Step One

My plan was simple: look at each service, see what we could do without, what could be replaced and what could be reduced. I chose the our landline first, then internet and save the cable service for the last since it was the most complex.  

The first step was to talk it over with my my wife and tell her what I wanted to do. She agreed that we should do something.  She said to go ahead and drop the landline entirely! Sweet! I knew there were many alternatives for the phone.  I looked briefly at services like Skype and while they worked great they weren't any cheaper.  

My requirements were these:

• I wanted very low annual costs, or completely free
• It must have Emergency 911 support (not all IP phones do)
• I must be able to transfer my current phone number (we've been giving our number to local businesses for 12 years)

After talking to some co-workers I found MagicJack+ and NetTalk Duo.  Both have low initial investment costs and very low annual costs. Both cost $70 or less for the device and that includes the first year of service, and $20-$30 per year after that!  The current version of these products do not need a computer, they plug directly into your home network and any standard phone into it.  Both offer Enhanced 911 service

I chose the MagicJack+ since Dean at work recommended it so highly.  Setup was easy and within five minutes it was setup and I had a dial tone.  After playing with it for a couple weeks I transferred our house phone number to MagicJack.  The website said it would take a couple weeks but it ended up taking only four days over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Cost with Cox: $540

First year cost: $70

First year savings: $470

Second year savings: $520

Cutting the Cord

Welcome to my first blog post. A lot of people have been asking me how I cut the cable cord, how it works and what I bought. So over the next few days I'll detail all that I did in as much detail as I can (probably too much).  First some background...

It started one day when I was trying to get my Cox Cable bills setup through electronic bill pay through my bank.  My Cox Telephone has always been separate from the cable and internet bill.  So as I was doing this, I added both Cox Cable bills together and the number surprised me (it shouldn't have but it did).  I was paying Cox Communications $235 per month!  That's $2,820 per year, $33,840 since I've been in the house (over 12 years)!!   This assumes I don't make any long distance calls, use any OnDemand or Pay-Per-View services.  Other ways to look at it:

• At $2,820/year, that's a free new car every ten years - a nice one!
• At $2,820/year, that's equivalent to over $4,000 of my gross annual salary
• Paying off my mortgage in 15 years instead of 30
• A nice vacation or two each year
• Put that amount of money into a college fund and one of our kids would go to college for free (at least a year or two)

Here is the breakdown of what I was paying for each month:

• Phone $45
• Internet $64
• Cable $137
• Cox Bundle discount $11 (golly gee thanks!)

What the hell was I thinking?!?!  The cable television is what irked me the most.  I only watched one or two shows regularly and the rest of the time I only watched movies I had already seen just before bed as a way to relax.  My wife watched Food Network, TBS and a few other shows while she did other things.  My kids watched the most of course - Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Disney - over and over and over. All total we only watch 5-6 channels even though we were paying for over 200.  As an added bonus I knew subsidizing ESPN, The Golf Network and many others for everyone else!

As I looked into it I discovered that according to Tivo:

"88% of the TV shows everyone records is available for free"

As a geek, I am used to (sadly often do) research topics into mind-numbing detail.  Plus, I knew there were some easy alternatives to all that I was paying for.  In my next post I'll layout the plan that I came up with.