Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Help! 25 Maxed out credit cards.....

Entertainment (Streaming Services)$51 (I suggested no entertainment. This however is their only source of fun as they are both home bodies which is good)
...
Cell Phone$255 ( She agrees, no more Iphone upgrades. Contract ends in August)
Wifi$110 ( It should go but life without internet sounds like a death sentence to the younger crowd!)
...

It doesn’t seem like they spend much.

The cell phone bill should be able to be lower than 255 monthly, absolutely.

Probably there’s cheaper wifi than $110, too.

Servicing the debt is really the killer.
If it was wiped out, would they be able to cover all the monthly expenses?

$421 a month on phone, tv, internet is over $5000 a year. Get out of the free phone upgrade "deals", appropriately size the wifi/internet plan, and get on a pay as you go cell plan and control your data usage and you can cut this in half, at least until they have a teenager. Cycle your streaming services so you only have 1 or 2 going at any given time. You can cut this in half and not really give up much.

1. There are cell based internet option for home wifi now that ate in the $50-60 range. Cable and telecom companies have to compete so they might be able to half the wifi bill. You don't need the highest speeds for normal usage unless maybe you work from home and video conference. And you often have to call and get your discount renewed every year.
3. A cell phone plan where you pay for data by the gigabyte can save a lot of money. I use US Mobile. Keep your phones on wifi at home, download your maps so you can navigate without using much data, etc. Stop streaming music, videos, social media, etc. unless you are on wifi. You can take this to an extreme, but you don't need to to save a lot instead of 'unlimited' plans.
4. Buy cheaper but fully functional smart phones. The cheapest iPhone is under $500 and should last 4 years, or half that for a mid level android phone that maybe won't last quite as long.

My budget is $120 a month for phones and internet. Probably same for streaming because I have Youtube TV and hate commercials. But I still cycle the services and look for deals.

Wifi $60 (Spectrum, 300 Mbps). You have to call and fight for a discount every year....
Phone Service $30 (US Mobile, 2 people pay for what you need, we use 2-5GB a month).
Phones $30 ($700 phones every 4 years).

I help my dad manage his internet and phone plans, cut his bill in half, and moved them from flip phones to iphones in the process. Their wifi and phone budget is under $100 a month, but their TV bill is higher because they have Dish tv.

So save $2500 a year just by managing your phone bill and internet bills all you don't lose any real functionality.

Statistics: Posted by FatefulTanker — Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:21 am — Replies 207 — Views 23479

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