Common Cents Saving: Recent Episodes
CommonCentsSaving.com
It’s been about 9 months since I made an episode of Common Cents Saving, and I’ve gone through a few minor emergencies since we last spoke. In this episode, I’d like to talk about what happened, what I did, what I could have done differently. Then we can talk about what we can do during minor financial inconveniences to avoid worrying about how we’re going to pay for them.
There was a time I would have thought an appliance breaking in my home would be a financial nightmare to deal with, but because of some frugal habits and planning, a couple of would-be major issues turned into minor ones. As far as my issues goes – I had a bathroom plumbing issue, my TV broke, then I had a kitchen plumbing issue. All within a month! Everything has now been fixed, and I think I handled the different situations well, financially speaking. Let’s go over everything that happened and I’d like you to help me judge how I did. Now, I’m going to preface these stories by telling you that I’m not great at being handy at home, but the Internet is available to help me along the way.
- The first had to be the worst. A bathroom sink drain was leaking into a room on the opposite side of the wall. Aside from the occasional toilet flush valve breaking, I’ve never had a serious plumbing issue before, so I made a knee-jerk reaction to call a plumber to get a quote. To fix the problem, the plumber had to cut a hole in the wall on the other side of the wall from the bathroom sink. He found that my sewer outlet was the issue and recommended cleaning it out to allow things to flow and not back up at that part of the house. This required him to scale my roof and snake the main drain to clear it. $550 later and the problem was fixed. I think I made an okay decision here, but not the best. If I wasn’t afraid of heights, maybe I could have rented a large drain snake and cleaned the main myself. That way, I could have saved myself $550 on a plumber. I also had to spend $50 on the material and tools to patch the huge hole in my wall that the plumber left. I’ve never had to patch a wall before, but YouTube had me covered. (it’s not great looking, but it’s behind a dresser) Overall, I’d say this was a learning experience. If I ever need to clear the drain from the roof again, I may call around for a better quote. Unfortunately, my fear heights has me turning to my wallet to solve this kind of issue.
- The second minor emergency was that my TV suddenly broke! And I was in the middle of my favorite show! This is most definitely not the worst thing that could have happened, but still a first-world inconvenience if I’ve ever had one. As I was watching TV one night, it suddenly shut off and wouldn’t power back on. After scouring the Internet for possible fixes and attempting all the button pushing configurations on the remote, I learned that maybe my issue is an internal component. My TV was essentially broken. I’ve never had a TV break on me before, so I didn’t exactly know what to do. I don’t know anything about electronics and microchip boards, so what was I to do? Do I buy a new TV? Are TV repairmen still a thing? Turns out that YES they are! It’s not just something from old movies. Also, they cost way less than buying a new TV. The repair cost me $250 to replace and reinforce a piece on the internal power board. It was an odd expense, as I never expected to call a TV repairperson in my life. I won’t complain, as it’s better than buying an equivalent replacement TV. To replace my TV with the exact same brand and model would have cost me well over $1000. I bought the TV way before my frugal habit days and I would dread having to actually replace it. I think I made the right decision here.
- The last issue I faced was another plumbing issue, this time in the kitchen. This one was entirely my fault, and I fully accept the blame. I was installing a water filter under the sink and broke the faucet’s cold water line. This meant that I needed to replace the entire faucet, as the hot/cold waterlines are built into it. Thankfully, this particular issue was easily solved with a couple of YouTube videos and a trip to Home Depot. Now I have a new touch-less kitchen faucet! This repair cost me just under $100. I’m comfortable saying I made the right decision here by doing the repair on my own and not calling a handyman or plumber.
I’m fully aware that most people are not able to handle a $400 emergency [find research] and may likely go into debt to perform any of the repairs I recently experienced. I used to be in a similar position. It’s not fun to suddenly find ourselves staring down a home repair with no way to financially handle it. The answer to this is to build an emergency fund. Because of my emergency fund, I had some money set aside to weather this storm and call it a minor inconvenience. Rounding up, I spent about $1000 on repairs last month with money I had put aside for just the occasion. Of course, I will now need to add money back into my emergency fund over the next months, but the plus side is that I didn’t go into debt.
There are a couple of ways to go about paying for emergencies and turning them into minor inconveniences.
- In episode 4, we discussed emergency savings. About putting money aside for literally what it sounds like – emergency situations. This way, you build up a stash of money to pull from whenever a large issue arises. Your emergency savings gets replenished when used, and is only ever used for emergencies.
- In episode 6, I talked about sinking funds. If you’re aware that you may have to perform a future home repair or replace something, you may want to plan accordingly and budget out a small portion each month to build towards its cost. For example, if you know that in one year you will have to replace your old stove and it will cost $600 for a new one. Using sinking funds, set aside $50 each month for 12 months to build up the $600 needed.
Planning and budgeting is crucial to avoiding debt. Whichever method you use, you will be prepared for whatever financial emergency may come your way.
Question of the episode:
Have you had any recent emergencies that you took care of with your emergency fund? Also, what would you have done in my three situations? I’d love to hear from you! Leave your answer in the comment section below.
