Welcome back to the Fake Cheap train. What’s that? You never left to begin with? I like you guys more and more each time I post. No wonder I want to share such great financial tips with you. With that being said, lets begin.
Let’s talk about areas where everyone can start saving money, significant money, and all within the next 24 hours in some cases. I’ll keep this fresh in your mind by calling these things the 3 C’s. As you can see the 3 C’s are Cars, Cells and Cable. I want you to think about these 3 things or a minute, and tell me, how much time in an average day to you spend in a car, on your cell, and watching cable? I bet that number just blew your mind. I’m going guess that most people spend 1-2 hours in a car, another 1-2 hours on their cell, texting, playing games, on social media, and then topping that off with another 3-4 hours of cable, totaling anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. So you sleep for about 7 hours, you work for about 8 hours, that leaves you 9 hours…..and you spend a most of this time on the 3 C’s! Now ask yourself: What in the sweet jiminy cricket are you doing with your life??? And of course, these 3 things aren’t only draining away your time, but also your money.
The 1st C – Cars
I can hear you already: “I need my car!” or “I love my truck, no way I’m giving that up!” I’m not going to talk you into giving up your vehicle, not yet anyway. I really want to ease you into the world of saving. So first, let’s make sure you use your vehicle efficiently. That means drive, as little as possible. Make stops on your way home, no dreaded special trips!* Also, when you drive, accelerate steadily. And when you drive on the highway, instead of going 120 km/h try out about 100, about 20% slower, but about 30% more fuel efficient. Now lets make sure you have a reasonable vehicle. Do you own a truck or SUV? Do you haul large or heavy objects, or many people frequently? Key word people: frequently. If no, then great, you can start finding a more reasonable vehicle right this second. There is NO reason to own a vehicle that requires MORE gas, or larger MORE expensive tires than needed. Get an efficient person mover…a car! If you have a car payment and it is more than about $400 per month, I beg you to take a good long look at that number and think of what else that money could be doing for you, hint: making you money by ways of investments.
The 2nd C – Cable
You pay money you don’t have, to spend time watching things you don’t need to see, in order to have something to talk about with people that you don’t like. (Yes, that is a slightly altered line from Fight Club). How much is your cable bill? Seriously go and get it and look at it. Is it bundled with other things so you can’t really tell how much? Then call your provider, like now, and ask them how much, and then ask them how you can lower it. Threaten to leave them, if you must. Play the game! I would love to say I don’t have cable, but I would be lying. This is how I do it with my cable company, which is also my internet and home phone provider. So way back a few years ago I was a sukka paying full price for cable, then The Fake Cheap roared to life and cancelled the cable. This dropped by bill by about $80 a month, and let me tell you that is a metric F ton of money. Now here is the kicker, after a few months, I called and got the cable hooked back up, and the goods news of this is that since I was adding a “new” service I was eligible for the promo rate again, so I paid only about $15 more a month on top of my internet and home phone, and got the whole cable deal HD/PVR. Then the promo ran out, I canceled again, waited a few months, and got the promo deal again. This once again dropped by bill from nearly a whopping $200 to under $150, so the promo was not as good as the first time, but still some sweet savings to be had for sure. Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game. One other thing I should mention is that you won’t miss the cable, you will adapt, that is what we humans do. You will survive, and survive with MORE money.
The 3rd C – Cells
This might be my most cringe worthy topic. I. Can’t. Believe. The. Money. People. Spend. On. Their. Cell. Phone. I’ve heard the vomit inducing figures “Oh yeah, I only had to pay $600 for this phone, and then it was only $75 a month for the plan for 2 years, and sometimes I don’t even have to pay extra for my data.” Do you have a cell plan like this? Get rid of it now! Sell you phone tomorrow, heck pay someone to take your phone from you, and pay whatever penalty they ask, and then thank me later. You are throwing your money and your time away on these stupid phones! Yes, I have a phone, the details can be found here. The TL;DR of it is that my phone and plan cost me about $12 a month. (Update coming shortly) YES, that is the phone AND the plan, $12, 12 dollars, not a typo twelve. “But it’s not an iPhone” Of course it’s not an iPhone! It calls people and texts people. DONE.
So there you have it, 3 C’s for you to keep in mind, I strongly urge you to review how much money (and time) the 3 C’s are costing you, and see how you can do better.
Comment below (if you dare) and let me know if you plan to take or have taken any action on one or all of the 3 C’s and let me know the results.
Give me a like if you find this article helpful, or if you know, like the article.
Fake Cheap out!
*A special trip is something I define as driving more than 3 km only to go and pick up 1 item, or a few items when not in an emergency situation. So driving to get a coffee that is 5 minutes away, that doesn’t happen anymore. Got it? We’re going to get along great 🙂
The Fake Cheap Rating. The lower the stars, the cheaper I was/am. The higher the stars the more “fake” cheap I am/was. I have a car, I have a cell, and I have cable, no cheapness going on here!