February 24, 2010
Just as I started on a quest to explore options for my cell phone, I discovered entirely by happenstance that my parents were harboring yet another (financial) secret: Mom’s phone has been broken for weeks.
I’ve been paying $70+/month for their family plan. Without telling me, they’d requested new phones which reactivated their contracts 18 months ago which jettisoned my plans to switch their calling plans to something more affordable and sensible according to their usage. Then, again without telling me, they changed their plan to give themselves more (unnecessary!) minutes because they don’t pay or read their bills which meant another contract extension.
Totally frustrated by the parent-imposed roadblocks to trimming the budget, I’ve let it lie until now. Discovering that I’m paying a premium for basically one phone ticked me off, and I’ve researched several possible options to pick a plan that makes sense with T-Mobile’s Online Help Chat.
Important Definitions
Prepaid Pay By The Day customers enjoy Unlimited Nights and Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile calling on the T-Mobile network. Pay By The Day customers incur two types of charges: A $1 per day ($1/day) usage charge and a $0.10 per minute charge (if applicable).
Prepaid Pay As You Go means that you refill the account and pay per minute for your incoming and outgoing calls.
Even More plans keep you on a contract basis but changing to one does not change your contract date, does not incur migration fees, and offers discounted phones that lock you back into a 2-year contract.
Even More Plus plans are non-contract plans, incurs a one time $35 migration fee, retain the contract date, and does not offer discounted plans.
Option A
Due to her much reduced usage, I can switch Mom to a prepaid plan and put Dad on an Even More individual plan for $50/month for 1000 mins, unlimited nights and weekends.
Cost: $50 early termination fee + new phone + [$30/month and usage charges OR just PAYG usage charges]. I would have to train them not to use her phone for anything but emergencies. Given her cognition issues, this may be a challenge.
Gain: Saving $20/mo on Dad’s plan, and if I go with PAYG for Mom, I wouldn’t break even for more than 6 months.
Option B
Wait three months until the contract is up, and then execute the plan above, saving $50.
Cost: new phone + prepaid usage
Gain: Saving $20/mo on Dad’s plan, and PAYG for Mom, I would break even in about 6 months. Depends on the cost of the phone.
Option C
Move them both to an Even More Plus plan, then switch Mom to a Prepaid Plan.
Cost: $70 in migration fees, still have a contract date through 5/18, and that’s before replacing the phone.
Gain: Forget it.
Option D
Move them both to an Even More plan with the fewest minutes possible ($60/month for 750, well over their current usage), wait three months while finding a replacement phone for the contract to run out.
Cost: None
Gain: Save $10/mo.
It’s Option D for now. I’ll save $30 between now and the contract expiration in three months, and decide what to do beyond that then.
February 23, 2010
Speaking of yelling “Lifestyle inflation!” at people, I’ve directed that at myself lately, to little avail. I should but cannot imagine going back to a regular phone.
iPhone’s latest antics are: not allowing me to pick up calls, freezing the screen on the call failure screen, refusing to clear it out even after I’ve stopped the call, and shutting down intermittently. Oh, yes, and refusing to accept calls at all, forcing people into voicemail hell, and then maybe informing me of new voicemails an hour or more later.
It’s ridiculous. One major drawback with having an iPhone is that AT&T and Apple get to play the blame game and hang the responsibility for dropped calls on the other guy. In the meantime, stuck in the middle, I feel like a orphan!
On the other hand, some of the functions – which are not limited to the iPhone – such as navigation, internet access, email access (I’m a junkie) are really very helpful in my recently nomadic lifestyle. The navigation is an amazing key to travel independence, and I’m loathe to give it up for a regular phone.
My contract with AT&T is up this month, what shall I do?
Working on the following assumptions:
1. I want another smartphone
2. I don’t want to pay more than I’m paying now ($65/month)
3. I’d prefer not to pay for the phone itself. If I must …. I think the ceiling is at $100. i
4. Trying to avoid as many one-time or recurring luxury fees as possible (activation, for one)
5. My ideal plan includes:
- ~1000 minutes/mo (friends are mainly on two different networks, family on yet a third. They won’t all consolidate to make my life easier!)
- unlimited nights and weekends
- ~300 texts/month
- unlimited email, web browsing and a decent navigation/mapping service
- Even while I have concerns about privacy and security issues, it’d be nice to have the variety of options that the iPhone currently offers for things like banking, stock tickers, and tracking investment apps. It’s not a requirement, though.
This isn’t going to be easy. It may not even be possible. But it’s research time!
Note: In light of my slenderized budget, even $65/month seems like a luxury but do bear in mind this is my connection to the world whether I’m at home or on the road (interviewing, meeting new people with whom I’ll develop professional relationships, being contacted for contract work, etc.)
January 28, 2010
It’s official: I’ve been sick for over a week. Dear friends, I’m a terrible invalid. I whine. A lot. Between racking coughs, I whine and mentally grumble about how much money’s been wasted on those elephant pills that haven’t done a lick of good. The really gross, wild-cherry flavored Robitussin has finally alleviated the cough enough for me to cook again.
