Cable, Phone and Internet Bill PLUS Cell Phone Bills

[brunette8706]

Hey all!

We currently have Verizon and pay about $155.00 per month for this bundled service. Yes, we get SHOW time and a few other movies and the DVR which is extra.

Then my DH has Sprint Cell phone bill is $90.00 for everything internet, texting etc. I have ATT cost is $62.00 which includes a very small data plan, and 200 texts a month.

That's $307.00 a month! Any suggestions on what to do to CUT COSTS!!! lol!

Thanks so much!

Brunette

 

[RachelsMommie]

We cut our cable back and signed up with Dish, which was $38/month the first year, and is now $54/month.
We dumped our home phone in favor of the Ooma device. So our AT&T internet bill is $22/month and Ooma charges $3/month for 911 taxes for our phone.
We just went to smartphones with Sprint for $145/month for the two of us. We were paying $95/month for talk/text, but decided to make the switch this month when our old phones died. That's with an employer 22% discount but unlimited data/text.
So our total is now $224/month.

Look at cutting your cable package. Also, can you be added to your DH's Sprint account to save money over what you are paying for your separate cell package?

 

[RachelsMommie]

We cut our cable back and signed up with Dish, which was $38/month the first year, and is now $54/month.
We dumped our home phone in favor of the Ooma device. So our AT&T internet bill is $22/month and Ooma charges $3/month for 911 taxes for our phone.
We just went to smartphones with Sprint for $145/month for the two of us. We were paying $95/month for talk/text, but decided to make the switch this month when our old phones died. That's with an employer 22% discount but unlimited data/text.
So our total is now $224/month.

Look at cutting your cable package. Also, can you be added to your DH's Sprint account to save money over what you are paying for your separate cell package?

 

[brunette8706]

We cut our cable back and signed up with Dish, which was $38/month the first year, and is now $54/month.
We dumped our home phone in favor of the Ooma device. So our AT&T internet bill is $22/month and Ooma charges $3/month for 911 taxes for our phone.
We just went to smartphones with Sprint for $145/month for the two of us. We were paying $95/month for talk/text, but decided to make the switch this month when our old phones died. That's with an employer 22% discount but unlimited data/text.
So our total is now $224/month.

Look at cutting your cable package. Also, can you be added to your DH's Sprint account to save money over what you are paying for your separate cell package?

*
Hi! thanks for all the tips. Now what exactly is Ooma? Never heard of that. Instead of going on my DH's sprint cell phone service, I may just get a track phone that includes the data and texting. I also may change to the Dish that sounds so much more reasonable. I just hate paying $155.00 a month for cable.

 

[RachelsMommie]

Ooma is a device that allows you to use your internet connection for home phone service. www.ooma.com will give you an idea of what it is. I found our Ooma on woot.com for $139. The voice quality is good, and we kept our phone number. You just pay taxes (ours are around $3/month). It's just a Voice over IP encoder/decoder device. Similar to Magic Jack, but higher quality.

 

[brunette8706]

Ooma is a device that allows you to use your internet connection for home phone service. www.ooma.com will give you an idea of what it is. I found our Ooma on woot.com for $139. The voice quality is good, and we kept our phone number. You just pay taxes (ours are around $3/month). It's just a Voice over IP encoder/decoder device. Similar to Magic Jack, but higher quality.

*
Oh cool! Thanks Kristi! I definitely have to look into this! Sounds great!

 

[jrw118]

*
Oh cool! Thanks Kristi! I definitely have to look into this! Sounds great!

We also have ooma. I bought it at Costco for $189. I also like it and my bill is also around $3 a month

 

[kelleyrn2000]

We use Dish for about $45 a month, internet is $30 a month. We have TMobile family which is $60 for three phones but MIL pays $20 for her share, so we are only out $40. We have unlimited text and then a certain amount of minutes to share between us...we text most often so that works for us!

Then we have a basic landline that is $15.00 per month. Our TMobile doesn't have data but both our Smartphones have WiFi so we can use them at home, work,etc if we want internet on them without paying the fees.

So our total is $130 for all. It will be another $10 if we add one of our kids on our phone plan, but so far we aren't at that point yet. Kids right now are just texting and calling their friends from home using our Wi-Fi and their ipods (TextFree with voice).

