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I've been without a land line home phone for 6 years now. Have a cheap Tracfone cell phone. Does just fine for me. With cell phone coverage just about anyplace, there's really no reason to have a hard wired expensive home phone.
Some of the cost of running a home for electricity get lost in the "noise" level
It Cost about .75 KwH to run my House in "BaseMode" per hour.
Overnight, Just things that run 24x7.
Clocks, (All - Microwave, Stove, etc)
Computer (Tower, routers, modem, External Hard drive)
Heat (Gas Electric Blower)
Kitchen (refrigerator, Freezer)
Cell / Tablet Chargers
Things that are "All-ways on" roku boxes, TV (off but powered for faster starts), Computer monitors, Laser Printer (that are in power saver mode).
Some of the cost of running a home for electricity get lost in the "noise" level
It Cost about .75 KwH to run my House in "BaseMode" per hour.
Overnight, Just things that run 24x7.
Clocks, (All - Microwave, Stove, etc)
Computer (Tower, routers, modem, External Hard drive)
Heat (Gas Electric Blower)
Kitchen (refrigerator, Freezer)
Cell / Tablet Chargers
Things that are "All-ways on" roku boxes, TV (off but powered for faster starts), Computer monitors, Laser Printer (that are in power saver mode).
This usage is so low, I don't worry about it.
Wow! My "BaseMode" per hour is .45 kWh. My 20 year old Sub-Zero fridge/freezer and wine chiller makes up most of my energy consumption. Fortunately my area only see climates outside of 65-80 degrees 7 months out of the year, so my HVAC costs are very low…yet I'm still considering a PV array for a future PHEV.
My wife and I have been talking about cell phones and a land line for our upcoming home. I am planning to stay under 100 for both of us. I use Facebook on my phone for promotional reasons for my side business and I see that Verizon which is very reliable in our area is 3gb (1.5 per person) for 85 a month (20 for each phone and 45 a month for the gigabytes). We are currently on our parents plans because we are part of their business plans that are free. We are located in NY. I want to talk to Verizon and get our phones shut off when we reach our data amount. I don't play games on my phone she deleted my Instagram and turned off a lot of the data usage on my apps. One thing I can do is maybe turn off all data except for texts and turn data on when I use it, then off. That may help us. I fear we use too much data.
So that's one option.
I wouldn't mind getting a phone that's other than an iPhone that has Internet and text and that is unlimited. She wants to stay on her iPhone and Verizon. Am I better off getting a cheap phone maybe worth 40 a month and her being on her iPhone and own plan?
Another idea I've read about is using a pre paid phone as a land line. Can you keep the same phone number as a land line for years with pre paid?
Thanks. You'll see a lot more posts from me. I want to live a simpler life, while giving my wife the type of life she is used to as well.
My wife, sister, and I are using AT&T family plan with a corporate discount (8% off). We share 550 anytime minutes with about 2,000 rollover minutes, free nights - weekends - and mobile-to-mobile calls, text messaging, and data plans (my wife has unlimited for $25, I downgraded to 200MB in order to save $10 per month, and my sister had 3GB at $30). The total bill is $174 each month and only $34 after my sister's and wife's work reimbursements.
My wife has had the iPhone 6 for about a year (paid $199), my sister is used a iPhone 5C (paid $50), and I just upgraded to an iPhone 5s 32GB (paid $49). I've found that it's not worth it to me to have the latest technology as the devices become obsolete after 5 years. I opt for the cheapest phone that will last at least 3 years (under a 2 year contract). My wife and I have been using Ooma for VOIP over the last 5 years. The call quality is just fine for us, though it depends on your ISP and upstreaming speed. It works great for our fax line and it's nice having a phone number to give out when you want to protect your cellphone from solicitors.
Internet, Cable, Landline (what are some options?)
So, what is everyone's options breakdown and the total price for monthly expenses for landline, cable (either satellite or basic cable) and Internet? We are NY based. I'm wondering how to pay less than $200 which is what our triple play package could very well go to at some point after the first year.
First off, Internet is important. We utilize it immensely for work and play.
Second: My wife LOVES Investigation Discovery. Don't ask me why, but if we can keep that somehow, that would be good. I don't care for sports channels or movies, just basic tv, news, etc. I don't even watch much TV. Hell, I'm fine with basic cable and an antenna. She'd need more coaxing on that.
We also don't care much for television shows honestly either. She loves TLC, ID, HGTV.
So what are some options here either Internet based or home based?
I am totally down with a cell phone as a landline. I don't expect it to cost much. Does anyone know superb cell phones that are just cell phones and used for "home phone" reasons? It's for emergencies only. Nothing more, nothing less. Not even 100 minutes to be used on it a month. Want something where we can keep the number LONG TERM, for years.
So, what is everyone's options breakdown and the total price for monthly expenses for landline, cable (either satellite or basic cable) and Internet? We are NY based. I'm wondering how to pay less than $200 which is what our triple play package could very well go to at some point after the first year.
First off, Internet is important. We utilize it immensely for work and play.
Second: My wife LOVES Investigation Discovery. Don't ask me why, but if we can keep that somehow, that would be good. I don't care for sports channels or movies, just basic tv, news, etc. I don't even watch much TV. Hell, I'm fine with basic cable and an antenna. She'd need more coaxing on that.
We also don't care much for television shows honestly either. She loves TLC, ID, HGTV.
So what are some options here either Internet based or home based?
For those channels you will probably need to pay for cable or satellite, the cost will depend what tiers those programs are in. Satellite internet is pretty slow so I would consider staying with cable. I would dump the phone service, even though they claim it's a great deal if you do the math you are probably paying $30 a month for it. You could either give up the landline and use cell phones, or get a service like Ooma, it's VOIP just like the cable company phone service but after you buy the device ($80-$100) the only thing you have to pay for is tax every month which is around $4. We pay around $140 for U-verse, we get 50mbps internet and the highest tier TV package with all the premiums (HBO, Showtime etc). It will probably go up when our contract is up but I will just call and tell them to cancel, I can almost always negotiate the rate by doing that. (I'm in California so I'm not sure what services you have available or what the cost is)
The #1 best option for saving money with television, voice and Internet service is to do without as much as possible. Switch to using the local library's Internet terminals. Switch to using whatever over-the-air television reception you can access. Switch to the bare minimum voice service, and only one (i.e., landline or mobile, not both).
Beyond that, nothing is assured.
If your television interests are limited to certain programs (and ID is not among those), and you have certain Internet services available to you, and the value you place on video quality is quite low, and the ability to time-shift not of value to you, then you may find a better way to satisfy your video entertainment needs. It's very much dependent on specifically who you are, what you like, and what is offered to you in your specific building or neighborhood - in other words, it is very much dependent on lots of things that no one here knows about you and some things that you shouldn't necessarily share with us.
I've, of course, reviewed my family's needs each year. Moving from a FiOS/Comcast neighborhood to a U-Verse/Comcast neighborhood has severely restricted our choices, in the context of our specific needs. We're paying $125 now for the basic triple play, a one-level speed boost for Internet, and a wireless gateway (which seems to be required, so their triple play price is actually deceptive). We supplement this with Netflix DVD service two or three months a year to fill in the gap associated with not paying for premium channels.
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Internet, Cable, Landline (what are some options?)
