What Streaming Services Might Cost a Family

After receiving one of my credit card Year-End Summary reports, I went down a rabbit hole of a sort.  I decided to see how much we spend on fixed services like our streaming services, and also our mortgage and utilities.  I limited it to things like Gas, electricity, Internet, and Water (which includes rubbish, recycle, and sewer) and also added Cell Phones and must-have-in-the-South Pest/Termite control.

I'm gonna share the Streaming services here because it isn't a state secret how much people pay for each individual service.   We have the 4 we explicitly pay for.  We also have 2 that other members of our family pay for but choose the plan that lets you add extra accounts for supposedly cheaper than each member getting their own account.  

[We aren't talking trip to Paris saving; it's more like we can supersize our quarter pounder meal.]  And then there are a couple of services that don't have extra account options but they don't care yet if you share with family members.

The four we have:

We have Amazon Music because my nephew re-enabled it once and I have been too lazy to cancel.  Plus the ability to play any song at will is worth the $10 to keep my kids entertained for 10-15 minutes when they use it.

The Paramount+ auto-renewed last Fall so we are stuck with it for a year.  My understanding is that if I do cancel it, I will not get a prorated amount of money back.  

We keep Amazon Prime because we use it more for the free shipping and whatever other benefits still exist. 

I think the point I'm trying to make is that barring some extreme series of unfortunate events, it isn't game changing to drop all of these Streaming Services, let alone any particular one.

It would be smart to drop all but one, bing watch everything we can, then cancel and add one of the dropped.  Rinse and Repeat.  But that takes timing and organization which is not currently in surplus in the Icarus household.  

My Eyes

 Last summer I signed on to participate in a Clinical Research trial.  I had tried before but didn't qualify but they had me on a list and called me back for a different one and I qualified.  

My thought was I have a lot of free time since no one wants to hire a 50+ year old dude who lives in MS.  

There was conflict even from the beginning.  The very first visit conflicted with my kids' annual pediatrician check-up.  I had forgotten about it and NG was pissed that we had to reschedule.  

Another visit prevented me from going to see my kids get an award or something at school.  

I just completed Visit 6 so I am halfway to the $1550 payout.  Of course, the story of my luck is that if I find a way to earn some extra money, a new expense shows up.  We had to replace our dishwasher and decided to replace the fridge too because the garage fridge died.  While we went frugal and got as many discounts as we could, the total cost was still higher than the Trial Payout, but it was close.

Nightingale and I believe that I have been given the placebo treatment.  The drops do not sting and I haven't noticed any real change in my night or short-sight vision.  

2024 Bears: What a waste of a season

 Another Bears season is over, and thankfully, it is over. We fans had high hopes after last year's surge to finish 7 and 10 and the drafting of generational quarterback Caleb Williams.  

Unfortunately, the Bears regressed this year.  I had them going 11 and 6 instead of 5 - 12.  My prediction record of 7 and 10 is also worse than last year.

This year they started off strong and were 4 - 2 at the bye week.  Then a series of unfortunate events occurred.  Not being properly prepared for the Hail May from the Commanders.  Getting pants by the Cardinals and the Patriots.  Losing to the Packers, Vikings, and Lions down to the wire.  

At that point, they were (4 - 8) not mathematically out of it but needed some help. Instead, they lost to the 49ers, who have been terrible this year.  

Even at 4 and 9 they still had a chance because other NFC divisions were not doing well.  Then Washington won a game they should have won and the Hail Mary came back to haunt them, except they had already dug their own hole.  

Two things can be true at the same time.  It became obvious they were playing to lose and get a high draft pick and their coaching sucked.  Not using times outs.  Not getting closer for field goal attempts.  Players are trying to extend plays and fumble instead of going down to fight again.

Our pretty solid defense also seemed to regress but really was just protecting itself for next year (and their next team).

The lone bright spot of this season is the win against Green Bay in the last game of the season.  It looked like they were gonna win again when they hit a field goal with 54 seconds left on the clock. Game-winning drives were not a part of the Bears equation since the Trubisky years.

But somehow they managed to get decent field position on the kickoff and move within field goal range and Santos got payback for the illegally blocked field goal from Week 8.  

I've always said that if the NFL were fixed, the teams from New York, California, Chicago and a few other markets would always make the playoffs. 

As a long time Bears fan, I've seen the Packers beat the Bears on the last game of the season many times, even when there was nothing to play for.  But times have changed and I suspect with a playoff spot secured, the Green Bay coaches were trying to just get though the game with the slim hope of improving their seeding.  

This game reminded me of the last game of the 2000 season.  The Bears kicked a last second field goal which kept the Lions out of the playoffs.  The next season they went 13 -3 and earned the second Bye in the playoffs, only to lose to the Eagles.