Last summer I wrote a blog posting about how I was cutting my landline–that is, the second line in our home that I used for my business. My reasoning was simple: I tended to use my cell phone primarily for business calls, because I always had it with me and because I’d programmed the voice mail on the landline to call me whenever anyone left a message. Nine times out of 10, I returned those message by dialing on my cell phone.
There was another reason I decided to let this second line go: it was costing me more than $750 a year to have this phone line that wasn’t getting any use. Why on earth, whether frugal or not, would I pay that kind of money for which I wasn’t getting the full value?
This small change in our regular expenditures is one example of how you can find big savings in your day-to-day life. And making these kinds of changes doesn’t have to be a one-time-only kind of thing. Just like President Obama wanted to take a scalpel to this country’s budget (as opposed to John McCain’s hatchet–paraphrasing here, of course), it is important for people to continue to take a scalpel to their budget so they can maintain their frugal standard of living.
Now that research from the U.S. Census Bureau is showing that 54.8% of Americans spend more on wireless phone service than landlines, I figured it was a good time to revisit the notion of saving money on phones. I mean, everyone’s got one–our four, like my family–right? That said, here are 3 ways you can save on your phone bills:
- Review your bells and whistles. When you signed up for your phone service–be it your landline or cell phone–did you end up getting (and paying for) all of these bells and whistles you don’t need? For example, are you paying for call waiting yet you never use it? What about call forwarding? I would recommend taking a look at all of the add-ons you have with your phone service, and making sure that you’re paying for stuff you actually use. If not, call up your phone company or wireless carrier, and ask them to give you a better deal–you know, or you’re taking your business elsewhere.
- Consider cutting your landline. How does saving $750 a year or more than $60 a month sound to you? It sounded pretty good to me, which is why we got rid of that second landline last summer. I know I’ve already explained our reasons for cutting that landline. If any of those reasons resonate with you–especially the money-saving part–then maybe it’s time for you to cut your landline, too. Or at least find a way to make it less expensive for you.
- Find a new phone provider. Last month my husband and I were reviewing our phone charges once again, and realized that with one landline left in the house, we were still paying more than $750 a year for that line. We wondered if there was a cheaper way for us to keep our home phone number, and we found it this way–by bundling our phone service in with our cable and Internet provider. Not only did we save $50 a month on the phone (that adds up to $600 a year), but by adding phone service to our existing cable package, we actually got a better selection of premium channels without spending more for them.
I’d love to hear it if you’ve found additional ways to save on your phone bills.
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
For our cell phones, we have pay-as-you go plans because, at this point, we don’t use them that much.
For our landline, we don’t have any bells and whistles, other than Caller ID. For long distance, we use a pre-paid calling card. It’s programmed into our speed dial, so we only have to push a button to use it. We’ve gone from spending $100/month on long distance to around $75/year.
[...] leahingram created an interesting post today on 3 Ways to Save on Phone Bills « Suddenly Frugal BlogHere’s a short outlineWe wondered if there was a cheaper way for us to keep our home phone number, and we found it this way–by bundling our phone service in with our cable and Internet provider. Not only did we save $50 a month on the phone (that adds up to … [...]
For years, I lived without a landline. Unfortunately, about two years ago, an ex trespassed on my property, which forced me to turn the alarm system–and the landline–back on.
At the end of April, when my current alarm bill is up, I’m canceling service with that company, adding a cell backup, and picking up service with another company. After cutting off my landline, I’ll come out $39 ahead every month. LOVE that kind of savings.
We use our cell phones for all non-local calls and rarely, if ever go over our minutes (I use my cell for business so that’s a non-negotiable expense, but my company has a small discount agreement with Cingular so that helps.)
Just this week we replaced all 4 of our regular phones (they were 15 years old and 2 were completely dead, the others made echos!). We need 4 because our house is 4 stories. The new phones have built-in message recorders in each set so we are going to eliminate our phone-company voice mail and the call forwarding it has when the line is busy because we’re rarely on that phone anyway – it will save about $10 a month.
Leah, great tips for saving on wireless in this rough and tumble economy. I thought that I’d slightly expand on your suggestions for phone savings by mentioning a method for effectively reducing specifically cellular expenses for those who may be interested. Check out the consumer advocacy website where I (admittedly) work, http://www.fixmycellbill.com, that slashes the average cell bill by 22 percent. Through the site, which is powered by a company called Validas, we have currently audited over 26,000 cell lines and have saved consumers nearly $5 million off their wireless bills. You can see Validas’s fixmycellbill.com in the national news media, most recently on Good Morning America at http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6887412&page=1.
Good luck to everyone reading on cutting expenses in the recession.
Dylan
[...] 3 Ways to Save on Phone Bills (suddenlyfrugal.wordpress.com) [...]
[...] cutting a landline or combining your cable TV, Internet and phone service. By doing the latter, we saved $50 a month on phone expenses and got premium channels for free [...]
Enjoyed the post… If you haven’t heard about Ooma, this may be a great money saver on phone expenses. I have more info about it in this post:
http://www.omniswami.com/2009/09/free-voip-home-phone-service-from-ooma-ooma-review/