Slaying Dragons! Getting Back Into The "Black"

I'm trying to improve our financial situation.  Of course, as you know, there are two things that I must do:

• make/earn more money
• spend less

Making more money would be nice, but I've been a failure at marketing myself in the big earning way.  I still haven't hit it big as a diet coach, and blogging doesn't pay much, actually nothing. Even Yafiz pays more.  I don't have the physical and emotional energy to teach classes.  I'm still working on "my book" or two of them, but one must eat in the interim, and there's never any guarantee that they'll ever get published and make money.

I really can't cut down much more on personal expenses.  Food and my studies are all I spend on myself.  I've finally started taking care of trying to get my Israeli "old age pension."  That should almost double my contribution to the family budget.

Going over our expenses, I discovered that an outrageously high amount of money was going to our internet provider, Netvision.  Everyone said that it's really hard to switch. They use all sorts of excuses and legal weapons to keep us paying.  This afternoon, after sending my husband to babysit for the grandkids, I made "the call."

In the me vs Netvision, I've achieved a minor victory. First of all, I called, which was quite an emotional hurdle. The clerks were nice, all 15 or so, as they passed me like a hot potato. Finally I got someone who stayed with the job. She discovered, after I gave her all sorts of "codes" and proof that I have the right to talk business, that we're paying a fortune for two new accounts.

That made no sense to me.  Why should we have new accounts?  We're two "post-middle-aged" bloggers who just want some internet to keep us connected to the world.  The clerk agreed.  She said that she'd cancel those new accounts and investigate how we got them by "listening to the recording of the sale."  She promised to solve the mystery within 72 hours.

Then I went off to join my husband babysitting.

And then when I got back home, we had Internet, but....

...no more Netvision mail.

As long as the internet continues, and the monthly expenditure drops, I can live with that, because both my husband and I use gmail, too. Of course, I still don't know what the new price will be.