Tuesday, July 10, 2018

A New Cellphone & "Our Plan"



On the way home from the bus stop the other day my darling daughter dropped her phone and although it is in a protective case it landed just so on a rock and cracked the screen right down the middle.  Oh boy, was she ever upset when she got home.  The deal at our house is that everyone is responsible to buy their own phones and Mom pays for the service.


The idea behind that is to teach my children to be responsible for their phones and by having to buy them themselves they are more apt to take care of them and not lose them.  And we've put that to the test a time or two when my youngest ran her phone through the washing machine, not once, but twice, and later left one at the bus stop.  We actually got it back because some nice person turned it in.  My oldest is a dropper and this is the second time she has dropped her phone and damaged it.  Me, well, I was scrubbing the toilet one day and mine slipped out of my shirt pocket and plop.

So while they get to reap the benefits of carelessness they also have the option to choose the phones that they want with all the bells and whistles.  I personally don't care about all that stuff.  As long as I can make a phone call and send a text message I'm fine.  Bare bones, nothing fancy.  Phones don't really do much for me.  In fact, if you haven't figured it out already, I really don't care for them.


Our cell phone plan is that we don't have a cell phone plan.  

I've talked about this before and we use Tracfone.  It is a pay as you go service and we pretty much just pay for what we use.  I purchase 90 days of service at a time for each one of us and where there are three of us I have it worked out so I am only renewing one of us at a time.  Depending on our usage and what is going on in our lives depends on how high our usage is, but it runs me $19.99 or 29.99 a month to renew.  Usually it is only $19.99 each month as we try to be fairly conservative.  So basically for an average of less than $25 a month we have pretty darn good cell service for three people.

To stretch that service we also use any available free wifi, which is pretty abundant in the city, to surf the internet, receive and send emails instead of texting, download GPS directions, etc.  We rarely use our data.  Plus any minutes, texts, or data left at the end of our 90 days rolls over with our renewal so they are never lost to us.  This makes it really nice to store up extra data to use when we are travelling.  Whenever I renew our service I always check online for promo codes that will give us extra minutes too.  And there are always codes. 


My oldest started shopping for a replacement phone a couple weeks ago.  She found a phone at ShopKo and a coupon for $10 OFF a $30 store purchase.  When we go there the phone she wanted was out of stock, however there was another one, slightly better, on clearance for $44.99 ($34.99 after the coupon) so she got that one.  I found one too even though I wasn't looking.  Mine is five years old, very scratched and has a tendency to dial people all on its own, which can be frustrating.

The phone I chose was also on clearance for only $19.99 so I figured it was a good time to upgrade.  My daughter checked out first using my store rewards card and when she paid the register spit out a $10 OFF a $10 store purchase coupon.  I used that to pay for my phone spending only $9.99!  Loved that!!

Really good cell phone service with really good coverage doesn't need to be expensive.  And you don't need really expensive phones either.  It works for us and we are quite happy with it.  I'm happiest about the price.  Now I just need to figure out how to use my new phone (sigh).






14 comments:

  1. Yes to responsible reasonable cell phones!! My husband is provided a cell phone from work, and I have a very old iphone that we bought used. It's no longer updated, so I hope it continues to work for what I need - and that it keeps turning on! We use ting for our cell phone "plan" - I like it because I only pay for what I use, so if I'm traveling during one month I pay for more data, but I don't mind that because I needed it, versus those plans where you never use all you pay for. I do so miss my indestructible motorola phone that lasted 7 years with just a battery upgrade every so often, despite dropping it oodles of times.

    - Molly

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    1. My old motorola was a great phone too. You can't drop them like you used to! :)

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  2. I don't understand the love affair with phones at all. My dh and I share a 7-year-old flip phone for emergencies when we are out and about. We have a home phone. Kids don't get phones until they drive, and, in fact, eldest DS doesn't even want one. He uses our flip phone. DH did, however, get DD a smart phone for her birthday, about the same time she got her permit. It was her only gift. If she uses up her data, that's it. She is stuck until the next cycle. We will not replace the phone if it gets lost or damaged, either, and there will be no upgrade. I am sure in a year or two she will be asking for Christmas or birthday, and then, DH and I will decide. (Generally speaking, we don't allow kids to ask for gifts--they're gifts.)
    What really gets me about phones, is how much it bothers people that we don't use cell phones /have old models. I have a land line. If I am home, you can reach me on that. If I am not home, I am obviously not available to talk to you anyway. And, GOD FORBID DD, whips out a phone, or any kid whips out a handheld gaming system, or any such thing when we are at dinner, watching a concert, or the like. I asked them how they would feel if I started reading a book in those situations. (Of course, I'm also the mean mother who didn't allow kids' menus with coloring pages either after the age of 3.) YIKES, I'm ranting....have a good rest of the week. I can't wait to see what you're going to do with those supplies you bought!

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    1. LOL. Oh my gosh Meg! You and I are two peas in a pod. I don't get the cellphone obsession at all and if you pull that thing out during dinner, etc, like you said, I'll throttle you! Ha, ha. Good to know I'm not alone. :) :)

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    2. I too, have a tracphone and wait until the next to the last day to refill minutes because the company will text you a coupon. They panic because they are afraid you are going to leave.

      More than one person has laughed at my plain, flip phone. I reply, "It costs me $8.00 per month and the phone was $20.00. What do you pay?"

      That shuts them up.

      Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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    3. I do the same thing! LOL It does shut them up! :)

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  3. Hi! DH and I have been tracfone users for a good many years now. We have smartphones now mainly because of kids and grandkids. I hate texting - it makes for a lot of confusion in communications.
    Oh! To stop your phone from dialing out on its own, make it password protected! It took us a long time to figure that out ; )

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  4. I use TracFone (flip phone) also and can text and take/send photos as well as talk. I like that it is less fragile (no exposed screen to crack because it is folded). Other people don't understand how I can get along without a smart phone, but I actually don't want one. I pay for a year of service at a time and have never run out of minutes. I appreciate knowing there are like-minded folks out there! :)

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    1. I don't understand why people pay such exorbitant prices for cell service. Crazy!!

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  5. My hubby and I bot have tracfones and we love them. The service is not great out where we live but they are wonderful everywhere else we go. We only use them when we are away from home anyway. ;)

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    1. We have pretty good service, no dead spots. I've been pretty fortunate.

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  6. My flip phone was dropped dozens of times, but since it is a Samsung Rugby, it has military specs and is indestructible. When I bought a smart phone, it was a Galaxy S3, I think they are on S8 now and cost $700. the older but new phone cost me $49.

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    1. I swear those flip phones are indestructible. It is crazy to me what some of these smart phones go for. And people will pay it! ???

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