v29.9: Break Free Series

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

Hopefully everyone had a good weekend.  For those of you who live in Eastern Canada, I hope Danny (plus the other low pressure system) didn't cause too much rain or wind damage.  We weathered the storm at my Mother's place this weekend.  By the time we were ready to hit the road home, the roads were already quite wet and dangerous and I couldn't see myself spending several hours driving in that just to get home.

-slurp-



I'm going to be releasing a series of musings this week entitled "Break Free".  I was inspired over the weekend to write this series because there are a lot of people who don't realize that we get gouged daily by companies for simple things like telephone service and cable.  Basically, the telephone company runs a line to your house, activates your number and personal information in a database somewhere and then provides you will a phone number to call for help that is usually 90% automated.

-slurp-

[singlepic id=1133 w=160 h=120 float=left]Some of you may remember not that long ago where invoices were printed off, stuffed into an envelope and mailed to the customers.  This was mostly a manual process in which they would pay someone (or a group of individuals depending on volume) to mail all these "bills" out to the customers.  Then, when you called their help line, you actually talked to a person for 90% (or more) of the call.  So now these companies have taken the "manual" aspect of their services out and replaced them with automated computer systems and we pay them more?  What else can you do?  Everyone needs a phone right?  This week I have some suggestions for you that may open your eyes and allow you to break free from the chains of overpriced services that should be dirt cheap or even free.

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After all, it IS the 21st century now.  Books written back in the late 70s and early 80s talked about the year 2000+ and everyone had a flying car; everyone had fully automated houses that could talk to them and they could simply walk into a room and the lights and other things would just turn on.  These books made the 21st century look like a technical paradise but the truth is, we decided not to progress as a society.  We decided to continue to pay the overpriced phone bills, the overpriced cable bills and spend too much money on other services.  The 21st century brought advancements in technology but not in the way people thought but it allowed us to think outside the box and look for alternate methods of providing services that were proprietary up until now.

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[singlepic id=1131 w=134 h=83 float=right]Anyway folks, Monday being what it is, I don't have a lot of time to write so I'm going to sign out for now and hopefully you'll be able to tune in this week to catch my series.  I plan on diving into (as you may have already guessed) simple home services like Telephone and Cable.  I plan on showing you how to break free from the bonds of the electricity company will little investment on your part which may be tax deductible.  I also plan on talking about being more frugal while shopping.  In my household, we have been getting away with spending less than $4 per person, per day on groceries and we're doing fine; eating healthy and looking for the deals is key.

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I look forward to writing this series so check back daily for updates.

Cheers,

Al