Budget Freak

After talking about the most awesome cell phone deal last week, it’s gotten a little better. I read over at My Money Blog that you can get another $50 off coupon applied to your bill. I wrote up my email just like Jonathan did, asked them to apply the ‘SAVE50′ coupon, and sure enough, got the same response, that the customer service agent would be “happy to assist me” with my credit. A two minute email saved me another $50.

I recently signed up for the cell phone deal of the century. It’s the Sprint Employee Referral Offer. For $30 a month, you get 500 minutes and an unlimited data plan. For comparison, my old Cingular phone cost me $40 per month for 450 minutes and NO data plan. Cingular’s data plan is another $20/month. Also, through the end of June, Sprint is throwing in unlimited text messaging package for free. Cingular charges another $20 for unlimited texting. Furthermore, the Sprint plan comes with unlimited nights and weekend minutes that start at 7pm, where Cingular’s plan only had 5000 N&M that started at 9pm. You can get the early nights and weekend on Cingular for another $9/month.

So, let’s add it all up:
Old Cingular Plan - $39/month
450 minutes, NO data, NO texting, N&W @ 9pm

Cingular Plan Similiar to Sprint SERO - $89/month
450 minutes + unlimited data + unlimited text + Nights & Weekends @ 7pm

Sprint SERO Plan - $30/month
500 minutes + unlimited data + unlimited text + Nights & Weekends @ 7pm

That’s a savings of 66%!! Also, there are rumors on the message boards (see below) that you can get a corporate discount if you work for certain companies. If I get the job I’m applying for, I’d be eligible for another 20% discount. That would bring my monthly bill down to $24!

I also got a pretty cool phone, the Motorola Q. It’s a smartphone, so I can surf the internets, check my email, and sync up my calendar. For a techie guy like myself, it’s fantastic. The phone cost $100 when I signed up, but there’s a $100 mail in rebate. Also, there’s a referral bonus if you tell them another Sprint customer referred you. After you get your phone, you can call #REF and type in the Sprint Customer’s phone number, and you’ll both get a $25 Visa Check Card!

This deal was so hot, I immediately canceled my Cingular contract AND paid the early termination fee (I still had 8 months on my contract). It’ll take about a year to recover the loss of the $150 fee (saving $15/month), but my cellular life will be much more enjoyable in the mean time.

If you’re shopping around for a new cell phone or if you’re just sick of you’re old plan, and you’re interested in signing up for this deal, check out the forums over at Slick Deals. Thanks to Jonathan at My Money Blog and the Consumerist for pointing this deal out.

By the way, if anybody does sign up and needs a referral for the $25, please drop me an email.

After I recovered from the shell shock after getting my renewal bill from the Auto Club, I decided it was time to shop around for new insurance. So this past weekend, I shopped around for new auto insurance.

To get a fair quote from each company, I decided on the best coverage for myself, and stuck with throughout the process. For the record, I’m 25, male, single, live in greater Los Angeles, and have no at-fault accidents (2 non at-fault which shouldn’t hurt my premiums) and no tickets or arrests. I’m insuring one car, a 2005 Nissan Frontier, and I drive around 15,000 miles per year. I decided on the following coverage:

Bodily Injury Liability: $50,000/100,000
Property Damabe: $50,000
Medical Expense: $5000
Uninsured Motorist (Bodily Injury) $25,000/$50,000
$500 Comprehensive Deductible
$1,000 Collision Deductible
$20/day Rental Car

I visited each companies website, typed in all my information, and here’s the results:

• Auto Club - $1,920
• Mercury - $1,880
• Progressive Direct - $2,426
• Geico - $2,108
• State Farm - $1,948
• AllState - $2,194
• Esurance - $1,736
• Liberty Mutual - $1,587

These are obviously very personal, customized quotes, specific to my background, driving record, and driving habits. Your mileage will certainly vary.

That said, in my case, Liberty Mutual was by far the least expensive. Better yet, a few days after I filled out the online form, an agent sent me a new quote, with a new price of $1,493, for the same coverage. Almost another $100 off! My roommate has Liberty Mutual, and in his price shopping, they were also the cheapest. I talked it over with my dad, and Liberty Mutual was his first auto insurance company. I would definitely feel comfortable going with them.

I still have 3 weeks before my old insurance expires, but it looks like after that, I’ll be making a switch. The only question now, is do I go with the lowest premiums, or is there another company that’s worth the extra cost? Could their customer service or handling of claims be better? If so, is that worth a couple hundred dollars a year?

I have heard that by driving slower, say around 55 or 60, that you could save money on gas. PFAdvice says you can save up to 20% by driving slower. I was skeptical, but I’ve been trying over the past couple weeks, and it works.

