anderso9 I did that too. We in Finland have in some houses internet in rent/mortgage fee if building has over certain amount of households. Mine has free 10 Mbps internet. The other options I god introduced to were 50 Mbps for 5, 100 Mbps for 10 and few more. I mean very cheap, 5 euros for 50 Mbps net...

But I do not need that. 10 Mbps speed covers everything I need, even Netflix works for hours.

This said I canceled my short months on that speed, because I wanted back to free net. It's not because I couldn't afford it, but these euros are working now elsewhere. Even these five euros. I will also call my phone company later this year for deals as current one will be running out. Doing nothing is bad.

Pastime trying to live as cheap as possible is for better future.

Peripherie if you enjoy the convenience of meal kits, I have been using Home Chef for the last several weeks and I love them. I've been way happier with them than I was with Hello Fresh. The recipes are varied and creative but not overly complicated. I've received 5 boxes and planned my next three weeks of orders and I haven't seen a duplicate meal yet. My referral code for $35 off your first box is https://www.homechef.com/invite/5ANK5ltn87vkg if you want to give it a try.

Vibrant I am not sure where you are located but have you had any trouble with delivery times and product quality? That has been the biggest issue with HF recently. Boxes come late or not at all, and produce is more frequently near bad/bad. (And once I got a protein for one meal and then recipe kit for another meal - with things I would never order/eat. :P)

Peripherie I'm in the Midwest so my boxes come from the Chicago distribution center, I assume. I had one week where they notified me my box would arrive one day later than my regular schedule, and once my kit came with penne instead of angel hair due to supply issues. But I've never had them swap out an entirely different protein! My product has generally been excellent. I had some arugula go funky but I didn't try to cook that one until a full week after delivery so I feel like that one is on me.

Vibrant Heh, that last part has happened to me before. I just didn't feel like cooking and waited too long. :P

kiwegian Insurance company came back with a cheaper deal on our car insurance (another almost 450NOK a month) so that's a monthly saving of about $100US, for 1 hours worth of my time ringing around and looking up deals

kiwegian Nice!

TechieM2 I shop car and home insurance about every 3 years.

Khaki Storm we haven't really needed to hunt around as we only bought a car last year (after a 12 year hiatus! - having a kid suddenly made our normal circuitous public transport trips unfeasible). All our other insurances are super crazy cheap through our union, but the car especially bugged me when I added it. It seemed...expensive.  But, I said I'd give it a year (also to build a bonus in the system), and pretty much to the day, we managed to halve it. 

kiwegian we had the same scenario happen when the 2nd kid got his license. 4 drivers 2 cars didn’t work so we inherited a 1997 teal green Pontiac sunfire from my in-laws. It had 30,000 km on it lol. But insuring under age 25 new male drivers is a money pit! We do get a better deal through my union which I didn’t even know about until a coworker mentioned it. Luckily (for us) son #1 paid his share and has since bought his own vehicle so he’s off our policy. But his insurance alone was $500 CDN (which is like a gazillion in US dollars) per MONTH. 

kiwegian Great name! My kiwi cousin is married to a Norwegian & living there! What a coincidence if your real name was A... :)

Purple Foal Cheers ears! yeah, the name was a bit of a stroke of genius when I moved here 14 years ago. Alas no A beginning... doesn't mean I don't know her though, the kiwis in Norway FB page is reasonably active and I've run into a fair few people over the years.

MXMOM Holy bejebus! that's a terrible money pit. thankfully we have 15 more years before ours can sit behind a wheel 😂. Yeah you Canuks get great union insurance deals. My parents moved over a few years ago so now we spend every Christmas in Saskatoon, freezing our butts off (everyone thinks because we live in Norway we should be able to hack it!)

kiwegian She'll be right! and Rattle your Dags! you bloody drongo! ;)

Purple Foal don't forget the national answer for everything 'yeah...nah'

kiwegian yeah yeah yeah  ;)

Khaki Storm Is that survey still open for new members to enroll? If yes, would you mind sharing link for signing-up

Sky Blue Harp sorry it's not. It wasn't for ynab members, it was just for anyone who wanted to talk about their finances.  The group is dscout. I'm not exactly sure how they got my name. My best guess is when I write a company about an issue and there's a question if I want to be involved in a survey, I usually say yes.   

