Quote:
17. Make sure you are paying the least for quality service as possible. Do you have cable? See if DirecTV is cheaper. Have you compared your insurance company's rates with those of other companies? Have you thought about switching from a regular phone company to a voice-over-IP system like Vonage? What about your cell phone plan?
|
That one tweaked my brain cells on the issue of phones. I'll add a bit to the content. Not only did we switch to Vonage a few years ago, but we 'downgraded' within their service as well. They don't advertise it as much, but they have a cheaper 500 minutes per month plan for $15 instead of their unlimited $25/month plan. We started out with the unlimited, but monitored our usage for 3-4 months. I found out that the highest that we went during that time was 300 minutes or so. Switching to the 500 minutes plan immediately saved $120/year.
We aren't heavy cell phone users, so we each (wife and I) got a phone and account through Virgin. No contract, pay for minutes as you go with no expiration. The minimum is paying up for $15 worth of minutes every 3 months if you set it up on an automated plan. Neither of us ever burns through all of our minutes since the phones are mostly for quick convenience calls when we are away from the house. So that is $60 per YEAR for cell phone service for each phone. I know lots and lots of people who pay more than $60 per month for cell phone service. Even if you cut one of your cell phones (assuming you are in a couple) down to a pay as you go plan, the savings can add up.