w00t! Just saved $100/month

[neovan]

Cancelled cable + internet which cost -$136/month
Cancelled blockbuster game pass -$20/month
Cancelled blockbuster movie pass -$25/month
Ordered Yahoo DSL +$27/month
Ordered DirecTV w/ Tivo for 4 rooms +$53/month
Cancelled FFXI subscription - $13/month
----------------------------------------------------------
Total Savings $114/month

I plan on downgrading my cell service when my contract is up in 6 months. Currently its at $80/month. Hopefully get a plan that's half that price.

Any other ways of cutting my budget w/o taking away all my entertainment needs?

edit: just cancelled ffxi subscription

 

[homestarmy]

That's cool, but I hope you can live with the poor PQ of DirecTV and the ugly dish, but if you can, kudos to you!

I would consider going your route, but I don't have local phone service, and I need the HDTV feed, plus I need a true always on connection for my VoIP, DSL just wouldn't cut it...

Oh yeah, and I don't think ordering the Tivo and getting DSL is really in any way replacing the blockbuster passes... I mean I just wouldn't rationalize them all together in one package myself.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Get rid of directv and just download shows?

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: neovan
Ordered DirecTV w/ Tivo for 4 rooms +$53/month

Smart move, did you order direct from DirecTV or through a reseller?

 

[Kalvin00]

:thumbsup:

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Get rid of directv and just download shows?

When people start uploading HD feeds and I can download them fast enough... cable TV will be no more for me!

 

[FoBoT]

i thought you switched your car insurance to Geico

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: neovan
Cancelled cable + internet which cost -$136/month
Cancelled blockbuster game pass -$20/month
Cancelled blockbuster movie pass -$25/month
Ordered Yahoo DSL +$27/month
Ordered DirecTV w/ Tivo for 4 rooms +$53/month
----------------------------------------------------------
Total Savings $101/month

I plan on downgrading my cell service when my contract is up in 6 months. Currently its at $80/month. Hopefully get a plan that's half that price.

Any other ways of cutting my budget w/o taking away all my entertainment needs?

Lots of things you can do to reduce your expenses. One of the things my wife and I did was raise our insurance deductable. We essentially bet with the insurance company.

There are lots of other things you can do as well.

 

[Modeps]

Have fun with sh!tty SBC/Yahoo DSL! Savings isnt worth the headache.

 

[neovan]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Get rid of directv and just download shows?

too much time involved in downloading them. i'm trying to capture quantum leap episodes since i noticed that they are playing on the scifi channel from 11PM-12AM PST. And I can't miss an episode of 24 or Alias.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
That's cool, but I hope you can live with the poor PQ of DirecTV and the ugly dish, but if you can, kudos to you!

What poor PQ? I've yet to see a good cable signal; analog, digital whatever. If had HD I'd still stick to DTV. HD-TIVO sounds like a plan to me.

 

[neovan]

Originally posted by: Modeps
Have fun with sh!tty SBC/Yahoo DSL! Savings isnt worth the headache.

my friend has been using it for over a year and doesn't have a complaint. i noticed that my charter cable would be disconnected late at night and couldn't stand the hour delays they would have. i spoke to one of the pacbell folks and they told me that i have a very good line since my house is very close to a CO.

 

[neovan]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
i thought you switched your car insurance to Geico

heh...i actually switched over to Wawanesa from 21st Century and that saved me about $700/year

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Modeps
Have fun with sh!tty SBC/Yahoo DSL! Savings isnt worth the headache.

Working for them in tech support I would actually have to disagree. I would at least try it for the month. 90% of people at least have no real problems. The small percentage of people that do are normally because they're too far out to have service and they complained to get it connected regardless, or there's just simply a bad line/card in the server/whatever that needs to be fixed and when it does it's fine. Most of the calls into tech support aren't legitimate problems anyhow. If people stopped calling so damn much with their unrelated problems it could cost even less...

