Tag: Cutting

Time to rethink reducing the wire and get monetary savings.

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Years ago, cutting the cable meant giving up your expensive cable plan for internet-based options that were a fraction of the price. Now? You might pay as much or even more.

If you want live TV, these packages are expensive. Of course, you can always buy an antenna and get free TV. Tap or click for reliable antenna picks regardless of the signal strength in your area.

Did you know you can watch TV from your computer without paying for cables? All you need is a small device called a TV tuner. Tap or click to see how they work. It’s a good budget-friendly option.

When it comes to streaming, you might have too much of a good thing. If you’re spending a lot more than you want, I can help.

1. Keep only what you need

A new show that you really want to see is coming out, so grab a free trial for yet another streaming service. Or maybe you pay for a subscription in the first place because not every streaming service offers a free trial. Look at you, Netflix.

It’s understandable. Each service has its own shows with five star ratings from the critics. Before you know it, you are losing a ton of money on services that you don’t even use.

Here’s my advice: make a list of all the streaming services that you are currently paying for. Take a close look at your costs and see which platforms you use the least – or not at all. Then it’s time to cancel. Many will try to lure you back with a free or discounted month. If you take advantage, set up a reminder so you can cancel when the free month is up.

SAVE MORE: Are You Paying Too Much for the Internet? There’s a good chance the answer is yes. Tap or click for smart ways to save.

2. Go with a bundle or win a freebie

With a little research, you can probably save on what you’ve already subscribed to. Here’s a great example: Disney + alone costs $ 7.99 a month. Hulu costs $ 11.99 a month with no ads. You can get Hulu, ESPN + and Disney + bundled for just $ 13.99 a month. Victory.

UPDATE YOUR OPTIONS: The best streaming bundles for every budget from as little as $ 20 per month

Some services can be obtained completely free of charge if you know your way around. Free Netflix is ​​included in most T-Mobile Magenta and Magenta MAX plans at no additional cost. Some AT&T Unlimited plans include a free HBO Max subscription, and Hulu is included on Sprint’s Unlimited plans. Many of Verizon’s unlimited plans include one year of Disney + free.

Tap or click here for a full list of free benefits from your carrier.

3. Not everything costs money

There is a whole world of free movies online. You just need to know where to look.

A word of warning: don’t google free movie sites on your own. There’s a ton of junk out there, and a lot of these sites are robbing content (that you can put in hot water). Many also contain tricky buttons that you click to play and then be redirected to another page.

That’s why we did the job for you. Kanopy, Popcornflix, and Sony Crackle are some of the sites we tried and liked. Tap or click 13 free streaming options you can trust. Keep in mind that a lot of these are ad-supported, but it’s nice to save money.

Bonus tip:Like Bezos, Musk, and Buffett, they don’t pay federal taxes and a bonus to anyone who owns a home

Check out my podcast, Kim Komando Explains Apple, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast player.

ProPublica received IRS information showing that billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little income tax – sometimes nothing at all – compared to their vast fortunes. I sat down with an experienced tax advisor who works with wealthy clients to keep track of things. Also, we talked about special tax credits to lower your taxes.

Tap or click here to listen to this 30-minute podcast now.

Find out more about the latest technology on the Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and offers advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacking. For her daily tips, free newsletters, and more, visit her website at Komando.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

Minnesota dad slicing his hair to lift cash for Rett Syndrome analysis

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Chuck Evert grew his hair during the pandemic and will now cut his locks as part of a fundraiser for Rett Syndrome research.

FARIBAULT, Minn. (FOX 9) – Chuck Evert has been growing his hair for 14 months. While joking that it is primarily about teasing his wife, he adds that forced closings due to the pandemic have also played a role.

His long hair has allowed him to transform himself into some of the best in pop culture, including Chuck “Doc Brown” Evert, who resembles the fictional character from the “Back to the Future” series, and “Chuck The Sequel Evert” – a Piece from the movie “Dumb and Dumber.”

