Can you live with OUT cell phone, high speed internet and cable TV?

[Enuff2Eat]

Heck, i am paying way too much per month for what people call "normal" and "neccessity" expenses. I was perfectly happy 10-15 years ago withOUT all of these "nessisity", now even my 8 yrs old complain when she can't reach me on the cell phone. she says, next i will "text message" you.


i can think of 10 other things that i can spent my $2000/year on this expense.

enuff

[happy2bretired]

Me too! I keep asking myself how a hearing impaired person that can't use regular phones manages to spend $2K a year on phones. Something will change after my daughter graduates from college. Too much!

[saluki9]

I wouldn't want to live without them

[Nords]

Can you live with OUT cell phone, high speed internet and cable TV?

Sure, I used to do it for over 30 years. According to my kid, I used to commute to high school on a mastodon too.

Today I can only live without two out of three...

Don't worry, Enuff, pretty soon your daughter won't want to have anything to do with you that doesn't involve giving her cash or dropping her off somewhere.

[Fireup2025]

I do live without cable tv. We are too busy to watch to justify the expense.

Cell phone and 1/2 of a $16/mo DSL bill. (land line is housemate's)

Take away my cell for regular life, and I'd not be happy. (it does stay off when I am out of town)

[JPatrick]

Got to have the cell, but I could cut the plan by 50% probably. I offset the cost somewhat by having minimal landline service.
Cable (Dish) is part of our entertainment package. Got to have my sports eg. Aggies whipping Longhorns, and DW has her favorites--HGTV and others.
I'm a fairly aggressive trader so high speed is vital, but when my habits improve I will likely cut my speed/costs down.
Bottom line--I could cut some fat (and probably will now that you brought it up), but to me these are quality of life items that I wouldn't want to give up.

[kramer]

One thing that helped me was that I got rid of my telephone landline four years ago when I got a cell phone. That has greatly simplified my life, as well, during moves. And things like an answering machine or checking multiple Voice Mail boxes are no longer necessary. So my phone costs really only went up around $10/month when I switched from landline to cell phone with much greater flexibility.

Here is an idea for Cable TV. A friend of mine got tired of paying. So he got one of those digital antennas on his house (?) and started receiving a lot of channels (in High Def, too, I think). And then he subscribes to Netflix. Just some food for thought.

Kramer

[FinanceDude]

Have DSL and a cell phone...........

This month is my 20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY without cable tv.............

[haha]

Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat

Heck, i am paying way too much per month for what people call "normal" and "neccessity" expenses. I was perfectly happy 10-15 years ago withOUT all of these "nessisity", now even my 8 yrs old complain when she can't reach me on the cell phone. she says, next i will "text message" you.

I would like but don't need cable. I plan to get a cell phone, but have been without for some time as a budget helper. But I have had high speed internet for 6 months or so, and I absolutely do not think I would go back to dial-up voluntarily.

These things are like sex- until you have it, you don't realize how much you need it. But from then on nothing short of a bullet is going to take it away!

Ha

[Texas Proud]

Uhhhh.. YEA...

I do...

(now, I cheat because I do have a cell for emergencies.. maybe us 5 to 10 minutes a month and cost me $5 per month)..

[megacorp-firee]

Originally Posted by kramer

Here is an idea for Cable TV. A friend of mine got tired of paying. So he got one of those digital antennas on his house (?) and started receiving a lot of channels (in High Def, too, I think).Kramer

Being the cheapskate I am frugal, you have gotten my attention ... details please.

[Sarah in SC]

Likewise. I have no tv--have never paid a cable bill in my entire life, have always had only dial up internet, and the boss pays for my cell phone.

Sarah

[aenlighten]

I did so until fairly recently. I get sufficient broadcast tv. There is hardly anything on cable I want to watch. Renting a few dvds a month is much better. High speed internet is too good to drop given the amount of time I spend on line. Didn't use my cell enough to bother keeping it, so I dropped it recently. Decided I would rather eat out a few times a month.

