Give Me Back My Five Bucks a quest for financial independence

Well I got my first Rogers cell phone bill since I’ve moved in with BF, and it was $41.83. There were a few LD charges for when I was back home visiting, and I called BF. Other than that, I barely used any minutes, and a fraction of the amount of text messages I would normally send.

My base rate plan is $18 month for 200 anytime minutes + unlimited weekends, billing by the second, corporate VM and corporate LD rates, etc. I pay an additional $5/month for unlimited weeknights (starting at 6pm) and $6 for 125 sent text messages.

I’m going to wait a few more months and see what my average usage is. Because if I don’t need unlimited weeknights or a text messaging package, then that’s a substantial savings! Shaving off $11 (+ tax savings) is more than a 25% savings.

I’ve had no problems with Rogers. They have good customer service, and I always get better reception than my friends on Bell or Telus. My contract is up next July, so I’m going to cancel my service and then when we come back from traveling, I’m sure rate plans with other companies will be so good they’ll blow what I currently have out of the water.

In our place, we have 2 places to collect change – the money plate – which only has quarters, loonies, toonies and bills. Or the money jug – which houses all of the change that I don’t get my hands on first (usually BF gives me his big change for the plate, and all the smaller change goes into the jug).

I don’t think either of us has an idea of what we’re saving for. Originally it was going to be for our anniversary dinner in December, and I still think that’s a really good idea. We can treat ourselves to a really nice dinner out!

We have about $35 in the money plate, and who knows how much is in that money jug. It’s one of those huge water jugs, and it’s about ¼ full.

Sometimes we steal from the money plate – a dollar or two here or there. But the amount keeps on rising. The jug remains untouched. Not that I’d ever want to tip over that massive jug and try to shake change out of it.

Also, I have a chocolate tin that I collect American money in. Right now it has about $325 in it because I bought $300 US for spending money on the cruise to Alaska, but usually it has a few random bills and some change.

Do you collect your change somewhere? Are you saving it for something?

Hoorah! Today I finally crossed over the $30k net worth plateau that I’ve been struggling with for over a year.

If it wasn’t the market crashing, it was LASIK eye surgery, or the car crash (and the purchase of a car), or moving 3 times in 1.5 years, or starting up expensive hobbies, or the unfortunate passing of my grandma. One after the other, they kept forcing me back down. It’s certainly been a costly few years! And I feel a sense of accomplishment to finally get over the psychological barrier of “the $30,000 net worth.”

Now I hope with all the setbacks behind me, I can zoom ahead and hit $45k by this time next year!