The only thing in my mailbox yesterday was a check! I wish every day was like that. Although I'd settle for a deposit into our checking account everyday, too. The check was a return of a utility deposit that we were required to pay last year to have our water turned on. A nice $60 back in our pocket.
I know they told me it would be returned. I just didn't make a note of it anywhere. My husband thought I was probably tracking it. Well no, once the money is gone, I don't expect it back.
I know you all will expect that I will put it towards the mortgage. I'd like to do that, but we have just spent quite a bit recently. There was also an unexpected expense of a rental car of $110 to get my husband to a school. The government won't reimburse as it was not authorized. The airline had to route him to an airport two hours away!! I'm sure he will check with the airline today about compensation on his way home, but I'm not holding my breath with the airline providing compensation. That $60 helps soften the blow on that charge. That's my thinking on it right now...I may decide to throw it at the mortgage in the end.
I received my $25 from Swagbucks yesterday and redeemed my $3 from a Pinecone survey, which should arrive in my PayPal account today. I will then transfer that money to checking. That money will go the mortgage as soon as I have it!
I'm about ready to make a change to our home phone. We will buy an Obi adapter for about $40 that will connect to our internet. We then plug our regular phone into that. The provider will be Google Voice so we can make local and long distance calls for free. Google Voice does not provide 911 service, but Anveo provides that for $12 per year, which is all we will pay after the initial hardware investment. That is a huge savings!
We currently pay $30.76 monthly for our home phone, which includes all those taxes and zero long distance. If we do use long distance we are charged $0.14 per minute. I use my cell phone if I need to call long distance. We get very few calls on it, but it is nice to have since all of our cell phones are based in another area code. We can't really port our current number to Google Voice without a lot of work around, but we can pick a new number for free which I have decided is just fine. I will need to notify family, schools, and service providers of the new number. A bit of a pain, but worth it for the savings.
We may also invest in a tool that crimps CAT5 cable so we can have our internet router, and OBi system upstairs rather than the basement. We lose some processing speed by having it in the basement. Our house is already prewired with CAT5 and coaxial cable, so we just need to pull out the cable from the wall and put on the adapter plug(RJ45). I might not be using all the right terminology, but I do know what the plan is! The tool is about $15.
I'm excited about all of our possible changes and reducing our bills. I now just need my husband to be home long enough to make these decisions and help me make the physical changes.
I know some of you have already ditched your landline which is a great savings! Does anyone use VOip at there home? Do you use Google Voice? Tell me about your experience.
Surprise Snowflake and Google Voice
August 16th, 2013 at 02:02 pm
August 16th, 2013 at 07:37 pm 1376681839
August 16th, 2013 at 07:42 pm 1376682143
Verify with your local law enforcement ( city police or sherrif depending on where you live) that the 911 system will call them without service.
Mine does at my apartment here in California to city polive and to sheriff at my aunt rural house.
August 16th, 2013 at 08:13 pm 1376683984
August 16th, 2013 at 10:29 pm 1376692168
August 16th, 2013 at 10:43 pm 1376693010
August 17th, 2013 at 04:32 pm 1376757122
Which state are you currently living in? This is a question i can research for you in 5 minutes at work Monday.