Monthly Expenses: Is it worth living without a cell phone?
I was adding up our expenses, and every time I do this I get so angry at how much we pay for our cell phones each month. Between the two of us our $70 plan adds up to $120 each month – that’s $1440 every year! What a lot of money just for the luxury of being able to text, “getting off the train, be home in 15” or “where are you guys? we’re here,” or being able to squeeze a chat in on the bus or while walking on my lunch break – is all that really worth nearly fifteen-hundred dollars a year?
Before cell phones we did just fine. We managed to make plans and meet up with people as easily as we do now. Yes, we were capable of showing up at the agreed-upon time without exchanges of ‘almost there!’ or ‘I’m early, sitting at the bar.’ We were paying for landlines back then, but I wonder how much – $25 a month? I know incoming calls on landlines are free, and for most plans so are local calls. Would it be worth it to give up the celly and free up the cash? How much would I miss it? After all, I sit at a desk all day with a phone on it that I don’t pay for. After work I usually head home, but if I were going to make a stop and let someone know I could call before I left.
I admit I’d feel oddly un-connected without my cell phone, but I’m sure I’d get used to it. I wonder if it’d make sense for me to give up my phone and have Brittany keep hers since she’s not desk-bound, although her place of employment does have a phone if I needed to get a hold of her. What do you think? Could you do it? Is it worth it?
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Martinique Miller lives in Chicago with her partner, Brittany. She writes a personal finance blog with her two sisters, called Thrifty Sisters where they share their success with money.
I resisted cell phones for a long time, but finally got one for travel and emergencies. It’s a Tracfone (one of those pre-paid deals) and I’ve gotten good enough deals that it works out to about $5/month. I’ve gotten one “meet me at the hospital emergency room” call from my partner, which was enough to justify what I’ve spent on the phone right there. But there’s no need to pay $70 or $120 per month for that kind of reassurance.
My partner and I have been cell-phone only for over three years now. For me as a freelancer and soon-to-be massage therapist, it makes all the sense in the world. I can take calls wherever, and I don’t have to pay for a landline both at home and at my massage office.
I can’t imagine going back to a landline. That’d be like asking me to do without email! I know people who do it… but it’s just not for me.
Absolutely worth it. The time you save being able to make calls on a commute is worth it. And, if job hunting, calls come directly to you as opposed to home voicemail, and most employers dont like you using their resources to look for a new job. 🙂
I recommend eliminating a land line at home, and sticking with a cell only. I pay $54/mo total for 1000 min with T Mobile. Girl, you is paying too much!
Could I live without a cell phone? CHEERFULLY.
My landline bill was $28/month. I lived quite comfortably without a cell. But as more people got cell phones, the things pushed out pay phones.
That meant that if my aging car broke down during my 36-mile round-trip commute, I would have no way of calling for help! Since I have to drive most of the way on a freeway, I realized I needed a safe way to call a tow truck or a police officer if I had trouble on the road.
I got THE cheapest plan I could find, a bundled arrangement with Qwest. It includes a bare-bones phone and provides 60 minutes of talk time. It’s a rare day that I use it. I carry it in my purse, turned off so as not to use up the battery.
My phone bill is now $87 a month. How can I express my joy at having to pay THREE TIMES as much as I used to pay, for a gadget I rarely use? How can I say how much I appreciate being forced to shoulder an outrageous bill because a large industry decided to make it impossible to find a simple pay telephone?
You bet I could do without a cell. Noooo problem. And sure could do without dodging half-out-of-control vehicles driven by jerks yakking on the phone while they try to drive, and without having to listen to people blatting about their private lives in publlic. Ugh!
A friend of mine from Wise Bread swears by the Tracfone. I’m personally tempted to get one as well, but I ended up on a family plan with my parents, so I send them $10 a month rather than paying the $70 that mine used to cost me on my own. Since I don’t have a land line, I have to have SOMETHING, and this works out fairly well.
Martinique: I’d go the no landline route instead. Is that an option for you? Unfortunately, it isn’t for me as the reception in my house is poor but I have many friends that are cell-only now and swear by the savings.
Andrea: Hey there… it’s good to see that you’re back writing at Wise Bread!
Tracphone is $9.95/month for 50 minutes. Virgin Mobile is $20 for 200 minutes. And stop yacking so much. It costs money.
MMMmmm….I’m on the end where I used to HAVE to carry a cell, two-way radio, and pager in order to operate my businesses..unfortunately it was one that was 24/7 dealing with Law Enforcement.
I got burned out and it was the main reason I decided to retire early and sold off to my Brothers.
Now I have an Emergency Net10 phone I keep in the motorcycle for emergencies and I couldn’t tell you the number to save my soul unless I look it up. $60 every 4 months for a required 600 minute top up card and I’ve got over 4300 minutes saved on the phone now.
If you want to get ahold of me and I don’t answer the phone at the house you can leave a message on the $9 answering machine I got a Wally World.
And as a bit of Social Commentary…When portable/cell phones first came out they were VERY expensive usually in the 25 cent per minute In and Out range plus all sorts of other fees for options like long distance. Only those who could afford them had them so they became a “Status Symbol” of the Well To Do.
Now everyone has them and if you haven’t noticed many Upper Level Executives and the Rich DON’T have them or only their Secretary/Assistant has the number….Nowadays if you are Rich or Important you tell someone to Call and Leave a message with the Secretary/Assistant…you don’t give out a phone number where you can be annoyed anytime day or night.
Now NOT having a Cell is a Mark of Status.
~ Roland
I have an AT&T GoPhone that I got at Walmarts for around $50 and my plan is a dollar a day (but only when I use the phone that day) and about $0.10 a minute when I actually talk on the thing. I put $100 on the phone last August and just had to add another $100 this month. Don’t talk on the phone so much!
I originally got my cell phone for travel and emergencies. Last year, I decided to cut costs by eliminating my land line and relying solely on my cell phone. Generally, it has worked out, but this past week, my cell phone has been acting up and I’ve been missing the reliability of a land-line.
Don’t do it, Martinique! A couple of friends of mine tried to live without cell phones for a while. For the first couple of weeks they found it to be a liberating experience. Then they realized they were becoming personas non gratas because making plans with them became impossible.
I think once you’re used to a cell phone, there’s no going back. It’s like when we all became dependent on email: if suddenly you had to pay for email, would you ever give it up? Probably not.
I think my Verizon bills are outrageous, but in the days before cell phones, my long distance bills were far worse. Unfortch, I think cell phones are a necessary evil.
We decided to get one phone between the two of us. If one of us is scootering or riding the bike to work she takes it (for emergencies).
We seldom use the phone any more, and save a lot of money.
The one thing about the old days is that there were lots and lots of payphones around if you needed them. Try finding one now…
found a new cool site to rant about your cellphone bill.
http://www.ihatemyphonebill.com