*This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure
Since it’s a new year, I figure I would post this up. It’s the first thing you should do to save your money and your sanity in 2014. If you still have cable, please read this. And then let me know why. 🙂
Today, I’ve got a special offer for all the wonderful readers of iHeartBudgets. I am going to give away a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas to everyone who reads this post! You read that right, 4 days of all-inclusive fun in the tropic sun, visiting places like Jamaica and Nassau. Swim with the dolphins, eat like a king and let your worries melt away. All you need to do is cut the cable and home phone!
Cable is Ridiculous
How many channels do you have with your premium cable package? Do you even know? Do you know what’s playing on channel 766 at 8pm on Thursday? You should. You’re paying for all that goodness on the QVC channel that you never watch and for the whole channel dedicated to infomercials that gives more TV time to Chuck Norris to hock the “total gym” than he ever saw with Walker: Texas Ranger. You are paying for hundreds of channels you will never watch playing crappy shows that no one should ever lay eyes on.
Enter: The internet.
Invented by Al Gore sometime in the 90’s, the internet has grown exponentially. They have even put TV shows and movies on someone else’s servers so you can stream them to your computer. Not only that, but many of your favorite shows can be viewed FOR FREE using the show’s network site or by simply looking it up on HULU.com. If you want a more premium service, Netflix and HULU Plus both off a paid-for service that allows you to watch entire seasons of your favorite shows and a bunch of movies from the convenience of you home computer (still MUCH cheaper than cable). Heck, they’ve even built in those applications into TV’s, digital media receivers, and even video game consoles like the Xbox and Nintendo Wii.
Here’s how we do it.
We have internet only through the local cable/telecom company for $45 a month (after taxes/fees). We used to get a slightly better deal, but we had to call every six months to try and get it lowered because our “deal” ran out. I got sick of it, so I went with a cheaper plan, but it’s still quick enough to allow us to stream our favorite shows/movies. We downloaded HULU Desktop (not an affiliate link) and created a quick account to keep track of our favorite shows. THIS IS COMPETELY FREE! We then “subscribed” to our favorite shows and ones that looked interesting.
Now, we go to our “queue” when we open the application, and it tells us how many “unwatched” shows we have available to watch. Shows usually arrive about a week after their LIVE air date, so we kind of know when to expect a show to come up. There is no rush and no need to be home with the TV on at a certain time to watch the show. We also don’t have to worry about recording it, because it’s recorded and ready for playback whenever we want. They do typically remove shows after the season is over, so we try to watch within a week or two for the show popping up in our queue. We have followed shows this way for 4 years now, and we don’t miss cable one bit!
For movies, we have a couple of options. Right now we’re on a Netflix free trial for a month because it also came with a $50 coupon to restaurants.com. SWEET SCORE FOR DATE NIGHT! We can watch movies featured on there, but let’s be honest; their streaming selecting is not great. Their DVD service still offers the better titles, so you can go that route if you choose. Most likely, we’ll cancel the service. The other option is your local Redbox movie station. There are over 33,000 Redbox kiosks nationwide, so I’m sure there’s one near your home. They have a better title selection for movies than Netflix, and for those who don’t watch a ton of movies, it’s a cheaper options. It’s something like $1.29 for a DVD rental for one night. The last option we don’t use anymore (because I can’t get my free subscription anymore) is the Xbox marketplace. The Xbox marketplace had a great selection of movies, and we watched movies on that for a year. It does require a $5 a month subscription to Xbox LIVE and you still have to rent the movie, so not the cheapest option, but still CHEAPER THAN CABLE.
