Cellphone update

Its been a few months and it is time to post an update about the cellphone plan change. I still miss my Verizon a lot, but definitely not the extra cost of using it. Every time I think about the cost of using it I become more content with the issues I have with Cricket. The phones are not as nice, and I really do miss my Droid. I just remind myself that I am saving $120.00 USD a month. I can live with any issues that arise as long as the phone makes calls. I do have some concerns/ dissapointments with using Cricket but nothing to make me ever go back to Verizon. My main concern with Cricket is that coverage drops out in our house in certain places. And its the oddest places to. I can be in the living room and kitchen, but if I enter the living room from the left side of the kitchen the call momentarily drops out. No such problem from a right side entry. If I lean over the sink the caller cannot hear me. If I go to my son's bedroom the caller cannot hear most of what I say. And don't even think about switching a load of laundry in the basement. You can go down and move all over that basement, but try to go back up the stairs and halfway up the call will drop. There are other weird happenings with the coverage, but these are the ones that happen the most. My sister and my friend both have used Cricket for several years and swear by it and have no such problems. They do live in the center of town whereas I live on the outskirts. I am pretty sure this has something to do with it. I do not pick up all the TV channels they do and I think its a location issue also. My sister and I have the same antenna and we are both using an HDTV. I must just be to far away to get good coverage. We also live near an airport. My husband swears I am crazy and this has nothing to do with it, but it seems to be certain times of the day that the phones and TV are not working well. I should keep a log and prove I am not crazy :)

All in all I am content with the change we made. Someday when debts are paid down I am going to be glad we will have extra money to put in the bank.

Slashing the cost of talking

I've taken a very huge step to cutting the amount of money we need to spend every month. I switched from Verizon to Cricket. I had to break my contract to do so and pay the fees, but in the long run it will be much cheaper than it would have been to stay. I will miss my Droid and the faster internet but what I will miss most of all is my number. The number was my first cellphone number that I got nine years ago. It was like a rite of passage, and I felt like an adult! I went and got a Cellular One contract my second year of college and I payed only forty something a month. Then Alltel bought them out and I added my husband to it and the costs went up. Then Verizon bought out Alltel and it got more expensive. Then the smartphones! Geez talk about expensive! We still have smartphones. We just pay a lot less to use them. I wish we were ready to just give up the cellphones all together, but not quite that frugal yet. We have no contract with Cricket so who knows, maybe we will do it someday. I am not sure of the exact amount saved, but I know that it is over $120.00 USD. Thats a lot of money that can go towards something else or into savings! Feeling really good about this first step. It was really hard for us to do emotionally. I'm hope I can keep the momentum up.