Two years ago my husband and I moved into a new home. While I hate moving, I love the opportunity it gives me to clear out the clutter. How often do we get the chance to empty every single drawer, closet, nook and cranny in our homes?
I’ve moved about five times in ten years and I am finally starting to get good at it. This time, I decided to use the move as an opportunity to rethink (and reduce) some of our monthly bills. Since I’ve always had the tendency to be a bargain shopper, I wasn’t able to eliminate much. I was able to get the rock-bottom price on our internet service and cable bill when I set them up.
However, I was shocked when I started to look at our previous phone bills. We were paying for two cell phones, a land-line, long distance charges, local charges along with monthly service fees for all three. (Not to mention two hefty overdraft charges when my husband and I exceeded our monthly cell minutes).
As we thought about our phone usage we realized that the majority of my calls were long-distance. (My family resides in another state and I was operating a home-based business). The majority of my husband’s calls were made with his cell phone. (He is a Sheriff’s Deputy and spends most of his time in his car).
Since we were moving anyway, we decided to eliminate our land-line and get an unlimited calling plan on both of our phones. Our family members thought we were crazy. “What will you do in an emergency?” “What if your phone dies?” Etc… These were concerns we had too. We did a bit of research and learned that our local emergency services can track calls from cellular phones. We also added additional chargers in our home as a reminder to dock our phones when we were not using them.
While we may have a different situation than most people, we saved a considerable amount of money. Rather than paying $39.00 per month for our local phone, $60.00 (and more per month) for long distance charges and $100+ per month for our cell phone use (and overuse) we pay a flat $149.00 for unlimited calls on two phones.
Could you cut the land-line cord? Should you? There are certainly some benefits and drawbacks. I love the freedom of being able to talk wherever, whenever and to whomever I want on my cell phone without worrying about using too many minutes. However, I hate getting a call from a telemarketer on “date-night” when I forgot to turn off my cell phone.
While I love getting a call from a friend when I am traveling, running errands or doing other mindless things, it is sometimes frustrating when my family and friends always expect me to answer immediately….”we know you are there….” , they’ll say on the “machine”.
Right now, the benefits and savings are outweighing the annoyances, however, if I lose my cell phone one more time, I may have to reconsider.