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SALT LAKE CITY -- The economic downturn means most people are cutting back and looking for ways to save a buck without feeling the pain.
A few tricks could save you a ton of money, if you are willing to make a few adjustments.
You can save over $600 a year by ditching your phone line and cutting the cable. That's if you're emotionally ready to cut the cable.
"If you would look back 20 or 30 years and look at the percentage of families that had cable or satellite packages and compare that with the number of households today, I think we'd be amazed," said Will Vandertoolen with AAA Fair Credit Foundation. "People feel this is not a want anymore, but it's a need. They absolutely have to have it."
Vandertoolen says there is more free TV out there than people think, and even if you rent a movie from redbox every day, it's still cheaper than cable.
"I have 25 free channels right now through the little converter box that I got."
Which converter box should you get?
Some converter boxes are better than others.
"The Insignia is rated better," says Jayson Wilde, a Best Buy Home Theater Specialist. "It's supposed to be equivalent to the Zenith, which is, by consumer reports, No. 1."
Wilde says you get a little more for you buck with the Insignia model.
"You get a couple extra channels and as far as memory. If you ever unplug it and move it to another spot, the memory in the Insignia is better," says Wilde.
I still need a phone
But, you still need a phone line, and if you've just ditched yours like we said, you're wondering where to go. Well, something you may have seen on late night TV called magicJack might be able help you out.
"There are people out there that say, ‘Are you kidding? I currently pay $35 or $40 a month for basic phone service at my home with a land line. I can pay $20 a year for unlimited phone calls? Sounds like a dream. I'm going to go with that,'" says Politis Communications President David Politis. You plug magicJack and your phone line into your computer, and it gives you phone service over the Internet. But before you go out and spend roughly $40 to get one, Politis says there have been lots of complaints over poor customer service, and people have been billed sooner than expected."Supposedly, the Better Business Bureau has met with magicJack and they've agreed to change that, but that's one of the concerns out there," Politis states.
But, is it junk, or does it actually work? We at KSL have tried magicJack for the past several months, and in our case, it has worked well.
| Monthly Total | Yearly Total | |
|---|---|---|
| Bundled Packages Through Local Providers | $91 to $99 | $1,092 to $1,188 |
| High Speed Internet Only | $39.99 to $42.50 | $479.88 to $510 |
| Savings By Just Purchasing High Speed Internet | $51.01 to $56.50 | $612 to $678 |
So, let's add this up. Instead of paying between $90 and $100 per month for everything, if you spend roughly $43
for Internet and magicJack, you can save nearly $650 every year in some cases.
Maybe not enough for your next family vacation, but it's the first two steps to your family's $3,000 raise.
Tune in Friday, April 10 at 5:40 a.m. to KSL Newsradio 102.7FM/1160AM as we look at refinancing your life insurance, credit cards and making better use of your paychecks.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
