I finally did it. I cancelled my home phone and internet for a savings of about $94 per month. People might ask why I kept it so long and some may still need to keep theirs. This adjustment to save on expenses is not for every household.
There are many reasons people would keep their home phone and not be able to make this move. Families with someone at home every day would certainly have to think twice about not having a home phone available for emergencies. When kids are grown or they all have their own cell phones, then things might look different.
Many people also consider the fact that they will not have 911 services in an emergency to be critical for their situation and will keep a home phone for that reason as well. This would require a thoughtful review of your household needs to determine the best option for you.
For a single person who has an empty house when they are not home and who have both phone and internet with them through a smart phone or other mobile gadgets, the expense of a home phone and internet become duplicate expenses and may be unnecessary. For couples who have grown children, having both mobile and home phone and internet may also be a duplicate. The catch for couples or couples with grown children becomes a question of how to handle the expense of data plans and text messaging for the family as a whole. Data plans will be looked at in a future post next month.
The key to removing the duplicate expense for a household is in addressing the need for internet at home since email, movies, games, television and a host of other services may rely on internet. Paying $65 a month for internet for the home becomes a duplicate expense if your mobile internet can be made available for your home devices with no increase in cost or a small increase relative to the cost of the home internet.
For example, a mobile Wi-Fi unit from T-Mobile allows for unlimited data usage and provides internet for up to 5 devices at a time. That would cover 2 cell phones at home, and 2 computers and still have room for 1 e-reader, Wii device, or other gadget.
Two Cautions and Considerations:
- Data Usage Levels
Mobile Wi-Fi units can be limited in the monthly data usage allowed or unlimited. In the case of the T-Mobile unit, the data usage is unlimited so there are never any overage charges. However, the speed of the data is reduced after reaching data usage of 2Gig or on a more expensive package 4Gig or more. The lower speed will not likely affect your email or internet browsing, but may cause some slowness to streaming television or movies.
- Internet Needs away from home
Mobile Wi-Fi units can replace home internet and be taken on the road. This is a great benefit when removing the duplicate expense, but can be a problem if the Wi-Fi is shared between members of your household who need to take their own Wi-Fi internet with them away from the house. A small data plan on the smart phone maybe sufficient to resolve this, but you will need to evaluate the usage of all of your internet devices as a whole. In some cases, two mobile Wi-Fi units will still be cheaper than home internet and data plans on mobile phones and gadgets.
Savings:
$46 for removing the home phone and using only a cell phone
$48 for removing the home DSL internet and using T-Mobile Wi-Fi at home and away from home
DollarPlanning 
You must be logged in to post a comment.