Cost of staying connected.......

[Bob_Vaughn]

We just returned from a trip around the country and up to Alaska....For too many of those days we were devoid of any contact with the digital world. While at home it cost around 300 bucks a month for cable, internet, and cell phone service........I am thinking I can reduce that cost by going with satellite tv and a different cell service plus a mobile hot spot. I think these options would work great at home but am not sure about how they would work out while traveling. I just need to reduce our costs.......Some real life experiences would be appreciated.....

[SlowBro]

If you're willing to put up with the Sprint network and sometimes 3G speeds I've found an unlimited hotspot plan for $30/mo. Also has unlimited text and voice but I'm not confident the voice is reliable yet. Still, this may be an option for some people:
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28193879.cfm

[4X4Dodger]

wbwood wrote:

4X4Dodger wrote:

Bob Vaughn wrote:
We just returned from a trip around the country and up to Alaska....For too many of those days we were devoid of any contact with the digital world. While at home it cost around 300 bucks a month for cable, internet, and cell phone service........I am thinking I can reduce that cost by going with satellite tv and a different cell service plus a mobile hot spot. I think these options would work great at home but am not sure about how they would work out while traveling. I just need to reduce our costs.......Some real life experiences would be appreciated.....

I am sorry and with all due respect I just have to ask these questions...

Why do you need all of that? Because he wants it?

WiFi is available for FREE almost everywhere. Do you really need to be connected ALL of the time? while you can find free wifi, it's not available everywhere. And if you are at an RV park that has it, often it does not work or it sucks. Very few parks have we ever stayed in would we even consider to have halfway decent wifi.

Do you really need two phones for two people in one camper? obviously they do. We have 3 (me, wife and daughter). Good to be able to communicate with each other if seperated. Plus I have my email, my wife has hers, my daughter has her own.

Do you really need the cable/Sat TV? Do you really need anything? We have had cable/satellite 99.9% of the time. We went 2 years without because I was tired of the prices going up. Then there were some shows we wanted to watch that we couldn't unless we had cable. So we got it again. Had it two years and prices jacked up again. Turned it off again and we currently don't have it. But many people want it and have it. Do they need it? No. Do they need an RV? No. People do and want things differently.

These are questions I am asking myself as well. I am sure the answer is different for everyone But the questions are worth consideration.

I have decided to try the minimalist approach first, going with virtually none of that except my phone and see what I really miss and decide from there.

Good luck

I may be misinterpreting your post.

I was asking some general questions that I have asked myself over this same issue as I wrote in the statement below.(Which I noticed you did not comment on)

"These are questions I am asking myself as well. I am sure the answer is different for everyone But the questions are worth consideration."

I thought this was clear and concise.

[paulcardoza]

LOL!!!! All anyone NEEDS is food, water and shelter! Everything else is wants & desires.

I want my one smartphone, high speed internet and TV. Sure, I would like to spend less for them. Sure I'll keep trying to spend less. But I'm not giving them up.

4X4Dodger wrote:

I am sorry and with all due respect I just have to ask these questions...

Why do you need all of that?

[wbwood]

4X4Dodger wrote:

Bob Vaughn wrote:
We just returned from a trip around the country and up to Alaska....For too many of those days we were devoid of any contact with the digital world. While at home it cost around 300 bucks a month for cable, internet, and cell phone service........I am thinking I can reduce that cost by going with satellite tv and a different cell service plus a mobile hot spot. I think these options would work great at home but am not sure about how they would work out while traveling. I just need to reduce our costs.......Some real life experiences would be appreciated.....

I am sorry and with all due respect I just have to ask these questions...

Why do you need all of that? Because he wants it?

WiFi is available for FREE almost everywhere. Do you really need to be connected ALL of the time? while you can find free wifi, it's not available everywhere. And if you are at an RV park that has it, often it does not work or it sucks. Very few parks have we ever stayed in would we even consider to have halfway decent wifi.

Do you really need two phones for two people in one camper? obviously they do. We have 3 (me, wife and daughter). Good to be able to communicate with each other if seperated. Plus I have my email, my wife has hers, my daughter has her own.

Do you really need the cable/Sat TV? Do you really need anything? We have had cable/satellite 99.9% of the time. We went 2 years without because I was tired of the prices going up. Then there were some shows we wanted to watch that we couldn't unless we had cable. So we got it again. Had it two years and prices jacked up again. Turned it off again and we currently don't have it. But many people want it and have it. Do they need it? No. Do they need an RV? No. People do and want things differently.

These are questions I am asking myself as well. I am sure the answer is different for everyone But the questions are worth consideration.

