Trying to cut costs by cutting "included at no extra cost" items

[MillauFr]

Dump cable. It is a dinosaur

 

[tvguy]

Dump cable. It is a dinosaur

I did, 21 years ago.

 

[Yinn]

Frustrating that you can't get some items ala carte to save money.

1) Roadside Assistance. The maker of my wife's car offers it for 10 years, maker of my car offers it for 8 years. My auto insurance includes it "at no extra cost" and you can't drop it. And the insurance on my classic car offers it on all cars I own, "at no extra cost"

2) Cell phones. I have unlimited calling and texts, and 2 GB of data on the most basic plans. Looking at my phone log, I could get by with about 100 minutes per month of calling , 150 texts and 1 GB of data. But I have no lower option.

3) Cable/Satellite TV. Seems like for every channel I want, I have to accept 20 I don't want. I did drop down one level on my Dish Network account, knocked a whole $10 a month off my $120 bill. And don't get me started on the joke streaming is. I have the free version of Peacock, but not a lot I want to watch there. Share a YouTube TV account with my daughter, $50 a month level, but it is always freezing up. Thought it was our internet connection, but Peacock never freezes.

#2 was my biggest expense.

I set off to solve that and it helped me with more than I ever thought.

On average I was spending $200 for 4 lines. Then one year I jumped on a t-mobile deal, 2 lines + 1 line free + $20 per line extra. So I grabbed it. It ended up being $150 for 4 lines and they threw in Netflix for free. Then they offered a free line. I grabbed it. Another..and another. I now have 5 free lines on the account and the bill is still $150. I took those free 5 lines and pulled in my in-law, my parents, my 2nd uncle's 3rd cousin's former roommates boss....ok maybe not that last one. But I asked if they could each chip in $20/mo effectively making my portion of the bill $50/mo.

Once that was sorted, I really wanted to get rid of my cable and the $160/mo bill. So I went and decided to try some antennas. I grabbed a UHF and VHF antenna - a cheap on at first ($80), which helped a little. My home had some terrible reception being 40+ miles between two cities.

So I returned those and bought bigger ones ($200) as well as an antenna amplifier and I now had channels from 2 different metros. But we weren't happy, we liked recording and streaming tv on our phone so I bought an Amazon FireTV Recast during Black Friday ($120ish) and a FireTV stick ($20). The recast gave me DVR capabilities and acted as a TV tuner with all the modern cable capabilities - stream to phone, record, TV guide, etc. and we didn't miss anything over cable. The breakeven for the initial cost was 2 months.

Once that was solved I was left with Comcast internet at $60/mo for 100mbps, plus a cable modem rental. I was looking into buying a cable modem when I noticed on my t-mobile account a promo for 5g home internet for $50/mo. That was all in after tax, no equipment rentals, no contracts, etc. I was skeptical but gave it a try. It's faster than my landline Comcast connection (300mbps down, 40mbps up) There's hiccups but for the most part my family hasn't noticed. I stream Netflix, disney+, peacock, etc. without any issues on it.

Same frustrations you have but I've managed to reduce $360/mo reoccurring cost down to $100/mo. Unfortunately I end up spending that saved $3000/year on Disney vacations...