Well seeing as we have not been to Costco the past month or two, we decided we NEEDED to do another run, specifically to get diapers for our older son. Costco had a coupon this month for $5 off of a box of Kirkland diapers, and we had heard good things about them, so they were calling for us to return. Of course, it was all the new items that helped escalate to probably our largest bill there ever.

To begin with, we were there for the diapers, so let’s look at the breakdown. Our oldest son is currently in a size 5 diaper, and still several months away from when he will be ready to start potty training. The Kirkland size 5 diapers come in a box of 168. Normal price of the case is $37.99. With the coupon, they worked out to $32.99, or less than $0.20/diaper. For comparison sake, Target’s Up & Up brand of diapers is $20.99 for the club pack, which contains 108 size 5 diapers, which works out to just over $0.19/diaper. The Target comparison also does not include the occasional in-store coupon, which would sweeten the deal more. However, for the convenience of being able to get larger quantities of diapers, I am not going to complain about saving a fraction of a cent. In addition, we want to know if we like them or not for our newborn.

We also wanted to pick up the Kirkland baby wipes since they were also on coupon this month. Regular price was $18.99 minus $4.00 coupon, for a box of 900 wipes. When it comes to wipes, I am not going to even bother trying to compare to other brands because 1) we love the Kirkland brand wipes because they are moister than other brands, and 2) the price is usually comparable, even without the coupon because you get so many.

As we made our way through the store, we stocked up on our staples like Mott’s Applesauce, Ritz Crackers, and Kirkland dog food. I am on a trial run right now of the Kirkland premium dog food because I got tired of paying the super high prices for Nutro brand food. Ever since I got my Pug dog 7 years ago this past week, I have fed her Nutro. I was always happy paying a premium for better dog food without any fillers or animal by-products. However, over the years, I constantly had to keep switching flavors dependent on what was the better deal. It played havoc on both our dogs systems for some reason, even if I slowly broke them into the new flavor. It is amazing to me dog food manufacturers have not figured out how to change flavors of the dog food without messing up the dog’s digestive track. On top of the digestive issue, the price of Nutro products has continued to escalate every year; Nutro has gotten really stingy with handing out coupons to their loyal customers; and third I have heard stories about the declining quality of the product since Mars took them over several years ago. So I researched the Kirkland brand of dog food, and it met all of my initial ingredient scrutiny. On top of it, the price is GREAT! Nutro dog food routinely cost me anywhere from $35-50 dependent on whether I had Nutro and pet store coupons. Kirkland dog food cost $23.99 for the Mature dog formula, which is obviously a substantial savings. The true test has been how well our dogs have taken to the new food. So far for the past month or two they have done relatively well. I am hoping they are getting the same level of premium nutrition, but I guess there is no real way to prove that other than watching their weight, health, and energy level. I digress.

Other items that we just had to have this trip included Welch’s White Grape Cherry juice, Famous Amos ribs, pineapple bread (of course we had to buy two because that is how they are priced), an exotic assortment of dried mushrooms, Irish butter, and rice krispie treats (they were on coupon, and I just could not help myself). The majority of the items we purchased were because of coupons, which is my new store mantra when it comes to Costco. However, they inevitably get us every time by all their other glorious products, including new items all the time. If it was not for our chest freezer already being full, we would have done a lot more damage. As it is, we spent over $340, we think our most expensive trip ever. Ultimately though what escalated our bill was all the baby diapers, formula, and wipes, but I am going to think in my head that it was because my wife purchased a new outfit for our newborn.

On a related note, I am deeply intrigued by the show Extreme Couponing. My wife DVRed it the other day and we watched it this past weekend. On one hand, I was encouraged that people could get their food bill from $1,000 down to under $50 using coupons. However, at the same time, I consider those people hoarders. They would purchase 150 boxes of pasta or 60 bottles of hand soap just because they could get it free after coupon. They had entire rooms dedicated to their finds. I love using coupons and getting a great bargain as much as the next guy, but this really was extreme, and I realized maybe I do not want to fall into that category of “extreme.” The people on Extreme Couponing will never use all of their products in a reasonable amount of time when they continue to keep stacking new products on top of it. I started thinking if they got it for free or really cheap, it would be more beneficial to donate it to charity and take the write-off. What they buy has a shelf life. We enjoy stocking our shelves, but what we have enjoyed doing even more is using up everything and starting from scratch again. A deal is only a deal when 1) you can financially handle it and pay it off each month, and 2) if you need it and are going to use it all in a reasonable amount of time.

I have been with AT&T for a long time with multiple services (home phone, internet, and mobile services). My family was with AT&T from back in the Cingular days, and until two years ago, I was always on an old plan with my parents. Then my life changed and I got married, and we decided to stay with AT&T but get our own plan through my wife’s work discount program. That is when my relationship with AT&T went downhill.

