The first thing I did, which is pretty ordinary so i wont discuss in detail, was call our tv provider (direct TV) and work a deal to combine both our Internet and cable service through them. Doing this alone has saved us over $40 per month.
The next thing I looked out was our outrageous phone bill. Between data to my phone, ipad, and then unlimited talk and text we were spending close to $120 per month (this is just for one phone mind you). I wasn't really sure I what I could do here as getting some cheap, no data, phone just wasn't an option. I have an iPhone, and I like it!
So I started researching and found out some CRAZY stuff. Maybe I'm just naive, but I thought the only cell phone carriers were AT&T,Verizon, Tmobile, and something called Cricket and of those, only AT&T and Verizon were really worth anything. So I was pretty shocked to discover that there's actually tons of carriers. I was even more shocked to discover that many of the smaller carriers actually piggyback on the nationwide networks owned by AT&T and Verizon. And I was most pleasantly shocked to find that some of these smaller carriers offer the same plans as I have for half the price I'm paying...seriously...Half!
So, after doing a lot of researching I narrowed it down to Straight Talk and Net10. I opted for net 10 because their service would allow me to use the iPhone I already own on the AT&T network. I have to admit that this process has been rather challenging, involved a TON of research, and that I've definitely made a few mistakes along the way. While I won't go into the details about how to switch providers, I will say that if you opt to go with Net10 or similar, do NOT port your number to google voice. Port it directly to your new carrier.
The happy ending though is that I I have great service and my phone does everything it could do before (call, text, and surf the web) for $45 dollars per month, that's half of my previous bill and it absolutely includes unlimited talk, text and data. I'm a happy camper!