Home Phone
You really do NOT have any excuse to have a home phone these days, unless you are running a small business with a home office. And even then, it’s not a home phone, it’s an office or work phone. Cell phones don’t have long-distance fees, can access the internet and should take care of all of your telephone needs at home and away. The only reason people typically get a home phone is because the stupid cable companies decide you need one as part of their “bundle”. Why? I really don’t get it, but the only explanation I can come up with is that they want to assign you a phone number that they can sell to every spammer on the planet who only seems to call you during dinner just when you are about to bite into a juicy cut of meat! Do they only work between the hours of 5-7pm? Seriously?! But really, cut the cord (literally) and ditch the home phone service. Since you’re cancelling your cable, there is no package deal for this anymore and you can “Cut. It. Out.”
The Numbers
So now that we’ve decided that cable and home phone are for those people who like companies to hook up a vacuum to their wallets and suck every last dollar out in return for infomercials, let’s look at the real cost of your cable “bundle.”
Internet/Cable/Home Phone Bundle Deal = $100 a month for 12 months. $120 a month after that. Let’s also tack on 15% for “taxes and fees” to land us at an even $115 a month.
Internet Only = $45 a month after taxes and fees……forever.
Savings = $70 a month.
So you can cut the cable and home phone today to save yourself $70 a month! Now, you may be thinking “whoop -dee-doo, $70 flippin’ dollars, who cares?” But it’s $70 a month savings. Every Month. Forever. That’s $840 a year savings by cutting out hundreds of channels you don’t need (we won’t even get into the time suck that cable is). That’s puts you in a nice interior cabin of a very nice cruise ship that’s setting sail for the sunny Bahamas about this time next year. Can you hear the ship’s horn biding farewell to all the broke people who are stuck in their homes watch reruns of “MASH”?
So be brave today. Take back your life and your money and say “sayonara sucker” to the cable company. Tell them to take back their “bundle” of junk and have them hand you back your bundle of cash. And the best part; you won’t regret it for a minute. There are MUCH easier ways to watch your favorite shows and movies, and they won’t affect your budget in the slightest. And while you are enjoying life free from the grips of your local cable company, rest east at night knowing you are going on a sunny Bahaman cruise less than a year from now…
Comments: Have you “cut the cable”? If not, what channels can you not live without, and have you checked to see if you can watch those shows using another, cheaper service? And, be honest, how many of you have watched the entire Chuck Norris total gym infomercial? Be honest now…
We definitely put our cable savings toward travel! I have never paid for cable or home phone and I convinced my husband to cancel his cable when I moved in after we got married. We rely on over-the-air TV (*gasp* what? yes! it still exists! and it’s extremely high-resolution!), Netflix, Hulu, and ESPN3 for our TV-related entertainment. Honestly we can watch almost every sporting event we want and for the few that are blocked locally we can score an invite to a friend-with-cable’s house (because we invite them over to watch other games). It’s working for us for sure. And I’m pumped because when we moved last month we found out our internet price went from $58 to $38 (we have never been successful in negotiating the price – we only buy the one service and the company has a monopoly so they have no incentive to give us a lower price).
Well done. You guys are media super stars and saving a ton of cash to boot! I totally forgot about the sports crowd, but you’ve addressed that issue here.
We also have an antenna for HD local channels, and it’s great!
I should have said we use ESPN3.com. As far as my husband has been able to find you cannot buy a-la-carte sports programming, but we get some for free because we are students.
Ahhh, gotcha. Good to know.
I wont do it, sorry. We enjoy our cable and our home phone gets much better reception than our cell phones. I will be going on a cruise later this year anyway and don’t think 840 would cover everything but it’d be close. I will let you know after I get back.
We just booked a cruise and it was $840 for 3 passengers. You should make sure you’re getting the best deal.
Also, I would like to know what you watch on TV, because there’s most likely (not always) a better/cheaper options for your media consumption! Just check out Emily’s response, she’s rockin’ it!
The cruise plus taxes and gratuity for 2 was around 700. That doesn’t count gas to get to port and parking when we get there or any excursion, spending or drinking money. Base prices on cruises are great it is all the extras and forced extras that cost you.
