Oil drops to $43 a barrel

My phone bill for last month was $598.32 which included 1 call from Detroit to Australia costing $75 and another was $46. I have 4 phones on the one bill, my mobile is normally $100 - $200 and the total bill nornally runs $250 to $350.
Internet runs $50PM and pay TV, no way. My son downloads tons of movies free and he swaps with mates.
There are 5 channels of crap on the TV now, why pay for more crap?

 

JC! That's insane. We spend probably $35/mo for our phone, including a trac phone which we charge up with minutes every so often.

 

If you have any kind of "high speed" isp, get a VOIP phone plan! My Vonnage works perfectly, cost $17 per month (if I pay once a year!) for unlimited calling in North America. International calling is $01/minute. If you are in Aus, get an N. American number, and you can call all over Aus for $.01 and anywhere in N. America for free.

The one service VOIP doesn't work very well on is with satellite ISP. the fundamental latency (ping times) are too great.

Anyone who pays for Highspeed ISP and Landline phone is crazy!

I am not a salesman for Vonnage, but it does indeed work great. The caller ID, call forwarding etc work seamlessly. Plug the VOIP box into your house wiring and all your phones work just like they were wired to Ma Bell!

Icarus

 

Man I thought we had it tough until I seen patsparks phone bill. We weren't able to bundle until recently, and then it was more than how we set it up now. We were at about $100 for land line with international and 2 cells @ $90. 45 ISP and 3 channels. We just ditched our land line and have 3 cells, one for home (kids) and we each have one = 3 cost is about $90 a month. The whole family has the same carrier so we pretty much talk for free. Still have the same ISP at $45 but got gable @ $40 for the animal planet, a green channel and the history channel. That and our local stations are now clear and you can understand what they are saying. Some of the other channels are ok, but it's mostly things we have seen before.

Now heat is another matter. When I first met my wife I had a room mate, I slept with the door closed and the window cracked. The wife hated me, she likes it at about 74 which is to warm for me. I turn it down to 69 at night and turn it down again when she goes to work. We have been burning wood this winter and it can maintain 71 if the wind isn't taking the heat off the house. Summer is about the same, 70 on the main floor so it's just under 78 upstairs. It's an older house with 2x4 walls so can't do a lot about it except replace windows and doors. I have put in extra insulation in the attic and have one window to go this spring. They bumped our rates again this fall ad last months bill was $420, not counting the gas we used when we get rippled.

I have animals, so I have 3 heated waters and 2 heat lamps for the young birds and a 50 gal horse tank for the dogs.

 

GEE-ZUS and I thought we got ripped off with Canadian telco's. You had better investigate VOIP options, PRONTO

 

I hate to pry, but do those sort of relationships *ever* work long term? Just curious, I tried something like that but it didn't last more than two months.

Just for nat gas? My home office is in the basement, so I can keep it around 65 in winter, just right for me. I have an elderly father and aunt living upstairs, they like it around 78. I keep the heated attached garage at 60.

Nat gas for all that: $280

 

I should point out this was an extrordinary bill including a 45 minute OS call on international roaming, it don't get much more expensive. I had several calls back to Australia and quite a few within the USA. I also use my mobile phone A LOT!! At home I pay 35 cents per call untimed from my mobile to any phone on the same network. My network has about 95% of landlines and 60% of mobiles in Australia. I get free local calls on my land line, that is anywhere within about 100km radius of my home. I really hammer my mobile, often making 45 minute calls to Perth 2,700km away which only cost me 35 cents.
I'm pretty happy with my phone plans and the costs.
I need a land line to access my ADSL, naked ADSL here is pretty crappy. Rent on land line is $30AU per month.
Oh, please remember our dollar is only about 64 cents US.

 

I'm still spending about $36/month for a land line, no long distance on it. I've also got a cel that I use for long distance (pay as I go.) This keeps me at less than $50/month total for phone.

 

"bundling" packages are a complete take!

I have comcast ISP because that is all I can get. Even "bundled" the cable TV is more expensive than my dishnet, the landline phone is way more expensive than my Vonnage. We used to use our cells for long distance but the vonnage is way better without the headache. We have dropped our cells to the minimum plan, and I would go prepaid except for some reason Verizon won't let me transport my number from Verizon post paid to Verizon prepaid! It is the only place I can't transfer it too! Go figure! The only reason I care is that I have had the numbers for over 20 years!

As I suggest, the Cable ISP is making both other services unneeded. With the exception of local news most everything I want on TV is available on the net. Even local news is available some places streaming. Network entertainment is almost all available on either homesites or Hulu.

