As sad as it sounds, my “Latte Factor” indulgence was cable TV. For years I thought we (my husband and I) had basic cable, for just over $50 per month. We did not pay for any “premium” channels – there was no HBO or Cinemax for us. I purposely had left those pricey items off when I signed up for our service.
Once I went through the Finish Rich Workbook, I started looking for things I could cut out of my monthly expenses. I was looking for stuff I didn’t need. I glanced right over the little bills, like cable, Internet, etc., and focused on how to cut back on my big monthly ticket items like entertainment or groceries. We are pretty disciplined people, so there was not all that much wiggle room there.
However, a quick glance at my cable provider’s website showed me that I was signed up for basic cable, the preferred packages. I noticed that for the privilege of multiple types of music channels, some history channels and some b list movie channels, my cable provider considered my package above basic. I canceled that package that day and signed up for true basic cable. We now only get 23 channels – the main ones, and none of the channels we didn’t really watch anyway, and I only pay $12.31 per month.
Little monthly savings like that save me over $470 per year.