As far as what we watch there is a great variety. My girlfriend loves discovery health as a nurse. I could watch t on my laptop but I rather watch it on my HDTV. It is just an entertainment service I am willing to pay for as we don’t spend a ton on other entertainment.
Ok, gotcha. Yea, we’ll probably spend more on excursions, gas, etc. We’ll be in a rental car, so no parking costs.
Sounds like you are using cable for all it’s worth, so no issue here. You’re spending in your priorities, which is something I encourage all the time. I just find that most people I’ve met pay WAY TOO MUCH for cable and a phone they don’t use. I’ve had family who paid $200 a month for all this extra programming and junk they got talked in to, even paying for HD, and they didn’t even have an HDTV.
I haven’t had cable for 4 years and it’s been wonderful. 🙂
It really does just depend on the person. We pay $120 a month after taxes for everything. For a while last year we were only paying $88 a month but the deal ran out. I expected in 3-6 months I should be able to get another deeper discount to drive it below $100 a month again.
$88 isn’t too bad after taxes and stuff.
My question is this; With hulu plus and netflix, can you get current seasons of premium channel shows from showtime, hbo, etc? I admit we are tv watchers and we really enjoy watching the current seasons as they aire or “ondemand” with cable.
Homeland was one of our favorites.
For us expats a smart DNS (about 5€ a month) along with Apple TV is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Love Hulu, rather surprisingly it accepted our German CC. The other advantage to a smart DNS is you can watch BBC iplayer, commercial free TV.
TV apps are hit and miss, NBC won’t mirror and CBS won’t go full screen. But it’s more or less free so I’m not complaining. The only thing I can’t seem to get is such like history or discovery.
Oh and our phone was part of our internet but I do pay an extra 3€ a month for free phone calls to Europe Canada and the US.
Germany like the UK has a TV tax, about 20 a month, but offers free over the air channels.
We haven’t had cable in about 2 years and we’ve even gone without internet on our phones for that long as well. I love the savings and I’m not sure if we’ll ever get cable back. It wastes so much time, but I’d really like to be able to watch college basketball. I also enjoy the House Hunter’s shows but I can do without.
HGTV is the only thing we enjoyed on cable, but I bet HULU Plus or Netflix or some other service offers it. Also, you can subscribe to ESPN for whichever sport you enjoy I believe and watch without buying an entire cable package.
Cutting cable and home phone were two of the first things that we did when we started our debt free journey. And now that we can technically afford them again we still don’t want them. TV is outrageously expensive and usually a waste of time to watch. Home phone service was just annoying because we only got calls from telemarketers! Money in the bank! Woot!
Keep on ballin’ harder than Lebron!
I’d be all over this money saving strategy if it weren’t for my sports obsession. I think there’s just too much money involved in tv advertising for sports for it to be feasible to put on the internet. I suspect advertisers just aren’t willing to pay those high advertising prices on the internet feeds. The home phone bundle is especially annoying. I went for that just because it was cheaper with than without. The catch is that I have to remember to call them once that promo expires so they don’t start charging me extra for that home phone line.
Do you watch sports year-round? I think ESPN offers a per-sport package that you can order instead of paying for outrageously expensive cable year-round. Just a thought. I haven’t looked much into the sports options (too busy to watch), but I know you can get them individually. Maybe just get cable during the sports season(s) you enjoy?
We still have cable. It’s one thing that we don’t want to go without and enjoy. Maybe one day we will switch to hulu!
I’d give HULU/Netflix a shot if you want to go on a cruise next September. 😉
We still have cable, mostly for HBO and live sports. I can see the appeal of getting rid of cable, but sooner or later all those “free” programs are going to need revenue. So instead of paying Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, etc, you will probably just have to pay a subscription to NBC.com or pay per show (iTunes model). This may or may not end up being cheaper than cable. There is also a chance the cable providers will charge more for high speed internet (for those without a cable package) or put data caps on your connection making it impossible to stream as many shows as you would like (see cellular phones). I can’t say these changes are coming, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they did.
