Paying for things you only think you need

Lately, I've been looking for some ways to trim our expenses a little here and there.  I was mainly thinking of canceling my Netflix subscription, and my Vonage phone service.  I don't use Netflix much anymore since the new TV seasons have started, and I don't use Vonage a ton, so Skype sounds like a cheaper alternative.  But then I was doing some thinking... these are only like $17/mo bills... I wasn't even looking at some of the larger monthly expenses, such as my cell phone bill.

I hate cell phone companies.  Their sole purpose is to rip you off.  They can nickel and dime you to death like nobodies business.  Last night, I was looking over our cell phone bills from the past couple of months and noticed a few "features" we could cut and save $25/month on our bill.

First, we are on a family plan with Verizon that has 700 monthly minutes.  Even though we have a family plan, some features are billed per line, such as text messages.  Both my line and my wife's have $5/monthly charges for 250 text messages each.  If you have no text message plan it go over, it is $.10/message.  In looking at our bills, in the past 3 months, I've used maybe 5 text messages.  And my wife, on average uses about 20, though sometimes <10.  So we are paying $10/month for 500 text messages we never come close to using.  If we declined the feature and continued at our regular usage, we'd be paying about $2/month for per messages charges.

Second, my wife likes downloading songs from Vcast.  She usually gets 1-2 a month.  I had thought that it was a free service, since she has the "Vcast with Music" service.  No, it is not.  And Verizon's music charge is a pure rip off.  They charge $1.99 per song.  Compare that to the $0.99 per song on Itunes or MSN Music.  They are twice as much, and it can only be used on her phone.  She has an MP3 player, a fairly nice one.  I told her she should just use it more.

And finally, since her "Vcast with Music" service apparently isn't for music or anything, I am not sure what it is used for.  It is a lovely $15/month and I don't know its purpose.  It wouldn't let me remove it online, so I'll probably go into the store and ask for it to be removed.  I don't know what it provides her, but either way, I don't think it is worth $15/month.

It is often times worth while to scruitinize bills to make sure your money is working for you, and then you aren't paying extra for something that isn't worth it.