Saving Money Roulette

So, as everyone knows, tomorrow is my last day at my main job and I don't have another one lined up yet.  I still have the second job at the pharmacy but it won't pay close to what I make now so money is going to be a little tight but hopefully, not for long.  I did the math and I can still afford rent, loan payments, bills, and have enough to feed myself and the cats.  Maybe even go out every once in a while.

Since I found a pre-approved mortgage estimator online, I decided to see if, with the realistic salary I'll be earning once I get an actual job, I will be able to afford that condo I saw online that I wanted (or one just like it in that area.  Turns out with my monthly student loan payments, I won't (I included the graduate loan in the estimation which makes a total of $1000 a month in loan payments for both loans).  So I decided I better start trying to find ways to save money now so I can get a hefty down payment.

Anyways, I really don't watch that much cable anymore and what I do watch is on a station that airs all their shows online within two days.  Since a lot of the time I don't watch the show right away anyways, it's usually already online before I switch on my DVR.  I signed up for Netflix as well and surprise, all the shows are also on there (one season behind which is fine because there is soo much I need to catch up on anyways).  I called my cable/phone/internet company to drop my cable to save some money each month.  After listening to and going through the whole spiel of "let's see if there is a cheaper package I can give you and still keep the cable" and upon finding out that I did in fact, have the cheapest one, he finally felt defeated and went through the procedure to cancel my cable.

The conversation went something like this:

Him: Okay, all I have to do is click this button and you're cable will be turned off.
Me: Okay.
Him: Are you sure you want me to hit the button?
Me: Yes.
Him: Once I click it, I can't go back.
Me: Okay then.
Him: Okay I'm going to click it now....
Me: Click it.

Epilogical knows how to play chicken.  Just like that, my cable is off.  My bill will now be about $80 less each month (because you get a discount when you have all three phone, internet and cable, so I lost the discount).  But still, that's (subtracting the $8 cost of Netflix)  $72 a month or $864 a year that I'm saving.  That savings will be going towards the condo downtown that I want to buy.

I get to play phone number roulette though now because apparently when you drop your cable, that also means your phone number changes.  Which they didn't tell me and I had to find out from a third party.  And now I have to wait a couple days in order to get my old number back.  Which is funny that they can mistakenly change it in an instant but takes time to get the old one back.

Anyways, the phone number thing had me thinking.  As part of the bundle deal, my phone had unlimited local and unlimited long distance calling.  Unbundled, this comes out to a hefty monthly fee.  Since I have a cellphone with free long distance, and most of my long distance calls are to my parents I decided I could do without.  So I decided to call again today to get their unlimited local plan that charges 5 cents a minute for long distance calls.  Not sure how much my bill drops now, I didn't ask but I should be getting a bill in the next week or so.  I'm guessing between dropping the various things, I will be saving at least $1000 a year now.