Cost of Communication/Entertainment/Subscriptions

Well as i was tuning the Compaq, I discovered two new open networks for Cincinnati Bell Wifi Hotspots.  After bothering a rep to figure out my user id and password (I'm a Zoomtown subscriber) - bingo I was on.  My Zoomtown plan includes Wifi access.  And since my office sits directly over a Wifi hotspot (now at Coffee Please), I guess I could avoid internet costs at my office.

A couple of days ago, I computed all the costs of my communication, news and magazine subscriptions:

Verizon (3 family phones 2100 minutes +txt)    $175/mth
Cincinnati Bell (wire phone, long dist, and internet)  $79/mth  i (internet is $30/mth)
TimeWarner Cable  $61/mth
Sprint Data Access for laptop   $61/mth
XM Car Radio  $10.50/mth
Netflix    $6/mth
Dr Laura Streaming  $4.58/mth
Go-to-my-pc -   $14.95/mth
OnStar  Safe and Sound (two cars)  -  $16.66/mth  (prepay $199/yr per car)
Enquirer Subscription - $15.22/mth
Magazines Susan subscribes to (People, Oprah, and others for her business)- ?????
Security at House -   ????
Yahoo Email (two accounts for POP download) - $1.67/mth  ($20/yr per account)
American Express Gold Card Annual Fee  (Susan has two cards one for Business)  $150/yr
itunes (this seems to be monthly but varies) - $2.66  (YTD thru Aug)
Sams Club Membership - $35/yr

So what does this all mean?   The hidden "costs" of the decision to subscribe can easily add up.  Also some of these just automatically renew.  I'm sure I'm missing some annual or monthly fees.  The communication and entertainment  adds to over $400/yr.  This is what we were predicting in 1996 during the Telecom deregulation.  I'm sure my focus on this has minimized the cost and many people probably spend over $600-$800 per month. 

So my frugal message for the day - watch the pennies spent per month.  This really adds up.  Said a different way - if you could save $10/mth and put in a savings account earning an average of 3% in 25 years you would have $4,471.23