Day 334 | $25,485 paid | $63,228 till freedom

In addition to free and prompt household maintenance, cheap rent, and regular pool & fitness center access, an unexpected benefit of living in a large apartment complex is FREE GARBAGE!

Normally, a stinking heap of middle-class waste would be less than helpful to someone looking for ways to pay off a mountain of student loan debt. However, after death and taxes, the 3rd thing you can always count on is Americans being the rampant consumers that they are, and this means perfectly usable things find their way next to a dumpster where local scavengers, like me, reap the benefits.

This all started when I saw a pile of Physical Education textbooks stacked next to the dumpster. Having resold all of my textbooks in college on websites like Amazon and Half.com, I knew that these things usually retained some value, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see what I could make of them. After Amazon fees and shipping fees, I ended up profiting a quick $12. With such risk-free money to be made, I decided to keep my eyes open on all of my future trash errands.

Solo-Rowing: Something every P.E. teacher should be an expert in.

The next item of worth that I came across was a fully functional HP Officejet 4200 series all-in-one printer with the box and all of it’s cables. Coincidentally, this printer was newer and worked better than our current printer which had compatibility issues with the latest operating systems and had followed my wife since she started college. We kept the printer from the trash and sold our old one for $20 on Craigslist two hours later.

Why is it called a moon chair anyways?

Other items I’ve sold in the last month include a mildew-scented red “moon chair” for $10, a scratched-up wooden end table with a missing drawer for $5, and a 7 foot pre-lit Christmas tree with one bent branch for $10.

Currently, we live far enough away from the metroplex that Craigslist can be pretty slow to bring forth any buyers that have even heard of our town. Because of this, my junk accumulation is outpacing the rate at which I can sell it. With no additional square footage available in our small one bedroom apartment, I had to get creative to come up with place to store items for my “garbitrage” venture. A solution was found in the dark, musty space under our building’s stairwell. Here now lies a veritable gold mine of discarded goods including a 65-inch wide wire dog pen, a rolling office chair with a broken arm, a well-used Coleman camping chair with one small rip, a working Toro brand electric weed whacker, a small igloo cooler, and a 6.5 foot white door with minor damage (yes, a DOOR). Time will tell what all of this ends up being worth, but I’m guessing a cool $75 stands to be made in the future.

…except a hidden stash of garbitrage loot!

Just your run of the mill staircase, nothing to see here…

This post would not be complete without acknowledging the original dumpster-diver in my life, my dad. 15 years after watching him sell giant stuffed animals, remote control helicopters, and junked picture frames on Ebay, I can now carry on “the family business”. I’m proud to say that he’s recently started a cool new venture of picking up lots of books and DVDs off of Freecycle or the free section of Craigslist, selling the moneymakers on Ebay and dumping the rest at Half-Priced Books for store credit (which he’ll then use at Half-Priced to buy bargain-bin books of value to sell on Ebay). So here’s to you, dad, and may you find other people’s refuse to be ever profitable.

Day 215 | $17,519 paid | $71,194 till freedom

64 / 68 Total Days Biked to Work (94%) | 58 Consecutive Bicycle Commutes to Work

October was completely overwhelming. It consisted of many evenings and all four weekends dedicated to my job and I worked a total of 365 hours. Understandably, there was little free time for financial tracking, improving the efficiency of our expenses, or Craigslist-ing. However, when all was said and done, it was the least amount of money that we have ever spent in a 30-day period. We excelled in keeping under our projected limits in all categories except for the water bill and groceries. Unfortunately, the water bill is mailed two months after-the-fact, so it’s difficult to track its cause and effect relationship.

October Summary:

• Starting Cash: $200
• Starting Debt: $73,410
• Income: $4,530
• Expenses (Including regular loan payments): $3,314
• Amount paid to debt: $1,771
• Ending Debt: $71,194
• Ending Cash: $200
• Total Assets: $38,036
• Total Liabilities: $71,194
• Net Worth: -$33,158

Predicted amount of debt at the end of May 2014: $1,229

As the trend line grows longer, it becomes more encouraging to me as I can visibly see that progress has been made. Last April seems like a long time ago, and it really hasn’t felt like we’ve done much. In reality though, after 25% of our time has expired we’ve knocked out 24.6% of what we started with. The more we take down, the bigger the snowball gets. This month we knocked out the smallest of my unsubsidized 6.55% interest federal loans that originally carried a balance of $2,000. I’ve got two more unsubsidized disbursements at the same interest rate that total to about $11,000 left to go before moving on to my two “Special Direct Consolidation Loans”.