Faribault’s father’s funny haircuts help raise money for the children’s hospital

A Faribault dad’s fun haircuts are more than just a way to break the pandemic blues. He used his hair to raise money for Gillette Children’s Hospital.

His family and friends are fed up with the longer hair, but Evert says he didn’t want to cut it off for nothing.

“It was my wife’s idea,” he told FOX 9. “I told her the stuff had to go because it was getting warm. She said, ‘Maybe we should do a fundraiser.'”

Now he’s raising money in honor of his daughter, who was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome at the age of two. Rett syndrome is a rare genetic neurological disorder that affects a child’s development. It affects 1 in 10,000 women and is even less common in men, according to the International Rett Syndrome Foundation.

“There are roughly 8,000 cases in the United States,” Evert wrote online for the fundraiser called Chucks Cut For Rett. “The gene in question plays a key role in the development of babies. If this gene cannot function properly, the child will not be able to reach their milestones. This means that my daughter is non-verbal, has no specific hand skills, and cannot be helped can go.”

The money raised will go to Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in Saint Paul – a very special hospital for the Everts.

“You’re a big part of our family,” said Evert. “It’s like a family reunion instead of going to the doctor.”

When the Everts daughter was diagnosed in 2000, Evert said the only clinic in the United States that specializes in Rett Syndrome is Baylor University in Texas. Today it is known as the only one of 14 hospitals operated by the Right Syndrome Foundation.

“Gillette is a center of excellence for Rett Syndrome. You have been here our entire trip since our daughter is now 23,” he said.

Evert told his family that if he raised $ 2,000 he would cut his hair. The word got around and he raised four times that amount and now has more than $ 8,600 to donate to the hospital.

And while he loses what he calls the “man bun,” he gains so much more for research for children like his daughter.

“I can’t say enough about the people who supported us,” said Evert emotionally. “It’s pretty cool.”

The big haircut is on July 1st at 6:15 p.m. You can watch it live on Facebook.

Rick Ross loves slicing his garden | Leisure

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Rick Ross loves to cut his own grass.

The 45-year-old rapper wanted to cut the cost of running his 235-acre Georgia estate, so he got on a tractor to keep the grass clean and insists on man the vehicle himself.

He told Forbes magazine, “When I was buying the Fayetteville property, locals saw me walk out of a restaurant and scream, ‘You know Holyfield spent $ 1 million a year cutting the grass.’ So I decided to mow my grass myself and I did.

“I went to John Deere and asked about the largest tractor, the most efficient tractor. I told them I had more than 200 acres that I wanted to prune and they pointed out the right tractor.

“I bought it right away. I bought the extended attachment on the back, which would cut even wider. When I got it at home, I filled it with gasoline.

“I sat in the same spot for maybe two hours before it all worked, but once I got it going I didn’t stop. I mowed grass for about five hours.”

The hitmaker from ‘Aston Martin Music’ tinted the windows of the tractor, he even has air conditioning and a radio, and he loves the joy and “calm” that mowing the lawn gives him.

He added, “People still know it’s me, but when I get in the tractor it’s a whole different level of peace, a whole different level of connection with the property and the animals and the birds and the Wildlife.

“I sit and roll up my cannabis and, man, I look at the property and I can appreciate my struggles and my triumphs, those tough days. It’s the smallest, but it keeps a smile on my face.

“So, you know, for anyone who doesn’t mow their own grass, I’d say take time out to mow your grass every two or three months because it’s such a great and peaceful feeling.”

Despite his wealth, Rick insisted that his “wasn’t about throwing money away” but rather enjoying his wealth the right way.

He said, “I’m looking out the window at Southwest Ranches, I can see my red-on-red 458 Ferrari, and it’s inspiring.

“The work is inspiring, but it can be draining. So I want people to understand that anything is possible, but you have to break up and find a balance. “

And the “Hustlin” singer loves to get bargains.

