vindication
At the end of all this trouble, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. There was a big chunk left in my checking account as a result of all those major reductions and cutbacks in my expenses. There might've been enough to have gotten a quote later to upgrade to Windows 7.
