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We could save money by getting rid of our land line phone and just using our cell phones, but I find when power goes out our cordless phones do not work. Only our old phone hooked up to the land line will. So if you have no power due to a storm and can't charge your cell phone the old phone and land line will work!

A gas generator would do the trick.. You can get 'em cheap, 1000W and run 'em on chain saw gas/oil mix. One gallon will run for 5 hours. Good enough for recharging and running your laptop too!

I too have thought about dumping the land line, however when asked for my phone number, for what ever reason, I am glad not to give out my cell number and give the land line number instead. So for all of you who have my number that begins with 281-...leave a message and I may listen to it.

@ Country...your personal genie works great but what about a storm that knocks out power all around, hurricanes, Ice storms, snow storms, flash flooding...during hurricane Ike that was a big issue...the whole city of Houston had no power to run the cell towers, but my land line worked.

I finally got rid of my land line after years of getting nothing but solicitations on it and arguing with the wife. She finally agreed after I it a nothing raise at work and gas and food prices continue to skyrocket. I went ahead and got a magic jack and it works great. Nice part is I give it out to people and if they leave a message I get it I. The email of my cell phone. Bad part is if my Internet or electricity goes out, then no home phone. One of the reasons I didn't switch earlier is I bought an early version and never got it to work, and 911 would not work properly if I used that phone to make a call. Both issues have now been taken care of with the latest versions. I also have an emergency lantern, with a wind up generator and cigarette lighter plug I can charge my phone with, or other items.

I use a VOIP phone with a big UPS to keep the internet and phone going during short outages. For anything long-term, there's a generator in the garage to recharge batteries, run the freezers, etc.

I use OMMA free landline just pay taxes. You have to buy a small box to hook up to your internet provider. I have had for over two years with no issues.

Unless your cell phone is severely old or faulty or unless your power is out for more than 24 hours in a row, in which case you should probably move, your cell phone will easily last through any normal power outage.

I too have been thinking of getting rid of the land line, but I'm not sure if I want to give my cell to people I don't know. I always answer my cell and if it's a stranger or unsolicited call I can be quite rude for wasting my time. I also installed this app on my cell that when I silence my phone, the only calls that get through are the numbers on my "white list". This comes in very handy in case of emergency with my children and family. I've been very curious of this magic jack so I need to investigate further...

Bham wrote:I too have been thinking of getting rid of the land line, but I'm not sure if I want to give my cell to people I don't know. I always answer my cell and if it's a stranger or unsolicited call I can be quite rude for wasting my time. I also installed this app on my cell that when I silence my phone, the only calls that get through are the numbers on my "white list". This comes in very handy in case of emergency with my children and family. I've been very curious of this magic jack so I need to investigate further...

The last time I checked, you had to leave your computer running 24-7 for the Magic Jack to work all the time. If you can afford $200 for the equipment, it's worth checking into the Ooma. Less than $5/month, and you won't know the difference between it and your normal phone.

There are 2 different versions of magic jack, and one of them requires no computer, but does require the Internet service.

barrytrot wrote:Unless your cell phone is severely old or faulty or unless your power is out for more than 24 hours in a row, in which case you should probably move, your cell phone will easily last through any normal power outage.

Guess everyone within 100 miles of the coast better move! (Hurricanes put me out of power for multiple days straight, 3 times within 2 months, in 2004. Now I have a whole house auto-start generator.)

I got rid of the land line 9 years ago last month. Absolutely no regrets, should have done it sooner. I have had zero problems with giving out and using my cell number in place of the land line.

I have a charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter for my phone, so as long as I have my vehicle, no worries about a dead battery.

As mentioned, the only potential issue I see is the cell towers going down in a power outage.

barrytrot wrote:Unless your cell phone is severely old or faulty or unless your power is out for more than 24 hours in a row, in which case you should probably move, your cell phone will easily last through any normal power outage.

Where I live no cell service, no high speed internet, no neighbors and the power goes out for several days at time with regularity. The last time was 10 days. Move??? Not a chance.

68Camaro wrote:

barrytrot wrote:Unless your cell phone is severely old or faulty or unless your power is out for more than 24 hours in a row, in which case you should probably move, your cell phone will easily last through any normal power outage.

Guess everyone within 100 miles of the coast better move! (Hurricanes put me out of power for multiple days straight, 3 times within 2 months, in 2004. Now I have a whole house auto-start generator.)

I can see that there are benefits to living where the hurricanes dwell, of course. Naturally if you are 100% certain of long term power outages you would likely have alternative power generation already handled anyway. As you do.

alpacafarmer wrote:

barrytrot wrote:Unless your cell phone is severely old or faulty or unless your power is out for more than 24 hours in a row, in which case you should probably move, your cell phone will easily last through any normal power outage.

Where I live no cell service, no high speed internet, no neighbors and the power goes out for several days at time with regularity. The last time was 10 days. Move??? Not a chance.

Right, you want to be off the grid. That's fine and probably pretty darn pleasant!

For me, I like the grid

And I like chaos

fasteddy wrote:I too have thought about dumping the land line, however when asked for my phone number, for what ever reason, I am glad not to give out my cell number and give the land line number instead. So for all of you who have my number that begins with 281-...leave a message and I may listen to it.

