Changing my financial ways
I did one thing very different today. I canceled a trial before I was billed for the real deal. Over at Ancestry.com, I signed up for a trial account. You can either choose to be billed immediately and each additional month for 29.95, or you can go with a 14 day free trial and pay an annual fee of $155.40 ($12.95 / month).
I went with the free trial. Usually, I forget about trial expirations and such and let accounts expire. Sometimes, services such as Ancestry.com will bill you immediately after the trial expires. The extra hoop to jump through with this service is that I was required to call them within specific hours of the day as well in order to opt-out of the service.
Just 2 days to go and I called them up. I had forgotten about it for most of the past week too. So in reality, I just saved myself $155.40 in a service I wouldn’t use.
I guess this is one of the small things that I’m doing that is helping me get that financial comfort cushion in the bank. I could really use that money on something else - like a set of new computers for my wife and I. I think a lot when I go grocery shopping like this too. I could get a snack, or put that money towards something else. Yes, it’s only $5, but another way to think of it is that it is $5 extra in my pocket if I don’t use it. It’s like rewarding yourself with your own money you don’t use. Best of all, it’s tax free.