How to Save (Lots) of Money On Your Cell Phone Bill

First off, it's been a really long time since we posted anything new on here.
Second, I don't normally like to write reviews like this on here, but here we are.
Third, phones are (generally) more expensive from these providers, because you are buying the phone outright, instead of spreading the cost out over the course of your contract term. Don't worry, it's actually cheaper that way in the long run.

Phew, got that out of the way.

Now, let me start off by saying we use Ting. We really like it and have had zero issues with either our phones or the carrier itself (more on that later). Before I get into the details on why we like Ting so much, and why I think you should consider switching, I'd like to talk about two of its major competitors.

Republic Wireless

The Good

Cheap "Plans"

First, there's Republic Wireless. Their "plans" are no-nonsense, no contract, and very competitively priced. I say "plans," because all of their options are based upon the one $10/mo plan where you buy data as you need it. Yes, it's as good as it sounds; it really is $10/mo (per phone) plus cell data, which runs $7.50/GB. You have unlimited minutes and texts, provided you are connected to a WiFi network, because it treats your calls and texts like data (VoIP). It's pretty cool, and apps like Line have been doing that for a while, now, so it's nice to see a cell provider doing the same. In theory, if you had access to WiFi all the time, you could have a $10 bill each month and still be able to call, text, and watch your favorite YouTube videos.

The Bad

Where's Your Data Going?

That being said, that's also possibly a caveat for some people: it treats all of your communications as data. That means if you don't have WiFi available, all of your calls and texts get sent through the cell network as data. Anyone living in a less-connected area or who travels a lot probably won't see much of a benefit in a plan like this. Furthermore, security-conscious people like myself probably also noted that if everything is (WiFi) data, and if you are connected to a public WiFi network, that means someone could potentially capture that data and see/hear your conversations. Now truth be told, I don't know how or if data sent from the devices is encrypted or not, so it may be potentially fine.

Their Devices or Go Home

The third major issue I have with Republic Wireless is the fact that you cannot bring your own device to their service. You have to buy whatever phones they have available, and if you ever want to leave, you'll have to buy another device, because the Republic phone you bought doesn't work on other cell networks, either. This is because of the "everything as data" design of the phone. Their phone software has been modified so that it can do what it does, but it's very specific to the carrier. Also, their phone selection is very small, so if you don't like what they've got, you're out of luck.

What's Account Control?

The fourth issue I have is that you don't have much control over your account. You can see your data usage and pay your bill, but a lot of the plan options are kept behind closed doors. I like being able to decide when to deactivate a phone. Or set a limit on a device's data. Or turn off a device's ability to text.

Project Fi

It's from Google!

Next, we have Project Fi, an offering from none other than Google. This service is a fairly new one (unless you were lucky enough to previously get an invite), but it's a combination of the WiFi-centric ideology of Republic Wireless mixed with some of the things we like about Ting. It tries to use WiFi to for your calling, texting, and such, but if you are unable to find one, it defaults to the regular cell networks and treats your calls and texts like you would expect from any other provider. It's a dual-band setup, so that means it can connect to both Sprint towers and T-Mobile towers, depending on which one gives you a better signal, so it's unlikely that you will ever be anywhere without coverage. Unless, of course, you live in the sticks. And if you live in the sticks, you know there's no options for you anyway. You wanted to get away and disconnect from society, right?

The Good

Pay For What You Use. Also no contract

The plans are comparable to Republic's plans, but instead of $10 per device per month, plus data, it's $20 per device per month (this, I assume, covers normal cell costs spread out over two cell networks). They call this piece Fi Basics, but it's the price everyone pays for service. You also pay $10 up front each month per GB, but they refund you the difference of what you don't use at a rate of about 1c per MB (eg. $10 for 1 GB; if I only use .5 GB, they will refund me $5). There is no contract, and they are also offering a $150 discount on the Nexus 5X if you sign up before Jun 9, 2016, so if this plan sounds good to you, you might want to consider jumping on it.

The Bad

Now. there are two reasons why I didn't switch to Project Fi.

Almost the Cheapest

First, the plan price wasn't cheaper than what we currently have. It's close, but just not close enough to justify the hassle of switching. Not really a bad thing, but the point is that there's still a cheaper option.

Remember Google Buzz? No?

Second, when it comes to unusual products/projects, Google has a history of deciding to discontinue/change things at a moment's notice. They do give time to switch or migrate to something else, but how would you like it if Verizon suddenly said they were no longer going to offer cell plans, but you could buy one of their new houses as they venture into the Tiny Home market?

Ting

The Good

Okay, now to get to our current cell provider, Ting!

