cell phones?

[sunnylady303]

Does anyone have one or are they just so utterly unfrugal that no one does? DH and I are pastors and we are starting at a church that would like for us to have one. Does anyone know how much that is? I know nothing about them. Where to look and how much will this cost? Grr...I hope not too much.

[Rani]

We only have cell phones. You have to compare coverage plans in your area and what features you are willing to pay for.

We spend about 150 dollars a month, but no landline. Also, that is for a phone for our dd as well - so for 3. Hers is scaled back, but there is a fee.

[3daughters]

I have a Go Phone from Cingular. It cost $30 for the phone and I put in $100 which is good for a year. I pay 25 cents per minute. I have used $30 since January! The only people who have my number are my dh and my kid's schools.

I say that if the church wants you to be accessible by cellphone at all times then they should pay for it.

[polyhymnia]

We only have cell phones. For $80/month we get four phones (one for my boyfriend, one for me, one for each of his parents) and 700 any time minutes with free nights and weekends. We don't have a landline but his parents do - they just have their phones for emergencies/while driving, and to talk to us (we get free calls between our four phones). The basic plan is $50 for two phones, plus $8 per each additional phone then taxes add up to $80/month. My family is all across the country and due to the time difference I usually talk to them on my way to/from or at work, so I use the cell phone a lot ("free" long distance). My boyfriend travels for work regularly, and it's nice that we can talk to each other anywhere/anytime without paying or keeping track of calling cards or hotel numbers. Also he can call from a cab in between client visits, etc - which is great, otherwise we might never talk when he's gone! We don't have a landline, the cheapest basic-service-only landline we could find was $25/month with taxes which is outrageous.

If the church wants you to have the phones, could you ask them to cover part of the cost?

I would never pay for the phone itself - when you sign a contract (go for a 1yr if you can) they'll have some phone choices available for free, they are fine! Also ask around to find out what providers have the best coverage in your area.

They may not be the most "frugal" option but I am grateful that we choose to have them (we do not have cable TV as a compromise) because it allows me to stay in much closer contact with my family

Where to find them: many malls will have kiosks for each cell provider, or they will have standalone stores. Radio Shack sell for Verizon and Sprint (maybe more?) and other stores will do similar things too. You'll want to look into calling plans, decide if you would want one phone or two (usually a family plan includes two lines with free calling between them), figure out what features you want and don't want and check coverage areas. Then you can go into a shop and talk to someone if you like. You can also order online but be aware that if you do this and something goes wrong with your phone, you have to mail it in to be warrantied/replaced - so you'll be without it for several days. If you buy in a store you can just bring it in to a store to be replaced. We ordered online so they would be here waiting for us when we moved back from overseas and my phone broke 3 months later - it was a pain to warranty it! I would buy from a store from now on. DO NOT LET THEM pull your credit until you have decided what phone you want to buy. Ask for information and tell them you are just looking and not interested in having them check your credit at that time. They can give you price quotes without running your credit they just don't like to.

MTA: None of this takes into account PAYG phones.. no idea how they work in the US, in general I find them to be a bad deal if you use them frequently but they can be great for "emergencies only" phones.

[UberMama]

We bought a $20 phone at Target, and then it costs $20 every 90 days for service! I've never went over however many minutes it gives me, ever. And it has free nationwide long distance on it. It's through Virgin Mobile.

Sometimes the cards to buy more minutes (keep service) go on sale at Target, so they're $18. For every 90 days, that's great!

We won't have a landline come next week. So between my phone and DH's (DH has Amp'd), we spend $12 a month on cell service.

[Sharlla]

WE have two. It was $50 month but we upgraded our mins for $20 more a month because we kept going over. We don't have a land line. Around here the the phone lines often go down so cell phones are nice when that happens (like the 9 day power loss of the ice storm this winter) and it's a must have an that 35 mile commute I will be doing soon.

[Sonnenwende]

Originally Posted by 3daughters

I have a Go Phone from Cingular. It cost $30 for the phone and I put in $100 which is good for a year. I pay 25 cents per minute. I have used $30 since January! The only people who have my number are my dh and my kid's schools.

I say that if the church wants you to be accessible by cellphone at all times then they should pay for it.

I have the same thing and I love it. I just have people sms me instead of call me if it is not important.

[babymakes3]

Me and my DH both have cells. But he is a truck driver and uses his phone for work to talk to his boss and the dispatchers. I have mine mainly for emergencies. It costs us around $90 a month for our plan right now. But we're hopefully getting ready to change plans so it will be less.

[mightymoo]

My DH's phone is paid for through work.

My cell phone is on my brother's family plan $10/mo he doesn't charge me for.

[Alkenny]

We have two...$70 a month for 700 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends and unlimited mobile to mobile. We still have our landline at home, but we don't have long distance on that and use our cells for that.

DH's family is all out of state and uses the same service we do, so they just call each other (free) on them and it's saved us over $100 a month that way.

[Sailor]

I have a virgin mobile. I got my phone free from them online. I paid my $20.00 and then got the phone. The 20 counts for my minutes for the next 90 days. I pay 20 every 3 months. I really only have it so that people can contact me, and I don't hold long conversations on it. So, it's been great for me.

Also, when you have spare time, you can actually watch videos on the virgin mobile site and for every minute of video (that you then rate as good or bad) you earn one minute of air time. I've earned up to 75 minutes in a month!

[lisalulu]

I'm not sure how much you anticipate using yours but this is what we do. We bought two T-Mobile phones from Target-I think on sale they were 50 each, although I think they have a cheaper phone. Then we each pay 100/year for 1000 minutes. We're not big cell users and I have never come close to using my minutes. I think I used 300 out of 1000 but its much cheaper to just buy the big quanity because the expiration on them is so much longer. If you renew by the date that 1 year is up and you spend a min of 100/year your minutes roll over.

[scrapadoozer]

We are on my brother's U.S Cellular plan. DH and I both have a cell phone and spend about $50 a month and that includes unlimited calls to other U.S. Cellular phones, unlimited nights & weekends and 1,000 anytime minutes.

[Belleweather]

We also use Virgin Mobile, because we really just need cellphones for emergencies and for being able to be contacted by daycare. I love their prices and service, but I am NOT wild about the battery life of their phones, so we're looking into switching to another pre-paid provider like trackphone.

[SageR]

Cell phones are not neccessarily extravegent. It really depends on your level of need and how you use them. The phone companies are very competitive so in some cases cell phones can be less expensive that a landline. We found this to be the case. We have only cell phones - no land lines. For us this is the least expensive way to have phones, as a cell phone is a necessity for my dh as he is in the construction business and often works at sites with no phone. Having two cell phones is less expensive for us than dh having a cell phone and then also having a land line at the house. We have Unicel, which is mainly for rural areas I believe. For 2 phones we get free incoming and Unicel to Unicel calls, 750 peak (basically daytime) minutes each, and unlimited nights and weekends. With insurance on the phones and taxes we pay about $80 a month.

Of course you'll have to reaserach what the carriers in your area offer. There is also the option of a Trakfon (I think that is how it is spelled) which is a prepaid cell phone. These are very popular for people with poor credit who have a hard time getting service, for peope who don;t want to have to deal with a complicated bill, and for teenagers. The phones are cheaper and I think you just pay on it as you would a phone card. This might be a good option if you think that you will use it infrequently. There is no point in paying for a a big complicated plan if you are only going to be using the phone a few minutes a day.

[Scribe]

Count us among those who both have cells but don't have a land line. We pay around $80/mo for both of ours with more mins than we can use (I don't talk on the phone much, but my partner does).