 

[brymolmom]

We got rid of cable entirely - spent about $600 for an antenna and a computer with Windows Media to hook up to it - and have saved a ton by now. LOVE IT! We only pay $10 a month on Netflix right now.

Another thought is to figure out what you use a data plan for with a phone. I know many of my friends only use the data piece for Facebook/twitter updates and Words with Friends - which, while fun, isn't worth $150 a month for me at least. Obviously both these things can just be used on a computer or itouch at home.

 

[robinb]

Hey all!

We currently have Verizon and pay about $155.00 per month for this bundled service. Yes, we get SHOW time and a few other movies and the DVR which is extra.

Then my DH has Sprint Cell phone bill is $90.00 for everything internet, texting etc. I have ATT cost is $62.00 which includes a very small data plan, and 200 texts a month.

That's $307.00 a month! Any suggestions on what to do to CUT COSTS!!! lol!

Thanks so much!

Brunette

Can you combine your two cell phone plans into a family plan? I assume that you can combine the two for less than $152 for both of you. If you are considering going to a PAYG plan for yourself, look at Page Plus Cellular. Their Talk N Text 1200 has 1,200 Minutes / 3,000 SMS/MMS / 100 MB Data for about $30 per month.

 

[StephMK]

We pay $60 a month for directv on 2 TVs, 1 DVR expanded channels but no movies. $30 for basic home phone though about half of this is taxes and I'm looking to switch to something cheaper. Internet is $25 a month and we have tracfones - about $15 a month total for 3 phones, we up minutes every few months. Also check into gophones, they have some decent packages if you have to have internet.

So we pay about $130 but no bells/whistles.

 

[Cynt]

Last month I realized how much I was paying and I've started taking steps to reduce it.

Directv - $85, now $44 changed to family plan
ATT home phone - $34
ATT internet uverse - $41
ATT cell - $80
Total $240
Now $199

Goal save 25% = $180. I'm almost there.

This is my 2nd week w/ the DTV family plan. I'm getting use to it. But all I watched b4 was hgtv, food, usa, tbn, tbs, lifetime and LMN and my local channels. I still have hgtv, food and diy so I'm good. I miss Lifetime and LMN. I'm a basketball nut so I had to have my espn and sports pkg during basketball season. LOL! So I'm thinking Jan-March get the 150 channel pkg plus sports pkg because you can't get the sports pkg with the family plan. HA! O and the family pkg doesn't include ABCFAMILY channel. What the world!?!?! LOL!!

My next step is reducing my cell phone plan. I have a samsung strive nothing fancy. I have 900 minutes plus $30 unlimited text/data. I'm really considering dumping my cell phone. I know sounds crazy but now that I have my kindle fire I use it for eveything. I mainly use my phone to text and surf the net when I'm bored or waiting in line. I can get unlimited calls and long distance on my home phone for $40/month plus taxes. I'm on the phone all day at work so I don't make many calls. I'm really thinking about it. My 2 yr contract ends this month. So I know I'm not signing another contract or upgrading my phone. The only reason I'll keep my phone is because they don't consider my phone a smartphone. So I can keep my $30 unlimited text/data w/out having to get that new data plan that they are rolling out.

I have to keep my home phone in order to get internet. So i'm stuck with these two bills. My kindle fire runs pretty fast so I'm thinking about downgrading my internet service and see what happens w/ my KF speed. I use it to surf, read and play games.

Hope this helps.

 

[tasha99]

I pay $155 for Verizon (4 phones with unlimited texting and 1400 minutes)
Tivo: $20
Internet: $70
Cable: $100 (does have HBO and Starz/Encore)
Netflix: $8

I would like to cut the cable down, but I love HBO. Even if I drop Starz, it won't go down much. I think after the Tivo commitment is over, I might try switching, but satellite is a big deal up here--bigger dishes that have to be pointed differently, so I doubt my landlord would be happy.

Cutting cable in the summer seems reasonable, but in the winter, it is so nice to have something on when it's 10 below and getting dark at 3. I wish our Internet wasn't capped, but we get close to our limit even with cable. If we dropped it, we'd end up with overages.

