That averages out to $43.48 a minute! Fuck yeah!

So how’d we do it?!

We finally took action.

My wife called our cable provider and we got rid of some services that we don’t even use (like 2 HD cable boxes.) That alone will save us about $40 a month or $480 a year! We’re tossing around the idea of going completely cold turkey but I can’t give up my soccer Sunday mornings just yet! (Arsenal, you better win the Premier League this year!)

Next on the list was to get rid of other recurring expenses that we’ve been putting off. My wife’s guilty pleasure used to be watching WWE Wrestling, but she doesn’t have as much free time as she used to (because a lot of her time is now spent keeping me in line) so she canceled the WWE Network which is a savings of another $9.99 a month or $119.88 over the entire year!

The last thing we got rid of was Pandora Radio. My wife used to listen to a lot of music at her old job and it was totally worth paying $4.36 a month to not have to listen to those annoying ads. She doesn’t have as much use for it now so Pandora also got the axe! That’s another $52.32 saved over the next year!

Saving money on our cable required a phone conversation but the other 2 did not. All what we had to do was visit the website and click a couple links to cancel the subscriptions and voila, the savings added up.

So how can this help you?

Just think about all the stuff you have a monthly subscription to and add it all up. (Gym memberships, magazines, Netflix, etc.) $5 or $10 here and there doesn’t seem like a lot but it does once you see how much it costs you over a year! You basically just set it and forget it and they take your money. You know you should do it but it’s easier to just pay up every month than to go through the pain to call and talk to a customer service representative or click through a website to get to the actual cancel link.

All what it takes is taking action; deciding that enough is actually enough. So suck it up and just do it. You’ll feel better about yourself afterwards and ask yourself “why the fuck did I not do this sooner?!” You might even get ballsy and decide to get rid of other shit you don’t really need. It’s a slippery slop but one worth checking out.

So what are we going to do with our new-found riches? We’d love to put it towards our next vacation but since we’re responsible adults (Ha!,) we’re probably going to put part of it towards paying down our car loans quicker and putting the rest towards savings. It’s not like we’ll really miss it because we didn’t even realize we had it to spend on stuff in the first place.

Just imagine what you can do with your savings….you can pay off an extra chunk of your student loans, you can save it for when you’re ready to finally quit your job and go self-employed, or you can even invest in your idea even though that’s not really needed.

Have you canceled any services lately? How much has it saved you?