Assessment of Expenses and Revenue

Here’s a look at October’s spending. As you can see, WAY more green in this month’s expenses category than any other month. Click once to open, and once to zoom.

Analysis: Expenses

• Fuel – $65 – This month was the first time we’ve reached the sub-$100 mark, and boy did we shatter it. Biking to work and to carry out errands and not having many large cross-town trips to make made this possible.
• Eating Out – $13 – Another number I’m very proud of. Planning ahead with our meals has virtually eliminated the “necessary” eating out caused by an empty fridge.
• Dog Supplies – $37 – We finally reached an equilibrium where vet expenses, pet deposits, and other start-up costs are out of the picture and all we had to do was buy food. Maybe the budgeted $75 is a little higher than it needs to be.
• Miscellaneous – $59 – This is by far the lowest we’ve spent on miscellaneous purchases. We usually end up somewhere near the budgeted $200, but not this month. This figure may be somewhat under-reported, as a number of Wal-Mart / Grocery receipts were misplaced and there were likely some line items that would have been taken from Grocery and placed into Misc.
• Groceries – $582 – This is a solid $110 higher than our budgeted $470. There were lots of little extra trips between big trips and those small items add up. This figure is also probably inflated some due to miscellaneous items creeping their way in there.
• Electricity – $73 – One dollar under the budgeted $74, so we’re right on track here.
• Water – $76 – Yet another high water bill. This is concerning, as our average at the last apartment was around $58 and we’ve changed no habits. It’s obvious that some extra efforts will need to be made in this area.
• Auto Insurance – $313 – We only have $63 a month budgeted for our new premium, but I had to pay All-State $250 for the last prorated amount of what we owed them.
• Out-Of-Budget – $22 – We drained the Running Supplies ING account, and had to dip into our checking account balance a little bit to get some things for my wife. The $40 a month we contribute to the account is really a “best estimate” of what we’ll need to set aside, so occasionally going beyond that isn’t necessarily a negative thing.
• Student Loan Snowball – $1,771 – I wish that in a month with such low expenses, I could have had some monster online sales action to boost the income and make this snowball roll a little faster. What is encouraging though, is that even in a month with ZERO supplemental income, the snowball payment matches what we paid in April and May when I DID made $1,000 per month online.

All other categories are the same month-to-month and were right where we budgeted them.

Analysis: Revenue

Well, not much to analyze this time. No gifts, sales, windfalls, or deposits of any kind were received except for our salary at the beginning of the month. It makes for an interesting pie chart, let me tell ya.

November Outlook:

I’m writing this post three weeks into November, but the outlook looks good! I’ve been selling some things out of my closet. This includes some unopened wedding gifts and the like that I know I wouldn’t use for a while, as well as other random things. I’m really trying to make the most out of the resources I have available to me. Also, with the end of our football team’s playoff run, it means I have gotten my weekends back which means getting back into the online electronics biz. I expect that going into the Christmas season more people will be looking to sell their unused toys for cash to buy gifts for family and friends and that my business will receive some fresh wind in its sails. As always, I will end this post with the full 24-month outlook. We’re 6 months through, and still have another 18 to go!

Day 214 | $17,519 paid | $71,194 till freedom

64 / 68 Total Days Biked to Work (94%) | 58 Consecutive Bicycle Commutes to Work

After hearing it mentioned countless times on various personal finance / early retirement blogs and message boards, I decided to finally read Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez. I was already familiar with much of the book’s content and ideas, and had already had most of the life-changing realizations that the authors try to communicate prior to diving into it.

However, YMOYL is more than a book, it’s a 9-step program to financial independence. Rather than reading it once and putting it on the shelf, I’ve decided to take action and go through the program.

