Now, before my co-workers storm my desk tomorrow, let me explain – this wasn’t a pay raise.  This was something even better, something that I think everyone can get in various amounts.  This raise was courtesy of me cancelling all the stuff that we don’t use anymore.

We all have it, those little charges that are $5 here, maybe $7.50 there.  Seems like such a tiny amount – until you add it up.  Things like cell phone insurance plans, television channels you never watch, and land-line phone services that you haven’t used since the 1980s. 

Today, I happened to be working from home while waiting on the repairman from Sears to come and fix our oven when I took a break and started looking at some bills.  Before I knew it I had my calculator up and running and was amazed at what all this added up to.

• $22.00+ for an “Essentials” package for our land-line phone from AT&T that included call-waiting, three-way calling and other nonsense we haven’t used in years.
• $12.99 for Starz from DirecTV – we have better things to do than sit in front of the TV all day and night.
• $20+ for AT&T wireless “insurance” on our cell phones (all 4 of them).  Of course, they charge you a $50 “deductible” (in some cases $100 depending on the phone) plus activation charges if you use it which makes this totally worthless in every sense of the word.
• $10.00+ on two credit cards for “payment protection” – another worthless product. 

I added this all up and I was astounded to find that in a years time this was almost $700 going down the drain for stuff we never used.  It took me about 30 minutes, but I cancelled every one of them.

It just goes to show how little things can creep up.  I still have more stuff to go through to weed our frivolous charges and I’m confident I can give myself another $500 raise with a little work.