Lower Cost Alternatives (utilities, internet, etc)

[bsmcneil]

I'm wondering if people have good experiences with things like Mint Mobile, or have recommendations for lower cost things like internet, cell phones, etc. I recently got hit with a major pay-cut and I'm trying to be creative to make my budget work. Even if you're unfamiliar with pricing, etc - are there things you wish you'd known? Do differently? I know that a lot of it is really on the margins - will the local internet that's 69 dollars be worth switching to from Comcast that's 89, etc.

 

[unrequited23]

We switched from Verizon to US Mobile and it was about a 40% reduction in our bill. The service was weird the week we ported numbers. Neither DH nor I was getting texts or calls from my MIL (but everyone else) and I got dropped from a youth soccer group chat. We live in an area with 'good' cell coverage and will download maps ahead of time if we are travelling to remote/hilly areas.

DH switched our home internet to a business internet account (with the same provider) and we got higher speeds up and down with no caps and saved $20/month.

You might want to review your car insurance depending on the age of your vehicles. A 13 year old car doesn't need the same level of coverage as a new car with a loan.

 

[bsmcneil]

The cell phone thing - I've been weighing how much do I actually use my cell phone in a situation I need it, you know? I mean - mostly I'm at home/work with wifi (though part of this is that I'm going to a job with more traveling).

The home internet story is wild. Wow. Way to go DH!

 

[starry_solo]

Never used Mint Mobile.

If you don't use the cell phone often, you could potentially do well with Tracfone. They have smart phones (older ones) with 1 year of service (1500 minutes, texts, and 1.5 GB of data) for $70-100 on Home Shopping Network. That's what I use for a phone (and number) that I use for a charity I'm working with. So, every year, I change the cell phone because it's cheaper to get a new phone and transfer any unused minutes/texts/data to the new phone than it is to purchase 1 year's worth of time.

If you do use it often, Visible (from the Verizon network) has a $25/month plan, but it depends if it works in your home/work/etc. I used to have that (again, for the charity) but realized that their data connections were so much slower than my own direct-Verizon post-paid plan and that I didn't really use it all that much to need the unlimited talk, text, data, which is why I went to Tracfone. There's only 2-3 of the 12 months that are the most active.

 

[firefly_ris]

DH switched our home internet to a business internet account (with the same provider) and we got higher speeds up and down with no caps and saved $20/month.

Are either of you self-employed? I'm curious about this and if I could do that. I'm up to $79.99/month with Spectrum but I am self-employed/1099 and operate as a home business, so curious if there are certain qualifications for the business account.

For phones, one of my children has a phone now -- I bought a refurbed unlocked phone off Amazon for $150, and then I signed it up with Tello. I pay $14/month and it has unlimited talk and text, and 5GB of data. It still has data after the 5GB is used up, but it's just severely throttled at that point. She's mostly on wifi anyway and I really push minimal amount of time spent on the phone during the day so the data limit hasn't been an issue.

 

[unrequited23]

Are either of you self-employed? I'm curious about this and if I could do that. I'm up to $79.99/month with Spectrum but I am self-employed/1099 and operate as a home business, so curious if there are certain qualifications for the business account.

DH was 3 days work from home, 2 days in office when he made the change. He's 100% remote now. We pay $70 with Cox.

 

[Anthony1971]

Cell is the easiest. Most have a back end directly owned by the major company. T Mobile has Metro Verizon has ATT has cricket. The switchover is easy and a lot cheaper…. Chose the best service in your area. With that the warnings… the stores stink so do it yourself online. The CS is ok. The non owned ones are just leasing from above and usually similar price. These are good start.
Internet no idea but understand the annoying pricing. Easiest way is to buy your own modem and router or combo most if not all rent this to you. A good modem and separate good router can be had for under 200 a combo less but as technology changes the router will become slower. Easy change as well. Most cable companies have an app for a fire stick or Roku both cheap and fairly easy to install and use. Most cable companies rent the boxes as well now….

 

[Anthony1971]

I will add the business internet is a 2-3 year contract the introductory offer goes up after X time I believe Comcast’s lowest is 110 we use static ip address so there is an up fee but all of our locations bills are close to 140 no matter the state. First year or ? Months was less. Cancellation is the remainder of the months of the contract in full. Same with spectrum for us.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

Mint was just okay for us. I put the kids on it so at times they had trouble with coverage. This year I am switching them over to Att prepaid to join my husband and me. It’ll be $80 a month for 4 lines. Which after you add in the ‘fees’ you pay to Mint Mobile when you buy the annual $15/month plan ends up costing the same. But with Att prepaid I can buy gift cards on sale at Target (they have 10% off every so often) so it technically will be cheaper.

Oh and the kicker with Mint, when I tried to get the account number and pin for my daughter’s account they gave me the wrong one (after being on hold for a long time). Didn’t know this until I went to transfer the line to Att. At that point I just got her a new number.

As for internet, it depends on how much competition there is in the area. When my contract was up with Xfinity, frontier and gonetspeed (new to the area) were the competitors. That gave me more leverage to negotiate a better plan because I had the lower rate gonetspeed was offering me right in my hand. Xfinity gave me 500mbps for $45 a month if I locked in for 2 years.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

We dumped comcast (xfinity) as our bills were approx $200/month for internet and cable. We use verizon for internet with a veterans discount and you tube tv. Costs us half of what we were paying.

