The number one reason I homestead is to save money. I may have to invest a bit of money and a lot of energy now, but it will pay off down the road when we are living self sufficiently.

I am not new to finding ways to save money. I am admittedly cheap. I hate paying more for something than I have to.

Let me start by saying that I have had Verizon Wireless for my cell service provider for 10 years. I got tired of paying almost $200 a month. So we switched to Straight Talk. That saved us about $100 a month but the service sucked. Bad.

We had Straight Talk for about a year. We hated it, and the phones, the entire time we had them. Then we moved to our new home. We had Zero service inside the house. Unless, of course, you were leaning against a window, then you could get like 1 bar.  Most of my phone calls were made on the front porch or the car pool line. This had to change.

I did some research on wifi phones because we have Comcast and a great internet connection. Thats where I found Republic Wireless. It runs off of wifi when there is a good open signal around . If you don’t have a good wifi signal, it runs off of the sprint towers like a regular ol’ cell phone. This phone is set up to automatically detect open wifi signals. So, say your in a grocery store with no cell phone service. If the store is offering free wifi, your phone calls will be crystal clear and you’ll have streaming data.

I love this set up. Its perfect for me and our home, where I spend most of my time. I could see this being perfect for someone who spends a lot of time indoors as well. If your in the office all the time, this is just what you need. And if you live in the city, where there is an unlimited amount of open wifi signals around you, this is a no brainer.

As far as cell phone service (without a wifi connection) through sprint, well, when I’m in my home I get about the same amount of service as I did when we were with Straight Talk. I think our home is in a dead zone. But in a way, I’m ok with that! When I’m away from the house I get great service through Sprint! I can download things, and write posts to the blog with with no problems. Thats a massive improvement over Straight Talk. I couldn’t even get Google Maps to find my location on my Straight Talk phone.

The best part about it is that unlimited 3g service is $25 a month! Thats even cheaper than Straight Talk!

You can actually get a $5 a month plan that runs on wifi only.That would be perfect if I never left our property, which I would be fine with honestly, but unfortunately I do have to leave occasionally. I am considering purchasing a second phone to leave at the house as strictly a home phone. Think about it, home phone lines are at least $25 a month (for the first 12 months). Save yourself $20 a month.

Republic Wireless also offers a $10 a month plan that has unlimited wifi, calls and texts and cell service through sprint. But no data when your off of wifi. I tried that the first month and discovered how much I need data. I like to write posts to my blog and Facebook when I am waiting. Apparently I always have to be doing something.

I can switch my plan up to twice a month if I want to. So, I COULD get the $5 a month plan if I know that I will be spending most of my time at home that month. Then I could switch to the $25 a month data plan and they would prorate the difference. I have actually done this and it was extremely easy. I did it right off my phone. But honestly, I am saving so much being on the $25 a month plan, that I may as well just stick with it. And that is a big deal for me. Cos I’m cheap.

Over all, I love this service. It is genius! And the service will only get better as technology catches up to Replublic Wireless. Free wifi is being offered at more and more places and before you know it it will be everywhere. Then I will switch to the $5 a month plan. 🙂

If you are interested in signing up with Republic Wireless, follow THIS LINK and both you, and I, will get a $20 discount on our bill. Hey, I’m cool with that. Discount shows at check out.