Putting in the Time - part two

This is a continuation of my last post as it was starting to get too long. Picking up from where we left off…

For my cell phone this year, my goal is to spend exactly $0. Sound insane? It is and I have to qualify this statement. I have a "pay as you go" $20 flip phone. State of the art. For 2004.In December I put $100 in my account. I use this phone as sparingly as possible. Like never. Only when I'm on vacation or out and about and need to talk to the hubby. The way I I avoid using that phone is that I use my iPod Touch for communication. It's an iPhone minus the phone (sort of). I have access to the App Store this way along with a free texting/calling app. It's called TextNow and it works with wifi. And let's face it, free wifi is almost everywhere. I have it at home and work so the places I spend 90% of my time is covered. 

I know this is not an option for everyone. It's an option for very few. But I went from $68 a month with a basic calling/texting plan to $8.33 if you spread my $100 out over 12 months. That is a savings of $816 a year. Let's say I can keep this charade up for 5 years, that's $3600. Hmmm, sounds worth the sacrifice to me. 

Now, for those of you that don't want to or can't be this radical there are other options available. One option is StraightTalk from Walmart. They operate off the big cell company towers. By having low overhead, can pass the savings on to you. It's $45 a month for a smartphone plan. You can either bring a phone with you and buy a card to convert it or buy a new phone at full cost. It's a higher cost upfront but the overall savings makes it worth it. I don't pretend to be an expert on phone plans. But I do know there's more options than just continuing to fork out $100 plus a month for the privilege of using a smartphone. Look around and research your options. You have more options than you may think.

Check your monthly expenses. Is there a place or two you could squeeze out $20 here, $10 there and end up saving yourself a chunk of change in a year? Put in a little time. It will be worth the effort!