The year has ended. Well, technically it ended 10 days ago. Health insurance ended up being 22% of annual expenditures for 2025, medical expenses were 14%, and taxes (property and IRS) another 14%. Altogether this was 50% of annual expenditures. It's a little disheartening.
Our health insurance premiums increased by $286.76 per month for the two of us for 2026. Lots of Ideas and Rob have suggested that I check in with an insurance broker, so that's on my list. Late in December I talked with an aquaintance who mentioned that all four of her family members are on different plans, because they all have different needs. That is also an option that I hadn't considered.
Trying to help defray this additional cost I implemented two changes that I had been thinking about and/or planning to do for a while.
In 2013 I asked here about dropping the land line and just going to cell phones. https://petunia.savingadvice.com/2013/06/26/phone-switch_103343/ I finally did it, saving us $56.93 per month. I've liked having a landline for a few reasons, and in 2013 Daisy was still a young teenager. But it's 12 years later now and this is - the low hanging fruit to pluck in decreasing our spending.
Daisy and I have been on a cell phone plan together - since 2013 or 2014. At that time she was given a basic phone (could call and text - not a smart phone). When she got her first job after graduating high school at 17, she saved up her first few checks and bought a smart phone. Through sheer laziness on my part we've been paying her phone bill since. I really should have gotten her to pay for her phone a few years ago when she started her first post-college job. My cell plan has a feature that will easily (so it seems) send a bill to her for her part of the phone bill, so I set that up this morning. We're going to continue on the same phone account. Daisy paying for her own phone bill will save us another $67.00 per month. This is the next piece of low hanging fruit.
We've had the landline for about 30 years so it feels - kind of sad to give up that phone number. Splitting the cell bill is another change. I do think 2026 is going to bring a lot of change, maybe more than is comfortable but some years are like that.
January 11th, 2026 at 12:32 pm 1768134754
But yeah, having insurance and tax begin half your spending is pretty disheartening indeed. I will definitely be keeping that in mind for myself as well.
January 11th, 2026 at 02:39 pm 1768142392
January 11th, 2026 at 03:04 pm 1768143859
Good job identifying some low-hanging fruit areas of costs to cut.
I'm planning to retire in 2-4 years so this is the first year that I am taking my spending seriously since I managed a career change successfully about a decade ago and saw my income increase significantly. I'm sure it will be eye-opening.
January 11th, 2026 at 07:39 pm 1768160383
I’ve had the same number for 50 years - even though I moved twice.
I say that I keep it in case any of my old boyfriends realize losing me was a big mistake and want to call - but the truth is that I have reached the age where some of my old boyfriends have died.
My plan for my life is to sell my condo and move to a full service building in a few years and to give up the landline then.
For now, I could it as a luxury!
Congrats to you for cutting the cord.
January 12th, 2026 at 05:56 am 1768197389
January 13th, 2026 at 10:26 pm 1768343165
It did come in handy when the nonprofit I volunteer with needed a way to let volunteers know if one of our events was cancelled due to bad weather, so I just included that phone number in various social media promotions so people would know.
That group has pretty much dissolved, though, so really no need for it...and yet....I wonder if it would ever work during a power outage.
January 13th, 2026 at 10:28 pm 1768343294
January 14th, 2026 at 10:16 am 1768385784
If not, there are basically free software available on the PC you can use to talk to others (and uses the same VoIP protocol) to talk, and I use it almost every night and works just fine. A popular example right now is Discord, but I guess anything similar would work, like WhatsApp.
January 14th, 2026 at 10:03 pm 1768428229
January 16th, 2026 at 07:54 pm 1768593277
If you want to keep the number for the landline and keep the service you are providing, I know I just got a flip phone and moved the number to my cellular carrier and added another line for $5 (I have Consumer Cellular.) It was saving me over $100 a month until I no longer needed the landline.
January 19th, 2026 at 04:49 am 1768798166
I agree. I think 2026 will bring some changes. People are cutting back
January 23rd, 2026 at 02:07 am 1769134022
Lots of Ideas - I did get a call on the landline from a high school friend about 20 years ago. I think she would just message me now. No old boyfriends for me.
I have thought about having another phone number as "back up" and there are many options for that. Don't intend to keep the landline number though.
Thanks friends for sharing your medical woes/frustrations/similar issues. It helps.
January 25th, 2026 at 02:31 pm 1769351480
Have you looked into updating your cell phone plan? You might be able to find a deal with multiple lines for $60. My DH and I have unlimited text/cell plus 50 gb each for $60 through Spectrum.