Good Intentions 

I am trying to sell some things too. I started using the LetGo app. It has only been a few days so I think I have to wait a while for any offers. The app really wants me to pay to have my items 'seen more'. But that defeats the purpose. Rather just have them sit and hopefully sell over the month or so the listing is for.

If they don't sell - I might try another app.

Peripherie I sold something! An old iPad that worked but couldn't update beyond a certain iOS so none of the apps I wanted would work. I got $40.00 cash for it. Probably could have gotten more but I haven't used it in ages and wanted cash.

Used $15.00 for groceries. Deposited $25.00 to my account. 10 going to my 'extra stuff' account and 15 to my INM account!

Peripherie That was a really quick turn around! Nice job! :)

Faness I think I undersold it, honestly. But that is okay, it has just been sitting around for years. I have a 'back-up phone' that I may try to list on the high end. If it doesn't sell, I keep the phone just in case. If it does, then that is more money to my budget.

Peripherie I just uncovered an old MacBook Pro G4 that was loaded to the hilt when I bought it from a friend at least 10 years ago. He paid $2000 or more for it and was upgrading so I bought it for $500. The kids got a lot of use doing video work since it had all the power. I googled it and I can get maybe $50 for it but that’s more than it’s worth sitting in my closet. 

Good Intentions You could investigate getting a current account like Monzo, either to use as your main current account, or as your travel account. It offers fee-free international transactions worldwide, you pay only the MasterCard exchange rate. (And as it's a bank account, no fees for topping it up, or taking the cash back out)

On a side note, for anyone using a currency card, or any credit/debit card while travelling abroad, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS pay in the local currency if asked. If you allow the retailer to convert into your home currency, you'll get a horrendous exchange rate, and end up paying far more than paying in the local currency. (Most of the time this is referred to as DCC - Dynamic Currency Conversion - never ever accept it! - This also applies when drawing out cash from an ATM, do not accept DCC if it is offered.)

Good Intentions I run as well on old phones. Current is one year, but usually I run them for 5 years until they break on me. I buy phones from DNA mobile provider here in Finland as they offer free of charge 3 Years Warranty instead of normal 2 Years. So I am good to go with using that phone as long as possible. I hate smartphones, why? Because when I worked in IT activating these phones for employees.

I unboxed literally phone after phone from the NEW box to the people. It is so boring, but I did just to get that money you know. This said if I ever get new phone, I do not enjoy activating and playing with it.

This helps me to keep one phone for longer period than people do usually.

I think if people activated several phones DAILY for themselves, or even someone else, it's all new and you can get protectives from them - they'd soon stopped buying phones like forever just to have new.

Khaki Storm Is that $250 considered taxable income? I haven't been gifted funds into an investment account before, so I'm not sure, but I'd check before dividing that $250 evenly. ;)

Faness that's a good idea. Thanks! 

Faness Yes, you’re right. It’s definitely taxable and will be reported to the IRS as interest income. I’ve done plenty of those bonus deals for trying various accounts.

Faness Oh, and I'm closing my acorns account. Very unresponsive customer service. I could never see where the $250 bonus was credited and my initial investment was still a pending transaction after 4 weeks.

Khaki Storm It's funny (in a sad way), but Jesse has had a similar experience with Acorns customer service. Sorry it didn't work out but I hope you're still able to get the funds credited to your account!

Superbone Wow, that's an amazing rate!  Mind if I ask what bank or CU you used?  I refinanced in December to a 3.125% 15 year fixed and I thought that was awesome at the time. 

PhysicsGal I have a mortgage broker that helped me purchase my house in 2016. This loan ended up being through Quicken. My guy is worth his weight in gold. He always finds the best deals. My mortgage I got back in 2016 was a 30 year fixed at 3.25%. A good mortgage broker has many avenues they can explore to find you the best deal.

Superbone I really want to do Mint mobile because we pay $175/mo for 2 lines. But we are really rural (like, in the mountains, not a Walmart or any fast food here rural.) So my SO is worried we won't have service. The site says we should, but we are skeptical.

MomonWheels You could always try it and see. There is a seven day guarantee but you might be out the cost of the sim card. I'm not sure exactly.

Superbone I think we will eventually give it a go, once we save some money to cover the cost of new phones. If it's not good enough coverage we will go back to Verizon. I wonder if I can leave our Verizon lines open in the week we try Mint? I've had Verizon for a decade, never used another company, except Tracfone as a kid.

MomonWheels I've also had Verizon for a very long time. It was hard for me to get up the courage and momentum to do it but if it works, it was too much money to pass up on. I'll let you know how it goes.