@ Country...your personal genie works great but what about a storm that knocks out power all around, hurricanes, Ice storms, snow storms, flash flooding...during hurricane Ike that was a big issue...the whole city of Houston had no power to run the cell towers, but my land line worked.

867-5309 works quite well.

alpacafarmer wrote:

barrytrot wrote:Unless your cell phone is severely old or faulty or unless your power is out for more than 24 hours in a row, in which case you should probably move, your cell phone will easily last through any normal power outage.

Where I live no cell service, no high speed internet, no neighbors and the power goes out for several days at time with regularity. The last time was 10 days. Move??? Not a chance.

Im with you alpacafarmer!!! although I do have satellite for the net. Cell phones dont work here though, and I do like it this way. My power doesnt go out often though, if it did Id be working even harder to get off grid electrically speaking.

I love modern society as much as most of you, but I like to be able to turn it off also. Heck i met my wife online! (although I cant turn her off in a literal sense anyway. )

AGCoinHunter wrote:

fasteddy wrote:I too have thought about dumping the land line, however when asked for my phone number, for what ever reason, I am glad not to give out my cell number and give the land line number instead. So for all of you who have my number that begins with 281-...leave a message and I may listen to it.

@ Country...your personal genie works great but what about a storm that knocks out power all around, hurricanes, Ice storms, snow storms, flash flooding...during hurricane Ike that was a big issue...the whole city of Houston had no power to run the cell towers, but my land line worked.

867-5309 works quite well.

As a kid, I called that number MANY times.

Speaking of "real numbers", I was watching an episode of "Tales From the Crypt" yesterday and they had a "real number" on the phone there also.

It was the episode where the "executioner" gets fired because they no longer allow executions and then he takes the law into his own hands.

When I watch it again I'll write the number down (The episode while only marginal did remind me of the joy of "Tales from the Crypt" so I bought the whole thing on DVD yesterday).

hobo finds wrote:... but I find when power goes out our cordless phones do not work. Only our old phone hooked up to the land line will. ...

Do you have a battery backup for your computer? Works for cordless phone bases, too.

Most battery backups use 12V batteries. Pull a car battery and replace the battery in the battery backup with that when the stock battery dies. Unplug the battery backup from the wall socket in case the power comes back on. Do not try to charge a car lead acid battery with the battery backup.

I did away with my home phone too. I wanted to lower my phone bill so I bought one of those Straight Talk home connect devices. Cost me $100 at Walmart but the service is only $15 a month. Lowered my phone bill about $20 a month which isn't much but when my cell phone is off contract in January I will cancel that and save another $47 a month. I figure about 3 months to pay for the device then I will start saving about $70 a month. The home phome connect works off the cell towers so I can also use it for a cell phone. So far it works good in the car although it does look funny having an actual landline phone in the car but it works. Verizon has the same device which is free but you have to sign a contract for a 2 years at $20 a month. Comparing them, the Straight Talk over 2 years works out to $20 cheaper and no contract. And no computer required or internet like Magic Jack or Vonage. Just wanted to let people know there are cheaper alternatives to high priced landlines.

hobo finds wrote:We could save money by getting rid of our land line phone and just using our cell phones, but I find when power goes out our cordless phones do not work. Only our old phone hooked up to the land line will. So if you have no power due to a storm and can't charge your cell phone the old phone and land line will work!

As much as I like my cell phone.. I'm getting sick of the bill. Technology costs are just getting way too out of hand. Already cut off cable, lowest internet and now am looking at getting rid of the cell phones.

reddirtcoins wrote:

hobo finds wrote:We could save money by getting rid of our land line phone and just using our cell phones, but I find when power goes out our cordless phones do not work. Only our old phone hooked up to the land line will. So if you have no power due to a storm and can't charge your cell phone the old phone and land line will work!

As much as I like my cell phone.. I'm getting sick of the bill. Technology costs are just getting way too out of hand. Already cut off cable, lowest internet and now am looking at getting rid of the cell phones.

TracFone is cheap. I paid $10 for the phone I'm using, then $90 for one year and 400 minutes back a couple of years ago. The renewal for 1yr/400min has gone up a little, but it's still cheap.

We got rid of our land line last week. For some reason we started getting 20-30 wrong number and hand up calls a day. Tried to help the people and find out who they were looking for and all they did was swear at us. Frontier wasn't any help and it wasn't worth filing a report with the police.

I have some regrets, but will get over it. The basic phone was costing $36 per month and I am happy to save the $400+ per year.

Mossy wrote:

reddirtcoins wrote:

hobo finds wrote:We could save money by getting rid of our land line phone and just using our cell phones, but I find when power goes out our cordless phones do not work. Only our old phone hooked up to the land line will. So if you have no power due to a storm and can't charge your cell phone the old phone and land line will work!

As much as I like my cell phone.. I'm getting sick of the bill. Technology costs are just getting way too out of hand. Already cut off cable, lowest internet and now am looking at getting rid of the cell phones.

TracFone is cheap. I paid $10 for the phone I'm using, then $90 for one year and 400 minutes back a couple of years ago. The renewal for 1yr/400min has gone up a little, but it's still cheap.

I have Tracfone and pay $220 for 12 months and 3000 minutes of service. Between that and MagicJack for like $100 for five years I think I get some value for my phone service.............