Bills that are essential or not? Do we really need sky tv and mobile phoe contracts all can we do away with it all

[ivykaty44]

What household utility can't you do without:

landline telephone - yes
mobile contract - no
sky - yes
internet connection - no
car - no share a car with another household
bus pass - yes
gym membership - no...need my fix

I an glued to my mobile & Internet. Both need Internet to work from home too. Landline isn't needed but used a lot by dds. Don't do gym, sky or have a bus pass( no buses going anywhere useful!

Cars are both essential for work

I think it would be hard to get rid of my landline connection as it's tied in with a bundle for tv and internet.

would happily get rid of sky.

same as DF with the landline - although having said that it's useful to have for all the 08 numbers that I often need to ring

landline telephone - yes
mobile contract - no
virgin - yes
internet connection - no
car - yes, we could catch a train to go to IL's but a car makes it only a half day trip instead of a day trip
rail pass - no, DH commutes into London
gym membership - dont have one! (I wish I had the time!!)

I've looked at combining my BT line rental with Broadband... but once all costs taken into account after the initial discounted period, it's more expensive if I move away from BT to my broadband supplier's LLU (O2). BTcare have reduced my line rental package to the lowest it can go (while still having broadband access).

I don't have Sky or Virgin - I use internet mostly these days for watching TV and Movies on demand.

Can't do without my car. No public transport available to get me to work, plus use my car as part of work.

Gym Membership - it gives me something to do, rather than spending money elsewhere... great to be able to just pop in for a dip in the pool after work.

Landline: no - I would worry too much about emissions, especially for the dc (I don't let them talk for LNG on the mobile)
Mobile: no - it's too much a part if modern life and not having one cuts you off. But it doesn't need to be fancy. If things were really tight I'd sacrifice my all-singing-all-dancing (MN-accessing!) iPhone, and get a cheap PAYG.
Sky: yes
Broadband: no
Car: no. We would use it less, but could not give it up entirely.
Bus pass: yes
Gym: what gym? ie yes.

If you're talkng household utilities, what about

TV: yes, especially if we kept broadband
Washing machine: no!
Dishwasher: (grits teeth and dons Marigolds) yes

Well none of those things are essential. Apart from maybe internet at home as I sometimes work from home and need to be able to access the network. Oh and one car as DH often has to go to work before public transport is running.

The rest for us is optional extras - but without all of these things we'd be a bit

I don;t understand why people are including bus passes/train passes. Surely these are things that you only buy if it is cost effective to do so? I used to have a tube pass, if I hadn;t had it my fares would have beed stacks more. I am as to how that is a luxury?

you do know about skype? It is another way of making telephone calls and you can do this through your pc..so the children can talk sat either looking at the pc or 10 oot away if you are worryed about emission etc (I am not mocking you it is a serious consideration)

i have viginmedia connection for my internet - so a cable straight to the pc

I also use saynoto08 numbers - as they give an alternative geographicle number to phone on my mobile contract or I use skype - calls to australia skype to skype are free So no need for a landline that I never used to use and just paid for renting the landline at 317 per month

my dad just has a dongle £10 per month usage, no tv and no landline. The dongle he uses for the internet and skype and he has a £10 contrct phone for 300 minutes and 300 text

I thought central heating and hot water were essentials but we've been without them since March and has been fine. (The shower still works)Would be essential in winter, though.

Landline-had to get it to get broadband but could do without both if just used free wifi at local cafe
mobile-£30pcm essential, £100pcm not
sky/virgin-definately non-essential
tv licence-i think of this a a luxuary
car-have become car dependant i'm afraid
bus-see above
gym- council gym is £5 a go

landline - wouldn't like to live without, mainly for broadband connection
mobile contract - have PAYG and put about £10 every 3/4 months
sky - don't have
internet connection - wouldn't like to like without
car - would be difficult, could manage on buses, but not great in villages
bus pass - don't have
gym - don't have

landline telephone - no
mobile contract - no never use it to make calls just occasional texts
sky - yes but more for dc and dp i could leave it
internet connection - yes this is my fix
car - yes we need 2 as dp works an hours commute away and school run, work for me
bus pass - no too infrequent and unreliable here
gym membership - no too busy

We only need broadband and a pay as you go mobile.

We have no car or gym mmbership and would happily bin the landline phone and the TV completely along with the Sky box.

Landline phone, broadband and car.

We only need the landline for the WiFi.

The net is essential here for my work and also because there are very very few shops here and we buy many essential items online.

Car - rural area. Very limited public transport and it's expensive. Essential for DH to get to work on odd shifts/bad weather and even to get to our doctor's surgery quickly (no pavements in some spots en route to it, 60mph A road).

We have PAYG mobiles and Freeview.

Internet - need as we run a business from home
Mobiles - another business expense and needed
Sky - would ditch tomorrow, but DH and DS llove their sport and movies.
Cars - needed as bus service rubbish