Cutting the cable bill

 This is another fine tune your finances fine tune your life segment brought to you by the bacon McDouble and the hot n spicy, because that is what I just ate

Ever since I’ve moved to Utah I have had issues with my Internet provider. When I called them to set up internet, I was surprised to learn that they were 10 dollars more than the internet provider from Arizona.. When I brought that up to the phone salesman, he stated the market was different in Utah thus the price increase. I’m sorry to me it doesn’t make sense. Maybe I need to take an economic class. So this goes on for years. At first I get the economic package then they convince me to get the t.v. Package. When the contract expires, I again downgrade to the economic package. At one point I had 10 cable channels for free then they put something on my line that stopped that. When I upgraded again I told them something was on my cable preventing me from getting t.v. They basically said that’s impossible and 2-3 weeks later I had the install credited back to me because I was right.

Anyway that’s the back story. 

Lately this internet provider has been on my CONTROL list. I’ve been able to reduce my phone bill from 120 to 40 dollars a month my Amazon has been cut in half as well as others. This internet seems like it just can’t be controlled and they are getting more bold and smarter. For a while you could simply tell them I’m quitting and they’d offer you a better rate. THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN ANYMORE. 

Let me show you how this dishonest company operates.

First they offer a low rate on your internet. As of right now the lowest they have is 19.99 a month. So you call them and tell them I want internet for 19.99 a month. If your an existing customer forget it. They will not offer that to you. If your a new customer they will entice you with a combo offer. If you chose internet you might as well get cable for 15 more a month. Heck you say. I can’t even get cable for 35 a month. So you say sounds good. The next month you get your bill. It’s over 60 BUCKS. You look through it and notice a 19 dollar “tv” charge. Yep a tv charge. Now your bill is DOUBLE what you thought it would be.

Well finally after all these years I finally beat them at there games. At least temporarily maybe permanently. How? Well after discussing it with my wife and really narrowing down our needs vs wants we came up with a few solutions. First of all we switched to a cheap unlimited phone plan. We have another phone number along with it unlimited data on 2 lines for 40 bucks a month. Now this adds 35 dollars to our monthly bills because we were already paying 5 dollars for my daughters line. This reduces our current internet bill by 50 dollars a month. It’s still a adjustment game but my daughter is still streaming shows on our Amazon account. Yes our internet is slow at times but honestly for the most part it doesn’t bother us. We are willing to sacrifice a little now for a lot later. Here’s another tip they may help if someone else wanted to survive off a unlimited phone plan. Try downloading your movies and shows onto you tablet during slow internet or using public Wi-Fi then by using a usb to HDMI adapter watch it on your t.v. When there a will there’s a way. Unfortunately cutting expenses is not in everyone’s goals. 

So I’m saving the best news for last. While researching what internet plans and my next strategy for negotiating with my provider, I came across a low income option for internet. Now because my thoughts have changed when it comes to utilizing any help you can get I decided to have my wife apply. She was accepted and guess what we will now have high speed internet (half the speed we used to get but still plenty) for less than 10 bucks a month. Granted it is that when I get my first bill.

One more note to include. Not everything worked as plan. One issue we ran into was our cell phone provider completely cut off our unlimited data after 18 gigs were used. I believe we would have had enough internet IF we didn’t watch so many shows. We actually were on limited internet for a weekend. We watched old video cassette tapes as well as DVD. It was actually kinda nice having only a handful of options to watch rather than an entire Amazon Library.

Reason 2B to use assistance programs

 It's about 1:15 a.m as I start writing this. Why am I up so late or up so early per your preference? I now have a job where I work graves. It is just a job to me. It is not a career or a job that will continue to brainwash me thinking that if I search elsewhere I will be bankrupt with medical bills. Not true and for now and forever I will reserve the right to quit a job if I so desire to. Right now I want to give this job a chance and even though my feet hurt and my back is sore every night I still have much to learn.

So here's another reason I am ok asking and or applying for benifits. P.s. just a disclaimer here. I 100 percent qualify for every program I have applied thus far. I may not soon because of my job status but I havn't lied on any application. My income was within the limits they set. We only use the medical benifits if we need them I actually get letters reminding us to take our kids in for wellness checks. I don't believe I need to do that! They are not sick they are healthy and I dont need a doctor to tell me that. I've already been through that. I myself have been in once and my wife….well she has not gone once. So trust me we use the doctors sparingly. If we notice an issue we will go. I hope and pray we won't.

