With our Living With Less mindset, we’re always looking for new ways to save money. One place we’ve considered making a change is by getting rid of our home phone. But we’re not sure about all the ramifications of that. With a home office we need to both send and receive faxes.
Have you made a switch from a landline to cell only? Any regrets? Frustrations? Things someone should consider before making that switch?
What other home expenses have you cut back or changed in some way?
I’d love to hear your thoughts or insight!
We only have cell phones – made the switch 5 years ago. The only issue I've had with it was if someone (friend, dr, etc) asked for a home number where I could be reached I had to give that person my cell number – I didn't like the idea of some of these (mostly the etc group) having my cell number. The remedy an additional cell number that is used as my home number – this way those that I don't want having access to me 24 hrs a day don't – plus with small children there is a phone at home all the time that can be used for emergencies.
we've been cell only for 5 years. we just leave one at home if we have a sitter with the kids at home. no trouble – saved us heaps.
We have not gotten rid of our landline entirely. We have a magic jack for our home number and my husband and I each have cell phones (also for business use). Advantages of the magic jack (which plugs into a computer's USB) are that we still have a land line for the kids to use when we are out and for safety reasons (911 cannot detect cell phone locations) we feel more comfortable with this. We save a lot of money too! There are a few things we had to give up when we switched to the Magic Jack…caller ID (unless you go to the computer and look at the number…but no name is associated with it), sometimes touch tone/automated response doesn't work and we had to switch our phone number (that we had for years…our friends and family didn't like that either). All in all though, it's a good compromise for us. We get to keep a land line and save money.
We will likely drop our land line when we move to a different neighborhood with better cell phone reception…ours is not reliable enough at our current house.
We went to cell phones only a couple of years ago. It has worked well for us. Most of our family members are on the same network so what would normally be a long distance call is free for us.
No regrets. Significanly fewer calls from organizations seeking donations.
I know several people that have only a cell phone but I think they need a backup plan. My sister lost her phone and didn't realize it until later in the day. I had tried all day to get a hold of her and started getting worried. So I strongly suggest that people who go landlineless invest $20-$30 in a phone you can just load minutes on and have it for a back-up/emergency. They would need to make sure the minutes don't expire.
We also have a home office and the fax thing was a hold back for us as well. We decided to try Vonage which is cheaper but not with fax ability. I finally had to remind myself that I really only send faxes a handful of times per year. My husband has an E-fax number so he can recieve faxes for free through his email. It isn't a local phone number but nobody has minded sending him faxes to a long distance number. I think we are going to drop the home line all together in the summer when our vonage contract is up and I will take on our home number as my cell number. We are spending a fortune on our phones and it just seems silly to have yet another phone line.
We only pay a little over $26/mo fo a landline. It's thru our internet. We have cell phones; however, I'm not sure ho much per month it would be to add voicemail to my phone (which I don't have) and more minutes. My guess it would cost us more, but I am going to look into it.
Thanks!
Deb
We've thought about doing it before, but we have internet phone so it's so cheap. But I'm not sure about the faxing capabilities. I have always been hesitant to get rid of the land line because it's the number everyone has for us. Hubby and I each have a cell phone so which one would be considered the "home" phone? THAT would get annoying I think.
Our cell phone is a pay-as-you-need/use-it deal (and we don't use it much) so we only pay for landline and internet. It isn't very "with it" in our culture but we don't feel like we're missing much.
On a complete side note- Jill, I am LOVING your Real Moms Real Jesus book. We seem to share a lot of similarities – it's kinda spooky 😉 I appreciated what you shared about your marriage struggles. Have you written something else about that in a separate book that I could check out? Again- sounds very familiar. I appreciate your ministries (including this blog!)
Amber
I think it is a personal preference, but you should keep in mind that 911 calls are sometimes messed up when made from cells. Dispatches are made to the county in which the tower resides not where the cell phone is being used. I know of at least one occasion in which it meant death to a little girl. We too use a prepaid phone and I always feel like a dork when I say that, but we only spend about $300 a year for 2 phones. Most people can't say that. Good luck with your decision.
Amber,
Yes, I have written about our marriage challenges in most of my books, but the one that probably has it the most is "Is There Really Sex After Kids?" It's out of print now, but Hearts at Home still has copies available. You can find it online at http://www.hearts-at-home.org.
We have only cell phones and have for years. Both of us love it. We don't worry about people reaching us when we are out and about or not wanting a call because we can simply choose to not answer or put the phone on vibrate or silent and not be bothered during family time. I hope that you find something that works well for you!