It's Cheap

Ting is much like the other two I mentioned, except that it uses cell networks like normal -- you pay for minutes, texts, and data. You might say, "That sounds terrible! You have to pay for every little thing!" to which I say, "That's true." But the amount you pay for each piece is pretty low. And when I say low, I mean the two of us combined pay just under $44 per month. $22 per person. That's $6 per line plus data/text/minutes. I'd recommend looking at how the pricing breaks down, but if you are willing to be conscious about how you use your phone, this might be a good plan for you.

The price is great (and it's one of the main considering factors), but there are two other reasons I love Ting.

Awesome Customer Service

Their customer service is fantastic. They even offer support for rooting/jailbreaking your device (some of them). What cell phone provider offers tech support for rooting/jailbreaking your phone?! They are also good about responding to your questions like a normal, smart human would, instead of always going off of a script. None of the, "Have you tried turning it off and on again? Did you try entering your mother's maiden credit card number? Okay, I can help you with that -- please hold while I transfer you to someone who can help you with that," nonsense.

Granular Account Control

Anyone wish they could turn off their kid's phone's calling/texting ability -- maybe because they covered the cat in Nutella -- but still leave them with a device that can make emergency calls? Here's what I'm talking about:

Cool, right? I can change any of that ANY TIME I WANT TO. And I have. We once thought a phone was lost, so I went online and turned off all of it's capabilities until we found it. So I basically bricked it, then un-bricked it. There are also settings to turn off minutes/texts/data if you hit a certain limit -- for each device on the plan or for the entire plan! You can even set up warnings so you know if you have reached a certain usage amount. No more worrying about accidentally going over your limit ever again. Peace of mind is a valuable thing.

No Contract

Best of all, there's no contract. If I ever want to leave and try out Project Fi, I can do that. No hassle from them for leaving.

The (sort of) Bad

CDMA or GSM?

There are only three things to consider before switching to Ting:

One, check your coverage. Ting uses two networks, but they use different cell technology (CDMA and GSM -- think Verizon and AT&T), so you have to be aware of the coverage of each. One may be worse in your area.

(Side note: They use the Sprint network for CDMA and the T-Mobile network for GSM)

Second, check the cell technology the phone uses. Ting openly publishes which network each of their cell phones use, but if it uses a tech that you get bad coverage with, you might need to look at a different phone.

What's Your Normal Usage?

Third, and probably most importantly, look at your current cell phone bill with whatever company you use. Total up the number of minutes, texts and GB's. If that's an average month for you, compare the usage with Ting's price breakdown. For us, we were grossly overpaying for everything, but it's probably not a good plan for anyone who uses a lot of data. However, if you do use a lot of data, ask yourself why you use so much. I've found that by being conscious of my usage and limiting my web searches, YouTube, and streaming to when I'm connected to WiFi, I don't use nearly as much data as I would have otherwise. And if you can do that, you could save yourself a lot of money with Ting.

Conclusion

All three of these providers offer competitive plans, and if you are smart about your phone usage, you could easily end up with bills each month around $20 - $30 per device per month. Ting is my favorite, and I'll gladly recommend it to just about anyone. If Ting sounds like a good deal to you and you are seriously considering signing up, click this link. You'll get a credit towards your account when you sign up, and so will we! Win, win.

Alright, that's the end of my review. I hope you learned something new and at the very least learned that you are probably paying way too much for your cell phone. Nobody likes that.

~M

'Tis The Season to Be Thankful

You know, I am absolutely guilty of forgetting the spirit of this coming holiday. I mean, the intended spirit is contained within the name itself. However, as I was walking into my building for work, I was reminded of something.

As a side-reading adventure, here's how my train of thought went (be warned, I have a roundabout way of thinking, so feel free to skip to the next paragraph). I've edited it to be more readable, since most of my thoughts aren't so succinct:

"Wow, it's almost the end of the month.
"Heck, it's almost the end of the year.
"That means I'm about 30 and a half.
"I remember when a friend of mine would celebrate her half-birthday, which happens to be a day before my actual birthday. (She would get half of a birthday card, by the way)
"I remember when I almost had an awful birthday when I turned 24.
Okay, you are now caught up on my train of thought.

I did almost have an awful birthday, but fortunately for me, A and I were engaged by this point. My roommate at the time (who is a really awesome guy, and this is in no way intended to slight him in the least) happened to have his birthday the day before mine. It fell on a Friday, so he decided to have a party the following Saturday, my birthday. However, I never told him that this was the case, so he can't be faulted for not knowing.

