Over the winter, I reviewed our budget and to try to reduce any unnecessary spending. One glaring unnecessary expense in my mind was our cable bill. When I approached my husband about reducing or even canceling cable, he replied, "what would you do without Bravo TV?". He always knows how to throw it back at me as he knows Bravo TV is my vice.
He suggested that I call the cable company to review our bill and inquire about smaller cable packages.
I made the phone call and after a 30 minute conversation with a customer service rep, my brain was mush from all of the talk about bundling, broadband and Internet speeds. We bundle our cell phone, Internet and cable and because of that we receive a discount. If we reduce or cancel cable, we will pay more for Internet and our speed will slow down. GRRRRRR.
Sensing my frustration, the customer service rep dangled free 3 months of HBO in front of me to appease me. I bit and hung up the phone.
I was glazed over and hubby was going to have to figure this out. After all, electronics are his domain. If it were up to me, cable would be gone, but it's not so easy for us to cancel cable as it will affect our Internet speed which we have grown accustomed to. The bundling makes each service attractable.
Fast forward to July 2010 and my husband asks to see a copy of our cable bill to review. He was finally going to help me figure out how we can reduce our cable bill. Because I signed up for paperless billing, I needed to go online to print a copy of the recent bill. Our monthly bill is automatically paid via a credit card.
I printed the bill and without even glancing at it I handed it to my husband.
"Why are we paying for HBO?", he asked.
"What did you say?", I replied.
"$22.99 for HBO", he said.
Until that very minute, I completely forgot about the free HBO that we were given several months ago. We might have watched a few movies initially, but we forgot all about it.
He called the company to talk about our bill and found out that the free HBO ended two and half months ago and we were now being charged $22.99 a month. He told the customer service rep about the free offer and that we weren't interested in paying for the HBO. The rep refunded our account $71.82.
The new paperless billing that I signed up for is great, because I don't have to worry about missing a payment. But I don't see a bill unless I take the time to look at it online to check for inconsistencies. And obviously I have not done so. Lesson learned.
"You owe me", my husband said with a wink.
My husband just saved us $71.82 because I was asleep at the wheel. I might be the Family Office Manager, but it goes to show that 2 minds are still better than one.
How many of your bills are paperless? Do you still review them regularly?
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He suggested that I call the cable company to review our bill and inquire about smaller cable packages.
I made the phone call and after a 30 minute conversation with a customer service rep, my brain was mush from all of the talk about bundling, broadband and Internet speeds. We bundle our cell phone, Internet and cable and because of that we receive a discount. If we reduce or cancel cable, we will pay more for Internet and our speed will slow down. GRRRRRR.
Sensing my frustration, the customer service rep dangled free 3 months of HBO in front of me to appease me. I bit and hung up the phone.
I was glazed over and hubby was going to have to figure this out. After all, electronics are his domain. If it were up to me, cable would be gone, but it's not so easy for us to cancel cable as it will affect our Internet speed which we have grown accustomed to. The bundling makes each service attractable.
Fast forward to July 2010 and my husband asks to see a copy of our cable bill to review. He was finally going to help me figure out how we can reduce our cable bill. Because I signed up for paperless billing, I needed to go online to print a copy of the recent bill. Our monthly bill is automatically paid via a credit card.
I printed the bill and without even glancing at it I handed it to my husband.
"Why are we paying for HBO?", he asked.
"What did you say?", I replied.
"$22.99 for HBO", he said.
Until that very minute, I completely forgot about the free HBO that we were given several months ago. We might have watched a few movies initially, but we forgot all about it.
He called the company to talk about our bill and found out that the free HBO ended two and half months ago and we were now being charged $22.99 a month. He told the customer service rep about the free offer and that we weren't interested in paying for the HBO. The rep refunded our account $71.82.
The new paperless billing that I signed up for is great, because I don't have to worry about missing a payment. But I don't see a bill unless I take the time to look at it online to check for inconsistencies. And obviously I have not done so. Lesson learned.
"You owe me", my husband said with a wink.
My husband just saved us $71.82 because I was asleep at the wheel. I might be the Family Office Manager, but it goes to show that 2 minds are still better than one.
How many of your bills are paperless? Do you still review them regularly?
Thanks for reading FamilyBalanceSheet.
If you would like to receive FREE updates of FBS through your RSS Feed, please click here to sign up. Or Subscribe by Email.
This post is linked to:
- Frugal Friday at Life as Mom
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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