Time to save money and cut back - Internet/Phone (UPDATED)

[aphex]

The wife and I took a look at the finances again and decided we need to cut back a little more to push the savings a bit higher before we go look for houses in the next 2 years.

My biggest annoyance is the cable/internet bill. It seems to be high no matter how much we drop off because the packages are always considerably cheaper. Our HDTV is dead and we haven't got a new one yet, so were gonna drop HD off the package for now (even though it saves us almost nothing)

CURRENTLY PAYING

• TV/Internet
  • Digital Cable + High Speed Internet (7/1) - $78
  • Upgrade to 20/2 Internet - $10
  • DVR Box - $7
  • DVR Service - $10
• Phone Service
  • Vonage (500 Minute Plan) - $24
  TOTAL = $129/mo

Tossing around the following ideas;

TV/Internet Idea - Dropping cable completely, just keeping the internet ($57/mo). Buying an Apple TV ($220) and running Boxee for our tv programs. We would use an antenna for local TV.

Phone Idea - Dropping Vonage and switching to Ooma ($210) or another provider. Ooma is a high upfront cost, but if they stay around long enough (emphasis on IF), my break even point with Vonage is roughly 10 months. After that, the service would be free to me. Another option is just using our cell phones, but with our current plan at 2850/3000 minutes a month (family plan), dropping the house phone all together would cause us to run over our cell phone minutes. Skype wouldn't work, no decent stand alone phones and no E911 (no go for the wife). Maybe even an independant SIP provider, but their viability is questionable as well.

So, putting these ideas (as they stand) into action, and breaking it down per year...


FIRST YEAR

• TV/Internet
  • High Speed Internet (7/1) - $47
  • Upgrade to 20/2 Internet - $10
  • Apple TV (w/ Boxee) - $18
• Phone Service
  • Ooma - $18
  TOTAL = $93/mo (Savings of $36/mo)

SUBSEQUENT YEARS

• TV/Internet
  • High Speed Internet (7/1) - $47
  • Upgrade to 20/2 Internet - $10
  • Apple TV (w/ Boxee) - $0
• Phone Service
  • Ooma - $0
  TOTAL = $57/mo (Savings of $72/mo)

If my calculations are correct, switching would save us $432 the first year, $864 every year after. Hmmm.

 

[Insomniator]

Just keep the high speed and drop tv all together.

Anything worth watching on tv these days (which isn't much), besides sports is available online or with netflix..

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
Just keep the high speed and drop tv all together.

Anything worth watching on tv these days (which isn't much), besides sports is available online or with netflix..

Hulu or streaming along with local channels should be enough.

I think I would drop all tv services and sell my tv, before cutting down my internet.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
Just keep the high speed and drop tv all together.

Anything worth watching on tv these days (which isn't much), besides sports is available online or with netflix..

True, and I guess if I run Boxee into living room TV we would still have most of our shows as well (sans the stupid VH1 reality shows my wife makes me suffer through)....

And for locals, were about 30 miles away, so an antenna shouldn't be a problem.

 

[scott916]

Stop buying tube-based electronics instead.

 

[dullard]

For me, dropping cable was hard, but doable. The new digital boxes help quite a bit so that you get lots of good shows for free over the air. After a month or so, you'll never know why you had spent so much on cable TV in the past. Sure, you'll miss a channel or two, but you can always netflix your shows or watch them online.

You'll save $500 a year easy.

 

[irishScott]

Keep in mind that the speed you get from DSL depends on your distance from the switchbox. My family pays for 720 kbps, but we only get about 480 (Verizon).

 

[SunnyD]

Seriously - how many channels do you watch? I watch TV maaaayyyybe once or twice a week at best, and usually when I sit down to watch there's nothing good on anyway.

I asked my wife yesterday - why do we even have cable? She said "I don't really know..."

 

[rudder]

TV broadcast over the air = Free tv. Unless you live in too far away from an area with local stations.

 

[dominik]

My cable provider - Cox - told me that I was required to have the basic cable (24 channels, all worthless) if I wanted high speed internet. With sites like hulu and dailyshow.com, I rarely turn on the tube unless its for a movie.

 

[spidey07]

Look at it this way - by having more TV and faster internet you don't go out for entertainment as much. So you're really SAVING money by having more TV and intarweb.

