Got rid of Cable; Now looking for a Cheap Cell Phone

[Emme]

Yup we did it. We got rid of cable and hooked up a good old fashioned TV antenna and saved ourselves about $75.00 a month. We get about 35 channels and we have not missed cable ONE BIT! One day we were looking through our 100 or so channels and realized there was nothing on we wanted to watch...so we bought a $50 antenna and haven't looked back once

Next is the cell phone. We have Verizon Family Plan and pay about $130 a month. We don't text, or talk on the cell phone at all very much. Anyone have a good plan for a Tracfone or pay as you go type plan?? Any suggestions who has good coverage along the east coast. We are in NY but travel to SC and FL often so we need decent coverage along that route. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Yup we did it. We got rid of cable and hooked up a good old fashioned TV antenna and saved ourselves about $75.00 a month. We get about 35 channels and we have not missed cable ONE BIT! One day we were looking through our 100 or so channels and realized there was nothing on we wanted to watch...so we bought a $50 antenna and haven't looked back once

Next is the cell phone. We have Verizon Family Plan and pay about $130 a month. We don't text, or talk on the cell phone at all very much. Anyone have a good plan for a Tracfone or pay as you go type plan?? Any suggestions who has good coverage along the east coast. We are in NY but travel to SC and FL often so we need decent coverage along that route. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

I had been living overseas for seven years and had really become accustomed to a pay as you go plan so when I returned to the States last year I decided to go with Tracfone. I paid $10 for the phone and I pay $10 a month for service - you can get a card that will give you a whole year's service for about $100. I have been happy with the service and plan to keep on using it but I might recommend getting more than the cheapest phone available. I am thinking to upgrade my phone to a model that does a bit more. It is very easy to add minutes online and make sure you get the double or triple minutes for life offer on your phone - really helps and makes it that much more affordable.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I just got the tracfone and they had a deal where they doubled my airtime card minutes for free. I did have a little trouble getting my phone number and had to call and have the representative walk me through the process.
What kind of service do you get for 10 dollars a month?

 

[pantherlj]

Tracfone has a touchscreen phone for $49 that includes triple minutes every time you add minutes. A $20 card will last you 90 days and give you 60 minutes (would be 180 with the triple minutes plan) so as long as you don't go over the minutes, that's less than $7 a month. a $30 card gives you 120 minutes (360 on the triple plan). Always google for a tracfone code at purchase time when you buy minutes - you can usually find one that will give you an extra 20-40 minutes.

A text is .3 of a minute off your time.

 

[scootch]

We live near Pittsburgh and travel to Florida and Virginia and I have no problems with Tracfone. We have the double minutes for life and there is always a code for minutes. last year I found a great 1 year card on ebay for $70 and still have tons of minutes left.

 

[englishteacha]

My DH has a Tracfone. He uses it rarely. He had a $10 phone for several years, then upgraded the phone to one with a QUERTY keyboard at Family Dollar for $30. This new phone gets double minutes and has a camera, and can go online, though it's slow and sucks a lot of minutes to do so. He's happy with it. His service was about to expire so I added 60 minutes online. Because he gets double minutes, he got 120 minutes, and I had a promo code to get an additional 60 minutes, so he got 180 minutes for $20. I then added a year's service for $50, so he got over 400 days of service for $70, plus all the minutes he had accumulated before rolled over.

A friend has used Straight Talk from Walmart for several years. $45 unlimited talk and text. She really likes it. I also saw at Walmart a Verizon pay-as-you-go phone that's $50 a month with unlimited talk, text, and web. If you really want internet access on your phone, that's a pretty decent deal for a no-contract "plan."

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I just got the tracfone and they had a deal where they doubled my airtime card minutes for free. I did have a little trouble getting my phone number and had to call and have the representative walk me through the process.
What kind of service do you get for 10 dollars a month?

You can buy airtime online through tracfone $9.99 is a web exclusive that will get you 30 days service and 30 minutes. I have double minutes and so 60 minutes is plenty for me - I don't use much. I also had trouble getting my number set up and had to call for help.

I want to get a better phone may be $50 range though.

 

[KCmike]

Do you have children? They don't miss Disney Channel? What about sports, ESPN or your local Baseball Team's coverage on their channel? I agree cable is way too expensive but there are so many things I watch. I want to get rid of my home phone though. That will be the first thing I give up.

 

[torinsmom]

What 35 channels do you get? This might be something I do in the next year or so.