Step 1 is to make peace with the past by finding out how much money you’ve earned in your lifetime, and to then calculate your current net worth. I decided to fly through this step, as I know I haven’t made a whole lot of money (thus the intended shock effect would be significantly lessened on me) and I already know my current net worth is $ -33,158. I get it, I’ve made some unwise choices with money over the past 7 years, moving on.

Step 2 is to A) Establish the actual costs in time and money required to maintain your job, and compute your real hourly wage, and B) to keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life.

I’ve been tracking our expenses ruthlessly for more than a year now and have accounted for every penny, but calculating my real hourly wage is something I’ve been scared to do. However, getting debt free and changing my life around is not going to happen when I’m living in denial, so here it goes, starting with October, the most work-intensive month of the year. All figures include 20 minutes worth of commuting a day.

And here are the stats for the least work-intensive month of the year, Februrary:

So over the course of a school year, my wage fluctuates somewhere between $11.87 and $19.83 an hour. Honestly, that’s not nearly as dismal of an amount as I expected to end up with. Instead, I think the most shocking part of this is seeing how much I actually work laid out on the table. After working multiple back-to-back 91 hour work weeks, and my lightest load all year being 55 hours, a “40-hour Grind” is starting to sound pretty luxurious.

There are a number of questions I have to ask myself in the face of this data. Do I love what I do enough to dedicate that much of my life to it? If my priority in life is to be a good husband and father, does the amount of time I spend at work reflect these values? If I had an opportunity to make the same amount of monthly income working a 40-hour a week day job at $25 an hour, would I do it? What If I made $35 an hour sitting behind a desk for 8 hours a day and increased my income by 23%? What if that increase in income allowed me to work YEARS less in the future? Is combining my paid day job with my passion really such a smart idea if it causes me to neglect my home and personal life?

I do know this: As much as I love certain aspects of my job, it is still a job, and it’s primary function is to earn me money. My ultimate goal is to be financially independent and retired by age 35 so that I can dedicate my life to working how I choose to, not how I’m obligated to. Is working my current job in line with this objective? That is a question I will have to ponder over the next weeks and months. In the immediate future, I will have to increase the efficiency and quality of my work so that I don’t continue to over-commit myself in an unhealthy way.

Month 6 Progress Report coming soon.

Day 171 | $15,732 paid | $72,981 till freedom

29 / 33 Total Days Biked to Work (88%) | 23 Consecutive Bicycle Commutes to Work

For reasons unknown, I have previously viewed the auto insurance bill as a fixed expense that was simply a fact of life. It was something my parents had set me up with in high school, and I have maintained the status quo on both my provider and level of coverage. Besides, it is common knowledge that males under the age of 25 are considered high-risk and are unable to obtain reasonable insurance premiums. When talks of possibly selling my car began, it opened my eyes to the amount that could be saved on every six-month payment.

Discounts

Part of the reason I felt like my insurance savings were already “maxed out” was because of all the discounts my Allstate agent listed on my policy. My premium was reduced thanks to the following: Driver Training, Anti-lock Brakes, Good Payer, Anti-Theft, Premier, Multiple Policy, Allstate Easy Pay Plan, Good Driver Rate, Married. I was also enrolled in a program that gave annual $100 reductions on your deductible for staying free of accidents. Finally, on the policy declaration itself, it listed an “Installment” Price and a “Pay in Full” Price. By creating my own monthly installments and funneling money into an online savings account every month, I thought I was being responsible when saving $100 by being able to choose the “pay in full” option. In reality, $100 was chump change when compared with the savings I would find elsewhere.

Reducing the Premium

The first step I tried in reducing my bill was to get some of these discounts that were only applied to the Scion xB on the Honda Civic as well. The only one I was able to get my agent to add on was “anti-theft” for a total premium reduction of $3.82 or a whopping 64 cents a month. This was hardly acceptable, and I then looked to my level of coverage to see where savings could be found. Earlier this year, my coverage was as follows:

Using the “Pay in Full” discount, the total premium came to $1,277.86

What I couldn’t believe was that the premium to cover collision damage to my own car, with a maximum replacement cost of $10,000 had a significantly higher premium than holding liability coverage for up to $100,000. When I really started to consider the costs of replacing a vehicle, I came to an important realization: We don’t need a car to get to work, store, doctor, vet, post office, parks, pharmacy, or any other essential destination. Here I was living within 1.5 miles of everything I need for a comfortable life, with $3,000 in immediately accessible cash and liquid assets, and I’m socking away nearly $1,500 a year for comprehensive/collision damage to our vehicles.