 

[lokiju]

Work pays for mine, so I went with 10mb/1mb

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: dominik
My cable provider - Cox - told me that I was required to have the basic cable (24 channels, all worthless) if I wanted high speed internet. With sites like hulu and dailyshow.com, I rarely turn on the tube unless its for a movie.

I'm calling right now to find out, thanks for the heads up.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: aphex

Originally posted by: dominik
My cable provider - Cox - told me that I was required to have the basic cable (24 channels, all worthless) if I wanted high speed internet. With sites like hulu and dailyshow.com, I rarely turn on the tube unless its for a movie.

I'm calling right now to find out, thanks for the heads up.

Most cable co's don't force bundle now (I think it's illegal?). What they will do sometimes is jack up your internet rate $10-$20/mo if you don't bundle it.

My best cost saving tip:

High speed internet - find out what promotions your cable company has. Usually you get $29.95/mo for 6 months for HSI for new customers. Close your account, then call back the next day and sign up for the new account. Every 6 months, do it again (or swap to your wife).

Phone: Skype - insanely cheap for 1 year of service. You have HSI, might as well put it to use! SkypeIn/SkypeOut is like $60 a year for unlimited everything. Only catch - no 911 service. I have a cell phone for that.

Cable: If you get OTA channels, do that. If not... hehehe... do what I do! With Cable internet comes a live wire. Analog channels might be a bust, but every single time I've tried it (3 different cable networks), I get all the ClearQAM digital channels (usually the OTA channels) for free. Did the with Brighthouse and TimeWarner.

Netflix: For everything else you want, you have Netflix & Streaming video off the net.

Total cost per month: ~$50/month

 

[child of wonder]

Call the cable company and explain to them you think the bill is too high and are looking at dropping internet or switching to another company. See if they'll lower your bill. Sometimes places will give you a lower 12 month rate to get you to stay.

 

[aphex]

Ok, got the break down. We can indeed get Internet here without TV service, no additional charge.

I was off a bit on the OP; here's the breakdown of what we pay NOW;

Digital Cable + High Speed Internet (7/1) - $78
Upgrade to 20/2 Internet - $10
DVR Box - $7
DVR Service - $10
----------------
TOTAL - $105/mo + tax


If I completely kill cable, and just keep the internet, we drop to;

7/1 Internet - $47/mo + tax
10/2 Internet - $57/mo + tax

They offer a beyond basic package (channels 1-20 - including locals) for $20, but if an antenna works I'd just as soon use that and save $20/mo.

I then however run into an issue of getting the streaming tv into our living room TV (I don't think my wife will agree to this if she has to watch TV on her computer all the time). I could use Boxee with an Apple TV, but thats $230 (or ~ $20/mo for the first year).

 

[Pepsei]

FTA Satellite will save you a lot of money... if you want HD, you'll have to buy a better receiver.

Internet, if you don't mind slow download or like me, who leave the download queue overnight... you'll be ok.

 

[NoCreativity]

That's a better deal than I get. I'm at $99.xx and all I have is basic w/ about 55 channels and 6 (maybe 8)/1.5 internet. I too am thinking of dropping TV. The TV portion of the bill is nearing $60.

 

[SunnyD]

I pay something to the effect of $69/mo for phone/internet/tv where I am right now. Of course after taxes and such it's close to $100.

 

[manowar821]

That's what we just did. Went from Comcast cable to Qwest dsl. $72 to $40. It helps that we have Qwest for phone, already.

 

[aphex]

Major update to the OP, please see my edit.

 

[tefleming]

Is there a certain level of service you must have for Clear QAM to work? (If you don't even have basic TV - just Cable High Speed - can you still use Clear QAM?)

 

[Poulsonator]

I dropped my cable TV in December to save $71 a month. The only channel I miss is ESPN. I will also miss live sports broadcasts, but that's what friends are for.

 

[SunnyD]

Interesting, never heard of Ooma.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I'd go with Skype (and have) for about $6/month

I have Blockbuster's unlimited online rentals (grandfathered in at $19/month) 3 at a time with unlimited in store returns for anything the store has in stock for free.

Work pays for my cable & internets right now, but before the current contract, I had a dry loop for ~$29/month and used an antenna for free OTA TV and used my HTPC as a DVR with Windows Media Center for free...