We try to save money everywhere we can, and a big savings came from cancelling our cable bill. In previous years, I was able to write our cable bill off on our taxes because I worked writing recaps of television shows. Once that gig ended, we cancelled.
I’m curious about what other people spend on their phone/internet/television. I think we probably spend less than most, but I think we could always do better. Here’s our breakdown.
We have cable internet through Comcast. Honestly, even if we got rid of all our TV and phone service I would still keep the internet. I use it to earn money and I use it to save money.
We have a landline through AT&T. I tried to bundle internet and phone together but AT&T internet was horrible. Not at all as advertised. I could cut our landline, but I like having it since someone is almost always home and also for safety, if the kids needed to call 911. Also, I don’t want the kid’s friends calling my cell phone!
We have two cell phone lines through Cricket. We live in a major metropolitan area, and Cricket works great for us. We have unlimited text, internet, long distance, nationwide roamin, and local calls. I didn’t have a cell phone until a few months ago, though husband dear did (it’s the only way to get ahold of him at work. He works in the field or in shops, he doesn’t have an office.) But after playing musical cell phones too many times, he insisted I get my own. I think he was tired of me borrowing his! So, like a good obedient wife, I ordered myself a cellphone. ::wink::
We don’t have cable, but we do use NetFlix.
So, our total expenses:
Landline, $32.50
Cellphones (2 lines) $90.00
Internet (cable modem) $35.00
Netflix $15.00
Radio: Still free! I’m a talk radio junkie.
$172.50 total for entertainment and communications. Also the occasional RedBox, but I usually can Google up a coupon for those.
We bought our cellphones off eBay, but mines an older model that was flashed for Cricket and sometimes it drives me nuts because it can be quirky. I so very much want a new one, with a touch screen and internet access. However, the only way to get that is to switch carriers and I just can’t see paying almost $200 a month for the same service we pay $90 for. Sigh.
But I wanna iPhone, waaaahhh. Do any of you have a Motorola Evoke? That’s my only option for a Cricket phone with touch screen and web browser. Do you like it?
Would you give up technology to save money? Tell me what you spend!
Karen (1)
Raso @ lasagnarec... (1)
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Have you considered getting a Magicjack? We’ve got cable internet, and it makes your ‘landline’(through the internet) 20 bucks a year with unlimited long distance. Start up cost is 40 for the usb driver you have to buy. Plus, when you move, your telephone number stays the same.
I have considered that, but I want a phone that will work when the electricity doesn’t. So we have a landline, with a corded handset for emergencies. And we used it today, too. Big storm and a transformer blew, and was shooting sparks on a neighbor’s house, so we called the fire department.
You know that you can buy a cheaper iPhone off eBay and now have it flashed for Cricket or other phone services? They made unlocking a smartphone fully legal now, much to Apples dismay. Same goes for Android and Blackberry phones.
Part of it is my personality. I’m dyin’ for an iPhone, but it also seems scandalously extravagant.
Hey Apple, you are more than welcome to sponsor an iPhone review right here on my blog! Because I know a mommyblogger with lots of kids is just who your marketing plan is missing!
We have DirecTv satellite and our bill runs around $170 a month. We have every channel they offer. EVERY.SINGLE.CHANNEL. Even a sports package just so DH can get some hunting channels.
We don’t have a home phone. We get our commercial speed internet through our local cable company and we pay $125 a month just for the internet service. AT&T internet service sucks.
Our cell phone bills runs around $225 because we have 2 phones with unlimited everything and DH has a special DATA plan for his smart phone, and DH’s internet card for his laptop is on that bill too. He also has another internet card for his laptop through Sprint that runs about $60 a month.
SO that’s about $580 a month. Then add $15 for my Blockbuster by mail. I also rent videos every Tuesday in the Blockbuster store that add up to about $100 a month. LOL That’s only a tip of our BILL iceburg.
Our package through Comcast is about 220 a month. Cable, digital DVR, regular digital receiver, phone and internet.
