Another Old Guy Hobby...

 It's my hobby to take up old guy hobbies. The latest is shopping around to see how much I can reduce monthly bills for services like internet, streaming, phones and electricity. 

It started a few months ago when crews began laying fiber optic lines in the neighborhood. I had an old Consolidated landline that became a dial up internet line that eventually became a decently fast internet service but seemed to sometimes be less service than I was paying for. My phones had been Verizon service which entices you with nominally cheaper rates as technology advances and though that finally seemed as good as you could do for phones when the door to door Spectrum salesman offered savings on phones and home internet I jumped on it.  

It took several months for the dirty work, which seemed to be done by Anglo and Hispanic guys to be completed and then some kind of Russian dudes showed up to run the wiring to the house and install the modem. We look to be sitting pretty saving at least $30 a month on phones and $10 on internet. Scanning the small print there might be a slight bump in price in about two years but we will cross that bridge in due time.

Next thing was a reduction in the Netflix streaming service by agreeing to commercials which knocked another $10 off that bill. Commercials are ok. It adds time to the show meaning I get sleepy and go to bed before I binge through a whole season in one night. I have breaks to get up and go to the bathroom or dish up ice cream. I see in the financial news there is some big deal brewing with all this streaming TV business with Trump somehow being involved which means this will probably all get broken in a way I won't like so there's that.

In my work with St. Vincent de Paul a part of our charity to neighbors in need is helping with utility bills. Every person almost has a different power company and some I advise to check Texas Power to Choose for cheaper rates. I took my own advice on this and chose Gexa, a company who promises all power you consume to be generated by green sources. My last bill was $264 for a milder than normal winter month. Gexa projects $90 for a house my size. I don't quite believe that but we will see. There is some fine print that says rates might be more if you go over or under a certain kilo hour. My history shows I never go over but there are about four months a year when I'm under but for the savings I might balance out.  

A cautious estimate is I might save $100 a month on these new rates and possibly more. That would make this a better paying hobby than some of the others I currently engage in.