Author Topic: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning  (Read 11390 times)

Joet

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Direct tv $120 to $180 depending on whether its football season or not
$84 land line lol nostalgia, + $20 in calling cards or so monthly (lol!)
$150 pair of unlimited smart phones, AT&T , including workplace discounts
Internet $41 expired shitty uverse service of like 12 bits per week

All in--$410 to $470 or so!


/ends self

grantmeaname

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Internet $41 expired shitty uverse service of like 12 bits per week
Your life is sad. We get like 16 bits per week and it's only $23 in Ohio.

Zikoris

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Why does your landline cost $84? I've never in my life heard of a landline that expensive - I pay $25 for mine and that's always been sot of a standard price for that service. I'm not sure how that's even possible - does i have some sort of features? Can a landline even HAVE special features?

Have you considered finding something else to do with your time than watch TV? You must watch a lot if you'e paying for that many channels. 3 hours a day? 4? More?

matchewed

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So what are you doing about all these public displays of consumerism?

Joet

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What exactly is public about anonymously posting about some monthly bills?  (Unles that's you out behind my bushes!)

Jamesqf

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OK, now would you care to explain why?

For contrast, $7/month cell phone (replaced $30-something land line), $29.95/month cable internet (which is deductible as a business expense), pretty reasonable speed though I just download the occasional large dataset, not doing stuff like streaming video.

olivia

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Oh Joet, you're such a troll. But seriously do you even watch TV? I thought you surfed all the time and your wife shopped all the time.  Where do you find time to watch TV?! :P

Joet

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I'm trying to shame myself into action. DW and I just had a 1-hr discussion fight on this topic. Landline is unwaveringly required, as is direct tv. Great, my grandparents would agree on the landline at least! Might be able to make some improvements around the edges.

The irony is particularly tasty because I work on digital voice at least tangentially for a living, and have access to any number of SIP/soft related/google voice/etc services more or less free. #win

The TV is not my decision, I ask for it to be muted during commercials all the time etc if I'm around. I would love to whack it and I already installed an OTA setup that picks up some decent local content, crystal clear digital of all SF and San Jose stations. Free woot. This is nothing more than a spending struggle moment. I suppose I can save 10 or 20 here or there with the constraints I am given,
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 12:10:14 AM by Joet »

gooki

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Fucking lol. Thanks for posting, this is an excellent example of why Americas middle class is poor.

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If some services are non-negotiable, are the providers at least up for grabs?  I find it hard to believe that's the going rate for a land line, even in SoCal.  What does DirectTV have that regular cable does not?  You can get pre paid unlimited data plans for $60/month, even through Verizon - nothing lost except money in the company's pockets.  I would try for small wins like that, especially since your wife doesn't seem to be a cold turkey kind of a person.

happy

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #10 on: July 09, 2013, 05:43:53 AM »
Joet: eye-roll. I guess you want some sort of reaction, thats the best I can muster on this particular thread.

Maybe your ultimate calling on this board is to make everyone else feel badass :)

Rebecca Stapler

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #11 on: July 09, 2013, 06:35:25 AM »
DW and I just had a 1-hr discussion fight on this topic. Landline is unwaveringly required, as is direct tv.

So, your wife is fighting you about getting rid of football? You can at least cut that out.

velocistar237

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #12 on: July 09, 2013, 07:26:17 AM »
Try applying less pressure over more time. The winning-over-your-SO article was more about carrot than stick, and the more fights you have, the more negative feelings will be attached to this subject. Do what you can within your constraints, and don't push too hard.

How about VoIP for phone? You could probably keep your same phone number. Is there something special about that land line? If the calling cards are for international calls, what about Skype?

Can you move to some kind of box on-demand service, like Apple TV? I have no experience with these, but if each show is cheap, then you might come out ahead, and with no schedule and no commercials(?). It's possible the per-show cost will create an incentive to watch less TV.

How much football can you get over-the-air?

prodarwin

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2013, 08:03:25 AM »
$84 land line lol nostalgia, + $20 in calling cards or so monthly (lol!)

That is awesome.


Joet

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2013, 08:37:28 AM »
DW and I just had a 1-hr discussion fight on this topic. Landline is unwaveringly required, as is direct tv.

So, your wife is fighting you about getting rid of football? You can at least cut that out.

I'm sure you won't believe me, but I'm not the football watcher/fan. I couldn't care less about football. Normally these are the types of responses that are trying to ferret out where I am party to the spending problem as well, I get it. Basically I have a series of requirements that are all un-solvable if the goal isn't to spend 4-500 a month on services that one of us doesn't even want. So it's a spending/power struggle and nothing more I guess.
A simple solution would be the Comcast triple play non-contract price of 120 for that oh-so-important faux-cablen-non-landline-landline, Internet and cable. Oh but no, Comcast sucks, and their NFL package does too. As far as OTA football I get niners or Oakland home games... Of course raiders block like 90% of their home games because of blackout/sales problems.

