all to save $14

Jared & I have been looking carefully at our budget to see what is needed and what isn't. It's hard to give up those things we have come accustomed to as necessities (even though they really aren't.) It's been frustratingly hard to be a grown up where all our money goes to honor our debts of boring stuff like student loans, hospital bills, diapers, etc. I know we are not unique in our financial situation.

It's been a mixed blessing as it has forced us to get creative in our activities. We've spent more time as a family at our (free) neighborhood pool, reading books, playing games, and just having conversations. We listen to more music and watch less tv, which dramatically changes the dynamic of our home.

It's not always easy to cut back, sometimes just because the forces that be, want you to keep spending. Point in case today. We want to get rid of our home phone service because we have the cell phone. Really, it's silly for us to pay for both when the only time we really use our home phone is when our cell battery is dead. That's an expensive price to pay for forgetfulness!

You'd think I could call and just cancel it. First, I got the new guy. I patiently understand there is a learning curve in every new job. However, after 43 minutes on the phone with him and still not having my situation resolved, I politely asked to speak to a supervisor. We were getting no where and it was obvious it was due to his lack of knowledge of the products/services they offered. That and after numerous times of me spouting off comments, "I want to save money" and "I want to get rid of my home phone" he responded with scripted phrases, "Would you like to add u-verse tv!?" and "Do you use the auto-redial feature on your phone?" I didn't get into the fact we've really cut back on tv and does it really matter if I use auto-redial if I am planning on disconnecting? Speaking of disconnecting -guess who gets disconnected after this lengthy dialogue. I call back. This time I speak to agent that is much more informed and we get it worked out in 10 minutes, which I am thinking was mostly her trying to undo what the other guy did. Somehow he got us on a metro line, which he failed to tell us would change our home phone number. All in all, we found that since we have other services through the same company, completely disconnecting our home phone would eliminate the bundle discount we've been receiving and we'll actually be paying $2 more a month to not have a home phone. This agent was able to downgrade our home phone service and we'll save $14 a month. We no longer have voice mail but, we still have caller id so I can still screen your phone calls.