Saving Money: Telephones

When we were at language school this last time, we almost didn't get a land line. The only reason we did was so we could use the fax machine. It turned out that I used it very infrequently so it was an unnecessary expense.

We've gone the last few years having just one cell phone between the two of us. Whoever needed it the most would take it with them that day, and usually it worked out pretty well. A couple months ago we finally broke down and got a cell phone for me. This was in anticipation of the day that we would have our own place: we already knew we weren't going to get a land line at our next house. You used to need a land line in order to get internet, but with all the advances in internet technology, that's no longer the case. Thank goodness! Can you imagine how long it would take to download one blog page on dial-up?

For us, cell phones make sense. I don't want to be tied to a land line at home, especially when Mr S is gone on a trip. I want to be able to receive a call from him whenever he's able to call, wherever I am. Nothing's worse than staying at home all day, every day, on the off chance that he might call that day. And if we both have cells, why should we have a land line? This doesn't work for everyone, but for our circumstances, it's what works.

While there are some who argue against the intrusion of having cell phones on your person all the time, just because you have it, doesn't mean you have to answer it. Just like at home :)

Quick ways to save on your rate plans:

• Skip the repair/replace fee. It only works under certain conditions, and those conditions are never the ones that damaged/destroyed your phone. If you save up the money instead, you can easily replace your phone should the need arise. We save $4 per phone each month.
• Call and see if your provider offers a corporate discount for the company you work for. We save 10% on our monthly bill doing this.
• Watch your usage and double check which plan you need. Look for plans with free nights and weekends, free incoming calls, free calls to other cell phones (regardless of provider). Don't pay for services you don't use. If you don't text and will never text, but you still receive spam texts, ask your provider to put a text block on your line. Mr. S's plan does not include texts, so we kept having to pay for spam texts. It took a couple calls, but we got a block put on his line to prevent all texts from going through. No more charges for texts we didn't want in the first place.
• If you're out of the country for an extended period of time, call and put a hold on your line. We did this a few years ago when Mr. S went out of the country on a training mission. Since he didn't have an internationally capable phone, there wasn't any point in him bringing it with him. At that point in time, I think I actually did have a cell, so I didn't need to use his. There was a maintenance fee of about $10 a month I think, but that's still less than the normal cost per month.