Getting Rid of the Monthy Cell Phone Bill - My Story

I was never big on cell phones. It just seemed that I would always, and I mean ALWAYS have to available. On call no matter when or where. And I just didn't want to be. So my feet were really dragging on the way to getting one.

My good husband finally talked me into it. He is surrounded by technology in his marketing job and got a kick out of all the new things coming out. And in some respects having the phone was nice. It was fun to have my daughter text me....at first. She liked to carry on long conversations via text messaging. I was glad to get important calls while away from the house. But I also got calls while grocery shopping, trying on clothes, in traffic, and the worst place of all, church.

That wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the bill. All of you who have cells phones know the pain of which I am speaking. I try to trim costs everywhere I can. But nothing can be done here. We have all discovered to our chagrin that the rate quoted is not the actual amount of the monthly bill. Not by a long shot. There are activation charges and surcharges and taxes and fees and more fees.

Like most of us, we already pay for Internet and a land line phone. We have three emails, two computers, and a facebook page each. I consider us pretty well connected. Both of us hardly ever use our phones and usually forget them when we go out.

So the straw was this. When we moved a few weeks ago the power cord in my laptop computer unexpectedly died and we were completely unconnected for the first time in a very long time. Not good in a new place. My husband called our cell phone company and got data service for our phones. They said it would add $40.00 dollars to our bill. We were in a bind so we agreed. Then we got our bill and it was $90.00 more! Because of fees and taxes and more fees.Over $150.00 dollars a month for two phones that are hardly used!

My husband and I had a frank talk about our how much we really needed our cell phones, the ridiculous expense, and what our financial goals are. He was upset at the bill also. We decided to compromise on a prepay phone. There are some very inexpensive ones that have cameras, text, and pretty much everything we use.

So we keep the cell phone and lose the monthly bill. I'm happy with that.

"He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good:
and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he"
Proverbs 16:20