But yeah, some of us are here just to provide examples for others for what not to do I suppose. Your welcome.

GuitarStv

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #15 on: July 09, 2013, 09:11:28 AM »
Step 1 - Divorce your wife.
Step 2 - Cut your needless expenses.
Step 3 - ????
Step 4 - Profit

Eric

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #16 on: July 09, 2013, 09:30:40 AM »
As far as OTA football I get niners or Oakland home games... Of course raiders block like 90% of their home games because of blackout/sales problems.

You get the Niners and Raiders road games too.  It's more Raiders football than I can handle, personally.

DoubleDown

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #17 on: July 09, 2013, 10:34:44 AM »
Joet, what is your wife's cultural background and upbringing?

SunshineGirl

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #18 on: July 09, 2013, 10:45:04 AM »
I can't remember if you and your wife keep separate finances, but in your shoes, I sure would. Or if you have a set spending amount you each get per month, her share should pay for these things - because they're not necessities. They're hobbies or holdouts.

For whatever insane reason, we still have a landline, too, that costs about $50/month. We just haven't been able to let it go  - some nebulous reason like having two kids in the house and wanting to always be available (my seldom-used cell phone could have a message on it for hours or days without me knowing), and liking the heavier handset. (Actually, this reminds me: I need to post for advice on this!)

Anyway, my point is that if my SO wanted to cut the landline and I didn't, but agreed it was "my" issue -- if it was proposed that I should somehow pay for it out of "my" money, I'd hurry up and figure out a better solution.

Jamesqf

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #19 on: July 09, 2013, 12:07:41 PM »
...and liking the heavier handset. (Actually, this reminds me: I need to post for advice on this!)

Humm...  Tinkerer that I am, I'd suggest getting the handset from a old cordless phone, take out most of the guts, and glue the cell phone in place of the keypad.  Then maybe wire the cell phone's mike & speaker to the handset's?

Eric

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #20 on: July 09, 2013, 12:15:31 PM »
...and liking the heavier handset. (Actually, this reminds me: I need to post for advice on this!)

Humm...  Tinkerer that I am, I'd suggest getting the handset from a old cordless phone, take out most of the guts, and glue the cell phone in place of the keypad.  Then maybe wire the cell phone's mike & speaker to the handset's?

If you're not a tinkerer, you can just buy the accessory.  Like this one for example:

http://www.amazon.com/GLD-MM01H-R-1-Red-Handset/dp/B003DKL4KE

velocistar237

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #21 on: July 09, 2013, 12:20:15 PM »
...and liking the heavier handset. (Actually, this reminds me: I need to post for advice on this!)

Humm...  Tinkerer that I am, I'd suggest getting the handset from a old cordless phone, take out most of the guts, and glue the cell phone in place of the keypad.  Then maybe wire the cell phone's mike & speaker to the handset's?

Or this?
http://www.amazon.com/Echo-Logico-Retro-Handset-Packaging/dp/B007TSRFX6/

Joet

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #22 on: July 09, 2013, 12:20:34 PM »
minor update:

$40/mo internet+landline-equivalent (cable) through comcast initiated. ported our landline # over as well

self-install option (saved $40, and appointment headache), also saved $7 cable-modem monthly ding by providing own hardware --although I did have to buy a box, works out slightly in my favor in 12 months. Knowing my history, I will probably ignore the price increases for a few months after the intro period expires so this becomes a larger advantage.

Direct TV: SO is calling to threaten-quit and see what she gets. OK great. Maybe the bill comes down a little, who knows.
$120

Cell phones: Still $150/month for a pair of unlimited/voice/text/data plans incl relationship discounts. Contract expires in 4 months, at that point will use a discount carrier. Probably drop $50/mo or so here in Nov. We do need to use a bunch of minutes business related

So before:
$120 (DTV)+$83 (landline) + $20 (calling cards) + $150 (cell) + $41 (internet) = $414/mo

Now:
$120 + $40 (landline/internet) + $20 (calling cards) + $150 (cell) = $330/mo

aka just dropped $84, woo!

In Nov
$120 + $40 + $20 + $100 (Tmobile/Sprint/mobile 2 plans) = $280/mo

+any direct TV discounts.
#facepalm

:)

to give you an example of what I'm up against: spoke with DW a moment ago, and ..." What are we all of a sudden broke or something?" keeps coming up :(
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 12:23:19 PM by Joet »

Daley

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #23 on: July 09, 2013, 02:21:06 PM »
Joet, I'm happy to hear you're finally making a dent in that budget. :)

That said? I'm kind of surprised that given your background, you didn't just surreptitiously buy an OBi110, toss on a suitable outbound SIP provider like VOIP.ms, keep the landline but strip off everything but local calling, set up an appropriate dial plan that ran everything outbound but 911 and local calls through the SIP provider, and toss the box between the demarcation point and the rest of the house wiring... then just wait and see if the wife even noticed any difference beyond a cheaper bill in one month.