 

[bsmcneil]

Mint was just okay for us. I put the kids on it so at times they had trouble with coverage. This year I am switching them over to Att prepaid to join my husband and me. It’ll be $80 a month for 4 lines. Which after you add in the ‘fees’ you pay to Mint Mobile when you buy the annual $15/month plan ends up costing the same. But with Att prepaid I can buy gift cards on sale at Target (they have 10% off every so often) so it technically will be cheaper.

Oh and the kicker with Mint, when I tried to get the account number and pin for my daughter’s account they gave me the wrong one (after being on hold for a long time). Didn’t know this until I went to transfer the line to Att. At that point I just got her a new number.

As for internet, it depends on how much competition there is in the area. When my contract was up with Xfinity, frontier and gonetspeed (new to the area) were the competitors. That gave me more leverage to negotiate a better plan because I had the lower rate gonetspeed was offering me right in my hand. Xfinity gave me 500mbps for $45 a month if I locked in for 2 years.

I looked it up - I'm averaging less than 15 minutes of talking per month. But - it sounds like you had a hassle - and I don't want that. I think that more than anything, I want to have something in case of emergencies, you know?

 

[starry_solo]

I looked it up - I'm averaging less than 15 minutes of talking per month. But - it sounds like you had a hassle - and I don't want that. I think that more than anything, I want to have something in case of emergencies, you know?

How much data or texting do you use?

 

[bsmcneil]

How much data or texting do you use?

Data - quite a bit and I think that'll go up with my new job. Texting, I checked - honestly, I've never thought about it - but I'm averaging around 400 a month (yes, I am a millennial )

 

[LuvOrlando]

It can be tough to adjust, I hope your new job goes well for you.

You can probably drop internet and use free wifi at the library and coffee shops, that is a big chunk.
A phone with unlimited data can be a computer without internet and allow you to watch a streaming app at night without wifi.
Lots of people pick up an antennae for TV now, it does still work, that's still free.
In general, the moblie apps for a phone can be cheaper but no matter what go with the cheaper plans with commercials.
Tracphone is fine and Whatsapp can reduce telephone and texting costs a lot so even if you keep a good phone you can probably drop service plans, let people you text frequently know you may be responding with Whatsapp
To save gas try to do multiple errands in one trip.
Food costs, check out Trader Joes, Walmart and Aldi if you don't already, frozen veggies and fruits are much less expensive and so are home made meals, eggs are a budgets best friend because a tray with frozen broccoli is breakfast or for a week. Rice and a roast chicken can be lunch or dinner for a week.

 

[bsmcneil]

Data - quite a bit and I think that'll go up with my new job. Texting, I checked - honestly, I've never thought about it - but I'm averaging around 400 a month (yes, I am a millennial )

Shoot - I meant to actually answer the data question. 9GB

 

[Dakota731]

We do straight talk and it’s $49 a month unlimited talk, text and data. Had for years and never had a problem.

 

[bsmcneil]

One question I have for anyone - right now, I have my phone and an iPad and I bought the iPad with cellular data capabilities. So, with AT&T, that's considered a shared plan (it gives the iPad a phone number - but we can use the same 9gb data/unlimited text, etc.). For Mint, or Straight Talk, or any of those - does this mean I'll need to purchase a two line plan (the iPad came way after the phone so I don't quite know what they're talking about when they set it up but trusted it - but I feel like I need to know before switching).

 

[DawnM]

We have ATT for phone and since DH's work pays for the main phone line (his-$65/mo with the phone payment), and my educator's discount, we pay $25 per line on top of that, so $100 for the other 4 of us total. We won't switch.

We cut cable TV years ago. We do pay $80 for internet, but we DH works from home 3 days per week and my teens are gamers, so we will keep paying.

We do streaming TV and look for deals. $1.99/mo for Peacock with ads, on my son's college email account, $2.99/Hulu and Disney+ on an educator discount, and then we pay full price for Netflix and full price for HBO streaming.

Our home utilities and HOA fees just recently went from over $600 to around $300. We moved! This house is much smaller, is on a well (so no water costs), and no HOA. I feel so FREE now and have over $300/mo saved to boot!

The biggest way I have always found to save is in the expenses like food and clothing, furniture, and retail. We shop thrift stores, FB marketplace, and we shop sales for food or budget and stick to it (buying meat on sale in bulk or switching meats to a less costly meat....like salmon to chicken) when we need to. I can make a penny bleed if I have to!

 

[VGCgroupie]

I have had Visible for cell phone for $25 a month for 4 years. I’ve lived in 2 different states and had no issues. Unlimited data.

 

[RangerPooh]

We dumped comcast (xfinity) as our bills were approx $200/month for internet and cable. We use verizon for internet with a veterans discount and you tube tv. Costs us half of what we were paying.

We were closer to $300/mo for internet and cable. We dropped to just internet through them and switched to YouTube tv. Saved Some money… until DH added a few streaking platforms. Still cheaper now than before.