We ordered our new phones, and then had tons of problems porting my wife’s phone number over as well as mine into one account. Then came the months and months and months of trying to get our bill worked out correct with all the discounts we were due with my wife’s account. On top of it, both of our junk Samsung phones started having problems a little over a month after getting them, and AT&T refuse to help us in any way. It was a miserable time, at least six months, and AT&T just refused to do anything right. I would spend hours and hours on the phone every night. Finally for my phone, I ordered parts off of eBay and fixed the phone myself. For $30 in parts and my time to make the repair, AT&T lost me as a customer. It was truly horrible customer service no matter where I turned. I was locked into a contract with no way to get out.

I had heard all kinds of stories across the internet with ways to get out of the contract. At one point AT&T changed a bunch of fees on our bill, so I attempted to work my magic to get out of the contract. After phone call after phone call, I got no where. I was eventually referred to the legal department because no matter how many times I pointed the incompetent customer service reps to their own contracts and terms, which proved my point that I was allowed to get out of the contract if they changed fees and the contract, I was denied. I eventually wrote to the legal department with all of my backup documentation, etc. requesting to be let out of my contract. What happened? Surprise, I was turned down again with an argument that they tried to justify that they could change the fees. After an exhaustive several month process, I finally gave up. AT&T had beaten me and my persistent attempt to make things right. I could have hired a lawyer and probably gotten out of the contract, but it was not worth it. I swallowed my pride and decided that as soon as my contract was up, I was leaving AT&T for good.

So we have been researching which carrier we wanted to switch to, and my wife had a preference to return to Verizon. I had no problem switching to Verizon, especially after they got the Apple iPhone, but the thrifty side of me also wanted to evaluate our options. I was not interested in the smaller providers (Revol, etc.). My family had T-Mobile years ago, and the service coverage was horrible. So our main choices were Sprint and Verizon.

I was very interested in Sprint from the standpoint that they are considerably cheaper than Verizon, and had a 4G network. The best part was the price you paid covered unlimited texting and data. Our biggest concern though is that we like to travel a lot, whether it be a one tank trip, or across multiple states. When we pulled up the coverage areas around where we currently live, it looked like we should not have any issues. However, the coverage map got more sporadic as you traveled east or west of where we live now. So on top of our travel coverage, we had concerns that depending on where we move, our mobile coverage could be limited. So that left Verizon.

We obviously knew we needed a family plan of shared minutes. Since 700 shared minutes would be to few for us, we went with the 1400 minute plan. Over the past year, both my wife and I have dramatically increased the amount of text messages that we send and receive. Therefore, we decided that we really needed to have unlimited texting on our plan. Our basic Talk and Text plan will cost $119.99/month, without even considering new phones and data plans.

While we were on AT&T, I got used to have a cheap data plan for my Samsung Eternity phone. However, I realized that I sat in front of a computer all day at work, and then for a good portion of my evening after the kids go to bed. Therefore, I did not really need data coverage, so I was pretty adamant that we did not need expensive phones with elaborate data plans. However, recent changes at my work changed all of that.

I am a lifetime subscriber to Sirius XM radio, and found I can not live without it. We are devout Sirius XM fans. Besides my commute to work, I used to listen to Sirius XM online all day at work. That is until my work recently changed their internet policy and now restrict online music streaming. Not being able to listen to Sirius XM all day is miserable! One option I always had was to buy an indoor docking station and antenna, but I never was to optimistic about getting the setup to work at my office. Since I am not able to listen online to Sirius at work, my cell phone coverage requirements are now extremely different. No longer was not having a data package an option, as I need to stream Sirius XM through my phone. Luckily Sirius recently released a new app to listen online, so I needed a phone that could support the app and signal.

We went through all of the phone options available with Verizon. After carefully considering our options, we both decided to take the plunge and get iPhones. There were a bunch of Android options available, but when considering what we would need to shell out up front for the cost to purchase the phones (at least $200), we decided we were better off paying the $199 each to get iPhones. After our horrible experience with AT&T, we learned that we might as well go with a company that is known for excellent products, customer service, and friendly technology platform. Therefore, we look forward to getting to use our new iPhones when they arrive this week.

Total up front cost for two iPhones after tax- $430.98 includes free activation on both lines
Total monthly rate- $179.97 includes 1,400 minutes and unlimited text and data on both lines

This was a big commitment, I will admit. We will be paying substantially more per month, plus having to shell out a big chunk of change up front, than we did with AT&T. But we will be glad to leave AT&T, at least when it comes to mobile service, and look forward to our new relationship with Verizon and Apple. Our new phones arrive today, so we are finally caught up to everyone else now in mobile technology.

From a financial perspective, yes we are paying more per month and had to shell out a lot of money up front. However, if I do not have the constant headaches and aggravation that we did with AT&T, maybe it will all be worth it in the end, and we will have to look for other ways to save money to make up the difference.