Going a bit nuts---

[FarmerChick]

sick of the prices....WEE

I called cable. Now I am about $220 per month, covers Tonys cell, internet, phone and Directtv.

With cable package, I pay $112 per month for EVERYTHING listed above.

They come out next week to bury a cable line to my house. It is such a ick hassle to change stuff ya know....but Tony can keep his cell phone number, I get to keep my house number, DSL line is the same but TV channels will change a bit (big deal on that one lol)


So that savings is huge to me.


IF THIS goes thru and the package is exactly what they say when they come out Thurs......I then gotta call directtv and get them to come get their units etc.....and all that hassle.

truly anything that involves someone coming to the house and me having to be here, is a hassle (LOL) but it is a good hassle if I do save that much money.

I have been meaning to do this for a while, so now I have to commit to this change and see what happens






SO ANYONE also truly changing around 'their stuff' to find a savings?

 

[MorelCabin]

Been there, done that a few times in life...ugh! I hear you on the nuisance.
Now I wonder if these days the other companies would price match...meaning that you call up the company that you are already set up wth and tell them what you can get through the other cmpany and give the a chance to match thier pricing, or lose you as a client. I know it often works with the phone company, but you have to ask...my sister often plays this game.

 

[Denim Deb]

We've done that w/credit cards to get a lower rate.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Well, sorta - we just chose not to have cable or dish or directv or a cell phone.

But, now Ernie is wanting either directv or dish.

I pay $20 a month for my DSL.

 

[FarmerChick]

yea Morel I tried that with Directtv.....they told me they would give me a $5 break each month for 6 months when I said I was changing to Dish cause it was alot cheaper......I didn't change cause it wasn't worth it to me. ....but this time I can tell them to kiss my %$*###

I think it is time to truly find a big savings per month.

Tony's stupid health insurance is going up $45 per week on us and I want to find some savings to offset that stupid hike come January.




Deb I too am going to start checking credit cards. Again the hassle, but I have a good rewards card, but am getting those 5% back cards in the mail now....so will be checking that also......but one thing at a time LOL


I hear ya Aly. Tony would never let tv go point blank. So I just gotta find cheapest way to go

 

[Windyhillfarms]

We got rid of TV altogether. We belong to Netflix and have a que, but really we don't watch all that much TV so for us Netflix was cheaper and can be used to watch stuff instantly on the internet, so TV lost ... We've changed car insurance, renters insurance, life insurance, combined cell phone packages, even set up car pooling for school, work, etc with the three in the household. Of course, most of the "savings" is being eaten by the animals on the farm, but it's still technically saving right???

 

[Marianne]

Agh. I hate making changes like that, but it's worth it. Worst one lately for us was to close accounts at the bank we'd been at for 20+ years. Since moving here, it just wasn't worth it. We had opened accounts at a local bank, but all the auto drafts, direct deposits were associated with the accounts we closed. What a hassle getting everything switched over to new checking acct number.

(made a list, checked it twice)

Oh! Whenever any service provider, credit card bank, etc offers to come down on the monthly fee/interest rate to keep my business, I always ask them why they didn't give me the better deal to begin with.

 

[2dream]

Oh my - I did that a little over a year ago and it was a total nightmare. I was without phone service for almost a month. Not cables fault - my Direct TV drug their feet on sending the OK for me to keep my number. And in the end - it ended up that I could not keep the number anyway due to 911 routing. But - the savings for a year were worth it. But alas all those savings are gone and I am back up to the normal rates. Its just to much trouble right now to call and fight the battle. I have enough on my plate without any of that. Truthfully - I personally don't need cable. I could live perfectly fine without TV. But DH can't so I just keep paying.

Wishing you a speedy hookup and no hassles.

 

[FarmerChick]

yea that concerns me 2dream
I only lock in for one year with lower rates, then of course it goes up...but what they say it will go up is still cheaper than my separate combinations....so fingers crossed it works well for a few good years to save me money

cause at some point all this crappola is going to price me out.

 

[Leta]

This is the major concern that I have about our (hopefully) impending move.

Right now, we have mid level DSL from AT&T. It costs $20 per month. No taxes, no fees, $20 even.

We bought a Roku ($60) and hooked it up to our TV. It streams all sorts of internet content to your TV, most of it for free. Newscaster, Pandora, CHOW, Kidlet, WeatherUnderground, all free. We pay for Netflix and Hulu+ to be on the Roku. They each cost $8/mo, but we only pay for them November thru May. The summer and early fall are too busy to bother with that much screen time.

We also bought a NetTalk ($80). It's a device that you connect to your router, and then plug your phone in. It is our home phone service. The first year of service is included in the price of the device, and after that it's $30/yr. It includes all long distance to North America and the Caribbean.

For cell phones, I have a SafeLink, which is free to me because we qualify for Lifeline income based phone service and I only use it for emergencies, so I never go over my minutes. DH has a TracFone. He was really burning up the minutes- at least $20/mo- so I invested in an iPod Touch for him ($200). He is under a wifi cloud all day at work, and with the iPod, he can text for free. There are a bunch of apps you can use to text for free, he uses the Google Voice app. Now he keeps his TracFone in his car and only uses it for emergencies. The last time I bought minutes for him was May 2010, so the iPod has more than paid for itself. Since TracFone has restructured itself a bit, you have to spend at least $80/yr to keep service on, so the prorated cost of DH's phone (starting in January) will be about $7/mo.

Every month, we pay the $20 to AT&T. Half the time, we pay another $16 to Netflix/Hulu, prorated over the year is $8/mo. $3/mo for home phone (prorated) and $7/mo for cell phone (prorated). $38/mo is our net expense for two cell phones, home phone, TV, and internet.

Where we (may) move, we won't even have the option of DSL for a year, and then who knows how much it will cost or if we can get it standalone- my guess is that we'll have to have a landline and it will be about $40/mo for DSL, so we'll pay at least $55/mo, compared to the $23/mo we are spending now for those services.

Our Roku won't work without fast internet, so we'll probably just go without TV. We may slide our $16/mo on over to a Netflix DVD by mail subscription, though.

If we get a discounted landline with our Lifeline qualification, I'll have to give up my SafeLink and get a regular cell phone. That will only be $7/mo, but it's all adding up fast.

I figure best case scenario, we'll end up paying $78/mo for comparable services to what we have here for $38. It's bumming me out, TBH. I did a lot of research to get our communication/entertainment expenses this low! I am not a techie, so I had to learn a lot and reach outside my comfort zone. Oh, well. I can only hope that the price of DSL service out there will eventually fall in line with AT&T's offerings.