Our cell bill is about $200 for three phones. Two with data, and texting for all three. Well worth it, IMO.
Well, our communications company frustrated us enough that we cancelled. And wired ourselves into our next door neighbors (DH’s parents, though his brother plans to move in there in the next few years). DH says it is not illegal and he doesn’t think the contract is enforceable. So he and FIL don’t think it’s illegal. So it’ll be $15 a month for internet and TV, paid to inlaws (they upped internet speed on their package (phone/tv/internet) and we’ll pay the difference). We use Vonage for our phone (and have it on a UPS). It’s 100 minutes a month–plenty for us now–and I think it’s around $20 a month. We also have the basic package for Netflix ($15?). No cell. Then there’s the startup capital, though: new cable modem, all the software and hardware and extra external drives for our hacked-together TIVO-type DVR system we use to record Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune…. we have a very nice TV which I also use for my computer monitor (gift, ended up free for my inlaws too because the Red Sox won the world series that year), DVD player/sound system (free, inlaws got a new one and gave us the old one). My computer runs our DVR and was $2500–6 years ago.
I think you do pretty well on your communication expenses. Better than we do. I have our phone/internet/cable bundled together and we pay about $200 a month for that, and then we have our cell service with T-Mobile. We have 4 lines, unlimited talk, text, internet and that’s about $200 a month too.
Oh we have Netflix too. I am thinking about stopping it though. We very rarely remember to use it, so I feel like I pay for nothing.
I have a Motorola Cliq and I love it. I don’t know if it is similar to the Evoke or not, but I’m a convert to androids. I love the always on internet and the instant updates. I don’t know if that helps you or not though.
We use Netflix on demand extensively. The kids still watch TV, they just watch “Sonny With a Chance” and “Thomas the Tank” as a season when the DVD comes out (Nickelodeon puts most of their kid shows on demand). We also have the antenna thingy that lets you watch TV without cable. We get 3 PBS channels (one in Spanish), ABC, NBC, and CBS and we never, ever watch the big three networks unless there’s a storm. I think if we only used the discs for Netflix we’d probably cancel, too.
I have Boost mobile. $50 a month for all the talk test and internet on my phone although I cant watch youtube videos or download forms. DH has a prepaid phone that links to our kroger store card so every 10 dollars we spend gets us ten free minutes. we dont have cable and we buy all oyr DVDs so it works out to 75-100 dollars a month. If we dont have the funds for a new movie we dont buy one. And DH runs out of minutes sometimes but we have the option of simply cutting back on phone time with him to save money each month. My bill is always $50 even and there are no hidden fees.
BTW I dont miss cable. we spent around $50 one time to get a digital antenna and get everything we need on PBS and network TV.
I’m with ya on the iphone. I want one sooo bad! I’m like a kid begging for a new toy! But, I have not been able to justify the $70+ a month phone bill, not to mention the cost of the phone. We used to have the very basic Dish Satellite package, but the price kept inching up to where we were going to have to pay $55 a month for it and there was so much cr*p on TV that I didn’t want my daughter seeing, we just decided to cut it off. We do have an antenna so that we can get the local network channels for news and weather. But other than that, we only watch DVDs or Videos from the library or occasional redbox when I get a free code. We get high-speed internet through our phone company and we also have a land-line phone. We’ve thought about getting rid of the land line, but it doesn’t cost that much each month, and I really like having a land line in case of emergencies.
All in all, we pay:
$90 for landline & internet
$0 for TV
$70 for 2 cellphones (no data packages)
——
$160/month. I think it’s too much, so anyone that has suggestions, please let me know!
Thru AT&T (we are in Texas), I pay approximately $125.00 monthly for:
1.) local land line (no long distance – we use cell phones). ($40 or so)
2.) Dish Network – have all channels except for movie channels. No movie channels allowed in my home. ($60)
3.) Internet. ($25-30)
We have cells thru AT&T also, but those are written off thru my husband’s work (because his job consists of cell usage 99% of the time & I hardly ever use my cell).
