The explanation

(From yesterday.) I feel like I need to explain the whole thing. I do feel guilty about falling off the wagon, but I also feel okay with it. We are doing SO well this year. We haven't bought anything new or frivolous, no matter how tempting it has been. Think about it realistically though - we can't go out & spend money anywhere, so we don't have much entertainment. Splurging on cable has been something we've debate on for years. Obviously we CAN live without it, but when you've got nothing else to do with your free time, basic tv gets old. (ha! Nothing else... I could clean the house, exercise more, sew, bake, cook, visit friends... sigh)

By adding the cable (or fiber-optic-whatever-it's-called) we were able to drop our home phone. Something we use maybe twice a year - if that. We get calls on it, but 99.9% of those calls are solicitors. We don't use it to make calls, and only a handful of people know the number to call us. We "had" to have it, per AT&T, since we chose not to have cable to begin with. Sure, the UVerse is gonna cost us more than the phone did, but we will USE that. Kasen can now watch his beloved Doddlebops & JayJay, and Luke & I can enjoy movies or whatever. (AND, I can watch cooking shows!!!! Oh how I miss them!)

Luke was very good - he called up & told them he wanted the cheapest line-up they have. Well, that one doesn't include the receiver. So, for the price of that line-up + the receiver, we could have the next step up, which has more channels & includes the receiver. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what he decided to do. :) So, we have the U200 line-up & internet now. We don't have a home phone. I forget what Luke said the new monthly cost is, but it's not "that" much more, and when you take into account the fact that we now have entertainment, it's all good in my opinion.

The phones, well, that's another story... I've wanted to drop Verizon for a while now 'cause I had an issue about a year ago that they refused to help me with. Their customer service SUCKS. I've been done with them since then, just waiting for my contract to expire. It expired at the end of January. That was annoying. I was still stuck since I couldn't buy anything new. I once figured out how to get USED phones, for FREE, and have a cheaper monthly plan by us switching. When it came down to it though, I wanted a phone with a data package & knew I wouldn't be happy settling for something else. So we didn't switch.

One day I decided that I really wanted something fun for my 30th. It wasn't fair that this challenge would keep me from being able to have a nice celebration of a big milestone. I finally decided that my birthday would be a good time to splurge on a new cell phone & get us switched.

Well, I guess my birthday is gonna be a 2 month+ celebration 'cause my present came yesterday.

Luke was good, he took the crappy FREE phone. I debated between the Blackberry Pearl & the iPhone, and eventually the iPhone one. (Luke said the Blackberry was ugly anyway. But, hello!, it was PINK!) I also got a "cover" (in PINK!, duh) since I am a bit accident prone, and a car charger 'cause I understand the batteries don't last long. So it was a little over $250 for the whole thing. I think that's fine for a special birthday gift. Even if it did break the rules.

The plan isn't "that" bad. We were spending about $70/mth on my phone with Verizon & $15-20/mth on Luke's. (He had an old employee plan from back in the PrimeCo days still.) So, let's call it $85 on a good month. Now we have a family plan - 550 minutes between the 2 of us (we're not big talkers) for $60 ($50+$10 for the 2nd line), each of us has 200 texts for $10 ($5 each), and my data plan added $30. So, our bill is now $100, just $15 more. I call it a deal.

Now, we're back on track today. I think tonight we'll cuddle up on the couch (or the bed) and watch some cable. Wow, it's been a looooooong time since I've said that!