My home phone (which I NEVER answer) is not used very much. I will say that I have answered it more since being off work than I probably have in the last year. I guess there is something in my subconscious that is saying to me, "right now you are a housewife, it's your job to answer the phone." That isn't the point here though, the point is I just received my AT&T home phone bill.
My AT&T bill is on autopay and I will admit that if you are a bill on autopay the chances of me normally paying attention to you are slim. Being the housewife, I have also decided that I should review the bills as they come in. So today, the AT&T bill got opened and this is what I discovered:
Last month I made 9 calls from my home phone. Here is the breakdown of the 9 calls:
5 to my mom
1 to David
1 to the Housekeeper
1 to Kays
1 to Jane
The total minutes used was 31, compared to my AT&T cell phone which used 4,822 minutes.
The crazy part of this is my monthly bill was $74.97. The previous bill was $73.97. I would like to just cancel the home phone but for some reason David wants to keep it. (Note that he did not make any calls on it last month) I guess we will switch to Vonage, at least then we will only be throwing away $25.00 per month........
25 comments:
We only have a land line for our alarm system. Otherwise, I'd probably cancel it, because it is such a rip off.
While we will answer the home phone if it rings when we're home and recognize the caller on the Caller ID, we almost NEVER check our answering machine. So please note, if you leave us a message on our home answering machine, we might not get back to you for a few weeks.
I totally understand the housewife mentality...it's amazing how that happens. I did the same thing when I was home. I even cut my spending to practically nothing, further proving that working requires retail therapy to keep me happy.
Wow, this was a long comment...
ugh, I totally get it. We lived in AZ quite happily without a home phone. In TX we have to have one for the satellite and mostly for the security system. Surely I have blogged all of this before... oh, yes, here it is. Wow, and KT is even mentioned in it: http://queenbisme.blogspot.com/2007/05/home-telephones.html
However, I must comment on how blown away I am about your cell minutes. That is quite impressive.
Why is your home land line SO expensive?
omg, got chills here. This is wacky... check out our joint blog today, your post and then the post from Queen's comment. It's a little weird how we all came around to this today...
I'm literally stunned speechless by 2 things:
1. That just having a phone line is that much there! I have a land line that basically just "exists" and it's only like $20ish a month!
2. Your cell minute usage is approx. TEN TIMES mine!! No joke! No exageration!! Holy cow! KFug wasn't kidding about SoCal people and "Your cell phone has left a permanent impression on the side of your head"
4822 minutes = 80.37 hrs month
=20.09 hrs wk
=2.87 hrs a day
I don't know what your job is, I'm going to assume it involves much of the cell minutes. Leads me to wonder....when you would leave work at the end of the day, did you often feel like you didn't accomplish what you wanted to get done that day? Bless your heart!
Wow! $75 a month??? Do they print your bill in gold?
Kim I a with you what is the use of the home phone? I wanted to get rid of our when our cable, internet, and phone (because it is digital through our cable) went out after they so nicely upgraded us in Feb. But Scott told us we needed it, we have no alarm, no satellite, so no reason if you ask me!
I thought our bill was bad through Time Warne/Comcast whatever it is now. We pay $35 something a month. Maybe we will get Vonage at the new house in August!
OMG CHECK MY BLOG IN 5 MINUTES!
I am one of those rare individuals who actually uses her home phone more than my cell phone. There are a few people that I strictly call from my cell but not many. Most people call us on our land line. I guess I am behind. I would never get rid of our land line since we use VERIZON for everything,local, long distance and DSL. It's $100 for all of that. Since hubby is from Boston, he makes a ton of calls back there,mostly from our land line. We are weird!
I finally lost the land line two months ago and don't miss it at all. Seems the only people calling it anymore were phone solicitors anyway.
I finally lost the land line two months ago and don't miss it at all. Seems the only people calling it anymore were phone solicitors anyway.
Only 1 to Jane?
As the head of household and housewife I vote for vonage. Only dilemma is when power or internet is down you have no phone and have to use cell.
I also vote that one of us becomes the housewife and pays bills. Seems like a waste of time for us both to do.
That's right... your a woman! And a woman automatically = Housewife. And a Housewife automatically = Cleaner - Chef - Baby Maker - Man's Slave and Phone Answerer! KNOW YOUR ROLL WOMAN!!!!
i have a landline, but never use it/answer it. like most people have pointed out, it only serves the alarm system and a place for telemarketers to leave messages. i also have several bills on auto pay and rarely audit the statments...hmmm, maybe i should do that more often.
:)
If you always have your phone and unlimited minutes, why?
And that is coming from someone without both.
With a cell phone, doesn't 911 call the CHP? If that's the case, a land line should be kept for 911 until the technology catches up. Having said that, you should probably get the barebones minimum plan that basically charges for any outgoing calls.
Well I personally had to call The Champ to thank her for this post. She is so right about autopay and reviewing your bills. I looked at my AT&T bill today and it was for $137.00. Needless to say I called them to quit their damn service and to my surprise they not only offered me more services, unlimited long distance calling(which I thought I had), a $150. credit, a $5. a month additional credit, etc..for a fifth of what they are charging me. I am one of these unfortunates who is not able to get dsl and barely get cell reception so I have to have a landline. They also told me they are 'moments away' from being able to provide dsl(which I'll believe when it happens.) So once again THANKS for the post. kays
You should keep the home phone, you never know what could go wrong with your cell phone...what if you have an emergency and you can't get a signal?
I don't know how you are managing to pay all these outragious bills
Are you kidding Teri??? She makes over $250K a year... plus what Davey poo makes! She should be paying our phone bills!
We haven't had a home phone in a few years! We actually have an extra cell phone (we're on Verizon and it only costs $9.99 for the additional line) that we keep in the kitchen in case of emergencies or if one of ours is dead! Works great and only costs $9.99!
You need to check out www.magicjack.com.
Due to your blog I just turned off my Home Phone. What a waste of money and we never used it. I did have to switch from DSL to Cable and get rid of the dish since now I have cable. Now I am saving 49.00a month all because of you. Of course if you hadn't of kicked me off of your team I would have gotten a better raise and could have afforded my home phone DSL and my dishnetwork.
T
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