Before, I used to average at least 75-80 mph on the highway. Even though I drive on the dreaded 405 every morning through the Westside (if you’re not from Southern California, think of the worst traffic zone in your area, then mulitple by 1,000,000,000,000,000 and you’ll get an idea), I wake up at 5am so the road is pretty clear. The past two weeks I’ve been changing my driving habits. I’ve kept my speed as steady as I could, using cruise control when possible, slower acceleration, less braking, and trying to stay behind large trucks whenever possible to cut down on wind resistance. I’d say my average speed for the last two weeks was around 65 mph.

Because I keep extensive gas mileage statistics, I know I’ve been getting around 18.5 mpg for the past 2 years. My best mileage, ever, per gallon for a tank of gas was 20.69. Well this past week, I averaged 22.2 MPG. A new record for me and a 20% increase over my average MPG, and nearly 10% better than my previous best! I couldn’t believe it!

If I’ve been speding $200 a month on gas, which I have been, a 20% savings will save me $40 per month, and $480 for the year. All for driving 10 MPH slower.

Now you’re probably thinking to yourself, ‘well sure your saving a few bucks, but it takes you forever to get to work.’ While it’s true it will take longer to get places, but probably not as much as you think. My commute is about 35 miles door to door. Ignoring traffic congestion, stop lights, and city streets for a minute, if I average 75 MPH, it will take 28 minutes to get to work. If I average 65 MPH, it will take me 32 minutes. A difference of only 4 minutes. Not that big of a deal.

Besides the gas savings, there are plenty of other benefits. For one, it’s a lot safer driving slower, and I never have to worry about speeding tickets. I’ve also noticed I’m much less stressed while driving. Before I’d get upset if there was a slow driver in front of me or if traffic was moving too slow. Now, I almost hope traffic is moving slower (55 PM would be ideal).

So there you have it. Slow down, and save $500 a year. Try it out for yourself.

I just got back from grocery shopping. I just realized it had been over a month since my last major shopping trip (I made two small trips in between). It would be great if I could keep up this once a month grocery shopping trend. One trip to stock up for the month, then one or two quick trips during the month to pickup milk or break (the stuff that goes bad quickly), or if there are any amazing sales I can’t pass up. I think I’ll try and do that for now on.

There was some great sales on meat today, so I bought four pounds each of ground beef and chicken. I split up the packages into meal sized portions, clearly label the contents, put today’s date, and then put them in the freezer until they’re ready to be used.

Now I can stock up on a good deal, and I don’t have to worry about them going bad before I get a chance to use them.

My favorite part of the shopping trip is waiting for the checker to ring up all my items before handing over my club card and coupons. Today, before discounts, the total was $201.80. Once she scanned my club card, it went down to $167.12, and then after coupons, I saved another $21.60. Total bill for today’s groceries was $144.62. That’s a little high, but I really stocked up. I’ll probably only have to take one more shopping trip for the rest of the month, and spend no more than $30. Hooray coupons!

On Thursday’s newspaper, there were coupons for Chevy’s Restaurant: buy one entree, get one for $3.99. My girlfriend and I went there last night to take advantage of the offer. I always feel a little weird using coupons at a restaurant, or anywhere for that matter. I’m afraid we’ll get some strange looks or people will think we’re cheap, and I feel a little ashamed. Hopefully I’ll get over that someday. In the mean time, our total was only $21 and change last night, and with the coupon, we saved $7! It makes dining out a little more reasonable.

Just a quick coupon update for y’all. Had to buy some groceries for a special Valentine’s Dinner. It was just a quick trip to the store, so I could only use 2 coupons. Still, with Ralph’s double coupons, I saved $2, or about 5% off my total bill. Better than nothing I suppose.

Also, quick note about the dinner. I found a FANTASTIC website for recipes. Recipe Zaar has over 200,000 recipes all searchable and categorized. I ended up making a Spinach Artichoke Dip for an appetizer, and a Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta for the main course. Both were excellent.

Part of my new budget is to clip and use coupons. I got a weekend (Thur-Sun) subscription to the LA Times for $1.50/week for the first 6 months, and now every Sunday morning, I spend about an hour clipping and organizing my coupons. It’s been a month now, so how am I doing?
I’ve been shopping twice since I started. The first trip, after only one week of coupons, I saved $13. The second trip, three weeks later, I saved $24 using coupons. Not too shabby. For $6 in subscription fees, I saved $37 using coupons, for a net savings of $31/month. If nothing else, it’ll alleviate some of the pain of my bills. Still, it’s hard not to smile when you see this at the bottom of your receipt: