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    Curriculum / Fixed Costs

    The Fixed Costs Course

    Find every recurring charge a household pays, work out what each one is actually priced on, and lower the ones that move — without cutting the cover you needed.

    Written in full8 modules32 lessons8 worksheets5 hours
    Take a seat — $129Read lesson 1 free

    What this is

    Ask anybody to name the recurring charges leaving their accounts each month and they will get to six or nine and stop. Then they read twelve months of statements and the real count is somewhere between fourteen and thirty. That gap is not extravagance. It is the defining property of a recurring charge: it is designed to stop asking for your attention after the first one.

    This course closes the gap and then works the list. Eight modules: find every charge including the ones that never touch a bank statement, classify each by what it is actually priced on, locate the cheaper published tier that existing customers are never moved onto, run a scripted twelve-minute call that gets the change approved, lower insurance by changing an input rather than by removing cover, do the quantity half of the utility bill with a $30 meter, build the renewal calendar that stops the whole thing unwinding, and move the money on the day it appears so it is not absorbed.

    It is deliberately unglamorous. There is no investing in it, no side income, and nothing that depends on a market. It is the arithmetic of your own outgoings, done once properly and then rerun annually in about half the time. This is a household budgeting course, not tax, legal or financial advice. Anything that touches a contract you have signed is a question for the person who wrote it or for your attorney.

    When you finish, you can

    1. Produce a complete register of every recurring charge in your household, including phone-billed, app-store and payroll-deducted charges, sorted by annual cost.
    2. State your household's true fixed monthly floor — the number below which spending cannot go without cancelling something.
    3. Classify any charge by its pricing basis and name the one move that reduces that kind of charge.
    4. Find and cite, in writing, the cheapest tier a vendor publishes for the thing you already buy.
    5. Run a scripted negotiation call, get transferred to the department that can approve it, and close with written confirmation and a diarised reversal date.
    6. Lower an insurance premium by raising a deductible you can actually fund or by correcting your own file, and name the three cuts never to make.
    7. Measure the largest electrical loads in your home and run a whole-house water leak test from the meter.
    8. Hold a twelve-month renewal calendar covering every charge, with act-by dates set before the notice window closes.
    9. Cancel a service in a way you can prove, and raise a dispute when a cancelled charge reappears.
    10. Capture every saving automatically on the day it lands, starting with the deductible reserve.

    Who should not buy this

    • Anyone looking for investment advice, side income or anything that depends on a market. There is none of that here.
    • A household in active collections or facing foreclosure — that needs a licensed counsellor now, not a course.
    • Anyone who wants to cut insurance to the bone. Module 5 spends its whole length arguing the other way.

    The modules

    All 8, with every lesson title.

    01

    The Standing-Order Audit

    Find every recurring charge you have, including the ones that no longer appear on a statement you read, and put them on one page in order of size.

    • The bills you cannot name
      Most households can name six recurring charges and are paying between fourteen and thirty. The gap is the whole opportunity.
    • Reading twelve months, not one
      Annual and irregular charges are invisible to a one-month review, and they are usually the largest discretionary lines you have.
    • The charges that never touch a bank statement
      Phone-billed services, app-store subscriptions and payroll deductions sit outside the statement and outside most people's mental total.
    • The one page
      One row per charge, sorted largest first, with the four columns that the rest of the course fills in.

    Module 1 in full →

    Worksheet — The standing-order register

    One row per recurring charge. Fill the first seven columns from your statements; the last four are filled in by Modules 2 through 8. The example row shows the shape. Sort the finished sheet by annual cost, descending — that order is the order you work in.

    The standing-order register
    Charge (as it appears)VendorWhat it is forBilling periodAmountAnnual costWhere it is billedLast price changeContract end / renewal datePublished cheaper tier?Action
    EXAMPLE ROW — replaceExample TelecomHome internetMonthly$79.99$959.88Checking ****1234Rose $10 in MarchOut of contractYes — same speed, promo tierModule 4: call retentions
    ———Monthly / Annual / Quarterly—= amount x periods per yearBank / card / phone bill / app store / payrollFrom the statement historyFrom the agreementModule 3 answers thisOne of: keep, downgrade, renegotiate, cancel, replace
    02

    What Each Bill Is Actually Priced On

    Every recurring charge is priced on one of five things. Knowing which one turns a vague 'it is too expensive' into a specific, answerable question.

    Module 2 in full →

    Worksheet — Pricing-basis classifier

    Copy the charge names from Module 1's register into column one, then classify. The right-hand column is the only move that works on that basis; anything else is a wasted phone call.