So I don't know if anyone out there have watched any polygamy shows. There's Kody and his sister wife's who will eventually be heading for financial disaster because they suck at money. There's my 5 wives. They were only on 2 seasons but much more likeable than sister wives in my opinion and then you have this other show on Netflix called 3 wives one husband. Now Let me ask you something. These are religious people who through commandments are following teachings of God to have multiple wives and have lots of kids. You would think God would provide a way for them to eat. Right? Yet 2 of the 3 mentioned above have been on food stamps as well as multiple bankruptcies!  AND I am putting an accusation out there that 3 wives one husband's does use them too! I believe most if not all sects here in Utah are on social welfare including those who live close to me. I'm not saying they don't work hard I am saying they have alot of mouths to feed and probably cannot afford it all. 

If I'm saving a car payment and paying less for my lives expenses than someone else who is driving a new car and has a snap card why should I be punished? I'll take a snap card too if I qualify and pay an extra thousand off my debts or into my retirement. Yes they give me a thousand dollars a month and yes I agree it's rediculous.

Reason 142 I went on public benifits.

Here’s another one.

I have A lot!

Any new parent may find it a shock that infant formula is so expensive. Now you can go on and on about how it takes research to get the formula just right but in the end that doesn’t make sense unless they are CONTINUALLY CHANGING THE FORMULA! and besides that other off brands do sell it ALOT cheaper so that again holds no merit. It’s kind of like Apples excuse of why their airPods are over 200 dollars. (They cost 150 to make...) NO THEY DON’T!! The reason they say that is because the people who are involved making them make 50 k a month. They make that because the consumer pays them!! It would be like if I were to start a shirt printing company and decide I want my wages to be 50k a month. So now my shirts are 5k each because it cost 4950 to make the. The actual cost would be more like 5-10 dollars per shirt!

Enough ranting. Actually my whole blog is ranting.

So why is formula so expensive? Do a quick google search and you’ll find a great paper/article done by someone at Hawaii university who basically spells it out. Government. The reason I barely could afford it and even sold plasma to pay for it is because of the WIC program. They pay a quarter of what they sell it in the store. What I know now I wish I would of just dropped my pride back then and joined wic.

This is another reason I’m ok with assistant programs. Yeah. Don’t need them but I just bought my first brand new sectional because of them and oh it’s so comefortable.

Reason A on why I chose to go on public benefits.

Ok it’s official. I hate iphones. After trying one out for a while it is blatantly clear, I don’t like it.

Moving on

And what the heck is up with this bold lettering above?? Again iPhones fault.

So I mentioned before that from time to time I would self indulge in my own reasoning of why I am on public benefits and why I feel entitled (crap did I say that word) yes entitled to some benifits. Look I think I explained it before it’s not about entitlement but more of who’s making the rules. Definitely not me and when I follow someone else’s rules I get screwed.  So what’s today’s reasoning of why it’s ok to maximize my public benefits?

Well we will get to that. Let me tell you something interesting I found out while following a crime investigation. This is one of the many

reasons I threw in the towel and became a public dependent. If you haven’t heard of her there is a very evil woman named Lori Vallow. Long story short Her and her husband chad had her two kids killed and burned. During the investigation it was found that Lori was getting  OVER 6 THOUSAND DOLLARS in survivor and some other benefits a month TAX FREE!! The other benefit was some type of income for her younger son that has autism. Again 3 GRAND a month for WHAT EXACTLY?? I mean I get the survivor benefit. From what I read that’s around a grand. How is it she is getting 3 Grand per kid??? No wonder she’s been able to travel ALOT. My brother in law also is a survivor benifitor. What’s strange is he has struggled financially while on them. HOW?? From what I gather he probably makes close to 4 Grand between 3 kids and makes up to 5 grand a month!

So again the rules are what? Let me know. College grants are ok survivor benifits are ok. Food stamps are not? 

Some where in this interview it mentions how much tax free money Lori was getting.

It's ok to have a poor Christmas!

 I don't mean to bash on this couple I found in the classified adds. When I can relate to someone I think about what I would do if I was in their situation. I have been in this couples situation. Although I  would like to compare apples to apples such as were they on medicaid when their babies were born and how many times did they reach out for help over the years. You see when my daughter was 5, I had a 3 year old and a newborn. I had paid around 20,000 in medical expenses so far and I was in debt yet again for another baby. 