My first move was to remove comprehensive/collision on the Scion xB altogether, and raise the deductible on the Civic as high as my agent would let me. It became immediately clear that my agent did not have best interests in mind, because he reverted into sales mode and began telling me that making such changes were not worth the savings in premium. He said everything short of calling me ignorant, but he went ahead and removed full coverage on the Scion and we agreed to keep the deductible constant on the Honda Civic. This reduced my $1,300 premium to about $900

By this point, my outlook on what we truly needed had shifted and my thoughts naturally arrived at the idea that we no longer had to have two cars in our lives. The previous policy change was hardly  in my hands before my brother had agreed to buy the Scion from me. I called Allstate back and told them to remove all coverage on the Scion, and to also remove the “rental reimbursement” coverage from the civic. (If we can bike to work, why would we need a temporary rental car?). This reduced our coverage to $757… but I still wasn’t satisfied.

Although we could function without a car, it sure is nice to have one for inter-city travel. I knew we wouldn’t be able to quickly replace the Civic in the event of a total loss, but it would be reasonable to front a $2,000 deductible. I made the call, and my agent quoted me $499 if we chose to make this new change to the policy. Reaching the end of the line with Allstate, and having no more practical deductions to make, I had to find out what other companies would quote me for an identical level of coverage. When I was able to nail down a quote from Progressive for $316, I signed up within 24 hours and gave Allstate my cancellation notice.

Thus, within a one-month time period our annual auto insurance costs reduced from $2,600 to $600 and we have suddenly found ourselves with and extra $165 to spend EVERY MONTH. This is a significant addition to our monthly debt snowball and is going to help knock this debt out for good!

Day 165 | $15,732 paid | $72,981 till freedom

24 / 28 Total Days Biked to Work (86%) | 18 Consecutive Bicycle Commutes to Work

I just spent a lovely Sunday morning paying the October bills and updating the spreadsheets. September was a productive month, and a huge $9,400 chunk of the debt got wiped out. This is in thanks largely to my brother, who purchased my Scion xB for $8,000. Some birthday cash and our lowest spending levels so far rounded out the $9,400, even without any real cell phone profits to boost our income (thanks to the second-hand market being saturated with used iPhones once the iPhone 5 was released). I just scheduled the last September snowball payment and it brings us to 17.73% completion of our debt mountain. The ambitious timeline I set in April had us at 20.83% by this point, so we’ve still got some work to do, however, I’m very pleased with where we’re at.

Here’s how September played out:

• Starting Cash: $200
• Starting Debt: $82,830
• Income: $13,521
• Expenses (Including regular loan payments): $3,940
• Amount paid to debt: $9,420
• Ending Debt: $72,981
• Ending Cash: $200
• Total Assets: $37,613
• Total Liabilities: $72,981
• Net Worth: -$35,368

Predicted amount of debt at the end of May 2014: -$1942

In other words, when we reach our two year deadline, we’ll have a surplus of $1942. Sweet! However, 19 months is a long time and anything can happen, so I’m not going to allow myself to become comfortable with that number and will continue to bust my butt like I have been.

I’ve been wanting to graph long-term progress for a while now, but I didn’t feel it was worth it until several months had passed. It is exciting to see our Net Worth creeping closer and closer to zero! July and August were a little rough, and were characterized by high expenses and lower income. In August, spending actually surpassed our income thanks to  a lack of planning ahead. We had to bite the bullet and purchase two plane tickets to Chicago, supplies to setup my wife’s first classroom, more start up costs for the puppy we adopted in July (pet deposit, vet, etc.), and a huge grocery bill. I’ll actually be refunded most of the plane ticket costs later on, as the orchestra I’m performing with is currently raising the funds to reimburse musicians. Both of those months were also far busier with work than I imagined they would be, and cell phone sales went way down from what I was making in the spring. Regardless of those rough patches, I was bound and determined to get that Honda Civic paid off, and knowing that my side business was going to be slow for a while, I went ahead and ignored the dropping profits, dipped into my purchasing capital, and kicked Capital One to the curb in July. The weight that was lifted off my chest when the 9.4% interest loan was gone, made the sacrifice well worth it.

