And Now For the Three-Year Plan to Pay Off Your New Cell Phone

I saw this article today about a cell phone company that will soon offer a three year plan for people to pay off their new cell phone and I was shocked (and horrified and appalled).  No one should take three years to pay off a cell phone.  A car, maybe, but a small consumer items that will be old tech within six months, no way!

While early adapters, and people with money--even those who don't have money but want to look like they have money--will clamor for the latest cell phone as soon as it is released (and pay top dollar for said phone, to the tune of $1000 plus), those of us with more modest needs and more modest incomes (and a rational brain in our heads) will look at every other option before paying out the nose for a cell phone.

If you want a new cell phone, here are some options:

• Wait until they are discounted.  Galaxy S8 phones cost less than half price now that the S9s are out.
• Buy second hand.  Usually those early adapters will sell their "old" phones the moment that a new phone is released.
• Make your own phone.  I've never tried this but it looks like an interesting project.
• Go retro and opt for a basic cell phone.  Some people only need their phones for talking so a simple (cheap) phone will work just fine for this.
• If you are switching cell plans or companies, see if they offer free cell phones with sign up; many companies do this.
• Buy a prepaid phone to use with your current wireless plan.  These phones are often cheaper and as long as the phone works with your network (Verizon and Sprint phones don't work with T Mobile and ATT service and vice versa) you can just swap sim cards and you are good to go.

With the dizzying array of new cell phones coming out on an almost monthly basis these days, there is no reason to pay top dollar for a new phone (and certainly no reason to finance the phone for three years!).

The New iPhone...Now I've Seen Everything

I'm not an Apple fan.  In fact, I've never owned an iPhone.  Years ago I bought an iPod and was so disappointed with everything about it (couldn't download songs from more than one computer, proprietary everything) that I never bought another Apple product.  I'm firmly in the Android camp and happy about it and while I have a Samsung S8 Plus cell phone, I paid around $400 for it when it was on a half off sale.

Imagine my surprise to find that Apple will charge $1449 for it's newest iPhone with the most memory (note that with Android phones you just add a cheap memory card and can have as much memory as you want on it).  I just can't imagine paying as much for a cell phone as I would pay for a used car!  That's crazy!!  Anyway, that's my rant for the day...

p.s.  The son's evacuation bus finally found a place to put their people after 14 hours on the road.  At least they are safe and can stay until the buses are allowed to bring them back into the evacuation zone.  For anyone in the coastal areas on the Carolinas and Georgia, stay safe out there!

10 Things About My Galaxy Note

After having 24 hours to play with my new phone, I've found out the following things (applicable to many phones I think):

1. Between the time that your new phone was manufactured and the time it lands on your doorstep a lot of time could have passed (like a year or more if you wait until the phone has been out for ages and is now on sale like when I buy them).  Which means it is a good idea to Google and see if your phone has firmware updates available.  I did this and it updated the entire operating system for free.  Yippee!
2. I know very little about apps because I use so few of them so I Googled "best android apps 2014" and came up with lots of good apps to check out.  I don't really play video games so I haven't downloaded any of them but I NEED the Kindle app and I also downloaded the Kingsoft office program since it was rated better than the Polaris office program that came on my phone (on the rare occasion that I write a document on my phone, I simply email it to myself and it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office on my computer).  Another app that I haven't had time to look at yet but may end up using is AirDroid which allows you to sync between your home computer and cell phone.  Cool!
3. The Note itself isn't as big as I thought it would be.  When I first saw someone using the Note a year ago I thought it was huge but then again, my basic cell phone at the time was tiny.  I do like how big and bright the screen is which makes everything from phone numbers to articles on CNN easier to read.
4. The thing is expensive.  When the Note first came out over a year ago it cost around $700.  When I started watching the price on it a few months ago it was at $520.  When I finally broke down and bought it the price was $460 (plus $10 for the new, necessary SIM card for it and $30 for a month's airtime which works just fine with my pre-paid plan).  Needless to say I really worry about this phone--everything from dropping it to it getting stolen--which is kind of a bummer because it is only a phone and one shouldn't have to stress out over a phone.  But I do.
5. Since the phone is expensive and relatively fragile, I hopped on Amazon and bought a gel case for it.  Amazon seems to have the best prices for cell cases compared to buying them at any brick and mortar store.  For the Note, the case cost $8.95.  For my previous smartphone I bought a similar case on Amazon for it and the cost was around $2.95 which included shipping from Hong Kong.  
6. The note has a stylus that comes latching inside the body of the phone.  It even has an alarm to alert you when you walk away and leave the stylus I guess so you don't lose it.  This phone does a million things but I think I have barely scratched the surface (however, again, Googling the name of the phone and "tips" brought up pages and pages of tutorials and quick tips to help people get acquainted with the phone which was helpful).
7. Whenever I get something new, I want to get hubby the same thing so I told him he may have a new phone as well in the near future.  He really doesn't need one as the only thing he does with his smart phone is make calls and send text messages (no internet, no games...due to lack of interest on his part and probably due to the fact that the screen is too small to see much anyway) but hopefully by the time I work at the WSOP and get some nice paychecks coming in the price will have dropped even more.
8. It isn't like the old days when you bought an item and the item was complete and you were done with the purchase part when you paid for it.  These days you get a nice, shiny cell phone in the mail and you aren't done buying stuff for it.  First the phone, then the new SIM, then it needs a cover to protect it, then it needs a SD card to hold all of your music then better ear buds, then maybe a car charger, etc.  Yikes!
9. The Note has a split screen (apparently, I haven't figured that part out yet) but I am not sure how useful it would be.  Even with my 14" laptop, when I need two screens I end up using a second computer just to have enough screen space to work so splitting a relatively tiny 5" screen into two sections doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.  Hmmm 
10. Finally, I saved my old smartphone and will get it unlocked.  This will be useful when we travel as when we end up in a different country we get local SIMs for our phones and use the local network to keep in touch with each other and our friends there.