Ways I save money in the house:
1. We keep the heat at 68 during the day and 64 at night (winter).
2. Turn off lights that aren't being used.
3. No cable – we use "PlayOn" through our Wii to watch shows on Hulu.
I'm not familiar with "PlayOn." I'll have to check it out (we don't have Wii, but we do have X-box. Maybe it has something similar!
I just received one of your books from a friend this week.
Thank you. Reading it has been a real blessing for me.
We have never had a home phone. My husband and I have been married almost 6 years. However, our kids are all under 4 so we aren't sure how that will work as they get older. If we have a sitter who doesn't bring a cell then I leave my cell phone at home. As far at giving out the number, I don't worry about it because I screen my calls if we are doing something we don't want to be interrupted.
Its a good number to give to people from whom you don't wish to receive a call…like having a junk-mail email account.
Sometimes…friends from a far and the past find us here.
Our landline is connected to our security alarm.
Believe it or not…sometimes cell phones can't be found and a call needs to be made (also why, in the past, I gave up on the cordless land phone and went to a kitchen wall phone).
You could probably reduce your bill by getting a different plan…our is like a pay phone now. We pay for every call.
Small children (doesn't affect you but the younger couples that are pre-kids) will need this to call friends and their parents.
Jill, we dropped our land lines when we moved a few years ago. It saves us a bunch and…best of all, we don't ever get telemarketing calls. We don't get surveys or political calls either. It's great. When I have a sitter, I always leave my phone with them, so they can call their dad. Even if the sitter has one, I feel better knowing my girls know how to use mine and can get help quick.
I'm adding to the 9-1-1 cautions above.
Landline phones work when the power is out. No batteries to charge, if you use a good old fashioned wall phone.
If you drop a regular old fashioned landline phone, the battery will not pop out and become lost. (The cell phone was dropped & battery popped out in the case of the little girl's death in October in IL)
If you drop a phone with a curly cord you can use the cord to pull the phone back to you. Cell phones have fallen into some interesting places….
If you are choking or simply too upset to speak on a landline phone after phoning for help, 9-1-1 telecommunicators in most areas of the country will send help, unless you live in a very rural area without Enhanced 9-1-1. (On a cell phone, you are at the mercy of the cell tower that routes your call, potentially causing short delays, as in the case of the little girl's death.)
Landline phones usually have clear connections. Cell phones still have many scratchy connections and still drop calls frequently… more potential delays in emergencies or confusion when the next call goes to a diff. tower, diff. call center.
I don't think it is too much to say that a good old fashioned landline phone could just be considered part of one's health insurance.
Susan T
There have been cases where we live where our cell phones haven't worked due to bad signal or weather etc. It is rare but it does happen. I second the suggestion of getting a magic jack. It works really well and it is inexpensive (I think it is only about $25 per year including long distance).
After reading everyone's posts I was wondering would 911 operators be able to detect where a magic jack call came from?
My husband is a firefighter / first responder. We have talked about the idea of dropping the land line and he refuses to do it for a couple of reasons.
1. 911 emergency response – already mentioned above.
2. If our kids were home with a babysitter and she calls from her own cell phone (for whatever reason) – we would have no way of knowing WHERE she is. If we expect her to stay at our house with the kids, then we can be assured of that when she calls from the land line. A mobile call could come from anywhere!
2. In the event of a community-wide or terrorist emergency, cell service will be completely cut off. The land line allows us to get in touch with loved ones at work or at school in an emergency situation.
I also talked with a friend about this and her perspective was interesting. If we rely on cell phones only, then no one can really call the FAMILY anymore. This is an issue of principle for her. Plus, when the kids get a little older (ours are now 7 & 4), do we really want their friends calling OUR cell phones to get in touch with the kids? NO!! I personally think this sets up the "need" for kids to have cell phones earlier in their lives, and I am definitely NOT an advocate of cell phones for young children!
We've just decided that this is one expense that's worth the extra cost for the health and safety of our family.
Jennifer
Jennifer, great insight. Thank you for sharing!
Just reading through your website, don't know if you will read this post, but we have kept our landline for safety reasons. The kids know where to find it for 911 with direcions and other numbers posted nearby. We have also kept a phone that is corded in addition to our cordless for when the power goes out we can still call and if we have winter snow storms knocking out the power recharging batteries is next to impossible and not at the top of my list of to do's at that time. Also it seems that cell towers can loose service in poor waether and storms almost easier than landlines.