Savers, you guess it from the title, another online Mint Mobile review. I’m sure you’ve already seen a handful of these, but I want to give you my experience from a frugal and minimalist point of view.
Before we get started, if you’d like to sign up for Mint Mobile, please use my referral link: http://fbuy.me/tHV1l
I think people spend more time choosing which model of phone they want than deciding on their mobile carrier. I sure didn’t care about the carrier, so long as my phone worked when I needed it to. I’m the kind of person who believes “If it’s not broken, then don’t mess with it.” My previous cell provider of choice was T-Mobile. I had T-Mobile for so long, they weren’t even called T-Mobile when I got my first phone with them as a kid, they were known as VoiceStream Wireless. I just never thought to switch because I had always heard horror stories about outrageously high bills from the other big carriers like Verizon and AT&T. T-Mobile’s phone service worked with minimal issues for over two decades. The only problem I ever had was the steadily growing price over the years.
I’ve been hesitant to switch carriers due to mild brand loyalty, but my frugality is more important than loyalty to a company. I’ve known about other MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) companies like Cricket, MetroPCS and Visual, but refused to make the jump. Again, my service wasn’t broken and the price wasn’t the worst, so why would I change it?
Though I said T-Mobile’s price wasn’t the worst, what I meant was that it’s not the worst when comparing to the other top carriers. For example, at the time of this recording, Verizon’s least expensive prepaid plan is $40 per month for unlimited talk, text and 5 GB of data. AT&T’s least expensive prepaid plan is $50 for unlimited talk, text and 4 GB of data. T-Mobile’s least expensive prepaid plan is $45 and includes unlimited talk, text and 20 GB of data. These are the plans that have no extra perks, and we’ll be comparing them to Mint Mobile later.
Why did I choose Mint Mobile? Honestly, Mint Mobile is a T-Mobile MVNO or mobile virtual network operator. Without getting technical, this just means that the service uses T-Mobile’s network infrastructure without roaming access to the Verizon or AT&T networks. So if you’re in an area with only Verizon or AT&T towers, then you won’t have service. Not the biggest deal, if you’re not regularly in areas with few cell towers. For me, that meant identical service. It’s not like I was switching to a company that used Verizon towers, like Visible, or AT&T towers, like Cricket. I knew what I was getting into with the T-Mobile infrastructure.
Taking the step to finally switch from T-Mobile was difficult, honestly. I enjoyed the perks that came along with the service. I was eligible for free Netflix, Apple TV+ and Paramount+ options on their Magenta Max plan, meaning I didn’t have to pay for those services. Verizon and AT&T also offer similar streaming benefits. Seems like T-Mobile and other top carriers win when it comes to perks with add-on services, but when you do the math are you really saving any money?
Mint Mobile has no perks, but that’s a good thing. Stripping the fluff from the cell phone plan keeps prices low. On top of that Mint Mobile has no brick and mortar locations, so the company doesn’t have to pay rent for the facilities, again keeping costs low. They also don’t pay for the physical infrastructure like cell towers, instead renting bandwidth space from T-Mobile.
What does Mint Mobile have? To put it simply, Mint Mobile is a no-frills cell service. You get unlimited talk and text on all of their plans, and the only choice you really have to make is how much data do you need? Currently, they have options for 4 GB, 10 GB, 15 GB and unlimited (throttled at 35 GB). Prices range from $15 to $30 per month, depending on the plan you choose. That’s it. No add-ons for extra services that you may not even use, but still have to pay for. Mint Mobile offers plan options for 3, 6 or 12 months. Choosing their 12 month plan offers their lowest price options. I have the 12 month 4 GB plan, which after taxes and fees came out to be about $200 for the year, or under $17 per month. Keep in mind that you will be paying for the entire plan upfront, but then you no longer have to worry about a monthly cell phone bill. My home needs two cell phones, so my yearly cost is about $400. Compared to the almost $100 per month ($1,200 per year!) thatI was paying for T-Mobile. I’m incredibly happy with the switch to Mint Mobile. I’ve had their service for over four months now and haven’t had any service interruptions.
I happen to live in Florida and live in the path of the recent Hurricane Ian. Now, my area wasn’t hit directly, so I’m thankful for my family’s and my safety, but we did get hit with hurricane force winds and lost power and internet for some time. I was reliant on my cell phone to be able to keep updated with the weather and info from our local electric company. At no point during the outage did my speeds drop until I ran out of data. I ended up using up my 4 GBs during that time from browsing Reddit too much, so that’s on me. I could have bought additional data, but I didn’t want to. When I did run out, it was practically unusable when trying to watch YouTube or browse Reddit, but still useful for sending iMessages and slowly checking emails. I’m not the kind of person who gets upset from super slow loading speeds, since I’m old enough to have used dial up internet as a kid. Anybody remember NetZero? I also understand that the internet, though a necessity in the modern world, is kind of a luxury when it comes to basic needs. We don’t always need to be online and on our phones constantly, but that’s a topic for another day.