Now back to playing with my new phone...

I Got My New Phone/Phablet!

I haven't had much time to play with it yet but so far I love my Galaxy Note 2.

I mainly got this phone because it will replace these things (cell phone, point and shoot camera, 7" tablet).

I like that it is bigger than my cell phone (with my ever-aging eyes this is a good thing)

Yet it is smaller than my tablet (it also has always-on internet; the tablet had an internet only connection and this has 4g service through the phone if I am in a non-wifi area).

Overall I am a big Samsung/android fan and I'm pretty sure this device will let me do everything I want without having to lug around three separate devices!

Cell Phone Problem Solved!

I love my cell phone (a $300 Samsung Galaxy S2 bought at Walmart) and I love my cell phone plan ($30 a month on TMobile, also from Walmart, which gives me 100 talk minutes and unlimited text and data).  However, since I have been working a lot lately (online and via phone) I have been having a hard time figuring out how to work and call into meetings and generally use my phone for talking when I only get 100 minutes per month.  For long conversations I have been using hubby's phone since he gets 1500 talk minutes a month and doesn't talk very much at all but I think I have talked so much that I left him about 100 minutes of talk time for the next two weeks.  Eeekkk

Then last night my friend emailed and asked me to call in for a meeting with one of her boards--for a FOUR HOUR meeting.  I knew something had to be done.  I first checked out the other plans I could get, like unlimited talk, text, and internet, but these plans start at $50 a month and give me a lot less high speed internet (5 gig on my current plan, 100 mb on the more expensive plans for some reason).  Then I Googled around to see what other people do in this situation and found Skype.  I've never used Skype before but I checked it out, downloaded the app to my cell phone, bought their $2.99 a month unlimited calling to anywhere in the US plan and I was set for the meeting!

I called in this morning and found that instead of the participants calling in, the hosts of the meeting needed to call us to add us to the meeting group.  That would have been good except the basic Skype plan is only for calling out, not calling in.  I told them I would get back to them in a minute, hung up, got back online to Skype and bought a phone number.  For $5 a month you get a Skype phone number so in addition to you being able to call people, people can call you as well.  I hopped back on the Skype app on my phone (my phone was using my wi fi network because I was at home) and gave them my new number and four and a half hours later we had wrapped up our meeting and Skype performed flawlessly!

The bottom line: instead of paying $50 a month for an "unlimited" cell plan (which is actually limited), I am now using my $30 a month plan plus an $8 phone number and calling plan from Skype that I can use with my wi fi or data network so I end up with a better plan for $12 less than what most people would pay.

Best. Purchase. Ever.

After I bought my new cell phone I looked around for some sort of case for it.  The phone itself is a bit slippery and I was afraid I would drop it and be out $300 but the cost of gel-like cell phone covers was astronomical!  I mean who pays $50 for a cell phone cover?  Many were less than that but still, it seems like the starting price for such covers is $20.  So I hopped on Amazon, checked out the various covers available as well as the reviews, and I settled on a cover that got great reviews and only cost $2.18.  Including shipping...from Hong Kong (?!).  The cover arrived yesterday, I slipped it on my phone, and I am deliriously happy with it!  It fits like a second skin, isn't bulky, but it is really grippy.  So to date, this is one of the best purchases I have ever made!  Here's the cover.

