Save Money: Kill Cable and Phone

[corgis]

Cutting back - well let's see - we have two older cars paid for, 2 houses paid for, in Eastport we'll be using cable for our TV and internet. As for cell phones - I must admit I have an active hatred for cell phones and since in Eastport they tend to bounce off a Canadian tower and then I get billed for international calls, it's doubtful I'll have one there. I can go on one heck of a rant about cell phones but I won't. I just don't know where else we can cut back. Food will be prepared at home, we won't have to have work clothes, no parking fees, no dreaded city user fee, no worries about being fined by the city if the snow on the sidewalk isn't removed within 4 hours of when it stops. Yep, we'll save money just by moving to Eastport.

[kamorra2]

Ooma uses VOIP (voice over internet protocol). It uses your high speed internet to make/receive calls. You can use either DSL or FIOS or Cable modem...whatever you have.

I had a similar service called Vonage for a number of years. It was 100% reliable. I also work for a company that uses VOIP for all of the employees. Again, 100% reliable. It's important that you do your research and pick a good service for this. I've never heard of Ooma before so I can't speak to it in particular. I did have a different VOIP service before Vonage and it sucked. I've also tried Magic Jack and it's a piece of crap...dropped calls, cutting off while you're on the call etc. But large services like Vonage or Polycom are a good money saver.

[chaosX5]

Canceled cable last week with no intention of replacing it with anything else........

Use food plans and lists for grocery shopping now and save approx. $40.00 a week

I love Flylady!.......organization does save $

We are selling the "extra" car.........DH has work vehicle (anybody want a 1990 Suburban?)

I use a prepaid cell phone for emergencies only (5.50$ a month)

Best way to save $ is "just say no" This applies to kids and adults.........we've been very surprised at what we don't miss.

[Acadianlion]

We have used Vonage for several years and have had near perfect service. Certainly the quality of the telephone reception is almost as good as a land line, and the service has never gone down.

The reason it works so well for us is that we have cable Internet and tv service. Using Vonage with a telephone company land line makes little sense to me because you are still paying the telephone company for their connection. So far these Voice Over Internet Protocol services are not compatible with satellite Internet systems, which I hope will eventually change.

When we changed we got ride of the painfully slow dialup Internet, two telephone lines and Directv, which had steadily gone up in price. We brought in cable tv and Internet and achieved a net reduction in overall cost.

The weak link in the whole system is Time Warner. We lose the Internet service about once every two or three months for an hour or so...sometimes more. Eventually it comes back on, of course.

Our Vonage service is basic, and we never go over the basic long distance limit of 500 minutes, so our service is around $17 per month. Total Internet, Cable TV and phone is around $118 per month.

My wife and I both have prepaid cell phones. I have never even set up my phone correctly and I never give out the number. I use the cell phone for those times when I must make a call when away, and my wife has hers so she can call ME if she has a difficulty with the car or other problems while she is away. Otherwise they stay silent.

Two months ago I bought a Magicjack. Couldn't resist the price which was $30 for VOIP service. We intend to move from here this year, and we may not have the same services where we are eventually going to end up, so I looked at Magicjack as a test. I use it for fax communications and it works poorly, with dropped calls fairly frequently. Eventually it will likely get better, especially once they have their Initial Public Offering to raise capital, which may or may not happen.

When we changed to Vonage I was able to keep my phone number which had been in this house for almost 100 years. It is not always possible to do this with any of the VOIP services.