Oh, have fun speaking with INDIA and the PHILIPPINES. I used to work on overnights, they kicked my ass off because they were sending calls overseas. Now my callcenter is doing almost nothing but Customer Self Install (lucky for that, otherwise we'd all be unemployed). SBC is keeping that in the US so hopefully people will be 30 days in before they realize that they have to speak with idiots overseas for support.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: neovan

Originally posted by: FoBoT
i thought you switched your car insurance to Geico

heh...i actually switched over to Wawanesa from 21st Century and that saved me about $700/year

Join the 21st crew Gotta love that additional equipment coverage.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: homestarmy
That's cool, but I hope you can live with the poor PQ of DirecTV and the ugly dish, but if you can, kudos to you!

What poor PQ? I've yet to see a good cable signal; analog, digital whatever. If had HD I'd still stick to DTV. HD-TIVO sounds like a plan to me.

Well I have Brighthouse networks and their Digital, even their Analog is for the most part better than DirectTV. I suppose most people wouldn't mind it, but it's mainly the motion artifacts from the heavy encoding being done... those just irk me. Mom and Pop or the average person watching on a 27" TV probably wouldn't care.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

another one brought into the light of the dish and the dsl.

made that same move myself years ago (eccept I like dish networks programing w/pvr better personally)
went from $70 a month for basic cable + entertainment package (basically just scifi, tlc,cartoon network, and discovery) dropped extra phone line of $14 a month (dial up) dropped ISP $20 a month = $104 god dsl $30 and dish $35 saved $40 a month and I have more channels and faster service. (btw cable internet here sucks big time)

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: homestarmy

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: homestarmy
That's cool, but I hope you can live with the poor PQ of DirecTV and the ugly dish, but if you can, kudos to you!

What poor PQ? I've yet to see a good cable signal; analog, digital whatever. If had HD I'd still stick to DTV. HD-TIVO sounds like a plan to me.

Well I have Brighthouse networks and their Digital, even their Analog is for the most part better than DirectTV. I suppose most people wouldn't mind it, but it's mainly the motion artifacts from the heavy encoding being done... those just irk me. Mom and Pop or the average person watching on a 27" TV probably wouldn't care.

Well, then you're definitely in the minority

Cable has always sucked in my experience.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: neovan
Cancelled cable + internet which cost -$136/month
Cancelled blockbuster game pass -$20/month
Cancelled blockbuster movie pass -$25/month
Ordered Yahoo DSL +$27/month
Ordered DirecTV w/ Tivo for 4 rooms +$53/month
----------------------------------------------------------
Total Savings $101/month

I plan on downgrading my cell service when my contract is up in 6 months. Currently its at $80/month. Hopefully get a plan that's half that price.

Any other ways of cutting my budget w/o taking away all my entertainment needs?

Yeah, but how many channels did you have with cable, and how many do you have with DirecTV. I guarantee that your DirecTV subscription doesn't include an movie channel, and at that point, your Tivo isn't going to replace that blockbuster pass.

Also, how fast is that DSL service. For $27/month, I bet you're getting 1/4th or less of the bandwidth you got with cable. Am I right?

 

[OffTopic1]

That is great.

Too bad Yahoo DSL isn't available here.

I just switch back to Shaw cable from Telus ADSL. 8 month ago I went to Telus ADSL for their promo of first 3 month free (with a $68 CAD modem purchase) then $19.95 CAD per month for 3 month then regular $34.95. And, I'm now paying $29.95 CAD for first six months (I own the modem) then it would be $37.95 CAD there after at 3-4X faster than ADSL speed.

At the moment I'm thinking of going with with Shaw Xtreme-I package for an adittional $15 CAD per month. Does anyone here sees much of a different between basic cable of 1.5-2MB down/256K up vs. 5MB down/1MB up for web browsing/dl?

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: homestarmy

Originally posted by: Modeps
Have fun with sh!tty SBC/Yahoo DSL! Savings isnt worth the headache.

