Cell Phones

Well, one MAJOR lifestyle change in the last few months has revolved around my cell phone.

Because I was locked into a voice and data plan, I was paying at least $150 a month for the cell service.  Because we didn't have a land line phone, we couldn't put the cell phone onto a less costly plan.  I used a lot of minutes each month, including a lot of long distance minutes. 

At first, we looked into pulling the cell back to a very basic plan, and getting a land line.  Unfortunately, that would have been just as expensive, as I was still locked into a voice AND data plan on the cell.  I asked about getting the cell phone contract canceled, and was told that it would cost me over $500 to do so. $500 seemed like a whole lot of money to spend in order to save money. 

I then came up with a plan to give the cell phone contract to someone else, and include the cell as an incentive.  I had a really nice Blackberry, and though I was fiercely attached to it, I am more attached to the idea of saving money.

After trying to give away the contract and the phone, we were unsuccessful.  Truthfully, this made me cheer on the inside because my cell phone was pretty much my life.  It was my phone, my calendar, my email, my alarm clock, my kids time-out timer, my camera, and my entire life organizer.  It seemed like I would have nothing if I did not have my phone.  I felt naked without it, and usually panicked at the thought of leaving it behind.  Yes... I was truly addicted. 

Over the summer, I kept looking at ways to save more money, and the one thing that kept coming up was the large cell phone bill each month! I had to come up with a solution.

I finally resorted to paying someone $150, to take my cell phone plan, and offered the phone too as a bonus.  The person who took the contract was not actually interested in the phone, so I lucked out!  I sold the phone on Ebay for $90, so I made back some of my "closing costs" on the contract.  I was a little scared to begin life with only a land line, but thrilled to save ourselves $150 a month.  That's $1800 a year!!

I have learned that life without a cell phone is actually easier!  It's surprisingly less busy, and though I tend to be a little harder to get ahold of, that's okay.  If I go out for a walk with the kids, people simply have to wait until I get back home to know that they called.  It seems like such a foreign concept, but it actually much less time consuming.  I spend much less time "tinkering" with my phone - checking emails, checking social networking sites, checking text messages, random tweaking, and all that stuff.

I have saved a lot of time and money by not having a cell phone.  My husband still has a cell phone because his employer requires him to carry one during business hours.  I use this phone if I go out in the evening without my husband, but for the most part, I am cell phone free.

What did I learn?  Sometimes our "needs" are not needs at all, but just very high priority wants.  Sometimes, it's okay to let go of those things in order to save money, and sometimes, it can even be better for us when we do let them go!