I'm snowed and iced in today, so I'm getting a jump on all of my new year's financial housekeeping.

** Hubby called the cable company to see how much they'd charge us to either downgrade or cancel the cable tv. It would be a $75 fee, but would cut our monthly bill from $160 (with fees) to about 90. We didn't want to pay the fee, so hubby had them switch us to the month-to-month plan, which is $20 cheaper (that makes me mad, as a long-time customer, but that is another story), then we could cancel at the end of next month and pay no fee. So, that will be revisited at the end of next month. Hubby is on the fence about ditching cable, because he watches a lot of soccer games on it, and we are stuck at home a lot due to kids.

** I called the car insurance company. We paid off the car and no longer needed full coverage, so I called to downgrade to collision, plus uninsured drivers. It all seems to be fine, although they freaked out and called me back twice saying Honda never sent them the title saying we paid off the car, so I needed to send that. Until they get it, no changes can be made. I had a copy, so I sent them a pdf. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Our bill will go from $760.70/year to $597.46/year for both cars.

** I also called and cancelled one of the credit cards we opened last year for the rewards. I'm trying to slim down the number of credit cards. It was surprisingly fast and easy, maybe because we have another card with that company, and they seemed satisfied that they weren't losing us, we were just slimming down.

** I also emailed our mortgage guy at our bank about options for refinancing or lowering our interest rate. I'm determined, now that I realized our rate is higher than I thought, at 4.875 percent, and 30 year loans are now at 3.25 around here. I'm feeling ripped off.

**On the higher interest online savings account front. I have online savings at two banks, one is earning .50 percent, the other .70. Ally is paying .90 I think. I have been trying to read up on Ally. I like to use subaccounts to save for specific goals, and I know my two current banks allow you to do that. Not sure about ALLY. Does anyone have any experience with them on that front? Anyway, most of your money is in the .50 bank, so I will be transferring it to a bank with a higher rate, the question is what bank?

** I adjusted the amount we send immediately to savings every paycheck, so we could 'automatically' meet our savings account goal. It was a question of saving about $10 more per pay period, if we don't miss any. So, that will hopefully be on track.

** also, on a weird note, I thought I still needed to about about 1700 to my IRA for 2012 to max it out. I tried to deposit $300 today, and my account wouldn't let me because it said I was over the limit. I went back and added up the contributions and it turns out I did max it out at $5000 this year and didn't realize it. Go me!

Hope you guys are all safe, snug, and sound!

**UPDATE**
I applied for the new higher-interest account. I'm considering shutting the other two down and consolidating. We'll see how the subaccounts go!