In the end I applaud those who can cut ties with the cable company and thank them, because they will probably bring about long needed change, like ala carte channel options on cable!
A La Carte channel options would be best. Then you are only paying for what you want, and the crappy channels would not survive!
We use a combination of hulu and Netflix and free TV with a digital antenna but during football season…there’s just no good options!
It’s better than paying for it all year. I think just signing up during sports seasons is acceptable for the die-hard fans. Plus, you get the “new promotional sign up rate”. Lol.
We still have cable, home phone, internet and a cell phone for a whopping $144 a month total with taxes. That took some negotiating but it works for us. Not sure what we will do next year but we certainly won’t miss the home phone that’s for sure. Mr.CBB
That’s not bad at all. Do you have data plans on the cell phones?
We never had any cords to cut, so I guess we lose out on the bahamas vacation giveaway =)
I briefly had a tv that was a gift, but used an antenna to get fuzzy local channels. Now we pay $13/month for internet (an amazing deal that I keep waiting for our ISP to realize and jack up!) and have no home phone. We pay for premium Hulu so I can watch on my iPad whenever.
Total for internet and Hulu – about $22/month.
Well done! Treat yourself to a great cruise, you deserve it. (p.s. there are some great deals for cruises in November…)
I can’t agree more. Home phones are obsolete in an era of cell phones. Cable is overrated: who has the time to watch all those channels and commercials? I always sign up for a basic package, and, if I need more, I just rent a movie or go online to get more info, movies etc. I would also add to your list: cut the internet access on you cell phone. Do you really need it if you already have internet at home and at work? When are you going to use it – while you are driving?
I agree! We do have data, but it’s discounted through my work. I don’t pay for mine at all, and my wife’s is half price. But paying $60+ a month for data on your phone is out of this world expensive!
We cut our cable I think in June and haven’t even noticed the difference. We rarely watched it and Netflix is amazing. Plus I definitely do find that I go outside more or want to be social more because I don’t have the TV seducing me to watch just one more hour.
Cutting the cable makes the world a better place. More sociable, more active and less zombified!
I haven’t had a home phone for a long time and I’ve usually gone without cable as well. Once I’m living in my van full-time they won’t even be options.
Welp, this is a non-issue for you then 🙂
I looked into cutting cable about a year ago, but I just couldn’t give up my sports. There are a lot of games on local broadcast channels, but many of the games I enjoy are on cable. I looked into cutting the cable and just subscribing to the internet but my local cable company jacks up internet prices when you don’t bundle. It’s almost “cheaper” to have cable and internet than just internet.
My simple solution to that is just sign up for internet only at a promotional price, and when the promotion ends, call up and “cancel” your service. You’ll get forwarded to their customer retention program and get another promotional price. Worked like a charm for 4 years until I decided to just get a lower speed and be done with it.
I’ve but cable earlier this year. I used to pay insane $130 due to tennis channel. I also got rid of land line over a year ago since we are using cell phones. Hulu is great, but I also use Roku.
I agree that with Internet(not invented by Al Gore), you don’t need cable. Only problem is that I now have 7 flat TV sets. It’s time to sell them on eBay. 🙂
Roku is a great option as well. I don’t have a media box yet, but might take the leap soon.
And 7 flat-screen TV’s! Whoa. You must not have wanted to miss a minute of tennis!
We got rid of the landline a couple of years ago and have not missed it once. Between my husband and I, we attended four separate universities (we have lots of degrees!) so all we got were calls from our alma matters asking for money, during dinner to boot! We have made so many changes to our spending in the last couple of years, it is amazing, but I can’t get him to give up the satellite TV. He would die without Monday night football and all the other sports. We also like the shows on the history channel and HGTV. We did look for a better deal last year, and saved about $30 a month by switching companies. Give me another year and I bet I can convince him. There have to be other options to find these shows or we should just give them up, but sometimes mindless TV is a joy after a hard day.
