Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Saving Cash - Stupid, Sneaky Charges - Cancelled!

It seems one of the best ways to save money is to stop spending it, especially on things you absolutely don't need, or don't use. With our money-tracking software, we looked at our credit card bills, and found some charges that seemed odd.

1. Diet and Fitness online tool that hadn't been used in AGES. This was costing us about $20/month, for a service we didn't use at all any more. Probably paid for it for at least 6 months. Cancelled.

2. Web domain registration of a screen name we like. We thought we might use it for a business someday, but I doubt that will happen. I need to figure out how to cancel this one.

3. Reward points - I supposedly (mistakenly) signed up for a rewards program when I ordered from a catalog. They charged me $1.95 for a trial month, and for doing the trial, I was supposed to get $15 off my next order with the company. Then I automatically started getting charged $14.95 a month, to be in this rewards program. I'm still not sure how it happened, but the customer service rep was pretty nice in canceling the $14.95 (x2) charges that I had received so far, and has canceled the program entirely, so we won't get any more charges. Cancelled.

4. Watch out for the "totally free" trial periods online, because you often then start getting charged. We recently did one of these "free" trials. It was free, but then it started costing $59/month. We ended up paying for two months. This was a service that I actually enjoyed, but wasn't worth $59/month to me. Cancelled!

There are more ways for us to trim the fat, but now I think we'll be moving on to a closer look at our insurance (car and home) and our telecommunications next.

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