I’m sure bundling has been around for a long time, but McDonald’s certainly perfected it. Buy a sandwich and a Coke, get the fries for free. What if I don’t want the fries? (Or the salad, or whatever other substitute they offer). What if I want a Coke and hamburger? I feel like I’m getting ripped off. In the case of McDonald’s, it turns out to be to my benefit. I’m better off drinking water.

Verizon FIOS offers TV, phone, and Internet. Buy all 3, get one free. Danita and I could live with the bundling. But that’s not enough for Verizon. Three years ago, the bundle was $99 / mo. The price is exactly the same today. Except the price we actually paid 3 years ago was $115 / mo. Today, it’s $133 / mo. Verizon announced they’re adding another $8 / mo (which is really closer to $8.50, when sales tax is included). Enough! I decided to see if we can cut our costs.

Using our cell phones instead of the home phone is a no-brainer. When we started, pre-paid cell service was $1.00 / minute. That quickly went down to $0.25 / minute. Then it went down to $0.10 / minute. With a 1-year card costing $100, we will never use 1,000 minutes. Using the cell phone instead of the home phone adds a grand total of … lets see … calculating … carry the 1 … $0 / mo.

TV is more confusing. Going on-line, I found all kinds of advice. Buy a box (anywhere from $35 to $120), buy a monthly subscription (Hulu+, Netfix, Amazon Prime, etc) and give up the TV subscription. Except that for all of these options, we wouldn’t see all the shows we currently watch. The main issue for us is CBS, which blocks their most popular shows from Hulu+. But I noticed that all the networks we watch are offering all of their shows on their own web sites, completely free. So the best way for us to cut the cord is to carry the laptop downstairs and connect it to the TV. If we don’t want to get up to start the next show, we can get a longer cable for $10. That’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a $100 box and a $8 / mo subscription.

I think I’ll get a better chance of talking to somebody on the “A” team if I wait until normal business hours. I’m calling Verizon tomorrow. I’m thinking we’ll cut our monthly bill in half. We’ll see.

We’re looking forward to a good time this afternoon. Duane Sabiston has an art opening. It should be fun.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.