:: Frugal Fodder 30—Saving on Cell Phones

Wow!  THIRTY Frugal Fodder posts.  I’ve got tons of Frugal Posts,… Let’s face it, I’m pretty cheap!  But I only started numbering them  in November 2012—along the way, I’ve written frugal posts that didn’t get numbered… you can click HERE  to get started reading some of the Frugal posts I’ve written.  I’ll be adding to the list as I am cleaning up my Archives and Labels, so check back and see if there are any you missed!

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There are lots of ways to save when it comes to cell phone plans.  It is always wise to check with your carrier first to see if they can lower your plan and if you can get your plan down to the bare minimum and what your willing to live with. You also want to make sure you won't have a contract to fulfill or be stuck with a whopper of bill!



Recently, we switched our plan to Consumer Cellular.  The reason for this was simple. C-O-S-T!
By switching we were able to cut our bill almost completely in half. Part of the reason for this is because we have WI-FI here in our home too.  More on WI-FI in a moment.

We just received our first statement and paid our first months bill with them—and I love it!  We don’t have a contract. We aren’t stuck with a set payment and overages.  We control the budget on the cell phone usage.

With our plan we picked what we wanted; and we get ALERTS if we are going to go over our minutes, data, or text usage.  The ALERTS texts are FREE and don’t cost us any extra to receive them.  What do the ALERTS mean for us?   I’m able to log in to our acct up to the last day of our billing cycle and change our plan. The increments only go up by $10 and the savings, so far have been tremendous.   The first month I got an ALERT saying I had $28 in overages.   After logging in and changing the calling plan—it brought it down and gave me MORE MINUTES!  We’re still working out our averages---and with our trip in November, we used more DATA than planned (at the cabin) without WI-FI  but again, I adjusted it and there are going to be no surprises on this next bill.   The best part about it?  I don’t have to leave it at the HIGHER RATE… instead the next month, I can bring it back down to something more affordable and more comfortable on the pocket book!

So back to the WI-FI.   I just found out that if I have GOOGLE HANGOUTS (get the app for iphone) on my phone OR FACE-TIME if it’s an iPhone—I can make those calls using my WI-FI and it won’t cost my plan minutes!  That means savings in our pocket. No more adjusting the plan for us—The Honey can keep up with his brothers and their families… and I can keep up with mine!
I’m going to be giving this a work out for sure over the next month and see what sort of savings I can continue to squeeze out of this set up!

I’ll keep you posted and you can look for any UPDATES on the blog…

At the top of the post I mentioned that I have a lot of Frugal Fodder posts… I thought I’d link to my first numbered FF post as it was around the holidays- Thanksgiving, I think.  Regarding DISHES:  Real vs. Paper

• Lastly, maybe you have money for the meal this year but just don't have money for the dishes or may not have enough for each person. Ask each household to bring dishes enough for their household! The table will be set and it will be a surprise to everyone how beautiful it can be! Just remember it's the people you share the meal with that counts! Not the money spent. But the savings help! ;)

‘Til next time, Be Blessed!
           Patricia



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Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. ~ Psalm 37: 3-5


***** just so you know, Consumer Cellular doesn't pay me anything to write this post.  They probably don't even know anything about it!  I just thought I'd share with you about the great service, price and overall satisfaction I'm getting from the switch!  All opinions are mine-- and any money I SAVE from switching, will go in the PIGGY BANK!  (it's not really a piggy bank, it's an old milk jug); but you get the idea. ;)