TV is hard to give up if you’ve gotten into a routine and have favorite shows that you can’t find online. I would just talk about all the shows you both love and see if there are other options. As for sports, just get cable during football season and cancel when it’s over 🙂
Would you believe me if I said we actually need cable…haha. Hubby is a (successful) blogger on a large network and blogs for an NHL team so we literally need cable so he can watch the games and newsfeeds he needs in order to fulfill his blogs contractual agreement! If it wasn’t for sports we wouldn’t have it. Between the internet and netflix it’s too easy to get what you want for free! The only reason we have a landline is for security. We were hit pretty hard with a hurricane a few years ago and had no power for 10days (some parts of the city were over 2 weeks)…reaching people via cellphone was a nightmare but we could call family/friends who had landlines. We pay less than 10/month for the phone though. I wonder how long cable companies will continue to get away with outrageous prices though!
Haha, nice, it’s a business expense! And scary about the weather. Sounds like it’s more of an insurance cost than a convenience.
We did a home phone through our internet for a while. It was $15 a month. Then the company went out of business. We tried a new company, but the service was always down and dropping our calls. We have been only using cell phones for the last few years, but at some point, we will probably get a land line again and for the one reason you probably didn’t consider. At some point, we are going to leave our children alone at home and I want them to have a reliable phone not dependent on the charge of the battery.
We’ve never done cable and never will. We waste to much time on the TV when its available. Also, I hate paying $100 a month for like two channels that I’d watch (discovery and USA if you must know).
Good call! I definitely didn’t think of that! Our kid is only 8 months old, so we’re not leaving him home just yet.
We do not have cable in our house either but we still have the telephone. I was thinking of cutting it but we still need it as it is connected in the front gate of our apartment.
Ahh, so it’s a house accessory and part of the security system. Sounds like you definitely still need it. Unless you are a hermit and don’t want any visitors ever.
I can’t do it! I loves me cable! But I’ve got my fingers crossed for Google TV or iTV. As soon as you get local channels in real time, Comcast is forever gone!
I’m already am down with Redbox. All they need to do is figure out how to stream it to my TV and it will be perfect.
Uncle Joey is awesome!
Redbox streaming would be awesome….but then it would just be Netflix…
Once you can choose your cable channels, life will be much better, all wars will stop, and the world will be at peace forever…..or something.
Satisfaction is the best that the cable company can offer… if not? It’s time to cut the cable but not the phone, that’s very essential to a home.
I finally cut the cable, but ditching the home phone strangely enough is scary to me. I run a business out of my home and have an assistant in the basement who answers the phone. SHould I try vonage instead?
If it’s a business expense, don’t need to cut it. I just hate seeing others with a personal home phone to “save” money with their “bundle”
But I do hear good things about vonage, like being able to set up a toll-free number and super cheap monthly rates…
I feel like Roku is actually following on the footsteps of the Magic Jack simply that it manages movies. To allow the organization to thrive they need to promote their devices plus they must definitely continuously upgrade their service, the problem with this is the fact that as they improve their servies a lot of the older units may not be compatiable which could make you buy a another one. you understand how the business runs currently. All round the unit and service is amazing.
This is our top project for the year – cutting out cable (I love the Uncle Joey reference). We have a 7 year old son and for some reason thought we needed cable for him. We have been trying out Netflix and HULU plus and LOVE both. I hate that it has taken us so long to get to this place, but at least we are there. 🙂
Here in the UK, internet is generally far cheaper than you seem to pay “across the pond” so the potential savings are even greater.
Personally I rarely watch “normal” TV. The BBC is available online. We also have Netflix (though the selection of programs is pretty poor so we may be cancelling this shortly). We also have LoveFilm (an Amazon company) that offers DVD rental by post and also an online Netflix-clone with different programs.
We access all three services via our X-Box for all sorts of on-demand TV. No expensive cable or satellite subscriptions here.