Assessment of Expenses and Revenue

Here’s a look at September’s spending. This spreadsheet has been a helpful tool in comparing my progress in different categories over time. Click once to open, and once to zoom.

Analysis: Expenses

• Internet – $7 – Because of the whole AT&T fiasco that involved several reimbursements, I ended up overpaying in August, and they were kind enough to subtract it from September’s bill.
• Cell Phone – $41 – Switching to Ting has been great, as we’ve reduced our monthly bill considerably. However, we still haven’t gotten usage down to the target levels which would net the planned $30 bill. These bills are one month behind, so I already know that October’s bill DID make this $30 usage level for the first time since switching to Ting, but August had some long phone calls that I could have easily made through Google Voice to save some minutes. After factoring in the start up costs of buying new phones and activating, October will be the first month where we’ll actually be saving money when compared to what we would have spent in the long-term with our previous cell phone plan.
• Rent – $723 – Fixed, and as budgeted.
• Electricy – $57 – This was well underneath the budgeted $74, and I attribute that to the recent switch of energy companies and the return of cooler temperatures. If this trend continues, I may need to lower the budgeted amount.
• Water – $82 – I was shocked when I received the water/sewer bill in the mail. I had budgeted $58 based on our average usage at the last apartment complex, yet this month’s amount was $20 higher than any bill we’ve received in the past 12 months. The only difference I can think of, is that our current living arrangement has separate water bills for each apartment, whereas the previous place divied up each building’s total usage. That, and our toilet’s flushing mechanism will sometimes jam and cause the water to run indefinitely. The news caused me to make at least one immediate, drastic change: taking MUCH shorter showers. We’ll see if that’s enough to make a difference.
• Tithe – $444 – As budgeted.
• Gym – $32 – Fixed, and as budgeted.
• Misc – $193 – Some new clothes, bike helmet and gloves, symphony tickets for my birthday and a couple of other miscellaneous items. This is a win relative to my $200 budget.
• Groceries – $398 – This is a huge win relative to my $470 budget. However, the fiscal month ended one day before a big shopping trip, so I’ll likely see a much larger figure for October. Our grocery bills fluctuate a lot from month to month depending on whether we take 4 or 5 shopping trips.
• Eating Out – $11 – I am maybe the most proud of this figure here. We committed to spending under $50 a month at restaurants and eating out less. There were zero fast food lunches to be had from either of us, and the one $11 meal was very much a situation where either one of us cooking was just NOT going to happen.
• Dog – $123 – A loss relative to my $75 budget. Little H should be good on medicine and vet visits for a while, so this bill should settle down into a lower monthly average.
• Work Expense – $32 – Now that my wife is teaching in her own classroom, we’ve been having to front the cost of some supplies and lesson materials. This is typical of most elementary school environments, and I think it’s unfortunate that she isn’t given some sort of a budget with which to buy things for her room. This spending category is new, and I think in the future we can keep it under $25.
• Fuel – $133 – A loss relative to my $100 budget. However, we are getting VERY close to having a sub-$100 gas bill. Each tank fill-up costs us a figure in the low $30s, so if we can manage to only fill up three times, we’ve got it made. It’s hard to believe that five months ago we were spending $120 more a month on the stuff. What a waste.
• Auto Repair – $75 – A fixed monthly amount transferred to an ING savings account. I really enjoyed the stress-free experience of buying a new set of tires this month using money I’ve been setting aside. ING accounts are brilliant for this purpose.
• Running – $40 – A fixed monthly amount transferred to an ING savings account.
• Rental Insurance – $15 – a fixed monthly amount transferred to an ING savings account in order to pay the premium in full next summer.
• Wife’s New Bicycle – $600 – An unplanned expenditure, however, it was a high-qualtiy 2010 Trek road bike for a good price on Craigslist that will save us money in the long run. This was partially funded by the selling of my wife’s Trek mountain bike for $160 to a friend of ours.
• Out of Budget – $261 – I decided to get some regular service done on the Scion, as well as order a replacement back door hatch. Normally, I would have waited until the ING fund had enough to cover the maintenance, but I wanted to give it to my brother in good condition. Effectively, I sold the car to him for $261 less than $8,000.
• Student Loan Snowball – $8,420 – I was able to knock out the first post-Civic student loan at $6,156 in one fell swoop, and was able to sock a good hunk of change at the next loan in line as well.
• Family xB Loan – $1,000 – I still owe my mother for the original price of the Scion. Although she is not charging me any interest, she is trying to pay down her mortgage, so I thought paying off 8% of what I owed her would be a good gesture.