    Pricing-basis classifier
    ChargePricing basisWhat the vendor is measuringThe move that worksThe move that wastes the call
    PowerUsageKilowatt-hours plus a fixed delivery chargeChange the quantity; check whether supply is separately competitive where you liveAsking for a discount on a regulated delivery tariff
    Home internetAccessNothing physical — the line is already installedAsk retentions for the current promotional tierArguing about speed you do not use
    Auto insuranceRiskYour record, your vehicle, your deductible, your mileageChange the deductible and correct anything wrong in your fileAsking for a discount without changing an input
    Streaming serviceAccessNothing — pure inertia pricingCancel; re-subscribe the month you will use itDowngrading to a tier you will still not watch
    WaterUsageConsumption plus a fixed service chargeFind the leak first; most large water bills are a running toiletNegotiating a municipal tariff

    1 further rows in the downloadable sheet.

    03

    The Tier That Is Never Offered

    Most large recurring vendors publish a cheaper tier that existing customers are never moved onto. Finding it is research, not negotiation.

    • Why the cheaper tier exists and who it is for
      Acquisition pricing and retention pricing are different products sold at different prices, and you are on neither by default.
    • Finding it in writing
      The tariff, the rate card, the plan comparison page and the regulatory filing are all public, and one of them names your cheaper tier.
    • Lifeline, hardship and income-qualified tiers
      Utilities, telecoms and insurers run legally-mandated or voluntary low-income programmes that are almost never mentioned on an inbound call.
    • The annual price walk
      A charge that rises quietly every twelve months is a policy, not an accident, and the record of it is your strongest single argument.

    Module 3 in full →

    Worksheet — Published-tier finder

    One row per vendor from your register. The point is column four: a URL or a document name. A tier you cannot cite is a tier you cannot ask for by name, and a request without a name gets 'there is nothing available'.

    Published-tier finder
    VendorWhat you pay nowCheapest published tier for the same thingWhere it is published (URL or filing)Difference per yearEligibility conditions
    EXAMPLE — replace$79.99/mo$49.99/mo, same speed, 12-month promotional tierVendor's own plans page, dated$360.00New and re-contracting customers
    ——————
    04

    The Call

    A scripted, twelve-minute phone call that gets a bill lowered, including the exact sentence that moves you to the department that can do it.

    • Who you are actually talking to
      The first person who answers is measured on call time and has a discount ceiling; retentions is measured on saves and has a different one.
    • The script
      Six sentences: what you have, what it costs, what is published, what you want, what you will do otherwise, and silence.
    • What you will do otherwise
      The only leverage a household has is the ability to actually leave, and it only counts if you have already checked that you can.
    • Getting it in writing and diarising the reversal
      A promotional rate that nobody diarises reverts, and the reversal is how a household ends up back where it started in eighteen months.

    Module 4 in full →

    Worksheet — Call sheet and outcome log

    Print one per vendor. Fill the top half before you dial — especially the alternative, which you must have checked — and the bottom half while you are on the line. The reversal date is the most valuable field on the page.

    Call sheet and outcome log
    FieldFill before diallingFill during the call
    Vendor and account numberFrom the statement—
    Current charge and start dateFrom the register—
    Published tier you are asking for, by nameFrom Module 3—
    Your specific alternative (vendor, plan, price, date)Checked, not guessed—
    Name of the person you spoke to——

    7 further rows in the downloadable sheet.

    05

    Insurance Without Becoming Underinsured

    The one category where cutting the number can destroy you. How to lower a premium by changing an input rather than by removing cover.

    • What you are actually buying
      A policy is a list of named perils, a limit, a deductible and a set of exclusions, and only two of the four are yours to move.
    • The deductible lever
      Raising a deductible lowers a premium immediately, and it is only safe if the money is actually sitting somewhere you can reach.
    • Correcting your own file
      Insurers price on facts they hold about you, and some of those facts are wrong, stale or missing a discount you already qualify for.
    • When not to cut
      Liability limits, replacement-cost cover and the flood or earthquake question are the three places where saving the premium is the expensive choice.

    Module 5 in full →

    Worksheet — Policy comparison sheet

    One column per policy or per quote. Compare like with like: a quote that is cheaper because its liability limit is a quarter of yours is not cheaper, it is a different product. Never fill 'annual premium' before the four rows above it.

    Policy comparison sheet
    LineCurrent policyQuote AQuote B
    Insurer and policy number———
    Liability limit———
    Dwelling / vehicle limit and valuation basisReplacement cost or actual cash value——
    Deductible(s)———
    Named exclusions that matter to you———

    5 further rows in the downloadable sheet.

