Cardamom Tango

If you do a quick search on "negotiate your cable price," your results will include quite a few links to sites and blogs that teach you how to negotiate down your bills, so there's no need for me to add to that list.  Actually, all I want to do is say that doing this is probably the first thing you want to do (if you haven't already) to more effectively spend your money toward that which brings you better quality of life.

I write about this because I was slow to jump on that bandwagon.  Of course, the Exotic Foreigner was on the bandwagon long ago, coming from a culture in which bargaining and negotiating happen as a matter of course.  I think it made me feel like a cheapskate to try to negotiate what were in my mind "fixed" prices.  But when our cell phone company whichwillremainunnamed started charging us fees for services we did not subscribe to out of the blue, it became pretty clear to me that if I didn't push my own prices down, they were just going to continue pushing them up.

Again, there's no need for me to walk you through doing this.  I used Ramit's guide at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Optimize your cell phone Bill.

My results were as follows:

• We were already on the lowest plan possible for cell phone and data usage.  In fact, we were on a plan that didn't yet exist.  The Exotic Foreigner told the customer retention department that it was more viable for us to cancel our plans, pay the associated fees, and switch to a pay-as-you-go plan with another company than it was to pay for this plan, which still had more minutes than we need.  He was given $10/month off our bill for one year, at which time he will call back and do the same.  At that point, it will be even easier for us to pay the cancellation fee because of the way they structure their charge, so I've no doubt we'll get our $10/month off.
• I called our cable and internet provider.  I told them that because of the economy, we were taking a long, hard look at how we spent our money, and we decided that we just were not going to be able to pay for cable service.  The representative knocked $5/month off the bill indefinitely.  

Neither of these calls took longer than 15 minutes, and we are saving $15/month.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot but IT'S YOUR MONEY.  If you don't want or need it, there are other people out there who do, and who will use it much more wisely than these large organizations.  Like me.