More Clever Hubby Tricks

Whenever I have a problem, the hubby usually comes to the rescue with a (very cheap) fix.  Before we left for LA I asked him what I should do about my cell phone.  When I carry it in my purse, there is a hard-sided pocket that keeps it protected but since I only took a small travel bag with me (a nylon LeSportsac) I was afraid that if I put the phone in the side pocket it would get squished.  The average consumer would run out and buy a practically indestructible Otterbox, frugal consumers like me end up with a cardboard box like this (which, BTW, worked exceptionally well to keep my phone protected in my bag):

I'm Loving My New Smartphone!

I know it took me forever to move from a dumb phone to a smart phone but I have come to the conclusion that I maybe should have made the switch sooner...I LOVE my new phone!!

Note, I don't know what gets into Blogger sometimes, the picture of my phone is posting sideways but it is supposed to show the phone straight up and down and I don't know how to rotate the photo so despite the weird photo, I'll continue...

Anyway, I've only had the phone for a little over a week but even though I am online at home quite a bit and didn't think I really needed a smartphone, I have ended up using the apps on this phone quite a bit.

The apps I currently have on my phone:

• News apps: CNN, Kitsap Sun (hometown newspaper so I can keep up with people I know there), News 8 (Las Vegas station), News 13 (another Vegas station)
• Email: Yahoo, Hotmail
• Blogger (although I haven't figured out how to sign in through this app yet)
• Advanced task killer (to keep the apps from running continuously)
• Banking: KFCU, NFCU, Wells Fargo (I can also make deposits just by photographing a check and sending it to the bank through the apps), PayPal
• Social media: FaceBook, Twitter, Chikka (for texting with friends in Asia), Reddit (I'm pretty much addicted to Reddit)
• Camera (for quick picture taking), Gallery (to view the pictures I've taken)
• Memo, Polaris Office, Calendar (for my to-do lists and to stay organized)
• Kindle (I've read two books so far on my phone)
• Web (for quick access to the internet)
• Google Sky (not necessary but very cool, check it out!)
• Scanner Radio (ditto)
• Music Player (I don't listen to music often but it is nice to have it right there on my phone if I want to)
• Sudoku (for when I'm bored)
• C:Geo (I want to start geocaching; this is an app for www.geocaching.com)
• Flashlight, calculator (useful tools to have)
• Currency exchange, Translate, Android weather (great for travel)
• Travelocity, Orbitz (ditto)
• TeleNav GPS (I've already used this a half dozen times!)

And some other things to note:

• I need to charge the phone every day or it will die; I liked my old phone because I only had to charge it once a week.
• The $30 plan for the phone is great, the only slight problem is that it only comes with 100 talk minutes so now I make it a habit to use hubby's phone when I need to call and talk to someone.
• I have to be a lot more careful with this phone because it was expensive ($300) and I don't want to drop it or have it stolen (I could drop my old phone and it wouldn't hurt it a bit and no one in their right mind would have wanted to steal it!).
• I have made a pointed effort to not use my phone at all when in the company of other people (it's kind of my pet peeve that most people are sitting in a restaurant with other people yet all of their attention is focused on their phone, not the people they are with).
• On a negative note, I am getting ready to go to LA this evening and I couldn't get any free books to download to my cell phone (takes up less space than carrying a whole book; getting free downloadable books from the library is good but there is no way to say when you want to download them as the notice shows up randomly in email after putting them on hold) so I went to Amazon.com and paid $1.99 for a book from one of my favorite authors.  This is definitely a splurge and I hope it doesn't become a habit but it is so easy and convenient!
• All of the above apps are free.  At this point I can't think of any app that I would actually want to pay for.
• Do you know of any other good apps that I should check out?

I Got a New Phone!

Well I have been thinking about getting a new phone for AGES (I mean I put more thought into getting a smart phone than I did when I bought a new car or even a house!) and after much pondering and weighing the merits of keeping my old dumb phone or getting a 3g/wif fi tablet or getting a smartphone I decided on getting the phone.  I'm not so sure I really NEED this type of phone--after all I only talk and text to the hubby and a few friends--but I love having super speedy internet and a whole bunch of cool apps with me at all times and I just thought it was time to drag myself into the 21st century.  $300 dollars later, I have a new phone.
I am happy with the phone so far and I am really happy with the prepaid TMobile plan ($30 a month for 100 minutes of talk and unlimited text and data).  I had bought a smart phone last year but after a couple of months I didn't like the idea that I was paying an extra $20 a month for the data part (making my prepaid plan $50 a month) but now that Walmart offers a $30 a month plan I am really happy with the whole smartphone deal.  Of course when you have a prepaid plan you get to pay in full for the phone up front (thus the $300) but when you calculate the savings over a prepaid phone and prepaid plan versus getting a "free" phone with a two year contract, you literally save thousands of dollars going the prepaid route.
Now I'm off to find some cool apps to download!