Working for them in tech support I would actually have to disagree. I would at least try it for the month. 90% of people at least have no real problems. The small percentage of people that do are normally because they're too far out to have service and they complained to get it connected regardless, or there's just simply a bad line/card in the server/whatever that needs to be fixed and when it does it's fine. Most of the calls into tech support aren't legitimate problems anyhow. If people stopped calling so damn much with their unrelated problems it could cost even less...

Oh, have fun speaking with INDIA and the PHILIPPINES. I used to work on overnights, they kicked my ass off because they were sending calls overseas. Now my callcenter is doing almost nothing but Customer Self Install (lucky for that, otherwise we'd all be unemployed). SBC is keeping that in the US so hopefully people will be 30 days in before they realize that they have to speak with idiots overseas for support.

Every single person I know that has SBC/Yahoo has random line issues & connection drops , no mater how close to the CO they are. My parents for example are less than a mile away. They'll be fine for a month or two then out of the blue nothing works for a day or so, comes back, and follows up with intermittant service for the next 2 weeks. They place a call about the crappy quality, wait a few days, then it's fine for another month. Rinse, Repeat.

I'm also not exactly a fan of SBC and they're ridding the world of the SNET name, but that's another story.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: OffTopic
That is great.

Too bad Yahoo DSL don't isn't available here.

I just switch back to Shaw cable from Telus ADSL. 8 month ago I went to Telus ADSL for their promo of first 3 month free (with a $68 CAD modem purchase) then $19.95 CAD per month for 3 month then regular $34.95. And, I'm now paying $29.95 CAD for first six months (I own the modem) then it would be $37.95 CAD there after at 3-4X faster than ADSL speed.

At the moment I'm thinking of going with with Shaw Xtreme-I package for an adittional $15 CAD per month. Does anyone here sees much of a different between basic cable or 1.5-2MB down/256K up vs. 5MB down/1MB up for web browsing/dl?

HECK YEAH! 1MB upload is sweet. GREAT for sharing. Things like bittorrent won't let you d/l faster than you're u/l'ing, so I would definitely like to have more than the 512k I have.

 

[V00DOO]

Did you get your SBC DSL from Best Buy? If you did you will also receive a $50 BB Gift Card. I saw that on this week BB ad.

 

[neovan]

Originally posted by: Ilmater

Originally posted by: neovan
Cancelled cable + internet which cost -$136/month
Cancelled blockbuster game pass -$20/month
Cancelled blockbuster movie pass -$25/month
Ordered Yahoo DSL +$27/month
Ordered DirecTV w/ Tivo for 4 rooms +$53/month
----------------------------------------------------------
Total Savings $101/month

I plan on downgrading my cell service when my contract is up in 6 months. Currently its at $80/month. Hopefully get a plan that's half that price.

Any other ways of cutting my budget w/o taking away all my entertainment needs?

Yeah, but how many channels did you have with cable, and how many do you have with DirecTV. I guarantee that your DirecTV subscription doesn't include an movie channel, and at that point, your Tivo isn't going to replace that blockbuster pass.

Also, how fast is that DSL service. For $27/month, I bet you're getting 1/4th or less of the bandwidth you got with cable. Am I right?

True. But I've noticed a trend in my television habits. I don't watch television as much, only for the shows I mentioned plus I'm a huge local sports fan and those are on the basic plan. I don't need my service to be superfast but so far its comparable to speeds I was getting with my cable internet plus less down times. The movies currently out don't really impress me and even when I was watching HBO, they would show the same movie over and over around the same time I would be able to watch TV.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: neovan

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Get rid of directv and just download shows?

too much time involved in downloading them. i'm trying to capture quantum leap episodes since i noticed that they are playing on the scifi channel from 11PM-12AM PST. And I can't miss an episode of 24 or Alias.

Well, you can get all of those QL episodes on irc. Great quality.