Boy, I'm getting sick of companies going back on their word.

On Thursday night, I was online-chatting with Comcast customer service, looking for cheaper options for our cable and internet. They offered me an upgrade on cable with an introductory rate $15 lower than what we pay for our current internet.

I wanted to talk it over with my family and make sure it was a good deal, and we decided it was; we could always switch back to regular-speed internet before the introductory period ended.

But when I went back onto Comcast chat today, that customer service person made me wait about 20 minutes online before telling me that the offer was no longer available. Less than 3 days later, no longer available. Ugh. I closed out of the chat immediately, I was so disgusted. Probably should've stuck around to see if they had a different offer, but oh well.

We still have other easy cost-saving ideas. We're currently enrolled in cable the next step up from basic. Getting rid of that will save us nearly $20. We'll still have our DVR and all channels below 100, so we're only losing about 4 shows we love, and we can look into other ways of seeing those. Then in September when Netflix is going to split their service, we'll cut back to just streaming movies; instead of our bill going up about $6.50, it'll go down by about $2.

So we'll still reduce our costs by $22; not as nice as $37, but better than nothing.

When I call Comcast tomorrow to downgrade our cable, I"m first going to ask if they have any internet deals. I thought the last person I talked to said something about a 3-month discount; any little bit is great in my opinion.

I'm going to set $10 per month aside in case we want to get some of our shows we're losing on demand, but the other $12 I can roll into debt repayment. Nice!

***

I'm getting impatient with myself over my weight. I can't seem to get motivated to take off these last 10-12 lbs. of baby weight. I've been trying to do it naturally, but I'm thinking a more structured plan might work better for me.

So I've been mulling over what changes might bring the biggest results, and this is what I came up with. I want to cut out these foods and ingredients:
-Bread products
-Chips of all kinds
-Pasta
-Flour and other wheat products (including my favorite, mock duck)
-White rice
-White potatoes
-High-calorie sweeteners like sugar, honey and high fructose corn syrup
-Beer (I don't have it often, but I see the difference when I do!)

If I stay away from this list, I think I should be able to lose weight pretty quickly. My goal will be to get under 140 lbs; at that point, I would start reintroducing these foods if I wanted to. I'm pretty good at maintaining weight naturally without much extra effort; it's just losing that I have trouble with.

I think I'd have a better chance of succeeding if I allowed myself one cheat day per week, so I'll start that way and see how it goes. (I'm also not going to count vacation and travel days and parties, just regular eating days.)

We just bought groceries for the week and already have meals planned, so I'm going to start next week. Last night I had tofu dogs (on buns) and fries, and chips and salsa, and this morning I had hash browns and toast for breakfast, and a big sandwich on sourdough for lunch! Tonight, risotto (arborio rice counts as white rice, I'd say). So I'm getting my kicks, and you can also see why I think cutting these things out of my diet will help me lose weight--my diet is riddled with this kind of stuff! LOL.

This week will not only be my last hurrah -- until I either give up or lose the weight -- but it will give me time to research meal options. I lean on bread and pasta and potatoes and white rice a LOT. I'm not sure I'll be able to come up with things that AS will go for, and I doubt NT could give up his bread or desserts, so I may be going this mostly alone. But I think I can do it. I noticed the carrot-craisin-walnut salad we made today to go with the sandwiches accidentally fit my new diet requirements, and it's one of my favorite salads. So I know the meals are out there; I just have to figure out what fits.