getting my GS3 to last till May...

alright I'm trying to make it last but I am having a hard time. my renewal is in may I have a galaxy S3 and it seems with every update the phone gets worse and they add more and more crap to it.

I get a lot of random weirdness. I only have a very few apps that I manual go in and force stop when I am not using them with the exception of my BBC news thingy.

its a short list of apps.
Amazon
AMazon Price Check
Ebay
Line
BBC news thingy
Newegg

that's it.

I use line because the default messenger doesent let you send animated GIFs and group messaging really bogs things down

I think it comes down to each update adds some more Samsung BS and I am fairly certain if I went with the basic closest to stock google android version 4.4.x with out any Samsung, att or what ever pre loaded BS it would fix a MANY problems I have been having. what do you guys think?

Unfortunately you have basically prevented yourself from doing anything with a custom ROM on the GS3 by taking OTA updates after 4.1.2. Samsung/Verizon (assuming what carrier you are on, as you didn't mention it) blocked the ability to unlock the bootloader with 4.3.

There are basically two options for you, both stock-based, but they're better than the actual stock firmware. I use stock ROMs almost exclusively on my devices and they work better than AOSP on phones that are designed to have custom software operating certain aspects of the phone (like the cameras, for instance; plus the S3 has worse reception on AOSP ROMs for some reason).

Anyway, here are your ROM options:
[ROM][TW4.4.2][LOCKED BL] SUPERLITEROM! v1.0 I535VRUDNE1 [only 530.5MB][Jul 05, 2014]
[ROM][TW 4.4.2][2014-09-08][LOCKED BL ONLY]PaulPizz.VRUDNE1.2014.08.17

That's it. Dev had basically stopped on this phone when the bootloader ended up hardcore locked and nobody was able to get it unlocked again. Those that may have been able to had long moved on to other phones. This is how you unlock using the Safestrap method: [RECOVERY LOCKED/NE1] Unofficial Safestrap Recovery v3.75 [2014-07-18 KK B02] Note that I know absolutely nothing about that other than the fact that it exists. It involves flashing your ROMs to 'slots', generally non-stock slots, which I am clueless about. Thankfully I never had to mess with that business, but unfortunately that means I can't help you at all because I wouldn't know what I'd be talking about other than what is already said above.

If you decide to do it, good luck!

All of that said, if you have taken OTA updates constantly and never cleared everything off, you may just be suffering from a massive boatload of bloat and dirty flashes (which are what OTA updates equate to). You might want to just wipe everything and factory reset your phone. Look at it this way - if you want to flash a custom ROM you'll have to wipe anyway. Might as well not take that risk and see if a factory reset will help you out. Backup your photos, files, etc first of course, then just do a full factory reset back to bone stock. See if it gets you any closer to the experience you're looking for. If that doesn't work, then explore the safestrap/custom option.

Agreed. I just passed my GS3 on to my wife, and traded in her broken iPhone towards the Note 4 I pre-ordered. I did a full wipe on the GS3 and it helped out immensely. Battery life is still pretty terrible, but I'm ordering a new battery for it. I never put any custom ROMs on it, only had it rooted and ran a different launcher. After a factory reset, though, it still works fine.

they were AT&T and they came out of the box with higher versions then 4.1.2