Switching to Mint Mobile was easy. Buying the service is simple enough through their website or app (using my referral link! http://fbuy.me/tHV1l), and they’ll mail you a SIM card. If you want to keep your phone number, you’ll need to keep your current service active and have your current cell phone account number, transfer PIN number and billing ZIP code to transfer your number. Your carrier can tell you the transfer PIN number and will unlock your phone, if you call and ask. Put your new Mint Mobile SIM card in your phone. Use the Mint Mobile app and follow the setup steps to input the transfer information and set up your service. That’s all! I took me less than 10 minutes to set up my phones.
Again, I’m happy I made the switch to Mint Mobile and I think you should, too! Please use my referral link to sign up and you’ll get $15 credit to use when you sign up. Savings on savings. Go to http://fbuy.me/tHV1l to start saving on your mobile phone bill.
Question of the episode:
Do you have one of the top cell phone carriers T-Mobile, Verizon or AT&T? Why do you have them when there are other, less expensive options out there? I’d love to hear your reasoning! You’ll receive no judgements from me, remember, I was a T-Mobile customer for over 20 years! I know how hard it is to make the switch. Please leave a comment below.
I’d like to talk about being frugal and what that means to us, or at least to me. Let’s get into why I decided to buckle down and inspect my personal finances. Though I’ve always known budgeting is helpful, like most people I never really thought to pay it much mind. As long as I had a paycheck coming up, I aways felt fine about spending what I had in my bank account. Last year, I was put into a bind financially when my dog began having severe medical issues. After a week in the emergency vet and testing like an MRI and spinal tap, I was left with bills totaling around 11 thousand dollars. Top that off with a handful of different medications he has to take multiple times a day, plus additional testing over time. The cost was growing. I was scared. I’m the kind of person who would do anything for my dog, so I knew I had to do something, if we were going to make it financially speaking. I refuse to be put into another position where I feel scared about money. I was afraid I wouldn’t enough to support my dog’s health, let alone my own expenses. I know many people are in that position every day, and I know it’s not easy.
The act of budgeting is taking a microscope to your finances and really analyzing your spending habits. What are the unnecessary things? Maybe that cup of Dunkin or Starbucks every weekday morning. Maybe we need to curb that Amazon shopping habit. Maybe there are other ways we’re able to cut back. What are the necessary things? I’m sure most of us have rent, utilities and groceries to budget. Maybe we have medical expenses or debt to pay off. Minimizing unneeded spending is crucial to reaching any financial goals. I’d like to think we’re all here because we have money goals, or at least the desire to get a hold of our finances.
Being frugal, in my opinion, implies that you are intentional with your money and possibly even have a plan to save that money for a future purpose. Being frugal doesn’t necessarily mean living a miserly lifestyle and being cheap with your money. You also don’t have to be a minimalist to the point where you’re sewing the holes in old clothing instead of just buying something new. You can still be frugal and have nice things. Frugality, like many things in life, is about balance. We try to save as much as we can, while still living comfortably.
Let’s keep in mind that we have financial goals to reach. My long term goal is to eventually be financially independent and hopefully retire early. It’s a long stretch, but I’ve spent too much time on YouTube and I’ve drunk the financial independence Kool-Aid and I want that life for myself. It’s going to be difficult, but I know that’s the direction I’m headed. My short term goals are ever-changing, but currently it’s to backfill my emergency savings that I talked about in the last episode.
Budgeting, though a huge part of what this podcast is focused on, is only one piece of the overall personal finance pie. We won’t talk about all the pieces today, but a few things to keep in mind as you begin to figure things out is your emergency savings, monthly bills and retirement. You may not think you have the ability to worry about retirement or plan have investments, but we are all capable of more than we realize.
For some of you, maybe your reason for budgeting and being frugal is just so you can make the bills every month. Maybe some of you want to save for a car repair. Maybe you have medical expenses like medication and appointments to budget. Maybe you have debt to pay off. Whatever your reason, always keep your goals in mind when you need to make any sort of financial decisions.
The journey of frugality can mean different things to us, even though we’re all doing about the same thing, which is saving money.
Question of the episode:
What are your reasons for budgeting or being frugal? Do you have any specific short or long term goals? I’d love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below.
Sinking funds are versatile and can be used for any kind of future expense, as long as you know how much you will need for it when the time comes.
Debt is like tying an anchor to yourself and attempting to swim. All it’s going to do is weigh down your progress and keep you from reaching your goals.
Emergency savings is beneficial for a handful of reasons. It allows you to stay out of debt when an emergency arises. Having an emergency savings is like being self-insured, as you’ll have a pile of money available to you for unforeseen situations. It can make an already stressful situation less stressful, as you shouldn’t have to worry as much about money.
You will be able to buy your wants guilt-free, knowing you have the money set aside while you’re still putting money towards your savings goals.
Budgets can be as complex or as simple as you like. It’s your personal plan. Make it yours.
If taking control of your spending is not something you’ve thought of before, it can seem like a daunting and even boring task. I didn’t say this will be easy, but it will benefit you for the rest of your life. It only takes a few minutes a day once you’ve set everything up. The key is consistency. It’s not going to be fun, but you’re going to have to stick to the budget you set. If you don’t keep this up, you will regret it.