He said, “I don’t have a big jet. I try my best to fly around Delta. I love file exchanges and antique shops. I love finding nice things that cost $ 8 or $ 20.”

Wittman: Navy Wants Cash in its Funds for Modernization, However Not From Slicing Cruisers

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The guided missile cruiser USS Hué City (CG-66) was added to the cruiser modernization program on October 3, 2019. U.S. Navy photo

The Navy is under pressure to find savings within its own budget to fund investments in future technologies such as unmanned vehicles and hypersonic and targeted energy weapons – but those savings shouldn’t come from the early decommissioning of cruisers and amphibious ships, a key one said Legislators today.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), The top Republican on the House Forces Subcommittee on Maritime Power and Projection Forces, said Congress must do its part to find enough money for a sufficient line of defense – last year’s budget plus Inflation. or about $ 753 billion that is more than the $ 715 billion proposed by the Biden administration. But the Navy must do its part to spend wisely without taking drastic measures like withdrawing ships and creating a short-term readiness problem to solve a long-term modernization problem.

“Our service branches have to come to the table and say that we can save money here. These are places where we can avoid duplication. And listen, as the Navy tries to reduce the structure of the armed forces, they are looking at some things that I think we should be questioning: the number of cruisers they want to reduce, the number of missile tubes that go with those cruisers are connected. The LSDs They Want To Cut Down. If they reduce the number of cruisers they propose, we will lose 1,200 missile tubes. 1,200. The question is how is that replaced? And if you remove that completely and then say we wait four or five years to get the capacity back, that’s unacceptable. The same goes for the LSDs: if you immediately reduce the full number proposed by the Navy-Marine Corps by the full number, we will lose 25 percent of our forcible entry capability. Unacceptable, ”said Wittman in his opening speeches at the annual McAleese FY 2022 Defense Programs Conference.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t retire these systems. I say we have to get it right. We need to make sure we have a transition plan; Say, “Okay, if we lose that number of cruisers, we’ll lose that number of missile tubes. How are we going to replace them?” How can we not have an incline going, loss of ability, flat spot and then an increase in ability? and what happened, our opponents look at that flat spot and they leave, wow, that’s our chance. Instead, we need to say, “Here’s our transition: how do we make sure these lines converge very, very quickly as we retire older systems and introduce newer systems?”

HASC vice chairman and former naval officer Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) Recently told USNI News that she would not support the retirement of the cruisers early because there were signs that China might decide to attack Taiwan within the decade and that the Navy had to be ready to fight China now if necessary, rather than focusing all efforts on being ready to fight in 2045 Fight china.

Wittman acknowledged that balancing the current demand signal for operations and readiness of the current armed forces with investments in modernization for the future armed forces would be an ongoing struggle, but said the Navy must find a way to get some of theirs Self-finance modernization Make cuts or reforms that do not involve early decommissioning of ships.

When asked where there might be some opportunities for savings, he said the Navy needs to take a close look at itself and find this out quickly.

The Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ship USS Comstock (LSD 45) steams in formation off Guam during Valiant Shield 2020. U.S. Navy Photo

“All branches of service need to find savings within their own budget and be able to take those dollars and put them back into modernization. That way, you can shift the curve to the left to add new functionality and properly remove the legacy systems, ”he told USNI News during the question-and-answer session.
“You will have to do your job. Look, Congress has to make sure we have that funding and an inflation factor in place. If we do less, it will undermine the ability to rebuild and modernize. But the service branches also have to go top-down and really, really self-reflect, be self-critical and say, “Are these things that we really need to do? Do these things really contribute to mission? Are these things that add skills? Are these things that we absolutely have to do? ‘And then take those dollars and plow them back into what we think are necessary. ”

James Geurts, who served as the Navy’s chief of acquisitions from 2017 to January and currently serves as the Under-Secretary of State for the Navy, said at the same conference that the Navy’s acquisitions community has been able to make significant savings without sacrificing quality by it was simply more Efficient contract drafting: In the last two years the Navy has spent 20 percent more money on contracts, 20 to 25 percent fewer contract measures.

