@rich: I actually wrote a post about gym memberships (search for “dumb money the gym” on the site). Good luck with consolidating your insurance!

We had it drop out every few months while I was in college. It was a poorly managed system in an area prone to damage from the weather. We had to threaten to cut service many times in order to get any kind of work done.

Part of the problem was dish coverage also sucked in our area.

@Garry: That’s exactly how I look at it. Now if I could only earn $175 every thirty minutes…

@the weakonomist: sounds like bartering, but doubtful on whether or not he should have done it. How often does your cable/internet drop? Hopefully not too often!

@Corporate: That’s how we see it. The frugal lifestyle isn’t bad… I find it quite useful. But big ticket items can save a lot of money in a very short amount of time.

@Rich: Do tell! $100/month off of what service?

@Jenn: What is it about saving money that we don’t want to do? Very odd. Glad you did it.

@Sarah: If you have cut all you can cut, the only thing left to do is earn more income. Is this possible for you?

@Chris: I see your point, but do you waste money on little things? Pennies add up to dollars. Dollars are easier to cut, but what if you are in Sarah’s position above and you’ve cut all the dollars you can cut?

Case in point: I am in the process of refinancing my mortgage with Wells Fargo. Since I am a current customer, I can get a $0 closing cost re-fi. I will be wrapping two mortgages (with a rate of about 6.54% combined) into one. When I first called, the new rate was going to be 6.125%, saving me about $90 per month. Great! A few weeks later, I thought I would try again. I called them up and asked if the could make it even better. Well, rates had changed, and they offered to make it 5.75% instead. That’s and extra $35 per month, for a total annual savings of about $1,500! All for no more than two hours of work. All I need to pay for out-of-pocket is a notarization of my signature on the closing docs.

We each have cars that came with XM radio from before we got together, and I’ve always had a feeling we could save money by combining our two accounts into one account. I finally made the call yesterday and found out I was right – it’s only a $6 a month savings, but that is $72 a year! XM is one of our splurges and I am sure there are people who would consider having it, let alone on two cars, is wasteful, but we really enjoy it and I am thrilled to have found a way to save some money on it!

It is amazing to take a look and actually see where our money goes and how much of it is just squandered away. By taking a little action we can hold on to some of that $ and still get the same enjoyment from life.