Reviewing phone and internet accounts ... just because

I heard myself say this on radio the other morning: "Being thrifty is not about large amounts. You rarely make those large savings. It's more about constantly looking to save small amounts because over the course of a year, those small amounts become your large savings." When I finished the broadcast I thought about what had popped out of my mouth and that I should practise what I preach. I decided to review my phone and internet bills.

We've have had the same internet provider for many years - Optus. They've provided us with years of reliable service and apart from bumpy downloads because we lacked speed, we've been happy with them. On the other hand, we weren't happy with our phone company. We've had our account with them for a bit over two years and although we have a $29.95 account, we pay for all calls and when our bill arrives it's usually around $70. With the phone and internet combined we were paying $120 a month and still restricting our phone calls a lot.

After about one hour research online, we decided on staying with Telstra but increasing our bill to an Ultimate plan - $89.90, but with unlimited local and interstate calls, reduced calls to mobiles and either five cent or two cent/minute international calls. Adding the internet to that bill and bringing over our account from Optus gave us fast broadband with double the gigabytes for two dollars less than what we'd been paying. It's not much in savings but the plan we're on now is much better value for money. That's what you look for with these essential services; it's not so much the savings, although you do want them too, it's more about the value you get for your hard-earned dollars.

So we've now got a phone account that will allow us to call our relatives and friends either free or for a much smaller cost than we used to pay and we have doubled our internet download allowance and it's much faster. And all that for two dollars less than we used to pay. These occasional reviews of how we spend money are an essential part of living well within the confines of a small budget. Don't forget to look at how you're spending your money on these long term accounts. Technology is moving ahead rapidly and what you paid a premium for when you first took on that account, might be old hat now. It's worth a bit of research and talking to your account providers - they will not want to lose you as a customer. If you do your research, phone them with a polite attitude and ask for their advice, you may be surprised to find savings or better services there, or both.

It doesn't take much to make me happy, I'm on the verge of it every day, but yesterday as I worked at my voluntary job, I kept thinking about this phone account and how it would allow me to phone my sister whenever I felt like it. She lives a thousand kilometres away and in the past we've rationed the calls. Just thinking about it gave me a really warm feeling and as soon as I got home yesterday afternoon, while Hanno was still cooking our dinner, I phoned Tricia ... just because I could.