Well I'm getting ahead of myself let's get to the add.

Ok. Let's break this letter down so we can understand better. First of all we have a family of four who relies on the man of the household to provide income. Him and his wife have been together for at least 6 years. They have 2 daughters one was born less than a year ago and one is 5. From the post we have 3 issues. First a broken car window. 

Wait a sec!! Something is off here!

This is why I should screen shot these right away. This post has been edited which further proves my point!

Haha

So in the original add he said his window was broken. They mentioned recieveing help and donations to fix that they also mentioned receiving help from their ward!

They also said their daughter still believes in santa claus (she should she's 5) and they said their goal was to get 300 dollars. None of that is mentioned in this EDITED add but your just going to have to believe me.

Ok getting back to what we have in the add. From what I understand he's out of work for one week plus overtime. So I'm guessing somewhere around 600 Dollars? 

Now there are a lot of questions I have and I only have them because I want to find out if there was any prevention this couple could of put in place so this issue could not have happened. Do they have a car payment. What if any major purchased were purchased this year and so forth but let's just get to my main point.

IT'S OK TO HAVE A POOR CHRISTMAS!! 

Even if the entire Christmas including Christmas dinner was bought at the dollar store if the spirit of Christmas exist, it's still Christmas. I could even argue that your taking a memorable opportunity away from your daughter. One if my wife's Christmas memories growing up was Christmas from seven11. My wife woke up to her mom telling her and her siblings to go back to bed santa hadn't come yet. When Santa did come their stockings were stuffed with things obviously bought at a convenient store. They didn't care. They were just happy to eat donuts for breakfast.

Well I'm finishing this on winter solstice. Happy winter solstice guys. May your life become brighter with the days ahead!

Winter Solstice 2020 Post

 I have been working on some other writing projects but I want to focus on this piece and make sure I get it in before the 21st of this month. Ever since 2015 I have made it a tradition to set my new years goals and resolutions by the 21st of December. That is the shortest day of the year. From that point forward the days start to get longer. Thus the saying, brighter days ahead. I have also made it a tradition to try to resolve negativity in my life. A little back story on why the 21st is such an important date. When I moved into my first house in 2010, there were 2 things I was excited for. Chickens and a garden. Unfortunately those two things could not be purchased or planted until spring. Although we started the purchase process on our house in the spring we didn't move in until July 2. Too late to plant a garden and we didn't want to deal with chickens. Knowing that we were past the summer solstice I looked forward to the winter solstice that year. That meant a new beginning to me. It meant brighter days were ahead and that is why I try to get my goals and resolutions done by that day. Here's the problem. This year has been a HUGE let down. Now to be honest I don't remember right off hand what my resolution was last year but I know I had 2 goals and 2 resolutions. My 2 goals were to get my passport and go on my honeymoon. The passport wasn't needed to go on my honeymoon by the way. I've just never had one and want one bad. The honeymoon WAS in the planning stages this year! A huge leap from years past. In the spring before Corona was a full pandemic we had a sitter willing to stay for an entire week. We had decided not to ask my parents due to my mom's comment at our family reunion. We had at least a rough itenerary. We were going to go on a road trip to San Francisco. Visit places like the winchester mansion and Alcatraz island. We even  had hotels in mind. Sunday through Saturday in August we were going to finally get our honeymoon done! Then 2020 happened. For Christmas we bought our family a cruise. My wife, my daughter, and I got terribly sick. My daughter and I had the worst of it. I enjoyed 2 days of our 5 day cruise. The last 3 were in my room most of the time. My fever and muscle pains finally broke the last morning of our cruise. As my wife put it our room smelled like death departure day. In March for my birthday we booked an Airbnb across the street from the ocean in Oregon. A few weeks later we were notified that was cancelled. Our garden was mostly a failure. All our hard work was paid off in some sticky underwaterd corn one very small squash. Some peas and a few rows of carrots that our still out there. We had very little rain fall all summer. Our tomatoes and peppers did ok but the amount of time and money that went into the garden did not produce a fraction of that value back. Anxiety and depression have been a huge issue this year too to the point I finally went to the Dr to get my blood work done. I had my worst panick attack ever on Mother's day morning. I woke up with what I can only describe as brain zapping or brain shakes. This threw me into a full blown panic attack. The entire night every time I'd dose off panic would imediatly awake me. For several months even driving a car would bring on panic attacks. I found taking fish oil, selenium, Dr john's wort, and hemp oil. Kept my symptoms calm. Right as I'm writing this my anxiety is well under control.