Analysis: Revenue

• Salary – $4,444 – This amount is typical, and rarely fluctuates.
• Sale of xB – $8,000 – I maybe could have got a better deal selling this private party via Autotrader or Craigslist, but I was happy to sell to my brother for a few hundred less than the Kelly Blue Book suggested price for the mutual convenience. It took 24 hours of both of us thinking it over instead of weeks of dealing with scams and flaky buyers from the internet.
• Auto Insurance Refund – $721 – I received this hefty credit back to my account when I switched insurance providers and no longer had to place two cars on a policy. This experience warrants it’s own blog-post in the future.
• Sale of Bike – $160 – As I stated before, we sold her old bike to one of our friends.
• Birthday Cash – $120 – It never hurts to receive cash for no other reason than growing older. I also received a gift card that is not included in this total which is bound to come in handy soon.
• Misc. Deposits – $85 – I sold a couple of other things on Craigslist, and deposited loose cash a few times.
• Cell Phone Business – $0 – I actually did sell $250 in phones this month, however I am currently dedicating profits to 2012 income tax (which I’ve neglected to set aside in favor of a faster car loan payoff) and building back up my capital reserves for future phone purchases.

October Outlook

The outlook for October looks promising. There are no major expenses on the horizon, and hopefully the trend of lower spending levels continues. I’ve had to accept that maybe the $1,000 a month goal for my cell phone business was a little unrealistic over the long-term, due to the time constraints of my day job and us moving 20 minutes further away from the city (and a higher concentration of Craigslist listings). Regardless, I’m still going to strive to make as much as possible to accelerate the pay-down. It’s hard to believe that 5 months has already passed, and we’re nearly 1/5 of the way to the goal. I can’t wait until 2014 when we have zero monthly payments and have 50-60% of our combined incomes available to invest. Dreaming of that future is what keeps me motivated on a daily basis. I’ll leave you with the full 24-month outlook posted below:

So far, the month of September has been an extremely busy one. My job has me working 10-17 hour days (I’m on salary pay, and unfortunately there’s no overtime), and my weekends are seemingly non-existent and will remain that way until mid-November. Knowing that I’m making a difference in the lives of adolescents is the only thing that makes the effort on my part worth it. Needless to say, blogging our latest financial progress has been difficult to stay on top of, although I have been keeping close track of it all via my spreadsheets. Month 5 of this journey is concluding next week and some big changes have taken place lately from when we started this in May, so stay tuned for a large Month 3-5 update coming next weekend. Lately, we’ve both been biking to work, I sold one of our cars, we’ve all but stopped eating fast food, and buying used on Craigslist has become our new norm. I can already sense in myself a major ideological shift. I view the world differently, and see for the first time how outrageous and disgusting the habits of American people are (myself included). I feel as if I’ve become unplugged from the social fabric, and am the only one who sees the truth. [Insert obligatory Matrix reference here]. These thoughts are reinforced on a daily basis as the largely overweight population of our town speeds past me in their pickup trucks wasting their hard-earned money on Whataburger and gasoline, while I cruise at 15 mph on my 1982 Schwinn World Sport.