    06

    The Energy and Water Audit

    The quantity half of every usage-billed charge, done with a $30 meter, a flashlight and one Saturday.

    • Find the biggest load first
      A handful of appliances account for most of a household's power, and measuring beats guessing every single time.
    • The running toilet and the leak
      A large water bill is almost never behaviour; it is a leak, and the meter tells you within twenty minutes whether you have one.
    • Envelope before equipment
      Air sealing and insulation return more per dollar than replacing a working furnace, and almost nobody does them in that order.
    • The rebate that pays for it
      Utilities and states publish rebate schedules that routinely cover a third to all of the work, and they are claimed before the job, not after.

    Module 6 in full →

    Worksheet — Load and leak audit

    Top half: every plug load you measured, ranked by annual cost. Bottom half: the water tests, with a result and a date. A blank result line is a test you did not run, and the most expensive line in any water bill is the test nobody ran.

    Load and leak audit
    ItemMeasured drawHours per daykWh per yearCost per year at your rateAction
    EXAMPLE — second refrigerator in garage120 W running, 45% duty24473$66Unplug it, or accept the cost knowingly
    ———= W x hours x 365 / 1000= kWh x your rate—
    WATER TEST — meter still with everything offPass / fail———Fail means a leak somewhere on your side
    WATER TEST — dye in each toilet tank, 20 minutesPass / fail per toilet———Colour in the bowl means a leaking flapper
    WATER TEST — irrigation zone by zonePass / fail per zone————
    07

    Contracts, Renewals and the Calendar

    Auto-renewal is the mechanism that undoes every saving in this course. The fix is a calendar, and it takes forty minutes to build once.

    • The auto-renewal machine
      Notice windows, rollover terms and evergreen clauses are designed around the fact that nobody diarises a date twelve months out.
    • Building the renewal calendar
      One recurring calendar, one entry per charge, each set for the day before the notice window opens, not the day it closes.
    • Cancelling cleanly
      In writing, to the address the agreement names, with a date and a reference, and keep the proof — because the charge that reappears is common.
    • The zombie charge
      A cancelled service that keeps billing is a dispute, not a negotiation, and the card network's rules are on your side if you act inside the window.

    Module 7 in full →

    Worksheet — The twelve-month renewal calendar

    One row per charge. The 'act by' date is the one you put in the calendar, and it is deliberately earlier than the deadline. Set every reminder to repeat annually the day you create it, or you will build this sheet again next year.

    The twelve-month renewal calendar
    ChargeRenewal dateNotice period requiredAct-by date (renewal minus notice minus 14 days)How notice must be givenReminder set?
    EXAMPLE — replace14 March30 days, in writing29 JanuaryEmail to the address in clause 9Yes — annual repeat
    ——————
    08

    What to Do With the Money

    A saving that is not moved somewhere on the day it appears is absorbed within two months. Where it goes, and in what order.

    • The absorption problem
      Money freed inside a current account does not stay freed; it becomes invisible spending inside two billing cycles.
    • The deductible fund comes first
      Module 5 raised your deductibles, which was only safe on the condition that the cash exists. This is where that condition is met.
    • The annual-lump trick
      Several of the charges you kept are cheaper paid annually, and the money you have freed is what lets you switch to annual billing.
    • The annual rerun
      This whole course is a ninety-minute job once a year, and the second run takes half as long because the register already exists.

    Module 8 in full →

    Worksheet — Savings ledger

    One row per change you made. 'Verified on statement' is the column that matters — an agreed saving that never appeared on a bill is not a saving. Total the annual column and compare it to the fixed monthly floor you computed in Module 1.

    Savings ledger
    ChargeOld annual costNew annual costAnnual savingDate agreedVerified on statement?Where the money now goesReverts on
    EXAMPLE — replace$959.88$599.88$360.0012 MarchYes — April statementDeductible fund, automatic transfer12 March next year
    ————————

    On completion

    Pass the final assessment and the certificate is issued the same minute.

    The final assessment draws from every module and shuffles. There is no limit on retakes and no time limit on the course.

    The School of Life Hacks
    Certificate of Completion

    This certifies that

    Dana Whitfield

    has completed every lesson and passed the written assessment for every module of this course.

    The Fixed Costs Course
    Rob Yeager, Instructor
    Issued 8 September 2026
    LH-2026-0184
    school-of-life-hacks.vercel.app/verify/LH-2026-0184

    Every outside number in this course comes from one of these