Creating Our Own Cable, Phone, & Internet Bundle

in Budgets and Bills

It's possible to create your own bundle and save money.

Bundling Cable, Phone, and Internet -Always a Good Deal?

Does buying things in bundles really save you money or should you buy a la carte? I decided to show how we saved money and why I agree with Ramit’s a la carte ideas for cable TV, high speed Internet, and phone packages. By taking the time to see what our local cable company offered n their plans, we were able to build a cable, high speed Internet, and phone package that gave us what we really wanted without the extra costs.

It’s not just seeing if we can save money with a package. We need to ask ourselves do we use the cable, Internet, and phone bundle to justify buying the plan. Sometimes it’s cheaper to build your own package.

Time Warner Cable’s Package

Here’s an example using our cable, Internet, and phone company as an example.

Time Warner Cable offers a package for the three:

Standard Cable

$53.45 per month

Road Runner High Speed Online (up to 7 Mbps)

$47.95 per month

Digital Phone Unlimited Nationwide*

$39.95 per mont

Total

$141.35

Wow, this looks expensive, but the features look about right. Before we can figure out a plan let’s see what the cheap bundle look like.The very basic bundle is broken down like this:

Basic Cable

$12.25 per month

Road Runner Lite 768 (up to 768 Kbps)

$19.95 per month for 12 months

Digital Phone Local*

$19.95 per month for 12 months

Total

$52.15

*apparently voicemail is an extra $3.95/month

So we liked the price much better, but it didn’t have features we want like faster Internet and unlimited US calls.

My recommendation is to call the cable company to see if there are any specials you can get. If you live in an apartment complex, talk to the leasing office to see if they have any deals.

Our Cable, Phone, & Internet Bundle

Believe it or not,with some planning  we created our own cable, high speed Internet, and TV package. It’s been great for us.

  • TWC Basic Cable $12.25/month
  • Road Runner High Speed Online $34.95/month
  • Skype US/Canada $5.95/month

Total $53.15/month

By picking and choosing a la carte we came out with a bundle that is a dollar more than the cheapest bundle and we have better features for phone and Internet (Skype, a voip phone company, includes voicemail with price).

The beauty is that you can always upgrade later if you decide.

How did we save money on the bundle package?

  • We realized that we don’t watch too much television and decide to go with basic cable.
  • We asked the leasing office and our apartment complex has a special for the high speed internet and signed up.
  • We decided that Skype had the feature we wanted from a landline at the fraction of the cost.

So go look around and see if you can save a bundle by building your own bundle.

Photo Credit:  Midnight-digital

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Miguel Wickert November 14, 2008 at 1:32 pm

hello, I like the site! :) I also sport the Thesis theme. Good topic. If I was writing on your topic, I’d try to get involved with Facebook. Tons of college students hang out there.

Reply

2 mfaorbust November 14, 2008 at 3:06 pm

Very impressive, Green Panda! I’ll have to try this when the Boy and I get our own place.

Check out mfaorbusts last blog post..Mom and Dad Unveil Sweeping Plan for MFA Student

Reply

3 Green Panda November 14, 2008 at 7:47 pm

@Miguel Thanks for the tip!

@MFA It helps to keep the college student mentality and look for deals!

Reply

4 Derek Epperson December 25, 2008 at 11:18 am

Has anyone considered or tried MagicJack for their phone service?

I ordered it recently to try it out…if it works as advertised, you get unlimited local and long distance over VOIP through your high-speed internet for about $19.95 a YEAR (other than the 1st year where you pay for service and product; I think it was $39.95). It even comes with some features like forwarding, caller ID, etc.

If it works out with quality, that would definitely be a savings.

(I am not nor have I ever been a retailer/salesperson for the MagicJack product; I am only making comments about the ‘advertised’ expectations)

Reply

5 Green Panda December 25, 2008 at 11:35 am

@Derek: I found from BB Gadgets that Magic Jack has ads for its system and there are some privacy concerns.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/04/14/magicjacks-eula-says.html

Reply

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