Superbone Would you keep us updated on the switch to Mint?  I would love to leave Verizon's high cost behind, but like you nervous.  They are the only provider I've ever had and they are good.  What about internet?  Anyone found a good solution to internet?  It's only me and I'm paying $83  a month. Outrageous.

Silver Lightning I will! I’m glad you said something. I just checked my email with tracking info and it turns out it was delivered yesterday by my back door! It’s too late tonight but I will set it up tomorrow and report back. That’s funny, I’m paying the same for internet too.

Superbone So far, so good! I'm going on 24 hours and it's been flawless so far. Of course, I haven't been anywhere. My experience is all from my house so far. My son in another county is going to get set up this weekend.

Superbone One more follow up. Everything has been exactly the same for my son and I since we made the switch from Verizon ($100+ per month) to Mint Mobile ($35 per month). It's been a success! ($780 per year savings.)

Superbone That's huge!! In Jan, I switched from Rogers ($62) to Public Mobile ($25) (Canada) and have found it great! I was paying for 5G of data and switched to 1G after evaluating my data usage for the past 6 months and the most I used was 1.6G. So I turned all apps off & use wifi more. Win! 

B's Gambit oh dear. Sorry you have to let them go. The memories will stay just the same though. I hope using the money elsewhere brings you lots of positive things. 

B's Gambit and once you get everything else set, you can go buy another motorhome and another Harley.

Powder Blue Pony  MXMOM  Thanks! I'm trying to be as positive as I can as I live out this very large rule #3.

Purple Foal would you mind sharing? 

Khaki Storm off topic but I just re-read your socks post and it made me laugh.

MXMOM Yep, all true too! Except I changed the names.

Khaki Storm Sure! Not perfect but 1/2 price of the Vegan Progressive All-in-one protein powder I'd usually buy. I'd skip the cacao powder since it didn't make a difference & didn't make it chocolatey. Grind up the flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, & oats. Mix well in a big bowl. I used the existing large container I had & filled it up using a wide mouth spout from my canning supplies. The collagen is very powdery so add that first, then the pea powder, then the other ground & mixed ingredients. Shake really well. I used the scoop that came with the tub (47g size) which I used to calculate the serving sizes. 

For my smoothies, in my Ninja blender, I put a scoop, 2 cups of baby spinach, 1/4 cup of blue berries & then fill it up with water. I count it as 1 serving and usually divide it between 2 snacks in MyFitnessPal. I also started adding 1/2 scoop to my 1/2 cups of oats, 1/4 blue berries, and 3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk then microwave for 1:30 sec. You just need to mix the powder really well & there might be some residue, but knowing the cost & true ingredients, I don't mind. Enjoy! :)

In the chart, the data I got from BulkBarn.ca was all per 100g, so I did a lot of math to figure it out. In Canada, we are notorious for measuring in both metric & imperial, depending upon the purpose! Prices are $CAD. I already had a lot of the ingredients, and bought some from Costco, so the exercise was just if I made the powder from zero.

Purple Foal thank you!

Khaki Storm You're welcome! Let me know how it goes! :)

Powder Blue Pony Awesome!

Powder Blue Pony 

Hurray for paying off the loan.

Double-hooray for its symbolism and emotional weight lifted.

Alice Blue Yeti TechieM2  Thanks! 🙂

Powder Blue Pony what an awesome and inspiring post. And also informative. People need to think about the legal and other implications of various financial decisions. My friends call it aweful-izing. But too often I would see people too late when things could have been done to save money and taxes and stress if only they had thought about various scenarios. 

Gabby G I researched and finally switched my banking after getting fed up with the fees. I was paying $17/month for a TD chequing account, that was already at a senior rate since my Mom is still on my account from days of paying my student loan while living abroad. I opened a no-fee Tangerine chequing account and a no-fee EQ account, that actually gives me 2% interest a month on my balance. Then covid happened & I didn't actually close my TD account, but since I had moved all my transactions to the other banks, I switched it to the basic account of $3.95/month by a quick online maneuver. Now I'm happy I kept that account as is since it is my access to transfer money into my investments, to make lump sum payments to my HELOC, and it is set up to receive interac transfers from friends. 

So yes, you can have it all, and yes why was I paying interest for all those years!! In 3 months with EQ, I have not paid any fees and received $12 in interest to me. Free money. Win/win. :)