But this morning? The sun literally and figuratively came out: it’s gorgeous outside, and half my coughs don’t sound like a dying warthog. Glory be!
I’m getting back on the exercise horse ASAP. Every time I moved faster than a slow shuffle these past several days, I’ve keeled over with the cough so I’ve neglected the Daily Exercise Regimen sadly.
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Dogfood Provider linked to this beyond-awesome pasta sauce recipe posted at Smitten Kitchen.
I modified the recipe like so:
28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with peppers and onions
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste
Combine the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 50 minutes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste.
I actually didn’t add any salt as both the sauce and the butter contained salt. The rich, melty melding of flavors was absolutely perfect with the modified Garlic Lemon Chicken recipe. (Besswess, I used the juice of ONE lemon, ditched the herbs and rind, and baked with plenty of garlic. It turned out sans bitterness. Might be worth another go if that was your only objection.)
Sauce: $4, 6 generous servings
Chicken: $4, 6 servings
Asparagus: $2, 2 servings
Surprisingly my love affair with asparagus is suspended – I’ve got to find another veggie to round out the meals for a while.
January 25, 2010
Right on schedule, meaning a month into the year, I’ve put together my new handy-dandy budget tracking template for 2010. It sounds super fancy, doesn’t it?
Not at all. It gets simpler every year.
I have so many minor objections to the existing templates out there, and I’m almost positive that it’s because once you start tweaking a template, the temptation to customize the life out of it is irresistable. That way lies madness, you can’t ever stop thinking: this would be perfect if you just changed [insert one more thing you dreamed up overnight].
I used to love Pearbudget BUT….
The categories were too limiting.
I couldn’t make a note by every transaction so I’d be able to identify it easily.
I couldn’t add categories.
I could only add one item per day, per category.
I used to love MSN Money BUT…
They discontinued it as soon as I started using it.
It’s like account aggregators … everything is just almost good enough. So this year, I’m just opening up a new Excel Spreadsheet. The first page is the Monthly Summary.
And the following sheets will be 1 sheet per month with all transactions listed. Because I pay for any and all expenses with a credit card for easier tracking, I can easily access 99% of my transactions online. Much quicker than inputting from receipts, even though it’s really the same thing. Doing it this way also means I can ignore all credit card payments and bank transfers.
Most templates keep the summary at the end but I prefer to have the big picture numbers front and center and the drill-downs to follow. If I get really fancy, I might even figure out how to do more than just use the Sum function to total up the expenses.
I dropped off the tracking wagon mid-year in 2009, partially because of my travel, but the information that I do have is incredibly helpful in compiling my tax data. This year, I’ll keep records both on and offline so that I always have access to it and will always keep it updated. Pinky swear!
A few allowances were made in the creation of this new template:
- I agreed (with myself) to be more “big picture” about this version. Meaning, I’m not going to go back and reconcile six months of expenses and income just to get completely up to speed before starting this sheet. If I had to do that, I wouldn’t even get started! Barrier removed.
- I’m ignoring all the seasonal purchases (Christmas and birthday gifts, eating out), and lump sum expenditures (school related) of last month,
- But I’m not ignoring the irregular income earned last year and paid this year. It’ll even out within a few months. Again, big picture focus.
Suggestions for prettifying and formulizing are always welcome, Excel gurus!
January 11, 2010
Daily Exercise Update: I spent 20+ minutes at the park playing with a friend’s 15-month-old daughter. Aka, chasing tiny little gigglefest around sand and dirt. I feel creaky.
Please check out this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance at Darwin’s Finance!
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I’m due for a good overhaul.
Not only have I done nothing about the previous list of repairs, I’ve gone and racked up another couple To Dos: the heater’s gone out since we last discussed the ole horseless carriage, and it’s time for another oil change. Already.
This is the flip side of loving an old car. And I doubt I’ve got time to rack up enough Driver’s Edge purchase point credits to apply towards the repair costs because I derailed that plan with the credit card promotions I wanted to fulfill. Ooops. That was my fault, I just didn’t think about the poor timing and make a better final decision.
Keeping the two plans separated should not have been too difficult. Typically I’d accomplish one goal, earning points on the Driver’s Edge card first with only normal spending, and then move on to the next set of credit cards. But while we’re second guessing decisions here, let’s calculate the cost-benefit of splitting up my spending across the three cards for promos. I’ve got a nice spreadsheet for tracking the promotions:
Chase Sapphire: $100 cash ($6 spent)American Express: $150 in GCs ($1100 spent)
Citi Forward: $100-110 in GCs ($250 spent)
Had I collected that spending ($1356) on the Driver’s Edge card, I would have earned 1356 points, which translates into $13.56 in Driver’s Edge dollars. That frees up the same amount of Drive mile dollars ($13.56).
