We Are Now Smarter Than Our Phones!

Free at last! We finally cut our association with the giant wireless phone provider. It was such a relief.

After our success in getting out of the cable contract, we found another wasteful expense. This time, it is our cell phones. 

No, we did not get rid of them. We did not go back to dumb phones either. We still have our smart phones. What we do not have this time is a contract. We have total control of what services we want to subscribe. We have the flexibility to change our plan anytime depending on what we need at the moment. 

Yes, there is such a thing! 

For the past seven years, we had a family plan with rollover minutes and unlimited texting. When we bought our iPhones we were also required by our provider to buy data for both phones.

Again, God graciously showed how wasteful we were. We never text so the unlimited texting was totally useless. Most of the time, we only use our cell phones to call each other. The minutes we use do not count. At the end of every year, we always have more than 8,000 unused minutes. The average consumption of our data was not even a tenth of what we were paying for. What a waste!

When our contract ended, we were determined not to be tied up again for another two years. I started checking other wireless providers. We do not like the hassle of prepaid phones so that was out of the list. 

For a few days all I did was search and compare. I also took time to read reviews for each provider. In the end, we were convinced that the best no-contract phone for us was Consumer Cellular. We have been seeing their ads but we thought it was too good to be true. We also thought we will have to go back to dumb phones.  

By the time I wrote this post, it’s been a couple of months since we have made the transfer. We were able to use our iPhones. There was no activation fee. We did not have to change our phone numbers and the money that we are saving every month is awesome. We used to pay $150 every month with our old plan. Now, we are only paying $25 a month and that covers both of us!

Not bad, eh?

Bye, Bye, Cable!

I remember the time when my husband and I could not imagine a life without cable television. We hardly watch movies but we love shows like Bones, Rizzoli and Isles, White Collar, CSI, Castle, NCIS, Criminal Minds and the likes.

Life was good. We did not mind paying almost $200 a month to our cable company. They deserve it, right? They make our life exciting! 

There were times when we felt that television is taking so much of our time but in most cases, we just dismissed the little voice. 

There was only one problem, we are Christians and we knew that we were not being a good steward of our time and money. We knew we had to do something about it. It was a good intention.

Until, of course, God put us in a position where we do not have a choice but to act on our good intention. Our expenses skyrocketed and we lost some of our investment income.

Suddenly, we were in a situation where we had no choice but to reduce our monthly expenses to balance our budget. My husband and I sat down and began identifying things that we do not need.

Guess which made it to the top of the list; cable! Do we really need to spend that much money to be entertained? The answer, a big NO.

My husband called the cable company and tried to negotiate the rate. First, they reduced about $30 dollars from our monthly bill. In return, we will only get basic channels. 

When my husband started surfing the channels, we realized that our wonderful cable company only gave us local channels. Oh, I take that back, there were many other channels. The only problem was, they are broadcasting in languages we do not understand! What a rip-off!

I started searching the internet for antennas. I heard about people using antennas and get the local channels for free. After comparing many kinds of antennas, we decided to try the Ultimate Mohu Leaf indoor antenna. Thanks to You Tube for giving me instructions on how to reprogram our television from cable to Air. 

You will not believe how clear the reception is! The best thing, it is FREE!

From almost $200 a month we now only pay $70 for our internet and home phone. We do need those services.

One important thing that came out of this, we have more time to spend with each other. We now only watch television when we want to see some news.