frugal journey

This week I saved a few $ and although not a tremendous achievement, it has started me thinking daily about places where I can save. I applied for a senior discount at the city utilities department and decided to drop my cable service and center my video entertainment around free TV and streaming video.

Savings:

Senior discount: $48/year

Dump cable TV: $373 (first year – after recoup of cost of antenna and streaming hardware), $624/year after first year
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Total this week: $672/year (after 1st year)

The tv set-up required me to purchase some equipment which should be paid for in 4 months.

The additional equipment I purchased was:

1. Roku 2100X XDS Streaming Player 1080p

2. Antennas Direct ClearStream4 HDTV Antenna

3. Miscellaneous mounting hardware and cabling. PLEASE NOTE: ANTENNAS REQUIRE PROPER INSTALLATION AND GROUNDING. CONSULT AN EXPERT IF YOU TRY THIS YOURSELF!

There are many hardware options for this type of set-up and several streaming video sites to choose from (I haven’t chosen one yet). This just seemed the best for me given my location and existing internet service. I will update this post when I get it up and running and cancel my cable service.

Will I miss cable? Not much, I realized most of my favorite shows were already on the free over-the-air stations and most of my cable shows were available streamed (although maybe a bit later than originally broadcast).

Now my next search: Find a cheaper beer. (So far looks like I already drink cheap beer)

Cheers

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UPDATE 1

I received the antenna, assembled it and tried it out by placing it on a broom handle and setting it on my porch. At first, I scanned for channels using my HDTV autoscan feature but I forgot to change the signal source to antenna. There were only 4 analog stations. I rescanned after switching to antenna and … WOW- 27 FREE DIGITAL CHANNELS! Some of them were unusable, but all the local affiliates ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and FOX were excellent and the HD programs were fantastic quality! An added surprise was each affiliate actually broadcasts from 1-2 additional channels so I have about 12-14 free usable channels and half are HD quality! Thats enough TV for me.

I cancelled my cable service and doubled my DSL bandwidth (after slightly restructuring my provider services, it will cost an additional $4/MO).

My next project is to determine where to mount this thing when all the hardware gets in. An important issue that I learned when I got the antenna is that it needs to be properly installed and grounded to protect equipment and for safety reasons. I am going to have an electrician advise me on this, as SAFETY IS A MAJOR CONCERN! The added expense will probably be about $20 in wiring and hardware if I do it myself. Initial years savings adjusted to $353.

More updates coming.

I first became interested in optimization technologies when I was a student in the Systems and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. In general this field of study is called Operations Research and is used in large scale systems or manufacturing enterprises to minimize costs and maximize profits. In my professional engineering and management career, I have successfully used optimization techniques and stategies to cut costs and manage multi-dimensional operations for my employers.

Like most workers, I had the image of working as hard and as long as possible to make as much money as possible to ultimately retire and do ??? (what exactly was always a litttle vague). This ultimately started feeling like a hoax which, (at the end) was really never going to pay you back for what you missed with your nose adequately pressed to that grindstone. So I was looking for some alternatives. I stumbled upon a taped seminar by Joe Dominguez which became a book and is now available as Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century.

While I don’t agree with everything in this program, it was quite provocative at the time and I did admire the “engineering” perspective. (Please note: The resources I reference are informational only. No pre-canned program fits everybody or resonates with everybody. I am just noting resources I have found useful, like my college calculus book, etc.)

Well, I thought, “What if I applied my analytic and management skills to my own affairs and pull that nose off the grindstone once in a while?”

I have done this to some extent over the past 15 years and I am planning to completely retire within the next year. Future posts will document this transition and the tailored program I am setting up to manage my retirement.

The journey starts now!