He also pointed to the Super Hornet’s willingness to move the F / A-18E-F Super Hornet fleet from an operational rate of about 55 percent to 80 percent through business process changes, rather than just throwing more money on the problem – as an example of how the Navy approached efficiency.

The Super Hornet effort was much less about buying new things or buying more parts. The old answer was, of course, its spare parts, of course, let’s buy more spare parts. When we really looked at it, how long does it take to do incremental maintenance, do we have the experience and skills that are properly balanced, do we understand the actual maintenance issues, and have targeted programs to follow them up? And what we found was a reckless use of resources on the levers that had the greatest throw, which allowed us to make a change much faster, ”he said.

An F / A-18E Super Hornet assigned to the Blue Diamonds of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 146 takes off from the flight deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) while performing with the Nimitz Carrier Strike dual-carrier Operations group is conducting in the South China Sea Feb. 9, 2021. U.S. Navy photo

Geurts said he had been working closely with the vice chief of naval operations, Adm. William Lescher, worked together to “make the idea a reality: let’s get real and then get better. Bureaucracies love to solve a problem before they fully understand it and pull levers to show they are doing something. You don’t always need to understand whether these levers actually changed the needle. So we were in a campaign of: let’s get real, let’s really understand where our costs are, where our expenses are. I think of dollars, people, or time; Understand this basically so that we can fix the things that matter most and move the needle the most, and not mistake activity for outcome, ”he said.

He spoke broadly about the attack on “basic costs” that do not contribute to combat effectiveness, but added that ultimately, at some point, the leadership in the Pentagon or the White House will have to weigh how much money the Navy will be allowed to spend to create how big a fleet is.

“My focus now is how we can maximize the output we can get on the resources we have, and before I shoot someone else’s target, I want to make sure we’re doing all we can,” he said.

However, he cautioned against overdoing the effort, saying that too efficient a force could make the force too brittle. The Navy has recognized that in recent years the fleet has been less flexible due to previous efforts to create an efficient fleet – for example, with fewer but larger supply vessels to bring fuel and cargo to aggregate strike groups at sea.

“There’s a point where it’ll be an investment if you get additional results,” he said, saying that efficiency will only go so far without the military investing additional funds to grow the fleet.
“And then it’s an open discussion about how much skill you want and what it will cost to generate that skill.”

Geurts would not comment specifically on the budget proposal or on the recommendations for the decommissioning of cruisers, amphibious ships or coastal combat ships, which the Navy has tried unsuccessfully in recent years.

The USS Freedom (LCS-1) leaves a pier in San Diego on its own on December 10, 2018. U.S. Navy photo

He said the Navy is examining, “What is the right balance to keep things while they’re still useful, but not to the point where they don’t add value to the missions we see in the future and don’t each other Falling in love with a product Just because we have the product, it has to show that it can be deadly and add something to the fight. “

He said the Navy ultimately wanted the best return on investment on the ships it bought, which could include finding new mission sets. For example, the service is implementing this idea for the LCS program, which may not offer the high-end capability the Navy would want in a peer-to-peer battle but could be useful in U.S. Southern Command or elsewhere.

Geurts noted that holding a ship for too long not only costs money to operate and maintain the ship, it also ties up labor, training centers, and more.

“The embedded cost of keeping a product for too long can be debilitating,” he said, without specifically saying what he was hoping for with the cruisers.

Overall, he reiterated, “My first priority is to maximize the return on every tax dollar the taxpayer gives me,” he said, adding, “I want to make sure I can say with confidence and credibility that we maximize the.” Dollars that have been given to us – and then it is a decision, is that enough for the dollars that you will receive in this issue? Or do we have to change the balance for the struggle you see in the future? I want to tidy up my garden again before I talk about someone else’s garden and that is what we really focus on. “