I am either half out of touch with the world or cheap. I pay $55 a month for my cell phone, unlimited voice & 450 text messages, nationwide, no roaming charges. I have a two year contract with Verizon, which I like because the bill is always the same and I can use the phone anywhere in the US without additional charges. As an added bonus, no texts are counted when with other Verizon customers and it seems at least 75% of the people I communicate with on a regular basis are Verizon customers. My Internet is accessed entirely from my desktop – so I can’t even take the computer elsewhere in the house much less outside the house. And, I have DSL, no cable modem. That is $52 a month. It could be cheaper – $47 if I remember correctly – but I didn’t get a contract. I pay a little more so I can cancel at any time without penalty.
No cable or satellite. No Netfilx or other DVD rental plan.
So, my communication cost per month is $107.00.
There is no way I could cut it any lower, and I have no reason (at this time) for it to be any more.
I have cricket and i like it a lot-when i bought my phone they were having a special, $25 for unlimited talk/text, but no voicemail. I upgraded that for $8/month additional for unlimited media (pix) messages, but i still have no voicemail. If it’s important enough that i need to leave a number with VM, i give them the house number. To be fair, I don’t know what the comcast internet/tv/landline bundle costs, because my parents pay that, but the cricket phone is mine.
Oh, i have a…my phone doesn’t say what kind it is…not on the outside, not under Phone Info under settings…It’s the cheapest flip phone cricket had that also possesses a camera-no butt-dialing or boring backgrounds for me! lol
Wow we didn’t have cable for a long time and only had broadcast. We just added fios TV a few months ago.
So Basic Verizon Fios Bundle HS Internet, Phone, Fios TV plus fees about $100-$110 per month.
We are not cell phone people. We have pay as you go phones and I spent less than $60 for the entire year last year with T-mobile.
When we didn’t have Fios TV we were paying for phone and Internet around $75 per month.
We have Comcr@p for a minimum digital package for internet, phone (nonpublished number) and cable. I am not sure what the bill averages because we deleted some services, overpaid, account was audited – told we were underpaying (Seriously!?!) and had some credits given to us…so we haven’t had a normal bill in about two months…but I think around 130(?) a month. We have Verizon Wireless: 4 lines, no data packages around $145 I think. Netflix is $10 a month and I watch it way more than TV.
I think that adds up to almost $300 a month. Yowsa! I should show that to my husband. I think I have almost convinced him that we don’t need cable anymore. Between Netflix and what you can catch online covers about everything, even tho you may be a little behind. I have thought about getting an additional cell line and using it as a home phone. I have heard there a a product you can purchase that will allow to use one cell phone and expand it to multiple jacks – http://solution.allthingsd.com/20060125/connect-cellphone-home/
We have a package deal for our landline and DSL at $72 each month. Our cells (2) are prepaid and total about $300 a year for both because we rarely talk on them and never text. Cable is $35 monthly; we just upgraded a few months ago: before that we paid $12 each month for just the local channels. We borrow TONS of movies from the library and get maybe one or two redbox movies a month (one night only!).
Landline: $28.00
Cell: One prepaid with T-Mobile refills. Minutes get filled via discount sites. Got 30% off recently. It’s 10 cents a minute retail, but with all the discounts – free minutes with large purchase($100 refills) and discount refills, less. We go through about $125 a year for minutes with no contract.
Internet: $9.99 with dial-up which works very well in our area(relatively fast)
Basic cable: $10.76
Netflix: $12.00, or whatever two at a time is.
Monthly total: $71.16
Well we normal pay around $80-100 for internet no matter which way we go (phone&net or cable&net). I don’t care which we use as we are constant cell phone users and I find that alot of cable is a waste – paying for channels you don’t want then not getting the ones you do =(
We use all prepaid cell phones – 2 (mostly) talk plans for my dh & I and one (mostly) text plan for my 17 yr old. It runs anywhere from $45 to $105 depending on usage.
Last 6 mos avg – $165/mo
next 6 mos avg – $50/mo (xmas is comin!)