All About Cell Phones

I came across this article a couple of days ago and it really made sense.  In fact both the hubby and I cancelled our expensive contract cell phones/plan and instead bought our own unlocked basic cell phones from Amazon which we now use with a TMobile pre-paid cell phone plan.  The plan is pretty cheap--$30 each for 1500 talk minutes/texts and internet access--which is basically all we need.  I just noticed that Walmart has a similar plan for TMobile with $30 for 100 talk minutes plus unlimited texts and unlimited internet which I may be switching to.
I really can't understand how people can pay over $100 a month for their cell phone plans!  Yes, you get a bright, shiny phone (like a new iPhone or new Android phone), plus with an unlimited plan you can watch movies and stream music till your heart's content, but who wants to watch a movie on a 3" screen??  And many of the people I see with these phones look like they can barely afford such an expensive monthly bill.
I guess it comes down to what's important to you (for me it's saving money, for others it may be always-on phone and internet access) and what you can afford (well, it should be based on what you can afford but as I said above I don't think some people consider this).
In my case, a few months ago I had switched to a nice, new Android phone but I felt the $50 monthly fee was too high (I usually have my computer with me and internet access anyway so this wasn't absolutely necessary with a cell phone) and I noticed that like many other people I would be glued to my cell phone constantly, jumping every time an email dinged or a Facebook post was made by a friend, and ignoring the hubby and anyone else who was with me which wasn't very nice.  So I went back to my basic cell phone and basic pre-paid plan and sold my new Android phone on CraigsList for a $50 loss :(

Now--ever the tech lover--I am really thinking about going back to a smart phone because of the $30 Walmart monthly plan.  I really don't talk on the phone too much, preferring instead to text or send Twitter/email messages, so I would be paying the same price (except for, of course, buying the smart phone for about $200) and getting a better plan.  I was also thinking about keeping the phone and pre-paid plan I have now but getting a Samsung Galaxy 7" tab and a $25 a month pre-paid broadband plan for it (which would total $55 a month for phone/internet service).  My logic for this is that I would have internet access everywhere and since the tablet is bigger than a cell phone I could even blog and read books on it (plus I would have to actually open it to get any messages so I wouldn't be tempted to "answer" every time a social media message comes in).  Of course the hubby just rolls his eyes but I can't help it--I love tech stuff!

Today I Changed Back to a Not So Smart Phone

A while back I wrote about changing up to a nice, new Android smart phone (it's the pretty one in the picture on the left).  Unfortunately, along with the upgrade, came an upgrade in the price of the monthly pre-paid fee for using the phone.  With a regular not-so-smart phone, the cost for the TMobile pre-paid plan was $30 per month for 1500 talk/text minutes and some basic internet access.  With the smart phone, I was required to pay $50 for the unlimited talk/text/internet plan because the phone used up so much internet that the minuscule amount that came with the $30 plan only lasted a few days.
Sooo...I have been paying the higher fee and enjoying my smart phone for a few months but today, when I thought about going to pay my monthly fee for next month's service, it dawned on me that I really don't enjoy my smart phone THAT much.  I pondered whether it was worth the extra $20 per month that I spent to have the smart phone and then I realized that it wasn't. 
As it is, I am online at least four or five hours each day on my computer so it isn't really necessary to have speedy internet access 24/7 on my phone.  I use very few apps, I never watch videos on my phone or listen to music on it, and, while I enjoy reading the news on my phone, the screen is pretty tiny so it isn't something I do for hours on end.  This morning I made the decision to switch back to a basic cell phone which has the important things (talk and text) plus allows me to access the internet if necessary (but at a super slow speed).  I bought a $50 basic TMobile cell phone from Best Buy (I probably could have saved more money on this by checking CraigsList first but I didn't; also note that it is cheaper to buy TMobile phones at Walmart or Best Buy than at the actualy TMobile store for some reason...) then changed my plan back to the $30 per month plan.  The smart phone will be CraigsListed soon and go to someone else who doesn't mind paying the higher monthly fee. 
Overall this will save me $20 per month ($240 per year!), and since, when I had the smart phone I felt like hubby should have one too, and in fact I was going to buy him the same phone, reverting back to a basic phone will actually save us $480 per year.
Will I miss having a snazzy, modern phone (I swear, every child I see these days has a phone that resembles--or actually is--an iPhone!)?  Maybe, but I think saving money on something that is basically there to massage my ego but actually doesn't do much more for me than a basic not-so-smart phone is well worth the savings.