And to save even more money, in the summer months where we’re more often out enjoying ourselves than sitting infront of the TV we put these services on hold for severa months where we’ll rarely be using them.
Get a smart DNS than you can access US based streaming services, way way better
I have cable, only because it’s included in our rent. Our landlord also has all the special channels so we can catch movies if something interesting is on. It’s convenient right now, but I would never pay for it myself. When we move we are probably going to use Hulu the most to catch up on shows. Half the time we don’t watch them live anyway, we use the free on demand option to watch them.
I’m what you’d call a ‘cable never’ or ‘cord never’.
I think I’ve had cable twice briefly in my life: once at my parent’s for a couple years growing up, and once when my girlfriend insisted.
I have to say, beyond the cost savings, I’d never want to have cable again. I feel like I hardly have enough time in the day anyway, I can’t imagine filling what little extra time I have with TV. When you have it you can’t imagine living without it – what would you do without all those entertainment options! – but as soon as you cut it you’ll realize it was just another tine waster, and missing a few episodes of Myth Busters is a small price to pay.
We have never had cable. We use over the air (gasp!), and Netflix streaming. It is kind of a bummer some days when we want to watch sports that aren’t on network TV, but we live. Also the Bahamas sounds lovely :).
We have cable (but only because bf pays for it). I never had cable when I was living on my own and never really missed or wanted it. There are only a few shows that I really care about (mostly stuff on HGTV and the food network-I suspect they are online too and I could watch them for free).
I haven’t had cable in so long I wouldn’t know how to behave if I had it! Every time I travel and stay at a place with cable t.v. I find myself super overwhelmed by all of the choices. I like my free t.v.
Wow, it’s been years since I’ve had cable and I’ve never had a home phone in my adult life. I’m always amazed when people still have both with all the other (cheaper!) options available. Old school!
I do enjoy cable when visiting my Dad or a hotel though :). So. many. options.
Not sure I can give up my Sixers and Phillies but the rest of the crap I would drop in heartbeat if it would save money. Not sure my wife sees it that way, however. But you do make some solid points here. Thanks.
Here is one that is not often discussed, so I will let your readers in on a huge discount when it comes to watching Satellite. This way they can cut cable, cut Dish, cut Direct TV and still watch Satellite. How???? Free to Air Satellite, buy and dish and buy a box that it. After that it’s free. Having someone install it might cost 100, Dish 100 Box 200. For 400 dollars free Satellite for life. No you won’t have some of the premium channels, but who cares, you won’t have the bill coming in every month either. What you will have are too many channels to choose from for free. Check it out: http://www.geosats.com/freetoair.html
We cut the cable a few months ago and installed an HD antenna. It does everything we need it to do, like allow us to watch a few football games. We reduced our home phone, but because my husband works from home, we kept a basic service for clients. However, we did switch our cell phones to Ting a few months ago and it is super cheap! We’re only spending $30 a month for TWO phones. It’s awesome!
We’re huge fans of our Roku box. That thing’s awesome for $100. Google Chromecast doesn’t work well for us because we have most an Apple household. Until they play nicely together, Chromecast isn’t going to work for me.
I already said goodbye to my cable and home phone last year. Not only did we save a couple of bucks, which we put into paying our debt, but we also spend more quality time with each together without the television.
I am waiting for my contract to expire so I don’t have to pay a penalty. Then I will be cutting the cable. We never watch it. I grew up without it, I didn’t have it when I lived alone, and I actually only had it (before now) in my early adulthood when I lived with roommates and it was split three or four ways (depending on the number of roommates I had at a given time). Internet is all I need!
We cut the home phone about 8 years ago, but we still have cable. We were looking into cancelling it this year – still looking at our options with sports and HGTV. Also may keep it until our roommates move out since it keeps them busy.
Have I “cut the cable?” Yes, I cut my cable a few months ago 🙂 I don’t have a home phone either. I use the internet to watch TV or I use a Blu-Ray player to watch TV or movies that are free. My cel phone is my only phone.
