So. Last night I had a wonderful conversation with my sister. While I was talking, I was outside doing a little physical work (knocking dead branches out of our dogwoods — another story), so I was sweating a little. When we were done, I hung up, wiped the phone off (ew) and went back to work. Last night, when I went to set my alarm on my phone and plug it in for the night, I discovered that my phone no longer responds to touch (it’s an iPhone). This, I decided quickly, is a problem.
We did everything we could think of to no avail and then pondered our doom in bed. How could this huge expense come up right when we starting making decisions to save money in other areas of our life? If we upgrade to the 3GS iPhone, it’ll use up 3-4 weeks in grocery savings that we think we can do. We need to save money, not spend it! And as we were laying there, it came out: maybe we don’t need an iPhone.
silence.
We both use our iPhones a lot for many things everyday. To drop the iPhone and go back to *gulp* normal cellphones that don’t have all those wonderful applications, might mean that we’d have to… well… use the computer instead. Or get the directions ahead of time. Or only check our email once a day. Or entertain ourselves through reading. Or talk to each other. Or to our friends. Or neighbors.
Wait. How much would we save monthly if we didn’t have two smart phone plans?
Seventy dollars. A month. That’s a lot of diapers.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce that Mr. and Mrs. Elliott (2 ts) are now former smart phone owners. We went out today and replaced both phones and already have an offer on Rebecca’s 3G. (My phone is, sadly, just a bulky, pretty clock that has to be charged every night.)
It would be nice to get back into smart phones at some point. But the moral of the story is that we found a way to turn an unexpected expense into a money-saving venture.
Hope we can find more of those!
-Adam