As a challenge to myself, I’ve been keeping track of the number of work days this school year where I’m commuted via bicycle instead of in a car. So far, I’m at 17 bicycle commutes out of 21 total work days and have biked the past eleven days in a row. To take this even further, I’ve challenged myself to complete as many errands as possible without using a car. To illustrate how absolutely feasible this is, here’s a list of distances from our apartment to our most common destinations and the amount of money the IRS estimates we save in the long-term by not driving to those locations ($0.51 cents / mile).

I find it motivating that every time I strap my helmet on, I’m keeping money in the bank. This amounts to TONS of cash every month, when you factor in the amount of 6.8% interest that will be saved by having extra money to throw at the debt, and ultimately the 7% long-term compound interest growth of this money by having it regularly invested over the course of my lifetime. Given these cold, hard facts, I simply can not believe why I have not seen a single bicycle commuter in the entire 15 months that I have worked in this town. My wife and I must be the only two-wheeled commuters in the entire county

Taken by one of my students, who should have had his eyes on the road.

Another thing that empowers me is how intrigued people are by my bike-riding habit. My co-workers, students, and their parents love to comment on what I do. Most of my students think it makes me “cool” and they are always quick to point out when they saw me riding somewhere in town. Those that ask why I do it get it an earful from me about frugality and fiscal responsibility, as I know 95% of them won’t learn that lesson at home or in school. I also feel accomplished when the bankers at the Wells Fargo show shock and amazement that someone could actually get to their bank WITHOUT DRIVING! Riding is a habit that is public and noticeable, especially when done in a community where you both live and work, and if I were to stop, I would be fielding questions for weeks as to why I gave it up. Because of this, I suppose I am obligated to continue, and that obligation is solid motivation for those mornings where I really want to just drive to work “just this once”.

Lastly, I’m pleased with the benefits that I’ll receive for my health. The first time I rode the all-uphill route to the school back in August I thought I was going to die and nearly dismissed bicycle commuting as another crazy pipe dream of mine. Fast forward to yesterday where the ride, although not “easy”, was certainly not physically taxing for me, and was evidence that I’m making progress. My wife even commented for the first time last night on the beginnings of muscle definition in my thighs. That means a lot to a lanky guy with virtually zero muscle who has never worked out in his life. So here’s to a long life full of riding and hopefully free of Diabetes, Heart Disease, Blood Pressure and their associated costs.

One of the many joys of moving to a new apartment is getting to set up your utilities all over again. My goal was that no matter what new companies I ended up using, my monthly bills would either stay the same or decrease. I easily found an electric company that charged 5 cents less per KWH and I had no say in the water provider, but the debacle that was achieving a reasonable internet rate is a story long enough to warrant the composition of this blog post.

The first option I chose to pursue was an attempt at sweet talking Time Warner into renewing my 12-month Roadrunner promotional rate of $30.59/mo (with taxes) for another year. They were planning on bumping it up to $41.48, which I found to be unacceptable. Despite their customer service agents’ best sales tactics (which mostly consisted of offering me cable TV and home phone packages), I remained unswayed. After multiple threats to permanently disconnect my service, they finally transferred me to the loss prevention specialist who was someone I could finally negotiate with. When I had made it clear that I had no intention of staying with Time Warner unless my rate would remain constant, she eventually conceded and granted me my request. It only took speaking with three customer service agents and 50 minutes of my life to save $130 over the next 12 months. Unfortunately, when I called the next day to inform Time Warner of my new address, they were sorry to let me know that their service was not offered in that zip code. Hindsight is 20/20, and I realized that verifying a service connection should have been the first step, and I was now back at square one.