[audreyh1]

No, why would I want to?

But there are a lot of things I do live very happily without - a house, a yard, a landline phone, and lots of stuff and furniture! Only one car too.

IMO Internet is the most important "thing" we have. A vast world of knowledge at our finger tips, and little need to own books or subscribe to magazines any more. So vastly more efficient than print - and interactive! High speed makes a serious difference.

Audrey

(FWIW I have satellite TV, not cable)

[teejayevans]

I already live without 2 of the 3, I need a cell phone because I
I don't have a land line.
TJ

[loosechickens]

I'm like Audrey......that satellite internet would be really hard to do without, and would probably be one of the last things to go. The minute mobile systems became available, we were standing in line. To me, it's like having the world's greatest research libraries at your service, and for a lifetime news junkie, it doesn't get any better than the internet. I can get on in the morning, check the Himalayan Times for the weather in Kathmandu where my sweetie's brother is working, carry on conversations with you guys and others.....what's not to like?

We already killed our satellite TV account. We really didn't watch much TV anyway, and just got fed up with commercials, etc., and when they raised to price, it was just that one more straw that made us pick up the phone and cancel it. Don't know if we'll keep it off forever, but for the moment, we're not missing it at all.

We have a cell phone, but use it mostly just for outgoing calls, as a convenience thing. Very few people have the number because I hate to answer the phone, but it's handy for my sweetie's mother to be able to call us directly, and someone dear to us is in Federal prison, and us having the cell phone enables him to reach out and communicate to us easily as well.

But we could manage quite well without it.

The internet.....now that's another story. It would be one of the last things left if we were down to beans and tortillas......

LooseChickens

[SamHouston]

Personally, I could easily live without a cell phone or cable television. Having a high speed internet connection, on the other hand, has become a necessity for me and I'd have a hard time letting that one go.

But since my wife enjoys having a cell phone (and likes for me to carry one when I'm away from home) and because she enjoys several cable television channels, we won't be doing without those either. Strangely enough, my wife couldn't care less about an internet connection but we'll keep all three services going.

[NinjaPigeon]

Well, considering that my income is derived from technology, the answer is no. At the risk of stating the obvious to those in the field and boring those not, cell phones, cable, and internet are all very closely related. A signal is a signal. And those signals keep food on my table and a roof over my head. So, yes, I support those industries. More, I want all of you to throw money at them too

The internet is the largest store of information mankind has ever known. Why would you want to live without it? Cell phones provide the ability to get medical or police help from anywhere even when they aren't activated (at least in the states; not true in other countries). About the only one of the three I see that could be cut is cable, and even then that's not always the case, as cable might be your only viable broadband option.

I often hear people point out how they lived without these things for years. Man also did without the automobile, penicillin, air conditioning... Does that mean we should give up these "luxuries" as well?

[free4now]

I can't live without high speed internet. Right now I'm in the process of packing up to move, and most of my things have been packed up for a couple of months now. The only big thing still unpacked is the computer system that I'm typing this on.

I've noticed more than a few real estate pictures on MLS where you see pictures of an empty house, except there's a desktop computer sitting on the floor. The computer is the thing that gets packed last because it's the one thing people can't go more than a few days without using.

[NinjaPigeon]

BTW, this question is perhaps too vague.

-Cable can be the lines by which you receive both phone and internet.
-Your phone can connect to the internet.
-The internet allows you to watch tv shows and call people.

In my case, I have the most basic cable package there is. It costs me about $20 a month. It gives me the channels I can't live without, as the history channel is Not free. My cell phone is about $80 a month. For this I get unlimited data traffic, which is a necessity, as this is how I get my email or log into a server when I'm not in the office (Google maps for the cell phone - score!). Finally, my internet is bundled with my cable for another $40, and again, this is a necessity since I work from home and do online banking.