NICE!!!

 

Thanks for the tips LJ! I'm definitely going to pay attention to my magazine subscription renewals - I get those annoying "Renew Now" mailers all the time, even when I have months left on my subscription!!   

The magazines are the ones really getting on my nerves.

I subscribe because if I happen to buy one or two at the store I've just spent almost as much as a subscription would cost. Subscribing in itself is a money-saving practice.

But now, when your subscription comes up for renewal, they put a card stock cover on it saying "Thank you for participating in our automatic renewal program..."

This leaves you scratching your head because you don't remember EVER signing up for any automatic renewal program. Well, most likely you never did. Most likely the publisher sent you a little letter saying that they were enrolling you, with fine print saying that if you didn't want to participate you could contact them.

How many people either didn't pay attention or didn't read it and threw it away?

Then what happens is they send you a bill for your subscription, which is already renewed for a year so that you don't miss any thrilling issue.

If you don't pay that first bill in a timely fashion, you will likely receive the nasty letter that I received for one of my magazines, where they scold you like this:

"When you signed up for the automatic renewal program, it was with the understanding that you would pay your invoice in a timely fashion. Your invoice is now past due. Please remit immediately."

Yep. Well, I promptly went to my account and canceled my subscription. I simply won't put up with this crap. It's offensive, to say the least.

So their little ploy to keep me a subscriber until infinity backfired AND they have ill will as well. Really great marketing plan!

I too gave up magazines a couple of years ago.  I had so many magazines coming in I couldn't read them all.

Here are some of my money saving tips, that we have used in the past year:

We have been turning our thermostat down to 65 degrees at night in the winter time and leave it at 68-69 degrees during the day, if we get chilly during the day, we put on a sweater or jacket!

If we get chilly sitting watching TV at night, I get out my big fuzzy robe and fuzzy socks and use an afghan.  Once we get to bed we don't ever feel chilled at all, and in fact sleep and breathe better with it being cooler.

We have been turning the thermostat up to 75-76 degrees this summer and using the ceiling fan during the day, when it gets dark and the sun goes down if we still feel a little warm, I may turn the thermostat to 72 degrees, but usually haven't had to drop it below 73.  We use the ceiling fans in the bedrooms, LR and kitchen.

I got our electric bill today and in comparison to last year at this same time, we have used about 30% less electricity!  We have had an unusually warm June with several days of temps in the upper 80's to 90 degrees.

I have also started menu planning, by first looking to see what is in the freezer or pantry and then seeing what is on sale at the store.   When they have sales on frozen veggies and canned goods or things that we use frequently I stock up buying 10-15 bags or cans, whatever I have room for.  I buy meat in bulk packs at Sam's club and then break it down when I get home into meal size portions and put into freezer bags.  I use as many coupons and rebates as I can and I try to buy when the items are "on sale" and also use a coupon.

We have started buying cleaning supplies, soap, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels at the $ store, you get the same quality for way less.  Also we have stopped buying soft drinks at our house.  We drink either iced tea, water, or kool-aid (again using the store brand not the name brand).

Since we use our cell phones more than the land line, I am comtemplating using the cheaper measured service rate and cutting out the extra options as PC said.

We are considering reducing our cable by getting the basic package and possible giving up high speed internet (that one is a tough decision, because if you use the internet at all it really does make a difference).

I am using this summer time when school is out to go through all closets and every room in the house and get rid of everything we don't need.  I am marking what I want to sell at a yard sale, sell on e-bay or give to Goodwill and putting it all in boxes or tubs as we go through things.

We started using the store brand bread.  We get a large loaf of sandwich bread in whole wheat or white for $1.12, where the same size in a name brand costs $2.69...this is a huge difference and makes no difference in taste!

When I make spaghetti for the family I make it using a double portion of sauce for the same amount of meat, and then i save the leftovers and put it in a casserole layering it with grated parmesan and mozzarella cheese and bake it for dinner the next night!

Tam, I pay all my bills on line for that very reason!  There are only about 2 that I mail, the rest are paid on line!

It makes it easy to monitor activity on your account.  It was by doing this that I discovered someone had my debit card number and another credit card number and was attempting to make charges on line.  By seeing this the very same day I wasable to go to the bank and call all my other card companies and get new cards, credit monitoring for 6 months.

Fortunately the charges didn't go through because they were flagged the person had used random letters for a name and my bank kicked it out and immediately shut down the acct. 

Since then I make it a point to monitor all my accounts every few days!

Of course they couldn't have charged too much, since thanks to MK most of my accounts are almost maxed out!  Sick

I got one of those old fashion screen doors (apx $ 35) for our back door.  Now I can open it up, without the bugs coming in, and get a great breeze in the house during the mornings and late evenings.  For work days, we can usually go without running the ac unless it's really hot!

We also use the clothes line as much as possible - wind is free!