How do you reduce your bills?

I personally do not have an interest in TV, but I think my wife uses NetFlix and I have heard others mention hulu.

 

Here's one for future use:

 

While it depends greatly on viewing appetite, I get nearly all the HD TV I want with the old-fashioned analog version of this: Channel Master 4220HD. (The newer 'HD digital' models have different cosmetics and prices than the old analog models, but the RF waves don't know the difference.) No monthly bill at all. Though it does get supplemented by an internet connection, which does have a monthly bill.

Don't let neighborhood or HOA rules and covenants dissuade anyone from this path. The FCC is viewer-friendly, and carries a big club against prohibitive local regulations.

 

Phone bills:

I own a RAZR of unknown vintage, bought years ago on Ebay for $30. I match it to a Verizon MVNO called pageplus cellular. It is mostly an emergency phone although sometimes I return work related calls. I bought a large batch of pre-paid minutes at 3.6 cents a minute a couple of years ago, and nowadays pay $10 every 4 months to roll-over my unused minutes.

My wife has an iPhone 3G3 that is now I think 4 years old. She matches it with StraightTalk (an ATT MVNO through TracFone/Walmart) for $38 a month. This allows her to yap for hours and hours, and have unlimited 2GB a month HS data.

My son owns the latest and greatest Android Phone (his first smartphone.) He matches it with a 5 GB HS data plan from T-mobile for $30 a month.

My daughter owns an older Android smartphone she bought from Ebay. She matches it with the $30 a month pre-paid plan from pageplus cellular so that she can text forever, and yap or use data.

All told, ~ $100/month for 4 people to use the phone they like, best suited to their use patterns.

 

Keeping track of money spent is a good idea to keep bills down.
I don't, but that is mostly because my wife takes care of almost all shopping.

She uses an app called iExpenseit for the iPhone. It works absolutely fantastic; and my wife rarely forgets to keep it updated. The iPhone was worth it, just to have this app.

 

I tried for years to convince my wife to use a desktop program but she always thought it was too much of a hassle and demand on her time.

The app on a phone finally did it. She was the main driver for my kids, and found that she had downtime in the car waiting for them to show up. That turned out to be a perfect opportunity for her to pull receipts out of her wallet and update the app. Nowadays she simply has the habit ingrained.

She enjoys taking advantage of sign-up bonuses for new credit cards. These usually require that the card be used to a threshold amount to gain the bonus. iExpensit handles this chore perfectly. I also get a kick out her telling me with some amount of pride that she used the card to within one purchase of gaining the bonus, and is ready for a new card. LOL

 

Dont underestimate the new HD antennas. I use the older version of this and can get all the local HD channels except for the two stations that broadcast on VHF. They come in every once in awhile. Im not willing to pay $15 for the VHF add on.
Amazon.com: Antennas Direct DB4E Antenna: Electronics
And old laptop running windows 7 and a TV tuner and I have my DVR without having to pay the ridiculous price Channelmaster charges for their DVR. My iPod with a free app acts as the remote.

 

That is a 4-bay UHF bowtie, the same concept (different brand) that I put on my dad's rural house a few years ago to help out his lousy fringe analog reception. It had always been ghosty and snowy since TV was invented. That bowtie helped significantly, but most viewers would still have described dad's reception as very substandard.

The low power translators (effectively rural repeaters of the big city stations) did not go digital in 2009 when the primary stations were required to dump analog. His channels started going digital last spring, with the last channels being converted during the summer. A digital converter box produced better results than the analog TV ever did. But a new digital HD TV with the same analog bowtie now gives fantastic reception, and many more channels. (NB: he lives well up a hillside, with direct line of sight to the translator and slightly over the horizon to the originating stations. Distance and weak signals were his real problem in the analog days.)

My antenna is a 2-bay UHF bowtie (different brand), i.e. just one step smaller. Because of the strong local signals, it still gets the one station that stayed VHF quite well, despite not being designed for it.

 

I heartily endorse this. Laptop, Win7, and a USB TV tuner gives us the DVR function we want, without subscription fees. And many things we miss, or discover too late (e.g. PBS shows) can also be streamed afterwords from the network web sites.

People accustomed to 'real' cable may find this inadequate. But as a cable refusenik (told them where to shove it more than 25 years ago when they imposed an ex-post-facto rate increase while further delaying the promised expansion of a very minimal offering), I don't really know what programming I'm missing. Nor do I watch enough to really care anymore.

 

In case people are concerned about the wiring and installation. I signed up for satellite, I forgot which, all the wiring installation was included. I ditched them after 2 years. I removed the dish and used their dish mount to install my antenna. Didn't even need to go on the roof. I used the existing wiring and all tv's are connected.

And yes, I was pretty hooked on cable tv those two years. But don't worry about not being able to let go. Your price skyrockets after 2 years. I had no problem paying $25 a month but $60? Goodbye, dish.

Yikes, I just aged myself. $60 is the new $25 huh?

 

Times have changed. Now things are bought with credit.

 

...umm stop eating food? a little known fact the human body requires no nutrition at some point.
After age 40 it all goes to, well you know, that spare tire Toyota forgot to include with the PiP.