I just joined the cell phone world after years of trying to avoid having people have another way to get a hold of me. I have been watching my budget over the years and seeing rising expenses for participating in the information age
In this I mean land lines, cell phones, cable/satellite television/ TIVO/ subscription cable movie services, and internet connections.

I spent the weekend upgrading to a cell phone for me and improving my internet connection modestly to DSL lite. I think I got good deals on both, but I only see this section of my budget increasing as my kids get older and I think of the total costs.

I think our family costs are $180 per month.
Cable $50
Netflix $22
DSL Lite $25
Two Cell phones $80
Landline $25-30

I was thinking of ditching our landline in the long run. The thing that bugs me the most is paying $50 month for television. But how would we babysit the kids w/out tv??

Cable/Cable Modem > $90.00 per month
Cell Phone > $44 per month
Telephone line > $36 per month

All my long distance is free(home phone) because Sprint made a big mistake

Technology just keeps finding more ways for us to spend our money!

Landline: $79.99/mo
DSL: $29.99/mo
Cell: $39.99/mo

I don't have cable...I balk like a mule at paying nearly $50 a month for basic service. Plus, the house I rent isn't set up for cable, and my landlord is such a...well, another word for mule...I'm not paying to have it cabled. I've been tossing the idea of DirecTV around, because I really miss A&E, the Food Network, AMC, etc.

Cell phones ($50 a month - total - for our two lines - I HAVE to have one because my mom lives where there aren't phone lines - and then hubby has to have to to talk to me while he's 3 hours away so we basically talk for $10 a month which pays for the extra line in the 'family' plan)

Net - while in Belgium it was quite cheap for DSL - I believe it was $30 for three months plus the phone line (which was I think 35 a month), which was only used so we could have DSL and for incoming calls - now one of the guys on my hubby's floor (in the barracks) has wireless so he bought a wireless adapter since the guy is letting the others mooch off his wireless (how nice). I don't pay anything and I get the joy of having to suffer through my mother-in-law's AOL (or nothing at my parents house)

That's all we have currently, though once we're back living as a normal family in our own place and together, we'll likely have the cell phones ($50), internet (not sure what type, likely DSL so whatever the going rate is for that stateside at the moment), and some sort of cable and then the home phone line.

Well I work for the phone company so I have a few things that are comped.
Wireless internet for laptop, 2 cell phones, & pager with an 800 number are all an employee perk. (my business card looks like a college cheat sheet)
My Complete sense package runs $100 with a discount and includes unlimited landline local and long distance, and two additional cell phones for my brother and sister.
Cable and internet runs about $80 a month plus $25 dollars for Unlimited BlockBuster rentals.
Keeping in touch with the people you love, priceless.

For international comparison (using today's exchange rate of £1 = $1.81):
Bundled cable TV, 600Mbs broadband internet, and landline telephone - about $63 per month (more if I buy any PPV movies, which cost me $6.33 each)
Nokia 7250i Tri-band Mobile phone with integral camera, Java games, enhanced WAP browser, 200 minutes of anytime calls, and SMS text messaging for 18 cents per message - $54.30 per month
These are just standard sales packages - it is possible to get better deals here if you shop around, especially if your home is covered by more than one cable TV provider.
At the moment the UK has something like 40% broadband penetration, but it's growing very fast at the moment as new digital phone exchanges are rolled out.

It seems that cell phone costs (we call them "mobile" phones, or just "mobiles") are broadly comparable, and landline/cable is if anything slightly cheaper.

In technical capability, and, more pertinently, mobile/cellular networks in the USA are 6-12 months behind those in Europe. Handset models launches are the most obvious way to spot this pattern. This is no pejorative, it's just that the logistics are easier and the infrastructure is more delveoped.

I have a cellular, but I hate it - and wouldnt pay for one myself: they are disgusting things.

Internet I love, so I pay about 45 bucks for Braodband. I dont have A TV, because that, like cellular phones, is the evil of the earth.

Mike and I do our best to keep costs down. We don't have 'cable' per say, but a 'lifeline' service instead which is the basic locals, two Discovery channels (regular & Discovery Health), the History Channel and the Travel Channel. I honestly don't think we're supposed to be getting those few cable channels but it appears our cable company is not filtering them out. For this, we pay about $8/month and this bill is combined with our broadband cable bill of $43, for a total of about $55/month that goes to our cable company.

We also have a land line that rings 3 different numbers (with voicemail, call waiting & all the fun extras) that runs another $55/month.

That's all we have - unless you count the battery costs to keep Mike's optical mouse going, then throw in another $12 every two or three months.

We want to get DirecTV but are waiting until they can offer Savannah locals (and have enough money to afford it).

We've had cellphones and have hated them. Mike and I have come to the conclusion that we don't like the society that is evolving from cell phone use and will put off getting one as long as we can. I could go on ad nauseum about this whole cellphones in society business, but I'll spare you this time.

Total every month, including batteries - ~$114

It's worth it to keep in touch with all of you!!!!

I'm just a broke college kid with broke parents, but we do manage to keep the dialup internet ($20) and cable ($20) going. Oh, how I wish I had money to spend........

I avoided having a cell phone for years, but my employer recently provided me with service, so now I have one that I use sparingly.

We have a land line with voice mail and call waiting that runs about $50, but that's an average that also includes my long distance charges.

We have a television, but we don't have cable, and we don't get any reception for local channels. We do have a Netflix membership. $22

Earthlink Dial-up service $22

Total monthly charges approximately $94.00 per month.

Digital Cable --> $55
DSL + Local Phone --> $60
Cell Phone (2 phones, shared minutes) --> $74
TiVo --> $12

Total: $201

Until recently I had that Blockbuster Freedom Pass @ $25/month but ever since I got TiVo I have watched far fewer DVD's. I have also found that movie rentals go through cycles where I could care less about seeing anything that is out at the time.

I'm going to eliminate local phone service as soon as my DSL contract is up and switch to a cable modem service. We never use our local phone, the only calls we get are telemarketers and people ringing our apartment from downstairs, but that could just as easily hit a cell phone.

I'm also going to downgrade my cell phone plan once the contract is up because I don't need all the minutes I have now that I'm not traveling all the time.

It would be hard to give up cable, and I'd never consider giving up internet access. I'd eat Macaroni and Cheese every night before I'd give up high speed access.

cell phone- $35.00
dsl and lan line- $80

no cable for me!