Preparations for retirement
Today I managed to spend some time thinking about how we will manage on less money. I studied our phone bill (ghastly) and made some major changes. Thanks to advise from Peter that I received some time ago I opened up an account with Engin and ordered their VoIP box so that most of our calls will now go via the internet. Their box will be connected to my ADSL router and then I will connect our handsfree phone to it and try and remember to use it to make most calls. Local calls will now be 10c unlimited also all national/interstate calls. So that should save quite a bit. I have also got $25 per month free calls to mobiles (that's half what we are spending now) so that will improve things.
I reduced my mobile plan from $80.00 to $30.00. Greedy Telstra charged me $50 to reduce my plan! And I had to make a new plan which now runs for 12 months. The other day I bought a vodaphone prepaid card which I will use once I get close to the $30.00. And then in 12 months...I will swap to the Vodafone plan for good and drop the Telstra mobile phone.
I will monitor all this for a couple of months and if the VoIP thingy works...I may apply for broadband cable and get rid of our homeline altogether. Wait and see.
Took all afternoon to sort all that out! Now I need to cook dinner.
posted by Inge at 5:46 pm
3 Comments:
Hi MD. I certainly hope that my retirement will be a positive experience and that my health will not become a problem like for so many people who retire. I am looking forward to and have so many plans that I need to be fit and able! I feel very sorry for people who spend a lot of time in pain. Must be a terrible state to be in.
Re the phone bill...I have a habit of being a heavy user of the telephone so part of this drive is to train myself to use email rather than the phone and to keep conversations short. Will be interesting how well I manage this!
Love, Inge.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the tip. I have a vodafone prepaid card now so will see how well I do on using that. I will investigate the option of being able to do yearly topups...that is what I have for my german vodafone card. And so far I have made it to go back there once a year to top up my phone :-)
Love, Inge.
Hi Pete,
re the grandmothe bit. I reckon it is an honor to be called a grandmother so I don't mind at all. You work hard towards achieving that goal so it is good to enjoy it when it comes.
Love, Inge.
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