Ok so I think I've established that 2020 sucked. The only other thing I want to mention is that up until November of this year our last paycheck was in February. Thanks to a home refinance at the right time and us getting some government aid (for the first time) we were able to survive a financial crisis. 

Now the question i have is what are my goals and plans for 2021. What negativity should I be leaving behind and how can I be more positive.

Well that's a tough one. To be honest I'm afraid to even try. I don't even want to set goals for 2021 because 2020 has been such a disaster what is there to even look forward to!

As I was pondering these questions and how should I approach this years winter solstice post I decided that I would just keep last years 2 resolutions and hope for the best. That was suppose to be the end of this post. Fine tune my happiness and fine tune my finances.

But as I thought about it during the days I don't have time to write (some post take weeks or even months to finish) I realized there was more to this post. There is still hope and the world is not going to end in 2021 (at least I'm hoping) 2020 needs to be repaired. 

That is my resolution, Repair and mend 2020. Next year my goal is to find resolutions to lingering problems of 2020. It will be my year of repair. This will be physical spiritual mental and financial. I feel I am in need of A LOT of repair. My body is not healthy nor is my mind. I'm overweight and have been increasing in weight year after year. Monetary wise, we have debts I'd like to pay off. I will be working hard on financial success. I pride myself I being money smart.

If 2021 sucks then 2022 will be another year of repair! I'm hoping I'm more spiritual. I feel like I need a better relationship with my heavenly father. I haven't directed this blog to religion or spirituality but every post I write I do it in a spiritual mindset. Aa far as a honeymoon is concerned or my 10 ransom items, they are now in the "we will see" and "pray for" category until further notice. I will just be praying for a honeymoon at this point. I have two kids with braces and a couple of years late for medicaid to cover them so that's where my honeymoon money is going as of right now.

So to end this post, here's a toast with my drink if choice, a can of coke. 

To 2021. The year of repair. May we all reflect on things that matter most in our life. Let our worldly desires behind and work on our relationships health and happiness because that is what matters most. May God bless us through whatever is about to come and may we all leave behind negativity in our life and like the day after the winter solstice may our days become brighter and better.

And let it snow!!

Just an update (who cares right)

 So here's a quick update for those who don't care. 

I finally have a job! I will say I enjoy it and it's good paying, however… it's seasonal and as of right now a little low on hours, however...since the pay is good I do make a few less dollars than a full time job. There is hope I make it to full time but only time will tell.

Next. I always say have a Christmas meeting to discuss what your expectations and budgets are for Christmas. My wife and I had one by ourself and one with our kids. Here's the jist. We are not as financially sound as other Christmas's. We are not hurting but at the same time we've had to considerably decrease our Christmas budget. Last year we spent over 3 grand on our family cruise. This year we have set around a 150 per person budget. That puts us around 1 grand. We feel very blessed to even have that amount of money and with my job we will be able to pay the whole thing off in less than 2 paychecks.

The one thing that is covered 100 percent is anything food related. Thank you government!! Christmas dinner hot cocoa stocking stuffers my seasonal shrimp craving cookies Christmas crack chocolates gingerbread puddings eggnog. Ok I think you get the point. This will be weird this year. I've never had basically a blank check to buy, within reason, whatever I'm craving.

Moving on

If my job continues, I will be soon off FOOD STAMPS! Not that I want to leave but I for one hope I only use them for what they were originally intended. An aid to get back on your feet not a reliance. I hope some day I will pay it forward to someone in need.

Other than that, this year has sucked for future planning. I mean what are we suppose to plan for that covid couldn't destroy? Even are Christmas cruise was destroyed by a flu like illness that cause me to be bedridden for 2 days.

Which brings me to my next point. The Honeymoon I hope to take one day. Guess what it was actually planned for this year! Yep covid destroyed that. So as of right now the only thing I am doing is forcing myself to set aside 10 dollars a week for that eventual trip. It's honestly heartbreaking at this point. I at times feel like God is not even on my side when it comes to that subject.

Other than that guys. Keep your heads high, work hard. buy a lotto ticket and dream big!