A 4 day cruise? really? sounds amazing!
thanks!
Alisa
I badly want to cut the cable in my house, but we haven’t made the jump yet. The wife still enjoys a few shows that aren’t available on hulu or netflix (or Amazon), and I still enjoy watching sports.
The phone thing on the other hand.. Yes, that needs to go. However, the cable company recently told me that my bill would go UP if I dropped the phone service. Apparently there is some bundle discount or something… Very strange indeed.
I have been going back and forth for the past month about weather or not to get rid of my cable because …well your right. they say they are giving you 300 hundreds channels but what they don’t tell you is that after the first 50 they just repeat over and over! The home phone is a different story. I spend a lot of time at home but I also don’t have a cell phone. So maybe I should just look into that
I am always shocked when people still have a home phone. There are a million excuses that people use to justify it too, but really they are afraid of the change of NOT having one!
Having a cable and home phone are the most impractical connection anyone could have. It surely can be cut and can be replaced by internet.
Cut the “cord” years ago;
Went from $150/month to:
Internet+Basic Cable+Antenna = $48/month
Hulu+Netflix=$16/Month
Also, on the wireless phone front (with no loss in coverage);
Went from Sprint $160/month to:
Ting=$50(“good” month) or $90(“bad” month)
Averaging almost $100/month savings with no loss of data/messaging/minutes
Love when technology can be used to save the big bucks!
Finally technology doing what it should have done decades ago, save us hundreds per month! 🙂
Nice work, John!
What about keeping your home phone for 911 service to your residence, just in case? That is the only reason we are keeping our home phone.
The main reason I keep my house phone is for new accounts and services we want, plus our old services (utilities, mortgage) that we set up years ago. We rarely answer that phone but do occasionally check the messages. The people we want to talk to call our cell phones. It’s a good way to give out a valid phone number and I won’t be getting spammers on my cell phone. We were thinking about unplugging our house phone and still keeping the number to give out. No annoying ringing phones that we aren’t going to answer anyway. The phone costs about $20 (need to confirm) Hate cable TV, are close to cancelling now. Just got a pay as you go phone because we only use it for a phone. $120/mo bill gone!
We live in a rural area and we have a young child, so a home phone is a necessity. We need to be able to call for emergency services and our cell phone service is not reliable. Also, one thing I learned from living through hurricanes is that phone lines rarely go out in a storm, whereas electricity, cable, cell towers, etc. all do.
So, we have a home phone with free, unlimited long distance for $50/month. We have a prepaid cell ($30) in one car and onstar ($20) in the car that has the car seat.
Karlyn, you are definitely in a circumstance that involves the safety of your family tied into a land line. You can’t compromise that! So good call on keeping it around.
That being said, not sure about the On-Star service as a “requirement”, but if you have the excess cash to do it, $20 a month won’t kill you.
We got rid of our land line a few years ago, but we still have cable tv/internet. My husband is a BIG sports fan and refuses to give up cable as I’ve not found any other way for him to watch the games. His biggest interests are football, basketball, and baseball; occasionally some hockey.
If anyone knows of a reliable way to watch the games other than on cable, in the northeast, please let me know.
Thanks!
I cancelled direcTV in 2010 and started streaming for my entertainment. Watching HD is a pain because the fastest internet available here is the slowest DSL. There are no cable TV wires within 5 miles. I still have a land line phone because there is no cell reception at my house. I save money on the phone by using google voice for outgoing toll calls and my cell phone is a cheap tracfone. I’m shocked by how much some people pay for cell service. $80/month for unlimited talk and limited data. I buy a 60 minute tracfone card every three months for $20 and I only use 15-20 minutes.
I haven’t used a regular phone in so long I am not sure I would know how to operate it. They should be put in museums
I’m pretty sure that’s already happened, lol.
http://thetelephonemuseum.org/