Great way to introduce cheaper services... make the transition seamless and undetectable, then when they find out? A lot less resistance. "It worked, didn't it? Couldn't even tell the difference, right?" Then you could've just ported the land line over from there. Added sales point from there? "You don't have to spend the extra time and hassle buying calling cards to make your calls anymore!"

Joet

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #24 on: July 09, 2013, 02:33:48 PM »
^ great idea, hehe

arebelspy

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #25 on: July 09, 2013, 03:04:26 PM »
Going behind your partner's back after something has been discussed and changing it without their knowledge and hoping they don't notice?

Oh that's right, dishonesty is the key to any good relationship.
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Daley

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #26 on: July 09, 2013, 03:14:59 PM »
Going behind your partner's back after something has been discussed and changing it without their knowledge and hoping they don't notice?

Oh that's right, dishonesty is the key to any good relationship.

Fair point, but if it hadn't been discussed and it's done in a way that's easily reversible?

arebelspy

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #27 on: July 09, 2013, 03:30:15 PM »
Going behind your partner's back after something has been discussed and changing it without their knowledge and hoping they don't notice?

Oh that's right, dishonesty is the key to any good relationship.

Fair point, but if it hadn't been discussed and it's done in a way that's easily reversible?

I suppose, but it seems better to me to propose a trial, especially if it's easily reversible, rather than just change something that could lead to more fights later.

IDK, he's in a pretty tough place in that relationship.  You either are up front and honest, and have a fight about it, or you sneak and have a fight later if caught.  I prefer the former, but it's not a fun situation to be sure.
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Joet

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #28 on: July 09, 2013, 03:58:37 PM »
technically a cable-modem/residential gateway doesnt really provide identical emergency/911 services as a land line anyways, similar I suppose. And the land line is obligated to have dial tone/911 services for at least 90 days anyways (not sure if they turn it off...)

so at least in terms of what the former is offering in terms of one aspect of the land line, it's already not 'identical'

Daley

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #29 on: July 09, 2013, 04:17:46 PM »
technically a cable-modem/residential gateway doesnt really provide identical emergency/911 services as a land line anyways, similar I suppose. And the land line is obligated to have dial tone/911 services for at least 90 days anyways (not sure if they turn it off...)

so at least in terms of what the former is offering in terms of one aspect of the land line, it's already not 'identical'

Thus the genius of an ATA with both an FXS and FXO port using a dialplan that routes 911 through the landline. If traditional landline 911 service is the point of contention, it can be easily preserved with the solution proposed. Just shunt off all outgoing and international long distance to a VoIP provider. Though technically, your switch to Comcast for phone service as you pointed out has already taken you out of the copper landline 911 camp and thrown you square into e911 territory already.

For the record, however, I have needed to call 911 over our VoIP service on a couple occasions. The e911 service works fine.

Going behind your partner's back after something has been discussed and changing it without their knowledge and hoping they don't notice?

Oh that's right, dishonesty is the key to any good relationship.

Fair point, but if it hadn't been discussed and it's done in a way that's easily reversible?

I suppose, but it seems better to me to propose a trial, especially if it's easily reversible, rather than just change something that could lead to more fights later.

IDK, he's in a pretty tough place in that relationship.  You either are up front and honest, and have a fight about it, or you sneak and have a fight later if caught.  I prefer the former, but it's not a fun situation to be sure.

You are, of course, absolutely correct. The relationship in question is an absolute minefield, and honesty is always the way to go... but he's also in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. I don't envy the man, to be sure. I'm just happy he's actually put a 20% dent in his communications costs... it's a move in the right direction.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 04:21:10 PM by I.P. Daley »

Kriegsspiel

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #30 on: July 09, 2013, 04:40:19 PM »

Joet

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #31 on: July 09, 2013, 06:43:09 PM »

kkbmustang

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #32 on: July 09, 2013, 09:08:52 PM »
Joet and Kriegsspiel - you two crack me up.

Kriegsspiel

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #33 on: July 09, 2013, 09:19:54 PM »

Paul der Krake

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #34 on: July 10, 2013, 02:21:41 AM »
Damn, we need to get a Mustachian Memes thread started.

oldtoyota

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Re: For your derision: my monthly phone, cable, Internet totals: #winning
« Reply #35 on: July 19, 2013, 08:33:33 PM »
Why does your landline cost $84? I've never in my life heard of a landline that expensive - I pay $25 for mine and that's always been sot of a standard price for that service. I'm not sure how that's even possible - does i have some sort of features? Can a landline even HAVE special features?

Have you considered finding something else to do with your time than watch TV? You must watch a lot if you'e paying for that many channels. 3 hours a day? 4? More?

My land line cost $73. Others in the same area paid less. Somehow, Verizon thought, "We've got a sucker!" And, for several years, they did. The line would stop working every time it rained and that removed my I-need-a-land-line-case-of-an-emergency reason.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2013, 08:39:36 PM by oldtoyota »