We’re looking to make a BIG change in our finances. We aren’t just aiming to pay off our debt eventually, we’re going to be debt-free as soon as possible. With such an ambitious goal in mind we need to make some bold moves to make it happen. Our available money needs to increase but a raise in income isn’t in the near future for us. We’ve already got a few side-hustles going, which leaves cutting something back.
As with anyone, there are certain things we haven’t wanted to let go of. We’ve made excuses and justified a few extra items. Today, I’m just focusing on three: Internet, Television and Phone.
What we were doing: We had a bundle package through Verizon (recently bought-out by Fairpoint) & DirecTV for all three services. We had unlimited local and long distance calling on our home phone, unlimited 3.0 Mbps wireless internet and DirecTV with a DVR. For this bundle package we were paying $106/mo. We were informed a few weeks ago that our rate was about to increase to about $120/mo. While this may sound reasonable to some of you, I’d like to share why it wasn’t reasonable for us.
- We almost never call long distance on our home phone. We use our cell phones for that (and don’t even come close to using all our minutes).
- We watch very few channels aside from local channels (ESPN, NESN and Disney).
Here’s why we’ve held on to our plan:
- We LOVE our DVR. Love it. Love it. We don’t like commercials and don’t like planning our lives around television shows.
- We like to not have to think about the long distance, knowing the bill will be the same every month (which it actually isn’t).
What we’re doing now: We downgraded our plan with Fairpoint to telephone-only costing $15 for local, $1 for long distance @ $.12/minute, and $8 caller ID. We aren’t sure if we are going to keep the caller ID and they said we can cancel that service any time. We cancelled our DirecTV for a steep price of $200 (big gulp, but we think it’s worth it). We got a plan through Time Warner Cable for our television and internet. The cost for internet is $24.95 with a slower speed of 1.5 Mbps and the basic cable is FREE with the internet, which is guaranteed for 12 months. The cost to cancel the DirecTV pays for itself quickly. Assuming we make all long distance calls on our cell phones, our total monthly cost for all three services will be: $48.95. A savings of $71.05/mo.
Here are the pros:
- NO contracts. DirecTV forces you into a 2-year agreement (which, by the way, they don’t feel at all compelled to prove) and charges you $20/mo. for the number of months that you cancel early.
- Savings. This is a big difference.
- We don’t notice any difference in the speed of our internet. Not sure why – maybe because it’s a cable modem?
Here are the cons:
- No DVR
I’m sure we could look into a TiVo, but really – are we that addicted to our television? - No sports channels for hubby. Can I please hear some props for my sports fanatic husband? He’s really the one taking the hit on this one. My daughter can do without her channel just fine.
Why we decided to change: Even though there are certain things about our old plan that made us more comfortable we decided the trade-off was well worth the sacrifices. When it comes down to it, our commitment to be debt-free and in a more secure financial position far outweighs the convenience of these services. Did we like them? Yup. Will we think the cost is worth it again in the future? Maybe. But for now, we’re willing to do without.
Have you made the choice to downgrade any of these services? What spurred you to make the change?
Why I do what I do ~ My daughter likes to make up songs about what she’s doing or thinking. Tonight her song went like this, “Mommy and Daddy and Chloe will be together forever.”
photo credit: venetia joubert sarah oosterveld
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We have downgraded to the basic cable in our home, with cable modem and no home phone line for about $53/month. I never had the DVR so I don’t know what I am missing! We do miss the sports channels- but we bring it back for college football since our local cable company does not require a contract either! Somedays I wish we had a home phone line when our cell phones don’t work well at our house, but then I just think that we need to change our cell phone provider to correct that. Good luck with your change!! The internet has most of the extra shows we would watch for free and limited commercials too! Check out hulu.com!
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We watch shows on hulu too!
Yea for Nicki’s hubby!!! And you, too, Nicki. Way to go
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Hi there….Nicki…first – thanks for stopping by the Lylah Blog – loved your comment on the book that’s changing me
second….i’m so glad you came by…which prompted me to visit you AND great spot in the world here. i LOVED reading what you and your husband are doing to become debt free. After reading about reducing your cable/tv stuff down you could have heard me say, “Honey, is there anyway we can get a cheaper package with Cox Cable?” See…you spurred me on for one more area to re-visit.
Blessings…lylah
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Unfortunately for me (well…maybe “fortunately”…) cable tv and high speed internet aren’t even an option for us out here in the country! We did have dishnetwork for about a year but gave it up and went to a rooftop antenna which gave us 4 channels, then came the digital tv “partial conversion”. Got the coupons, bought a converter box for $20,now we get 7 channels! (CBS, WCAXtra, NHPTV, VPT, plus two other VPT channels ‘Create’ (crafts, cooking, gardening) and “World” (very interesting). w/out the converter box we get ABC. I’m hopeful that after the full conversion in June we’ll get even more. All for free!
* $30.30 to Fairpoint communications every month for unlimited local and caller id. I buy calling cards at Rite Aid when they go on sale buy 1 get 1 free. It’s $.02 per minute.
* Trac Fone for cell service because it’s a pay as you go, no bills no hassles. This is a luxury though, not a necessity. I use it VERY sparingly.
*Recently downgraded from Earthlink dial-up which was $21.95 to $9.95 for 10 hours a month.
My reasons for doing these things are so we don’t waste our money and so I can afford to work part time and still afford to pay half of our living expenses. Plus it allows us to save money because we don’t know what the future holds, there are always unexpected things that pop up in life and they are usually BIG, like replacing of vehicles, furnaces, appliances, you just never know. We like the security of having a savings to fall back on when life throws us curve balls.
Blessings!
We are about to cut our landline altogether, I think. We have a phone, internet, cable bundle, so it will probably only save us $30-$40 a month, but every little bit counts right now.
I am hanging onto my DVR with both hands, but it’s definitely on the list of possible cuts if things get tighter. I will be sad to see it go, but I bet we would also see some savings in our electrical bill if we got rid of it. That thing is on all the time.
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I am so proud of you! I can totally understand how hard it is to finally decide to make those deep cuts. And I applaud you for giving up the DVR. We waited as long as we could before we got it, and now that we do, I’m afraid I’m hooked. But you are saving so much money…congratulations!
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The reason you don’t notice the difference in your internet speed is that you probably just download web pages, you don’t need that much bandwidth for this. Where the speed comes into play is high bandwidth things such as streaming video or downloading files. 1.5 mbps is still pretty fast, so you probably won’t notice too much of a lag even streaming the videos. Also, where the need for speed would come into play is if you have multiple computers hooked up and they are all streaming videos at the same time. 1.5 mbps is fine for a normal household.
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for other video options you can try sling.com, tv.com, chooseandwatch.com, and tidaltv.com.