It seems that less and less people actually do...I actually feel like a bit of a dinosaur for still having one. Every time it comes up, we always find a reason to keep it...but here's the thing, we really...really don't need it anymore. Our personal cell phones have unlimited national calling....so why pay for a service we don't need? Especially, when yesterday I wrote about needing to come up with an additional $230/month to get the Escape and Line of Credit paid off within the next three years.
So, Jordan and I not only looking at our house phone, but our whole package with Shaw.
We're going from a total of $180.40, broken down as follows:
- High Speed (25) - $60
- Phone - $15
- TV - $89.90
- Rental TV box - $15
- Time shift - $5
to:
- High speed (10) - $55
- TV - $89.90
- Rental TV box - $15
- Time shift - $5
That brings us down to $160.40 - saving $20/month. It's not a lot, but it's a start. We could save another $15, we we switched from a rental agreement to a two year purchase agreement where we would have no fee but be committed to Shaw for 24 months. If we left, we would have to pay an early penalty of $15/month times the remaining months.
Do you think it's worth it? We talk about switching companies from time-to-time, but in reality - we probably won't unless it was a super good deal to move.
You might have also noticed that I dropped our internet down, we lose a loot for only $5 savings - but here's the kicker. We're not even coming close to what we're aloud to use...plus, there is NO penalty for going over the bandwidth limits at this lower tier...none!
This is our usage graph from Shaw...the green line is what we're permitted to use....you can see that we increased it when our friends moved in temporary in anticipation of much higher usage - but that never happened. If anything, we used less.
The change goes into effect this Friday, so i'll be updating the budget - but I'm still going to keep our commitment from yesterday, and keep tracking those Escape snowflakes!
Why are you renting the tv box? That's $180/ year- it's pretty much never a deal in your favour to rent modems or tv boxes from the provider.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn on it...if we choose to do the purchase plan, it locks us into this provider for two years or there are penalties. Do you think it's worth the risk?
DeleteWe purchased our old Shaw box years ago. When we bought a house and moved, we changed TV providers, but were able to sell the box and get about 50% back. I'd say it's worth it, but shop around first and make sure there aren't any other better deals out there. And look to see if you can buy the box from another company (i.e. Future Shop or Best Buy) for cheaper.
DeleteI've no idea what the purchase plan would look like we bought ours on sale at best buy, but I know other people who got theirs on craigslist second hand. I try and avoid getting anything directly from the provider other than the service- they are usually not the cheapest option because they know most people are too lazy to price compare.
DeleteIf we decide to purchase it, there is no cost, and the rental fee disappears. We would have to pay a penalty of $15/month times the remaining months in the 24 period if we cancelled/moved (which could happen). I'll certainly keep my eye out for used shaw boxes!
DeleteLike Lea, we also bought our box. We bought it at a discount retailer (but a place like Tiger Direct should have a decent deal) and then sold it to someone else for almost as much as we paid for it. Keep an eye out for sales and then pounce!
ReplyDeleteI will, thanks Morgaine!
DeleteI don't have a home phone or cable. I use my cell phone and have wifi to watch tv on my computer. Good job with the $20 a month. It adds up!
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing, I'm so impressed! I know that some of the shows we watch are online, but I've never really looked to see which ones and how to access them all - to see if we really could get away with no cable at all. The tricky part (I think), would be all of Jordan's sports channels.
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