Saving $ on TV and cell - Verizon fios and wireless

Does anyone have some $$ saving ideas..currently my wireless is 186.00/mo for three phones and 3gb data. ( 2 Samsung galaxy 3 and 1 iPhone 5). My Verizon fios is 148/ mo for 5 tvs - am dropping two boxes for a savings of $17 mo. But all told at the end of the year I am spending $4000 on TVs and cell. Any ideas on how to reduce? Did anyone use this magic jack? My kids like nick and Disney and science shows. My husband CNN... ?

If I could shave off a a few hundred ....even a thousand if possible... I would love it!

I use Straighttalk and it's $50 a month for unlimited everything. I haven't had any issues with it in the year since I switched and I loved ditching the contract plans. I save $65 a month this way. My husband has a phone through work so I'm not sure what kinds of deals on multiple phones or family plans are out there with the prepaid plans. I feel like the prepaids have a bad, cheap reputation, but it's better than the years I was getting ripped off by AT&T!

As far as the tv goes, we ditched our satellite about a year ago as well. We now have a Roku box that we attach to the tv and do all of our navigating from. We mostly watch the wealth of shows/movies/documentaries on Netflix and Amazon Prime. The Roku has many many free apps so we also have access to some PBS shows, Disney, Disney Jr, Lifetime, SyFy, news channels, TED, Animal Planet, etc. We also listen to our Pandora and Spotify accounts on the tv sometimes, through Roku. If you know somebody who has HBO or Lifetime, you can put in their code to watch even more shows.

My dad actually has an Amazon Prime account that we watch things through. So, basically, we pay for Netflix streaming ~$9/month and paid a one time $100 for the Roku. You'd have to pay $100 for each tv that you wanted a Roku on. We actually minimized and dropped down to one tv when we made these changes. No more tv in our bedroom to focus on our relationship more and no tv in the kids room or our lounge-type room. Our lives have changed a lot and it's actually very nice. I know that not everybody has that desire though!

So we are paying about $60 a month for 1 cell phone and tv usage. That's a savings of about $200 a month over what we were doing before.

I also use ST ($41.25/month when you pay annually). Service is great. When I decide to add phones for my children, however, I will probably switch to Ting or Cricket Wireless because ST has no discount for more than one line. Prepaid phones work well if you don't want a new phone every two years. I still have an IPhone 4 and although I'd love a 6, I have better things to spend my money on.

Our 4 Cell phones are Republic Wireless. 2 phones with unlimited Talk and Text and WiFi Data and 2 phones with Unlimited Data, Talk and Text - $87 a month total for all four phones. We had to buy the phones however but we've had them for nearly 2 years now and they're still going strong.

TV is currently Direct TV, some package that has ESPN and CNN etc. I don't know much about what else. $55 a month We only have one tv hooked up in our family room. All other tvs (such as in the bedrooms) just have Roku, Blu-Ray players and other non-live tv options.

Internet is Comcast, the only high speed choice in our area. $61 a month.

Home phone is Google Voice. Free.

So ... ($87+$55+$61) = $203 a month
$2436 a year for phones, Internet, and TV.

RitaE said:

Our 4 Cell phones are Republic Wireless. 2 phones with unlimited Talk and Text and WiFi Data and 2 phones with Unlimited Data, Talk and Text - $87 a month total for all four phones. We had to buy the phones however but we've had them for nearly 2 years now and they're still going strong.

TV is currently Direct TV, some package that has ESPN and CNN etc. I don't know much about what else. $55 a month We only have one tv hooked up in our family room. All other tvs (such as in the bedrooms) just have Roku, Blu-Ray players and other non-live tv options.

Internet is Comcast, the only high speed choice in our area. $61 a month.

Home phone is Google Voice. Free.

So ... ($87+$55+$61) = $203 a month
$2436 a year for phones, Internet, and TV.

Click to expand...

Can you bring a Verizon Iphone to Republic Wireless? Trying to keep my options open for when I decide it's time for the chilren to have phones.

No, Republic Wireless has some proprietary firmware for WiFi Cel handoff and you have to use their phones. Right now they have 3 models - the Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E.
PagePlus and Ting I believe both offer service with Verizon phones. I'm not sure about Straight Talk.

But remember with these PrePaid plans the prices are generally per phone, not family packages. So it's more than possible for you to be with one company such as Republic Wireless and then use your old phones to buy your kids service with another company such as PagePlus. And you aren't committed to contracts either.

Okay. Page Plus was the company I was thinking of. Straight Talk does have BYOD and I think any IPhone works now (used to have to be AT&T).

I want prepaid that gives a discount per line. Ting and Cricket both do. I really like ST, but I don't want to pay $125/month for three phones.

RitaE said:

No, Republic Wireless has some proprietary firmware for WiFi Cel handoff and you have to use their phones. Right now they have 3 models - the Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E.
PagePlus and Ting I believe both offer service with Verizon phones. I'm not sure about Straight Talk.

But remember with these PrePaid plans the prices are generally per phone, not family packages. So it's more than possible for you to be with one company such as Republic Wireless and then use your old phones to buy your kids service with another company such as PagePlus. And you aren't committed to contracts either.

Click to expand...

No, you have to buy one of their phones (Motorola branded phones.)

The service uses Sprint and roams in Verizon.

I have Tivos and tivo minis. The one I have works on over the air OR cable. Right now I have cable TV and internet for $115/mo. That will go up to $150 after the promo period and I may drop the TV part at that point. We just added it a few months ago. Internet only was $70/mo.

$1,380 per year
($840 with internet only per year)

I have ATT family plan with bring your own phones. $160 for 4 phones and 1 tablet with 15gb data. DH's work pays for $60 of it.

$1,200 per year

So right now I am spending $2,580 per year.

If I drop TV, I will be spending $$2,200.

We just have a desktop computer connected to the tv (using the tv as a screen). We did invest in a good graphics card for the computer, but this way anything you can see on the internet, we can see on our tv. We have considered the SlingTV service; tried it out and liked it overall. It's no contract month by month livestreaming of about 20 cable channels for $20 a month (A&E, ABC family, AMC, Cartoon Network, CNN, Disney, ESPN, Food Network, TNT, HGTV, etc.). Works with computer, smartphone, roku, amazon fire stick.

As far as phone, we pay $250 a month for 5 smartphones with unlimited data/talk/text with Sprint. Just did a contract extension and upgraded our phones. It's a family plan, but not sure if it's still offered. We also get a 15% discount on top of that price because of our credit union. A lot of phone companies offer discounts because of banking membership, workplace affiliation, some club memberships, so you could always ask.

3 phones on a Cricket group plan is a total of $90/mo (including taxes) with 2.5GB of LTE data