Episode 46
The Power Bill is Yuge!!
In this episode, I discuss my budgeting process using my Apple CC including our crazy high power bills. I also discuss using Visible as a cell phone provider, which is much cheaper than being on Verizon (even though Verizon owns them). Oh yeah, groceries.
One correction - I said we had to pick my son up from the airport on the 29th but it's actually the 30th which is a Friday.
See ya.
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Contact Information
email: don@callmedonovan.com
Twitter/Insta/Threads: donadkisson
(When played) Music generated by Mubert https://mubert.com/render
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Transcript
Hey, what's up and good morning.
Speaker:Today is 450 days of alcohol retirement.
Speaker:Yay me.
Speaker:I say what is today?
Speaker:Oh yeah, it's the 19th.
Speaker:This month is over halfway gone guys.
Speaker:August is almost out of here basically.
Speaker:And it's funny because I look at things by Fridays.
Speaker:And the reason why I do that is Fridays are my grocery days.
Speaker:The way I manage my budget is I put as much stuff on my Apple card as I possibly can.
Speaker:I've got the cable bill goes on it, cable internet bill, the power bill goes on it,
Speaker:which holy bejesus, the power bill.
Speaker:Last month was $418.
Speaker:And this month, which is due on the 30th, August 30th, is $418.
Speaker:I've done some readjusting of my schedules for my temperatures.
Speaker:I'm letting the house get up a little warmer during the day.
Speaker:I mean, I know there are people that would absolutely die if they were in my house.
Speaker:I set it for 78 during the day.
Speaker:That means in our bedroom, which is where Lee and I spent most of our time, because
Speaker:it's kind of set up like a small little en suite or apartment, if you will.
Speaker:We got our separate beds in there.
Speaker:She's got a computer desk in there.
Speaker:We've got a sofa and a TV and it can get up to about 80 or 81 in there.
Speaker:I mean, she's perfectly comfortable, but there's times where I feel like I got to get naked.
Speaker:Yeah, man, power bills.
Speaker:I've had to do some readjusting to see if I can get it back down.
Speaker:But anyway, yeah, everything, I let it go on the Apple credit card.
Speaker:And the reason for that, and I may have explained this before, is because you get anywhere between
Speaker:1 and 3% cash back, depending.
Speaker:And I've been doing this probably about two years now, I guess, coming up on two years.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Apple introduced their savings account with their interest rates and everything, or rather,
Speaker:yeah, their interest rates based on the interest rates of the Fed trying to get the inflation
Speaker:under control and all of the interest rates going up overall.
Speaker:The savings accounts finally went up and the Apple savings account was somewhere like 4.4,
Speaker:4.5% APR.
Speaker:So it was pretty good.
Speaker:And I've got it set up so where it all, all of that 1 and 3% cash back on transactions
Speaker:automatically gets funneled into that savings account.
Speaker:And the theory behind that is when it comes time to upgrade my iPhone, I'll have a pretty
Speaker:good chunk of the money to go ahead and buy it outright because I made the decision last
Speaker:year to never again, if at all possible, get on a contract with a cell phone company, a
Speaker:cellular provider where I got to pay for 24 months, the hardware fee.
Speaker:It's just ridiculous.
Speaker:And the reason for that, as I've mentioned, probably also mentioned too, is I swapped
Speaker:this all over to Visible, which is a company that is actually owned by Verizon.
Speaker:You can literally get, I mean, at one point I was paying over $400 a month for cell phones.
Speaker:That was six phones because I had two.
Speaker:And you're probably thinking, only drug dealers have two.
Speaker:I had an iPhone and I had an Android because there's certain networking diagnostic type
Speaker:things you can do on an Android that you cannot do on an iPhone.
Speaker:But anyway, that was ridiculous.
Speaker:So I slowly started moving, as I could, people off of it.
Speaker:And the downside, which is not really a big downside, but is Visible doesn't allow you
Speaker:to have multiple phones under one account.
Speaker:So you have to create individual accounts, which just means that if you need to do that
Speaker:for a family of three or four, you just either use their email addresses or you create Gmail
Speaker:accounts that are just for those.
Speaker:And that's what I did.
Speaker:Anyway, I moved this all over, except for my oldest son, Devin.
Speaker:He basically is the only one left on Verizon.
Speaker:He didn't want to move.
Speaker:And the account is basically his.
Speaker:And whenever I went through all of this, I had to do some calculations and I did a spreadsheet
Speaker:where it made more sense for me to pay off my phone and my wife's phone, even if I had
Speaker:to take the money out of savings and then move mine over and move hers over to Visible.
Speaker:It just worked out.
Speaker:I think I looked at hers over like an 18 month spread.