On second thought, the net gain is higher this way because even doubled (by adding the existing Drive miles points in dollar value), I’d still have less than $50 to spend on repairs. The Chase promotion, paid in cash, more than covers that amount.
I made the right decision there, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve still got to get the car to the shop. We’re only a few thousand miles away from a 100,000 mile check, too, so I should gird myself for spending a fair chunk of the car maintenance fund on this set of repairs. Wish me luck!
December 18, 2009
Is it cheating if I should get two more gifts, and can’t think of good ones? I think the answer to that is “yes.” But I’m pretending that it’s not right now to conform to my rules below.
Edit: We’re in the clear — I happened across a great Groupon deal, and though it meant that I had to ASK them if they’d be interested in the event, bought them rock climbing packages.
My official list was shorter than ever this year. I’m not going to reveal the gift recipients, but thus far I’ve stayed within my guesstimated budget from the November Snapshot of $150-200.
- 1 tauntaun sleeping bag from ThinkGeek.com — $116.98
Holy mackeral shipping was expensive! Ground shipping cost $26.99! But at least I know that’ll be delivered in time. And it’ll be totally worth it — half the fun of this gift is the surprise, the other half is that it’s been a running joke, one way or another, for years.
- 2 t-shirts from Threadless.com — $
28.99 22.99
When the prices dropped again, I canceled the first order and submitted another one. They still arrived in time to be wrapped and sent back out.
This is the most I’ve ever spent on shipping for a gifting season, but I’m also ordering from non-standard stores. I missed out on the Threadless tees I really wanted (Polar Farming or Cheesy Friends), but the two that I did find were funny enough and fit the personalities of the recipients.
Lastly ….
- 2 of the following: 1 hr lesson, full day of climbing and all equipment rental: $30
Total spent: $169
Over the years, I’ve developed the following gifting rules:
A) Gift must be something the recipient would love and not think to get for him or herself
B) Gift must be a reasonable price
C) Gift must be something the recipient could actually use: no knickknacks or future clutter
D) Always use coupons, sales or any possible combination thereof
E) Creativity trumps all
F) No obligation buying! No throwaway gifts for people I felt I should have bought for if they don’t also conform to the rules above. Scratch E, thoughtfulness trumps all. If I don’t know them well enough to find something they will love and use, then I shouldn’t get them a gift.
How are y’all doing with the gifting season?
November 4, 2009
The guest post on Money Tips from Poker at Bargaineering gave me a different perspective on the conversation we’re having at Fabulously Broke about personal spending limits.
As a once and former overachieving student, I like rules. Not because they’re limiting and I like to obey, but because they offer a benchmark to measure performance and the opportunity to go you one better, much like the Stretch goal is to the SMART goal. You’ve got to set the original goal first before you can beat it. [Note: I like my rules best. Who doesn’t?]
That’s why I kept moving my savings goals up as soon as I reached them – it’s boring not to have something to reach for. That’s not to say my rules don’t know how to limbo, they totally do. And have. And probably will again. It’s ok, as long as I don’t completely shatter the major ones.
When talking about the upper spending limits we set and why, it seems we all have a personal comfort level up to which we can spend. Spend more than that and we’re big squirmy excuse-making babies trying to justify the price tags. Or maybe that’s just me ……
But I don’t know anyone who has a mathematical reason for why this can cost up to $100, but that can only cost $15. The general levels rise and fall according to the feeling that one set of pricing is ok and the other is not, but why not set rules with a basis in fact? Mathematical rules? Ones that are rational? I’m talking about the bankroll management from the article.
I love the idea of setting your levels of spending by multiples of your available cash. In the article, the example is between 30-50 multiples of the bankroll. I’d like to steal that formula as is, but it doesn’t quite work out because my expense budget is vastly smaller than my entire bankroll. I’m protective of my savings, the multiple would be something insane like 300.
In our cases, that formula could translate into a percentage of the clothing budget. If you’re planning to save $100/month for clothing, perhaps each season gets 25%, or a weighted percentage because coats on sale tend to cost much more than bathing suits on sale. By a ratio of 5 to 1, in fact. If I were doing this, Winter would get 40%, and the other 3 seasons get 20%. That’s not precisely fair, but it’s probably more true to shopping reality than people realize. Breaking that down:
Winter: $480
Spring: $240
Summer: $240
Fall: $240
Right off the bat that tells you not to spend $400 before tax on a winter coat unless that’s the only thing you’re going to buy.
Of course, seasonality is only one way to break that down. You could just take that whole annual budget of $1200 and allocate 80% for staples like jeans, daily wear shoes, accessories, etc.; 20% for specialty items.
Truthfully much of this is hypothetical for me because I don’t yet have a clothing budget. I’m definitely still just saying “$100 is too much for jeans, I’ll pay up to $40 for them” and “No summer dress can cost more than $20.” As soon as my budget changes, though, I think it’d be great to implement a set of rational rules that I didn’t just make up as I encounter sales.
