I am trying to budget down. I have had the same plans for a while. I’m paying about $190 for TV, internet, and landline, and about $90 for cellphone. I think my contracts are expired.
Verizon says my plans will be just as good as I have now, can do Cell, Landline, and internet for @$120 including taxes. That would leave TV. Can I get a net service to see basic cable, and get it onto my living room set? Which one is best?
Anyone done any comparisons for this stuff and found they were happy with what they found?
Also I keep getting notices that I can change my electric provider but I haven’t had the time to try to understand this. Anyone have experience in this here?
Cut your cable service to just Internet (24mbps unless there’s a good deal on 10-15).
Get Vonage for your landline, the 400 minute plan is about $13/mo.
Get a cheap Roku for video. Depending on what subscription services you get, that triad should get under $100… and a modest streaming budget goes a long ways.
The question is what do you want to see? Is it important to have HBO or ESPN or another channel? The right service will be the one that has the channels or programs you want.
I got one and ended up returning it. It needed to be power-cycled to work. I was attempting to use it with Google Voice. Perhaps they have improved from a few years ago?
Some alarm systems can be monitored over a cellular connection. Sending and receiving faxes is an obsolete technology. As for the quality of landline phone service, I know that’s true for POTS lines, but the discussion here has been about what form of VOIP service (Vonage, Ooma, etc) to use. I think those types of services have quality issues. And you can and should certainly register the location of your VOIP phone (and your cellphone, if necessary) with the emergency services.
If your cable/internet/phone bill is anything like mine, the TV is the largest portion of that. The landline ends up being just about free. So look at what you really need. Would you be happy with basic cable, an over the air antenna (no monthly fee) and something like Netflix or Amazon Prime for videos?
And as for VOIP quality? It’s still much better than a cell line.
Even more basic utility costs can be reduced at your own hand by controlling electricity vampires that draw when not in use; use power strips for your devices that don’t need to be on 24/7 or when you’re not home. When not in use, my TV, modem, printer and laptop strips are turned off. Same goes for appliances - the breakers for my oven and dryer are only flipped on when I need to use them (and I hand most things to dry anyway here in 0% humidity Utah). To avoid potentially damaging the oven, I turn it off before flipping the breaker.
Lastly, my gas furnace has an electric switch so when I’m not home the thermostat gets turned down to 60 for the duration (this reduces my gas bill as well). I have an 1800 sq ft home and have managed to average 6 kwh/day some summers; my electric bill is currently $26.
My most expensive utility is one I can’t reduce and still live here; city trash, sewer and water costs about $75/month year-round.
I have an OTA digital antenna and watch most things on the internet.
Refuse to pay administrative costs. Stop getting paper statements, if they charge extra for them.
I recently discovered that my electric company is charging me a flat $5 fee every month, for paying by credit card. Which most months is more than 5% of my bill. So I’m looking around for a new provider.
If you scrutinize all your utility bills for sneaky charges, it probably adds up to over $100 a year. Generally they just round it up to the nearest $5 flat fee. In other words, 15-cents is rounded off to $5. Phone them ans say they have lots of competitors who are soliciting your business, and ask to have the charges waived.
The biggest waster of money is you and your family. Turn things off when you don’t need them, turn the heating down a couple of degrees and wear a sweater, or turn the a/c up and open a window (where practicable). Replace incandescent bulbs with LED’s as and when they need replacing.
I don’t much care for the Ooma/MagicJack model. Yes, it works, but it long ago had to drop the “buy the box, free phone calls forever” model when they were forced to account for things like e911 surcharges etc. So you pay quite a bit for the box and then still have $4-5 overhead each month (and just the hassle of another bill to pay). I also question how well they support the existing base when their revenue is entirely dependent on new sales. A model like Vonage or Broadcom is more honest; they give you the cheap box and offer a huge array of very reasonable plans, all with an exceptional range of features and services. They are bound to keep up the service and quality or people (who have zero investment in their box or service) will move on.
As for cable bundles, ain’t nothin’ free. Quit playing games with teaser rates and bundles and shell games that eventually bite you in the ass when the rates go up, and reduce your services to one good, stable net connection. Then you’re free to hop landline providers and build your own video entertainment list at whatever flexible cost you care to pay - which can be zero.
As for being frugal around the house, only the most profligate households have much room to save by turning down thermostats and the like. There’s a zone between some kind of maximum savings and some kind of minimum comfort and hassle, and a few dollars a month “wasted” not frantically saving every last drop of hot water and hour of heating is worth it to most folks. But yes, your goal should be only essential and irreplaceable incandescent lighting, with LED preferred and CFL/fluorescent where necessary.
Another good reason to get rid of your cable box or DVR, by the way, is that most models draw 60-150 watts. 24/7/365. So switching to all LED lighting will only mean you spend more each month - $10-15 - to keep your box powered than you do to light your house. Chuck the inefficient sucker.
I get FX and AMC for basic cable now. I could give those up if needed. I don’t want HBO or any premium service. Just want access to news channels and maybe my AMC and FX, basic cable.
There are three kinds of phone service: copper-wire (old school), cellular, and VoIP. All phone service provided by cable companies is VoIP - IP telephony, data telephony, digital telephony. Unlike the bond between AT&T or the local phone provider and your copper phone wires, VoIP is a net service that can be provided by anyone anywhere on the net. So you can tell Comcast to stuff their $30/month/line rate (which is set at that because its what AT&T gets for copper) and go with another provider of your choice. I recommend Vonage from long experience and research, but they’re hardly the only one. (I just think they are the best for new converts needing an easy to use service with a ton of features at a reasonable cost.)
And yes. Dump all bundled services and get the best deal on 24-25mbps internet you can find. It might even be an internet-only provider in your area, although competition has reduced most areas to a couple of cable companies.
I’ve been giving an enormously popular “Cut the Cord” seminar for several months now, and am booked through the year for over a dozen more around the state. It’s a good time to get rid of “cable” and bundles and excess costs and bring it all into a model that gives you more control over cost and selection.
And don’t forget OTA TV - use the FCC site to see how many strong channels you should be able to receive. It’s free and true HD, even though almost everyone has forgotten about broadcast channels.
I think those shows are available to stream via Hulu, but you should verify that. As for new channels, you should be able to stream CNN or the news programs from one of the big four broadcast networks.