Speaker:And I've probably talked about this before.
Speaker:So you know, I apologize again.
Speaker:But Visible is $25 a month flat.
Speaker:They've got two, basically two plans.
Speaker:I got 25 and 45.
Speaker:For everything I need to do in South Central Georgia, 25 is perfect.
Speaker:And I believe that I've seen them running promotions on TV right now where you can get
Speaker:it for $20 per month for two years.
Speaker:That's $20 a month for two years.
Speaker:And this isn't $20 and 25 plus applicable fees.
Speaker:It's not like, "Oh, it's going to be 25 by the time I'm done.
Speaker:It's going to be 28 or 29."
Speaker:No, it's 25, which includes all the necessary fees.
Speaker:Just go ahead.
Speaker:Somebody who's European in nature.
Speaker:It's like, "Here's the fee."
Speaker:Here's all the like 911 fees and this fee and that fee.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Already in there.
Speaker:Already included.
Speaker:And yeah, I know it sounds like an ad for them.
Speaker:I mean, I do have a friend link or whatever, but I don't remember what the hell it is.
Speaker:So no biggie.
Speaker:That's the reason why I do what I do with the credit card though.
Speaker:It's basically I charge everything.
Speaker:And then at the end of the month, I make one lump sum payment and I try to budget about
Speaker:$2,500.
Speaker:That's my target.
Speaker:Sometimes I hope it's a little under it, but most of the time I'm a couple of hundred dollars
Speaker:over it, which that's a pain in the butt, but sometimes you just don't have a choice.
Speaker:That's the reason why I judge everything by Fridays.
Speaker:I look at it and go, "Okay, I got two more Fridays, which is $300 more for groceries
Speaker:because we average about $150 a week on groceries."
Speaker:I say average.
Speaker:If I were to really put pen to paper, it's probably a little higher than that because
Speaker:there are definitely weeks like last week or maybe the week before last.
Speaker:It was like $175 or $180.
Speaker:And then last week, I think I got it closer to $150.
Speaker:And we don't buy bullshit.
Speaker:We're not one of those families that just buys multiple two liters of soda and bags
Speaker:and bags and bags of potato chips and quick fix foods and stuff like that.
Speaker:I mean, we get a little bit of that.
Speaker:I usually have no more than two bags of potato chips, these big bags in our little pantry
Speaker:closet area.
Speaker:One's usually mine and one is usually Oriana's.
Speaker:I get a 10-pack of Dr. Pepper minis, usually per week or sometimes it'll go two weeks because
Speaker:I don't drink more than one a day.
Speaker:And some days I don't even drink one during the day.
Speaker:My biggest indulgence, those little Reese's mini peanut butter cups and Kit Kats.
Speaker:And those can get expensive.
Speaker:The big family bag of the Reese's is almost eight bucks.
Speaker:And I usually, I mean, it's usually no more than one or two of those a month, honestly,
Speaker:because I don't eat that many of them.
Speaker:Yeah, man, the month is almost gone.
Speaker:Tyler's birthday is the first week.
Speaker:If I can speak, Tyler's birthday is the first week of September and he's going to be here.
Speaker:His plan is, I forget what day it is, all I know is that it's going to be flying in
Speaker:to Valdost airport on a Friday.
Speaker:We got to go down there on a Friday afternoon to pick him up.
Speaker:I think it's the 29th or something.
Speaker:Honestly, I can't remember.
Speaker:I have to just look at the calendar.
Speaker:I'm not sure.
Speaker:But before that, he's going to visit a friend of his in Kentucky.
Speaker:He's literally flying from Washington state to Kentucky, spending a couple of days there.
Speaker:And then he's flying from Kentucky down to Valdosta where we pick him up.
Speaker:He's going to stay here for like two weeks, I think, two or three weeks.
Speaker:He does this about twice a year now, about every six months.
Speaker:I mean, I say every six months.
Speaker:I mean, honestly, the last time he was here was back in, what was it, March?
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:April, May, June, July.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's about every six months.
Speaker:That'll be fun.
Speaker:He's going to help me with a couple of projects as he normally does.
Speaker:I had to fix two fence posts on the backside of our privacy fence Saturday because a couple
Speaker:weeks ago I started noticing that the fence was leaning and then I noticed it was leaning
Speaker:even more.
Speaker:And this is a standard privacy fence where you use the four by four post in the ground
Speaker:and then you got those eight by six, I call them cheaply made, but they're the overlap,
Speaker:vertical overlap boards on panels.
Speaker:You buy them in panels and then you attach them usually to like one by fours that are
Speaker:stripped at the top and the bottom and then just kind of sit.
Speaker:I think they cost about $50 to $70 a panel at Lowe's.