 

[momof3ds]

Switch to a family plan for cell phones.

drop the home phone.

We are using dish now and planning on dropping it altogether when our contract is up and going with services such as netflix and hulu plus which will cost about 20 a month. Add in 10 dollars a month for movie rentals and we will be saving about 100 a month.

 

[Nayan]

We got rid of cable entirely - spent about $600 for an antenna and a computer with Windows Media to hook up to it - and have saved a ton by now. LOVE IT! We only pay $10 a month on Netflix right now.

Another thought is to figure out what you use a data plan for with a phone. I know many of my friends only use the data piece for Facebook/twitter updates and Words with Friends - which, while fun, isn't worth $150 a month for me at least. Obviously both these things can just be used on a computer or itouch at home.

While putting up an antenna will work for quite a few folks, not everyone can get OTA channels. Buildings, trees, hills, valleys, etc. can make it where no matter how big/strong an antenna is you're not going to receive anything, so keep where you live in mind if you want to try and go this route.

I spend only about $130/month. My internet is a big chunk of that and I have paygo phones from AT&T and only spend $100 a year on them.

 

[mrodgers]

Direct TV is $85 with DVR on 1 TV and regular receiver on 2nd TV.

Phone is about $85 ($59 plus fees and taxes) that includes 10mb internet.

Cell phones is 2 ATT Android Gophones, $10 each and a Tracfone that use to be on a $10 monthly plan, but since getting a new debit card from fraud right at renewal time, we were kicked off. That's just the 11 yr old's phone, so just waiting for the time to run out, which is in June or July.

Waiting to upgrade big tube televisions to flatscreens before messing around with the satellite. We will probably have to switch to Dish Network because I always have a hassle when calling them. They won't do anything until we cancel, then they will bend over backwards to keep us even though we have already signed up with the other company. I'm not paying several $100 to switch to HD receivers when they are rented equipment when we go flatscreen. Had to do that with Dish years ago because they wanted $700 for receivers to get the 50% programing we paid for, but didn't get from old equipment.

 

[brymolmom]

While putting up an antenna will work for quite a few folks, not everyone can get OTA channels. Buildings, trees, hills, valleys, etc. can make it where no matter how big/strong an antenna is you're not going to receive anything, so keep where you live in mind if you want to try and go this route.

I spend only about $130/month. My internet is a big chunk of that and I have paygo phones from AT&T and only spend $100 a year on them.

True. But most people for whom an antenna won't work could get basic stations (network plus a couple) for about $10 - $15 a month to cover what the antenna would give you. At least you can do that here with Time Warner.

 

[nunzia]

Direct TV is $85 with DVR on 1 TV and regular receiver on 2nd TV.

Phone is about $85 ($59 plus fees and taxes) that includes 10mb internet.

Cell phones is 2 ATT Android Gophones, $10 each and a Tracfone that use to be on a $10 monthly plan, but since getting a new debit card from fraud right at renewal time, we were kicked off. That's just the 11 yr old's phone, so just waiting for the time to run out, which is in June or July.

Waiting to upgrade big tube televisions to flatscreens before messing around with the satellite. We will probably have to switch to Dish Network because I always have a hassle when calling them. They won't do anything until we cancel, then they will bend over backwards to keep us even though we have already signed up with the other company. I'm not paying several $100 to switch to HD receivers when they are rented equipment when we go flatscreen. Had to do that with Dish years ago because they wanted $700 for receivers to get the 50% programing we paid for, but didn't get from old equipment.

Exactly what happened to us..we had Direct for YEARS and just wanted to get DVR deal they offered to new subscribers but got blown off, so cancelled and signed up with Dish..now we get letters begging us to come back and they'll pay us to get out of our contract..Sure..then we'd have to deal with sending all the receivers back, etc. No thank you. Companies need to get a clue. Anyway..we pay:
Dish: $88 a month for 2 DVRs and service on three TVs
Century Link for landline and internet: 100 a month..I don't know if I could cancel the landline and still keep the internet, plus DH only has a Tracfone ($100 a year)
Verizon Cell : $42 a month with my daughter's plan...talk and text, no data

I don't really know that I could cut anything so am resigned