I have decided to try the minimalist approach first, going with virtually none of that except my phone and see what I really miss and decide from there.

Good luck

[RGar974417]

Sprint unlimited everything.$90 a month. Dish Top 200 $86 a month.

[4X4Dodger]

Bob Vaughn wrote:
We just returned from a trip around the country and up to Alaska....For too many of those days we were devoid of any contact with the digital world. While at home it cost around 300 bucks a month for cable, internet, and cell phone service........I am thinking I can reduce that cost by going with satellite tv and a different cell service plus a mobile hot spot. I think these options would work great at home but am not sure about how they would work out while traveling. I just need to reduce our costs.......Some real life experiences would be appreciated.....

I am sorry and with all due respect I just have to ask these questions...

Why do you need all of that?

WiFi is available for FREE almost everywhere. Do you really need to be connected ALL of the time?

Do you really need two phones for two people in one camper?

Do you really need the cable/Sat TV?

These are questions I am asking myself as well. I am sure the answer is different for everyone But the questions are worth consideration.

I have decided to try the minimalist approach first, going with virtually none of that except my phone and see what I really miss and decide from there.

Good luck

[rondeb]

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

Remember when we signed up and paid for CABLE because it had NO commercials. Now it is the only way to get TV and you pay through the nose.

[Beaker]

Remember when TV was free, ...

Yeah, all 3 channels.

But loved the hot spot!

[wbwood]

We were paying over $200/month for cable tv (200+ channels - no pay channels), home phone and internet through the cable company. Our cell phone bill through AT&T for 3 phones with 30GB data shared is around $270 (but that is including about $60/month for the phones as we got through the "Next" plan. Before, we were around the $200 mark.

Back in December, we cut out out the cable tv and home phone. We upgraded the cable to the fastest they have available. Our new internet bill is now about $70. That's for downloads speed up to 50mbps and upload up to 5mbps. Plus the router lease. We get around 30 channels on the tv without the cable, but not a lot of them are good ones. I think ABC and CBS are the two main ones we watch. We get MeTV which has some good old shows on it. But are main form of entertainment with regards to the tv is Netflix, Hulu and Youtube. Netflix and Hulu costs us about $9/month each. There are some things that we can't see anymore. But we are fine with it. Saving $150/month is worth it.

My wife and I have new iPhone 6 +'s and my daughter still has the iPhone 4S. WE love the smart phones and use them all the time. If not using the smart phones, we use our iPad's or tablet. We have a couple desktops. I only get on mine to edit videos. My wife uses her for a side job.

[jmccen58]

pnichols wrote:

Travelon wrote:
Pay Phone? The only pay phone I have seen recently was on display in a museum.

Museum ........ha!

I was at an ancient, but still occupied, California ranch Saturday that had what looked like a "payphone" along side their driveway a little ways in from the country road and out aways from the ranch house. What's the deal with that??? Did they used to stop phone cabling service out from the house instead of running the cable actually into the house - and just have a phone booth close to the road at a each rural residence?

But....was it operational???? :@

[Jarlaxle]

2oldman wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
Jaraxle answered this on 10/19: Virgin Mobile from Target. 🙂

Streaming caps at 2.5G, then 2g throttling.. sounds great.

Never noticed it...and I use plenty of data. (I use Pandora all the time.)

[CavemanCharlie]

noplace2 wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:
Since I see you are here you must be staring at a screen too!! Remember that before you yell at me THINK..... Just Saying.

My apologies. Sometimes when I want to add emphasis to a word, I forget that caps to some people means yelling. Is/was not my intent.

I think we are pretty much on the same page in terms of connectivity, but all realms together, I spend less than an hour/day staring at any screen. And trust me when I tell you that I have never been bored enough to pick up a phone.

No problem

[pompomgirl]

If you spend time in urban areas with Clear coverage, you can save some money by getting a Clear modem and month-to-month service. Right now we are paying $170/mo for a Verizon hotspot with 15 gb. We considered it but will be getting on the road pretty soon and it didn't seem to make sense. I figure as long as we're paying less than we paid in our house, we're ahead of the game.

[noplace2]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
Since I see you are here you must be staring at a screen too!! Remember that before you yell at me THINK..... Just Saying.

My apologies. Sometimes when I want to add emphasis to a word, I forget that caps to some people means yelling. Is/was not my intent.

I think we are pretty much on the same page in terms of connectivity, but all realms together, I spend less than an hour/day staring at any screen. And trust me when I tell you that I have never been bored enough to pick up a phone.