Speaker:And the fence, I'm guessing because the house was built 1990, so this fence wasn't too long
Speaker:after that it was built.
Speaker:It's ragged as shit.
Speaker:And I just, I have not had the money to replace it.
Speaker:And to be fair, I didn't really take care of it as well as I should have.
Speaker:The early years that we were here, I should have really treated this thing, but you know,
Speaker:what's done is done.
Speaker:So yeah, I noticed that two of the posts were leaning and so I got out there and I dug down
Speaker:and basically about six inches under the ground, which is where the concrete that they haphazardly
Speaker:used the post started cracking and breaking.
Speaker:So I had to splint those bastards.
Speaker:And I was telling Tyler about that and he says, so we're replacing the fence when I'm
Speaker:there.
Speaker:And I'm like, dude, I ain't got that kind of money right now.
Speaker:And we calculated if we were doing it ourselves, that we're looking at probably four to $5,000
Speaker:in materials, not labor, because that's around about 40, I guess, maybe 40 something panels.
Speaker:I could be wrong.
Speaker:I need to recount them.
Speaker:And then you got to need about half of that in four by fours because you're going to want
Speaker:to replace all of those.
Speaker:And then of course we didn't factor in concrete and all of that, which is what I'd really
Speaker:want to do.
Speaker:So yeah, it's an undertaking that I really wouldn't want to do.
Speaker:And I think it would take longer than he has because I mean, he's not coming here just
Speaker:to work.
Speaker:He's coming here to hang out and go visit the grandparents, the ones on my wife's side,
Speaker:because my folks are dead.
Speaker:Visit friends that he's had around here, work friends and stuff like that.
Speaker:So you know, I can't expect him to spend all this time trying to work on my shit.
Speaker:I mean, if we were, if we were able to work on this a couple of hours every day, I'm not
Speaker:sure we'd be finished with it in two weeks.
Speaker:And to hire a company to come do it, I haven't gotten any quotes, but it would not surprise
Speaker:me one damn bit if replacing this fence just with the type of fencing that it is now.
Speaker:Nothing special, no upgrades, nothing would probably run about $10,000.
Speaker:And guess who doesn't have 10K in spare change?
Speaker:This guy.
Speaker:So I reckon that'll do it.
Speaker:This week is a couple items on my agenda to do.
Speaker:I got going to a client this morning.
Speaker:They moved two computers into a different area on a desk and I've got to put in a POE
Speaker:switch.
Speaker:He's hiring two additional people, made some personnel changes, that kind of thing.
Speaker:I might have another client or two that I need to see this week.
Speaker:One client's supposed to be bringing me a Synology unit, a network attached storage,
Speaker:because he operates out of Nashville.
Speaker:And I was like, well, if I drive over there and get it, that's going to be a chargeable
Speaker:trip.
Speaker:He's like, hey, I go to Tifton all the time.
Speaker:I'll give you a heads up.
Speaker:And I was like, you bring it over here, I'll take you to lunch.
Speaker:Don't know what day that's going to be, but we'll see.
Speaker:And then I've got to fill up the gas can because probably by the end of the week, I'm going
Speaker:to need to cut the yards again.
Speaker:I have to do that usually about once every two weeks.
Speaker:This time around, I've also got to look and see if something's wrong with the deck because
Speaker:it was about midway through cutting last time and I think I heard something pop.
Speaker:And I normally cut on the number two setting for the deck and it seemed like it started
Speaker:to gouge after that, especially in the backyard.
Speaker:So I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker:I mean, I'm starting to get really sick and tired of this damn lawnmower.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't want to have to replace it, but the number of times I've had to have it worked
Speaker:on, I bought it in 2015.
Speaker:And I mean, it's a little 30 inch Troy built unit.
Speaker:I like the lawnmower, but good God, every time I turn around, it's like I have to get
Speaker:this company Chris's Mower Clinic.
Speaker:I think that's it.
Speaker:Anyway, they come and pick it up because I don't have any way to get it to them.
Speaker:And so I have them come pick it up and they'll hold it for a few days.
Speaker:Last time they had it for over a week because they had to replace the carburetor.
Speaker:And I mean, and it still doesn't run right when you first crank it up, it needs to sit
Speaker:there and warm up for about two minutes.
Speaker:It sits there and just runs ragged as hell.
Speaker:Then it smooths out and runs fine.
Speaker:So Tyler and I are going to take a look at that.
Speaker:Anyway, that's my week.
Speaker:Hope you're doing well.
Speaker:This recording actually makes it into the podcast this time.
Speaker:We'll see.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:It's about 717 in the morning here on Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday.
Speaker:It's August 19th, 2024.
Speaker:Have a good week, everybody.
Speaker:See you bye.
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