People started to come over, well-wishes were given to my roommate, and the party started. By this point, I had resigned myself to be as humble, helpful, and host...ful(?) as possible. People suffer far greater things than forgotten birthdays, and I was already wonderfully blessed to have Jesus, an amazing church family, and a sweet then-fiance (who was there celebrating my birthday). She had decided to make me this Lemon-glazed Lemon Cake from scratch, and while it was cooling, many of the people who had come to see my roommate were sitting around the living room watching as he opened the presents they had gotten him. I was doing my best to be (or at least look) cheerful, but I must have been doing a poor job, because at some point, A turned to me, motioned to my friends in the kitchen, and said, "You know, I invited your friends. They are here for you." Our church is wonderful, and so it's not uncommon to share the same friends (in fact, it would be strange if you didn't share at least some). I had, therefore, assumed they were invited to come see my roommate.

In that instant, I realized that I have amazing friends and an even more amazing (now-) wife. When we all sang happy birthday, A and the others were singing to me, too. Only a love that originates with Jesus can turn something sad into something so joyful.

So, to all my friends who came on my account, I am very thankful for you.

And to my darling wife, who fills my life every day with joy, I am especially thankful for you!

Sushi for Dessert?!

Thursdays are our usual date night.

Dash goes to Doggie Funland every Thursday for the entire work day, which means that when we pick him up, he's completely exhausted. This is efficacious, since it means that Ashley and I get an entire evening of peace. We can watch an entire movie without being interrupted by random barking at neighbors walking by. We can eat a meal without whining or begging. We can play a board game without a Kong being dropped in our laps (with the implication being that we should fill it with a treat).

Thursdays are our date night.

Some time ago, A and I came up with a list of date night activities that we can pull from when we want to do something a little different. There's things like bowling night, roller skating and wearing as much neon as possible, doing a simple science experiment together, etc. The one we chose this time was based upon a YouTube show we both like called Nerdy Nummies. It's a cooking show started by a girl who makes nerdy/geeky themed treats, and we were inspired by a particular video she did where she made sushi cupcakes.

I should note, that these are not fish-flavored, nor do they contain any fish (well, that's not entirely true, but I'll get to that in a minute). They are matcha cupcakes with white buttercream frosting. The idea is to make them as flat as possible, so that when you frost them and put coconut on top to look like rice, they have the general shape of a sushi roll. Then you top them with a candy treats of your choice (like Swedish Fish -- see not real fish, but they do contain fish of a sort), and voila! Sushi cupcakes.

You are also supposed to use black wrappers (to look like nori), but we couldn't find any at our local store, so I just picked gold, since it looked cool. You'll just have to pretend it has a normal nori-like outside. Oh well!

The recipe we used was meant for several mini-cupcakes, so when we filled a normal, 12-piece tray with the entirety of the batter, the cups were pretty full. They rose beautifully, but like I said, it's important to keep the flat-topped shape so it looks more like sushi. If the cupcakes end up a little too domed, you can just cut the top off, and not wanting to waste anything, we made what we affectionately call "Shrek-aroons."

All in all, it was a really fun date night, and after making late-night deliveries of these treats to two sets of friends who live nearby, we settled in and called the endeavor a success!

So, to my dear wife who is game to try out an unusual recipe with her strange husband -- here's to you!

The Terminal Part 2

 The Terminal story continues....

Techie Dude finally verifies that I am, in fact, me by calling the other office line and I answer.  That's it.

We then spend 45 minutes trying to reprogram The Terminal to latch onto my work Wifi, with Techie Dude telling me to punch certain buttons and me trying not to sigh quite so loudly into the phone (I loathe all things technological that falls to me to attempt to fix.  I hereby abdicate this part of my job description.)

The Terminal doesn't like this.  It decides to spontaneously reboot 3 times.

Finally, we get to the last of the last of the information I need to input into The Terminal: the Wifi password.  I spend several minutes typing the letters and numbers from the keypad like I used to text on my old cellphone...punch the 1 one time for a, two times for b, 3 times for c, and simultaneously punch four buttons while humming the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandee to make it a capital letter. Our password has a '$' in it.  This is apparently a problem.

I get put on hold.

To sum up, The Terminal is not equipped to have the '$.'  I now have only one option - I must change the router password and every computer terminal and device using the Wifi to a password with no '$'s in it.  Instead, I thank everyone for their time and hang up.

I then take a 5 minute walk to get some fresh air.

After venting to M about the situation, he texts the one thing that I laughed at all day:

"We all know that $ is too hard for money machines. - - "

Yes, yes we do.

The Terminal Part 1

I have thought for a while about doing a blog post, but besides my Mom getting her purse stolen/lost and also her getting into a fender bender last weekend, I have had only work-related nonsense to report.  (She's fine, by the way and I finally got the chance to see inside the police station, so...field trip!)

Onto the work-related nonsense.

We are getting a new credit card machine at work.  Unfortunately, this means that we also have to get a new credit card processing company, which required me to fill out more paperwork than when M and I signed the closing documents on our house.  In triplicate.