We have Virgin Mobile. DS has 300 minutes and unlimited text and data for $25/month(no contract) and I have 1200 minutes and unlimited text and data for $40/month. With tax, I pay right at $72/month for both if us.

 

[ForAandA]

My father lives alone, and has no land line. I purchased him a $20 trac phone. I add $10 a month online. He has never ran out of minutes, never gone over, and it is peace of mind. Peace of mind is so worth $10 a month!

 

[shortbun]

I hope I never have to do without my cable. I record shows and watch them, commercial free, as I choose. I also like OnDemand movies and specials. I watch a couple a month. We got rid of our land line-saved about $50 a month. The cell phone thing has me boggled. I talk/text/online a lot and DH uses his for his business so needs it. My son just told me he doesn't need his smart phone and when his contract is up, he wants a basic phone with texting.

 

[Emme]

What 35 channels do you get? This might be something I do in the next year or so.


We have Virgin Mobile. DS has 300 minutes and unlimited text and data for $25/month(no contract) and I have 1200 minutes and unlimited text and data for $40/month. With tax, I pay right at $72/month for both if us.

Thanks everyone for all the info!! This definitely seems the way to go for us. We just paid our mortgage off this past Oct. as well and are so trying to live the life we want instead of what society says we need/want (100's of cable channels, crazy cell phone pkgs...). Everyone has different priorities so we are just trying to follow ours.

Someone told me once you never hear anyone say on their death bed "Man, I wish I had watched more TV." Too funny right??

We get channels 2 (CBS), 4 (NBC), 5 (FOX), 7 (ABC), 9 (WOR), 11 (PIX) and tons of public broadcasting from NJ and CT 13, 21 etc. and all their substations. We also get THIS TV, Antenna TV, Bounce, LiveWell and a bunch of others all in HD!!

If anyone has any other phone suggestions let us know. Thanks again!!

 

[eeyorethegreat]

Wow when e had an antenna years ago, we only go 2 channels CBS and PBS.

 

[hsmamato2]

How many people on your plan? How many minutes do you talk/text per month? check your records...it will help you see what you need to buy next. If you don't talk or text too much on cells, tracfone is a good option,just buy a double minutes phone,and refill yearly using codes found online...this method gave us about 80-90 mins per month to talk for about 9-10 bucks a month.
ALl this depends on how many phones you need,and how much time you spend doing what.
However in my area ,their coverage isn't so great. So I found a new carrier,pay as you go plan that works. We cut our landline(waste of money) and transferred our home number onto a cell, using the pagepluscellular service.
I can't speak highly enough about this GREAT service...it runs on Verizon network,so it is RELIABLE. They have different monthly plans(no contract)
I use the 29.95 option, which gives us 1200 talk minutes,3000 texts,and 100 mb data. (I don't use the data much)
This is our 'main' phone-and I could add a bigger plan, but don't need to.
I bought a cute little palm pixi plus on Amazon to use on this plan,it's a 'dumb' smartphone and I like it a lot. The phone cost about 35.00.
This is a much better financial deal than our previous landline/tracfone setup.

 

[maganda]

Cable free here as well and never looked back. I think it's been 3 years now. We have a decent antenna that picks up network channels, and most are in HD including PBS. My kids read more now, and to me that's as valuable as any cost savings we realize from eliminating a cable bill. Also haven't had a land line in several years.

Sorry I can't add to the tracfone discussion - just wanted to chime in that I'm totally happy not having cable

 

[Emme]

Cable free here as well and never looked back. I think it's been 3 years now. We have a decent antenna that picks up network channels, and most are in HD including PBS. My kids read more now, and to me that's as valuable as any cost savings we realize from eliminating a cable bill. Also haven't had a land line in several years.

Sorry I can't add to the tracfone discussion - just wanted to chime in that I'm totally happy not having cable

Couldn't agree more!

 

[Nayan]

Do you have children? They don't miss Disney Channel? What about sports, ESPN or your local Baseball Team's coverage on their channel? I agree cable is way too expensive but there are so many things I watch. I want to get rid of my home phone though. That will be the first thing I give up.

This is me too. I don't have a landline anymore but I must have my cable . Especially with all the hockey playoffs, baseball, basketball and the Olympics coming this summer. Plus many of the shows that I do watch are not online or available anywhere else.

I can't stress enough though that if you want to cut cable and use an antenna take a good look at your outside surroundings. Things like buildings, trees, valleys, etc. can block many OTA channels so even if sites like Antennaweb or TVFool say you can pick them up you might not be able to. I should, by those sites, pick up about 20 stations. I only can get two.