I called the office of my new apartment complex, and was given the good news that I had only one option for internet, take it or leave it. Knowing that I was being forced to go with AT&T U-Verse made the decision-making process easier, but it also meant I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to get a good deal. It took a while for the initial sales rep to understand that I ONLY wanted internet and that I DIDN’T want the fastest (read: most expensive) plan. She found it hard to believe that I didn’t play online games and that a 24-year old male might actually have more important things to do with their time. When the options were finally laid before me, I chose the $43/mo 6 mbps plan at the 12 month promotional rate of $24.95. Sweet, a 5 dollar decrease in the monthly internet bill! Or so I thought…

Once the plan was chosen, the fees and additional costs began to pile on. I was to pay $100 for a “gateway modem” and $50 for an “installation charge”. When I explained that my previous 3 providers did not charge me for a modem or installation she said that I could always return the modem and receive credit back and opt for a “self-install” to waive the fees. I asked if simply not purchasing a modem was a choice. Surprise, surprise… it wasn’t. Remaining skeptical as to whether or not I would actually be able to return the modem later on, I bit the bullet anyways and signed up for service, telling her that I would choose the self-install package.

While waiting for my line to be activated and for the modem to arrive, I took to Craigslist and Amazon to see if I could find a used U-Verse modem for cheap. After a quick search, I spotted a 2Wire Modem Craigslist listing for $25 in a town 30 minutes away. That was farther than I wanted to drive, but I figured I could make it worth it if I purchased a cell phone while I was in the area. Five minutes later someone selling an iPhone 4 agreed to meet me at the same time and same place where I was meeting the Modem seller. The next day I sold the iPhone for a $30 profit. $25 Modem + $5 in gas – $30 cell phone sale = net cost of $0. Success!

Things were looking up, that is, until I attempted to get the modem up and running. After 20 minutes of fiddling with wires and turning things off and on (I’m no tech-guru) I was getting nothing except red lights. Tech Support spent 30 minutes on the phone with me trying to identify the source of the connection problem. He was about to send a technician out to me (at my cost), when I informed him that I was using a used modem off of Craigslist. As it turns out, the 2Wire U-Verse modem I was using was not compatible with the newer fiber optic line that had been installed at my apartment complex. This is after I had earlier confirmed with TWO tech support agents that the 2wire modem would indeed be compatible with my U-Verse connection prior to purchasing it off of Craigslist. The latest tech “expert” informed me that I needed to use the Motorola modem that I was mailed. Not one to give up, I would need to seek help from the internet once again.

In the mean time, my first bill arrived in the mail. I was pleasantly surprised to be charged $8.25 in sales tax for the $100 modem and $49 for a “service activation” fee ($53.41 with taxes). It took me a while, but I was finally able to get through to a billing rep to whom I disputed the $49 charge, saying that the original sales rep never mentioned this over the phone. I did some quick research and found this charge very clearly spelled out on the AT&T website, but I didn’t use the internet to sign up and the sales rep, in fact, did NOT tell me about it. I was a little shocked at how fast he was able to remove the $49 charge from my account, as I was expecting to put up a fight. The old adage of “it never hurts to ask” rang true for me that day.

While in the process of searching for a reasonably priced Motorola modem, I was able to resell the 2Wire modem on Amazon for a profit of $22. Since the modem effectively cost me nothing, this $22 would help to offset the cost of a new Motorola modem. I found one later listed on Amazon for $36.49 and wasted no time in ordering it. When my wife and I move again in 11 months, I plan to make at least a $15 profit reselling this modem, rendering the effective cost of Modem #2 $0 as well.

To wrap this story up, the Motorola modem arrived, and it worked like a charm. I sent the other one back to AT&T hoping they would actually refund my $100. When this month’s bill finally arrived, I was pleased to see a $53.41 credit for the activation fee and a $113.25 credit for the modem. Sweet! So not only did they refund every unnecessary cost, but I ended up with a bonus $5 as well. Another happy ending, that seems even happier when you break down the savings:

Charges I didn’t pay:

$50 – Installation Fee (by the way, self-install was literally as follows: 1. plug power cord into outlet. 2. Plug green cord into phone jack.)

$53.41 – Activation fee

$108.25 – Gateway Modem

$5.00 – AT&T error? Bonus?

So a total of $216.66 was kept in my pocket. Spread over a year, this would have amounted to an additional $18.06 a month! The most interesting fact of all is that $24.95 + 18.06 = $43.01 a month… 1 cent more than the original “non-promotional” rate of $43! See what they did there?

Persistence has once again paid off, and my utility troubles are over until they attempt to increase my rates 11 months from now.