We have also had a few snafus (I did not actually know how to properly spell 'snafu') including, but not limited to being misquoted pricing on 3 separate occasions and mis-sending the credit card processing machine, a.k.a. The Terminal, to the wrong place.

The Terminal finally arrives.  I spend 30 minutes talking with Terminal Dude #2 (Terminal Dude#1 may or may not have blacked out after our last conversation, hence the #2) and we set up the machine.  Wrong.  We set it up wrong- it was supposed to run off of Wifi.   In the meantime, The Terminal sits ashamedly on the floor, since I have to steal the fax line out of our printer to get it to work.

All that to lead in to this morning's convo with Terminal Dude #3 (who has miraculously not blacked out from our last conversation) and Terminal Techie Dude.

He tries to 'verify' that I am, in fact, working for my organization by sending me a text message to my cell phone.  I think this is weird and I tell him so.  He tries to verify current information about me from this, which is completely unsuccessful.

Techie Dude: "What is your full name?"

I tell him.

Techie Dude: "That's not the name we have on file.  Perhaps a different last name?"

I tell him my maiden name.

Techie Dude: "What is your current home address?"

Me: "Why do you need to know that for a credit card machine that's for my work?"

Techie Dude: "It's just protocol.  Visa and Mastercard use this as a security check."

I give him my address.

Techie Dude:  "That's not the address we have on file."

Me: "I have lived at that address for 2 1/2 years. Where are you getting this information?  It seems old."

Techie Dude: "It's not - it's from 2013.  We get this from Homeland Security, credit card companies and the Social Security Administration.

Me: "Well, I changed my name over 6 years ago when I got married."

At this point, I am frustrated, but also curious as to why a database from Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration was given to a credit card processing company.  Also, it also causes me to wonder about how the Office of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration does not have any information regarding my current name, address or marital status.

I am almost impressed at this level of incompetence.

After processing all of this, I realize...

I am practically invisible and off the grid.

Cool.

That Sure Was The Ol' Labor Daybor

It's been a while since either of us posted anything on here. Most notably me. Time to rectify both!

Well, I'll start with an update on the house:
The floors aren't yet finished.

Now, I know some of you might be saying -- we ought to be finished already. We started this project officially back in January of 2013, and we had grand plans to finish by the end of the year (I want to say we actually planned to have it done in 6 months, but I don't remember if we were that insane). A was reading lots of DIY and Homesteader books, blogs, and whatever else she could get her hands on for inspiration -- many of which were written by stay-at-home, homemaker women. Now, when you read these articles and things by women who are supposedly your peers and who claim that "You too can prepare a three-course meal every day, all while learning the concertina, cleaning the house from top to bottom (including behind the fridge and under the stove), and doing 'X' home renovation project," you might say, "Yeah, I'm motivated! I can definitely pull that off!" A inspired me with her enthusiasm, and I was (and still am) happy to be with her on this ongoing renovation project.

However...

...you must inevitably face reality. I don't know if the above homemaker-types are going through life in a blind frenzy every day trying to get things done (as my paradigm imagines), if they are just writing about one glorious day where it all worked out as they said with the hopes that it will be somehow inspirational (but the other 364 aren't so "shiny"), or they are just flat-out delusional about how life around them is actually going.

Which leads me to this last weekend. The Labor Day weekend. We have a deadline set to finish the final bedroom, but since we, the normal working-types, can really only work effectively on the weekends, we look forward to the glorious three-day variant, since that usually means we have extra time to work and still get our rest in. Sadly, that didn't happen.

I got sick.

Really sick.

I only get sick a couple of times a year, and at most, it lasts a day. This was not one of those times. A was wonderful and took great care of me, but by the time I started to feel at all better, the weekend was gone. Not a single floor-board was touched that we weren't already walking upon.

Oh well.
I suppose the point of Labor Day is to rest, whether you want to or not!

Happy 30th to Matt!

Today is my wonderful Matt's 30th birthday. Oh, my!

I can't really believe that my dearest, peaceful-as-a-placid-lake husband has turned 30! Although, I assure you that he doesn't look it.

Aside from a minuscule number of white hairs (I claim full responsibility), he still has the same boyish look he had when I met him at 18.  Yes, 18.  And I was 17.  Wow, we were young'uns.

So, to you, my dear Hubs, a tribute:

To you who dances to the beat of your own kazoo,

Who fills my life with heartache AND joy,

Regaler of ridiculously corny jokes,

The curious cat about all things techy and obscure,

My partner in crime (and in never-ending floor installation projects),

Happy thirtieth birthday!  May you live to see many more birthdays and feel loved through them all.