Does anyone remember the Galaxy Note 7? Aka the exploding phone?
Man, I LOVED that phone! The camera, the curved edges, its light weight...everything. So you can imagine my disappointment when it was recalled not once, but TWICE! I was forced to relinquish ‘my precious’. Just for a little background, I’d had a Samsung Note ever since the very first Note 1. Switching to another phone that had neither a stylus nor a large epic screen just wasn’t acceptable to me.
However, I ended up switching to the Google pixel XL and while it wasn’t a Samsung phone, the camera definitely made up for it’s other faults. I mean, look how gorgeous!
At that time, I was resigned to keep paying $110/month to Verizon regardless of how much data I used - which was barely 2 GB/month. However, one glorious morning, one of my coworkers mentioned the words “Project Fi” to me, and told me how she and her husband had saved buckets of money simply by switching and only paying for how much data they used monthly.
The very next day, I canceled my Verizon plan - thankfully I had bought the phone so I wasn’t locked into a two-year contract - and ordered my Project Fi SIM card. To cut a long story short, check out this picture showing the history of my monthly phone bill ever since I switched.
Crazy huh? For anyone who might be unaware (as I was for a mighty long time), Project Fi charges $10/GB of data with a $20 base pay for call and texts. They recently amended their plan to include a maximum data cost of $60, or 6 GB, so anyone who goes over 6 GB will not have to worry about paying extra for the extra usage, which is pretty great.
I’m really glad that I switched to Project Fi because the extra money I’ve saved has gone directly towards student loan pay off - see previous post here https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@nyiorms/can-i-pay-off-usd62-000-in-student-loans-in-one-year. I’ve been able to keep my costs very low by literally turning my mobile data off and only using WiFi. Due to the fact that I lead a very boring life - home, work, repeat - I’m usually always in places that have WiFi. Now if say I’m at the beach, or driving long distances, or at another venue without free WiFi, I have found ample ways to entertain myself without having to turn my mobile data on unnecessarily.
Here are some tips for not using your data:
Download your maps/directions before you leave the house. I can only speak for the Pixel phone on the Project Fi data plan, but I’ve noticed that once I’ve loaded the directions, the screen prompts keep going even when I’m out of the WiFi zone, which is nice. To be safe, I take screenshots of the directions before I leave anyway.
Get a book or magazine to read if you’re stuck at the doctor’s office or mechanic or just any random place where you know WiFi may be limited. Not only will you help curb your scrolling addiction (let’s be honest, we all have it), but you’ll look super cool and retro ;-). Public libraries are awesome y’all.
Download podcasts to your phone before you leave the house. There are so many good ones to choose from.
Write on any medium you choose - don’t you have some Steemit articles to get started on? I bet you do.
Talk to the person seating next to you. No? Yea, me neither. Too introverted.
I know Project Fi isn’t ideal for everyone because as I understand it, it only works (or works best) on Google phones - I.e. Nexus and Pixel models. Some diehard iPhone users may find it difficult to make the switch to Android. However, if you’re interested in saving some coin and going debt free, please consider researching ways to slash your phone bill. Sometimes the grass is actually greener on the other side. The occasions when I miss the excellent verizon coverage I used to have are few and far between when I consider that I’m consistently saving about $80 a month and using a phone plan that fits my pretty sedate lifestyle.
PS...Straight Talk offers some pretty cheap unlimited phone plans for ~ $55-$60 monthly, and you can use most unlocked phones with this plan. Just another thought.
Here’s another lovely picture from my Pixel XL phone :-)