I just wish the comcast wasn't so expensive! In the US we pay ~ twice the international average for "high speed ISP" at about 1/2 the speed!

Icarus

 

Hey Tripp,

How is that Tracfone working out for you?

It looks like a pretty good prepaid deal. Some of the reviews I read are sort of so-so on tracfone.

T

 

We have our building split into twelve heating zones, so the temperature varies from one section to another. I keep our main living area at 69 during the day, and 60 at night. I keep my office at 65 during the day and 60 at night. We never heat our bedroom, unless I'm trying to get my wife out of her clothes. My parents live in an apartment in the back, and they keep that way too hot for me. Their comfort zone has moved up as they age.

Our heating system is a combination of two high efficiency natural gas forced air furnaces, one old oil fired furnace, many baseboard electrical heaters, and two small forced air electrical heaters. I couldn't begin to tell you what our heating costs are without doing a day's worth of high powered math. I really don't want to know.

Tom

 

Ok, so its not a normal monthly occurance. That would be scary if it was

 

You tricky devil you

You know, I love my dad and my aunt. I really, really do. But I swear, if they move the setpoint up 1 F I will have to move into the shed out back.

I'm seriously considering getting a second home nearby, as the prices have come down and it would be a good investment (At least not any worse than the gawdam stock market or my piddling interest rate at the bank). I'd then move them into the second home, and keep my home at a more sane temperature

However, the cats don't seem to mind the heat one bit. The oldest cat will still wiggle under the blankets

If it involves partial derivatives, time for heavy drinking. That way, you're already numb when you realize what the shocking answer is

 

well my provider is verizon wireless which is known to big higher, but they have much better policies concerning changes to increase your allowance to prevent overage charges.

they now offer VoIP service that integrates most of the wireless features into a mini computer stand interface that can attach up to 4 cordless phones to it for 34.99 a month, but dont need it. i have and pay for wireless cellular for a pretty basic reason, if its attached to a wire, it is simply not nearly as convenient for me because i simply dont do a heck of a lot where a wired option is good for me and i have excellent cell service where i live so dont need a land line. (other than PC, its really not much of anything) up until about a year ago, all my internet was wireless as well, but since i am now streaming netflix thru my wi-fi, i need the higher bandwidth (does not work well unless i can AVERAGE 2 Mb/sec transfer)

loved that USB card for wireless convenience, but could not justify paying for both so dropped it.

**edit**
one other thing which really came in handy a while back when arguing with insurance over medical coverages, i started using my bluetooth headset around the house all the time when my son was young because i could talk and still deal with him. now its become a habit that is near impossible to break.

there have been times, that i would forget to bring it and then on my daily call to SO at lunch i would have to hold the phone up to my ear. never realized how much i hated doing that. it got to the point now that i have a headset for both cars, home and one at work just in case so there is no way i will be without one...

now before you all think i am crazy for having so many of them, lets jus say, i bought one for SO, she lost it after about a week ($80 down the drain!@!) so i got her another one. it took her about 3 days to realize she did not like them and would rather get a ticket (hands free phone law here!@!) so stopped using it (this one was $110!!) naturally right after that, we found the one she lost (our son was an accomplice in the disappearance) so now i have my two plus her two that i use.

 

These gas prices will most likely stay low for a few years. it all depends on how bad things will get over the next 3-6 months. I've been doing TONS of economic studies and it's not looking good folks.

 

few more months maybe

 

With the financial firms primarily responsible for ramping up commodities prices in such dire straits, the market has started to swing back to the physical hedgers and traditional speculators. There are still some substantial intraday price movements - up 4% then down 5% yesterday - but it's actually starting to be stable. Financial firms are unlikely to regain control over the market while available credit remains poor.

There is a bill currently being drafted by the Agriculture Committee of the US House of Representatives, the Derivatives Markets Transparency and Accountability Act of 2009. If this passes it should shut down almost index speculation permanently. Well, until some idiot decides to repeal it.

OPEC are calling for greater futures market regulation, to take price manipulation out of the hands of financial firms.

I recommend reading The Accidental Hunt Brothers, for more information.

 

Oil will fluctuate between $25 and 50/barrell for the next couple of years, unless there is major armed conflict in the middle east or the rest of the world.

 

We are in DEEP s***. We will end up like Iceland - look into it

 

Kind of cute how with all this bailout money floating around, the economy is getting worse. Thank god for this Stimulus