Cost of staying connected.......

One old Alltel dumb phone $37 a month same plan we had before Verizon bought Alltel.

One Trac Phone with triple minutes $8.50 a month

Verizon 5gb MiFi $50.00 a month

Dish Network top 200 plan $76 a month

$171.50 Total

Verizon wireless w/5G internet: $50 month
Verizon home phone (Talk): $23 month
Verizon cell phone (Text,talk,2G): $60 month
Over air TV: $00 month
Wife's cell (pre-pay): $ 8 month

Total = $141 month. Does the job for us.

Lakeside

We fulltime.
2 verizon smart phones, unlimited data: $160/mo.
Tethered to laptops for internet/movies: one time charge of $9.99 for EasyTether
Dish TV w/2 receivers: $47/mo first year, $95/mo. second year.

This covers everything we need. Our tethered cell phones are typically faster than the wifi we come across so we rarely use campground or other wifi.

Interesting to hear the many varied ways, costs, and priorities of communicating. We take a pounding in the US by very greedy communications companies. And the surcharges you've paid in your bill over the past 30 years or so helped build their infrastructure. While our charges are exponentially higher, our internet speeds are much slower than Europe and even some 3rd world countries. Amazing.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/08/07/reviewed-high-speed-internet-column/2619497/

Following threads like this with interest as we hope to pull the plug and do either some full timing or 6-7 months snow birding in a year or two. Since I haven't changed the plan, I'm still getting a discount from my old employer for cell ATT plan of 24% (current employer only offers 17% w/Verizon). We still "supply" my daughter with a cell, have a wireless home phone (cell that backfeeds the hardlines in the house) and 2 more smartphones (total 3 iphones, 1 cell homephone). We went with the 4 lines, 10GB, unlimited talk/text for $160/mo, but then my 24% discount kicks in and with all thee little taxes and charges it is about $153/mo. With 3 smartphones I don't think we've ever gone over 2GB in a month so that plan works well for us. We have used the Hotspot function from the phones to provide internet to our tablets when wifi not available or of the road. We will probably re-evaluate in the next year or so as the daughter completes graduate school and will start generating her own income. Maybe then she can put us on her plan just for something different! Yeah, right....

I'm wondering why places like AARP or Good Sam wouldn't have the clout to get group discounts as good as my old employer (a hospital with 5500 employees). It would seem like a great service to offer members. Maybe they do... I haven't investigated and don't belong to either yet, but in reading this thread, seems like there is a need.

We pulled the plug on cable tv or satellite years ago and have just used amazon prime video, netflix on wifi or gotten redbox movies. We were spending way too much time watching tv anyway. I doubt we'll ever see an A-La-cart system where you could just pay for what you use.

noplace2 wrote:

2oldman wrote:

TOMMY47 wrote:
Are you folks insane? $200-300-400 a month? .

No,it's called being able to afford the comforts of life.

LOL I'll stick with our $1 or less/month to be "connected". We very likely can afford as much, if not more, than can you. We simply choose to spend it differently. Today our "comfort" was a 5 mile hike midst some glorious scenery. Cost?: $0.

No harm, no foul. Your priorities are simply way different than ours.

I think you are missing 2oldmans point which was he like me doesn't have to "CHOOSE" between options for spending ... we can "CHOOSE" them all without regards to cost or having to set spending priorities. Whether I spend $10/mo or $500/mo has absolutely no impact on what else I spend my mo $$$ on so I guess I "CHOOSE" not to have to "CHOOSE".:W

For us not having to rely on a third party and often substandard WI-FI such as McD's or CGs or being able to have the ability to watch many of the more interesting "cable" type channels whether at home or on the road such as SCI-FY, FOOD, HISTORY, etc. is something I personally would not want to give up. It sort of falls into the "cost of doing business" in today's technological driven society unless you have to "CHOOSE" less costly options due to budgetary considerations.

I guess I'm more like GoPackGo than some of the others posting here.

Larry

Unlimited broadband Internet service at home = $50/month.

DISH satellite TV at home = $38/month.

Two cell phones in pockets + land line at home = $110/month.

______________________________________________________________________

Highly limited broadband Internet service in the RV = $60/month.

DISH satellite TV not used at home when in the RV = $38/month.

Two cell phones in pockets + land line not used at home when in the RV = $110/month.

The "industry" seems to have collaborated on getting around $200/month-on-up out of all Americans for connectivity. :h

Will not get into a price comparison in all the categories because as someone else said everyone has different priorities and needs.

Here are places we save for our needs. We have Verizon Home Phone Connect at $25/month unlimited calls, we take it on the road with us and connect it at night to collect messages and make long calls when needed. We have two smart phones that we bought used off contract for a couple of hundred each. Mine is on an ATT reseller called H2O at $100/year, my wife's is on PagePlus a Verizon reseller at $80/year, both cost 5 cents/minute and 10 cents/MB (not cheap data but we use them mostly on WiFi and it works for us). Both of these have a cheaper mode if your cash reserve builds up to much, I currently am only paying $40/year and my wife could cut back to $30/year.

We also have an iPad with cell service and hot spot that we pay for with no contract for our primary internet when we don't have free internet, we pay $40 for 4GB and that has been plenty while we are on the road and we just turn it off when we are home and don't need it or drop back to the 1GB for $20 or 2GB for $30 if we are doing a few short trips.

SH wrote:

Dakota98 wrote:
Gosh !!! :h

Remember when TV was free, cell phones didn't exist & a mobile hot spot was you & your date parked late at night in a remote location. :B

I do! :)

X3
I also had a freiend with a 67 Grand Prix that had a 20
Gallon tank, niches becaused it cost almost $10 to fill !!

I can afford comforts of life but don't choose to spend my money on that stuff. I have plenty of other bad habits. Cheap phone, basic internet and cable are fine. I never had cable until I moved to condo and it was included.
Recently stayed at a couple of condos which had HBO. What a waste. Every movie, except one, had been on free TV for years.15-20 year old movies are "premium"?
Every "premium" station seems the same.

Everyone has different priorities. And what is a necessity for some is a frivolous option to others.

I full time. I want the same amenities in my RV that I had in my s&b house. That includes being able to use a computer in my RV house whenever I want to (You'll just have to excuse me if I don't want to walk into McD's and sit down, crank up my PC and pay my monthly bills while 20 people whom I've never met look on). It also includes watching the History channel, or Nat Geo even when I'm 200 miles from anywhere.

I will end up with about 6500 towing miles and 11,000 traveling miles overall this year. Some might say it's crazy to drive a vehicle that gets 11.5 MPG towing a house down the road. INSANITY !

I might say it's crazy to own a s&b house and also a big ole RV that depreciates faster then a new Yugo did and that's only used a relatively few times every year.

Luckily for me - and you - this is a free country so we both get to do what we want to do in this regard. Nothing crazy about it. If I didn't spend my money doing this, I'd just waste it on something else.

Tim