No Yogurt For You!!! (Insert Sad Face)

Has there ever been a time in your life where you are doing things you know you shouldn't, and God steps in and intervenes for you?  No, I don't mean robbery or something like that... Let me explain:  One of our biggest hang ups is eating out on the run.  Like most Americans with kids, we are busy people... driving everywhere, eating in the car, wasting money on gross food... It adds up fast!

This time of year is extremely busy, and I haven't made time to go grocery shopping.  Therefore,our lunch supplies are extremely lacking!  In other words, we are out of yogurt, my daily breakfast (insert sad face)

So on my way to work, I call my husband and explain the situation, asking if it would be ok if I stopped at Tim Horton's for yogurt.  He says sure... so I swing in, and wait... and wait... and wait... the line doesn't move.  Literally the cars sat there for FOUR minutes.  When I can finally move, I swing out of line and head to work without yogurt (insert sad face) Instead I raid my work mom's stash for free...

Later on this evening, I really wanted a Dr. Pepper... so I swing into the drive thru at the gas station, and there is a line I've never seen before!  FOUR cars ahead of me!  So, I say "OK God, I get it... no junk food today, I'll save the money"  and just head home.

Doing the right thing on our own isn't always in our forethought... Sometimes we all could use a little intervention from above right?

Eureka!!!!!!!!!!!!

iPods came in from Apple today!  The Fed Ex guy was joking with me and said I needed to show him ID... I said I don't hardly think so!  Everything synched beautifully with iCloud and tomorrow for real I need to catch up the ynab... I also need to read some Bible as well...

I miss my YNAB app...

One thing I dislike with a passion is recording things in the checkbook register... I was forever telling my accountability partner that I needed to catch up on the checkbook.  She finally convinced me in a way that I could convince my husband that this program called "You Need A Budget" (YNAB) would be a life saver for us.

We aren't into reports or data tracking with out funds (not yet) we are nerdy free spirits, not nerdy nerds.  (Dave Ramsey terms) But this program YNAB is a smart phone/iPod/iPad app with a desktop interface that syncs through Dropbox.  Since we don't have iPhones anymore, it syncs as soon as you hit wifi and hit the little "transactions to sync" button.  It sounds complicated, but it's really not... not so much really. What do I love about it??? I'm glad you asked!  

My husband can record his transactions with his app, I can record my transactions with my app, and they pull from BOTH the checking account AND the budget at the same time!  We only used it for a week, but that week changed my outlook on my checkbook register!  I LOVED IT!!! I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders because now all I had to do was mark items as cleared and make sure the balances matched the actual account.  It was my new best friend!  And I miss it... 

I am sure it is the first thing I will do when the iPods arrive Wednesday.  We will have a reunion like those you see at the airport! 

In the meantime... I need to catch up on my checkbook register 

POIDH (Pic or it didn't happen)

This morning I came to the realization that we no longer have a camera readily at our fingertips... At least until Wednesday.  I have a good(ish) camera, but it's kind of expensive to take fishing, or where there is mud things like that... Not to mention that sharing them on Facebook is such a pain too!  And we all know how important sharing photos on Facebook is! With the world of social media everything is immediately available. I have found my patience is pretty narrow, and it narrows the older I get.  I thought it was part of the aging process, but maybe the "have to know right now, let me look it up on my iPhone" mind set has something to do with it?

I am quickly realizing that the device can be so convenient, but also can run your life in more ways than one.

OH THE HORROR!

So our iPods should be here on Wednesday... in the mean time I feel like we should be chiseling out messages on stone tablets, or at the very least using messenger pigeons!  If I felt disconnected before, man do I ever now!

Yesterday, my daughter texted me asking what the name of a store was.  I wanted to answer back "YOU have an iPhone!! you can look it up!!"  But she, along with several other people, are used to me being their "411" operator, so I had to walk to my laptop and Google it from there!  OH THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She also texted me a cute pic of her dog.  At least I have to assume it's cute because all I can see is a 1x 1/2 inch blob on my phone screen... again... OH THE HORROR!!

I haven't felt as if I have been interacting with people lately, but yesterday at soccer practice, We actually talked to the people around us instead of having our heads buried in our phone screens.  Hmmmmmmm maybe we are onto something here???

Cold Turkey Time...

It's funny that since I am now carrying around this glorified iPod (iPhone), AND a cell phone, people are constantly asking me "why are you carrying two phones?"  "Are you having a hard time since giving up your iPhone?"

Well kinda!  It's not like a crack addict carries around a pipe with him right?  I am just torturing myself carrying this iPhone that is glaring back at me with the "no service" message.  Is there a twelve step program for this?

Tuesday, my son asked me to take him to Game Stop so he could sell his iPhone 5.  It was amazing watching him go through the process and calculating which would be the better deal... store credit or cash?  He ended up walking out of there with a 64gb 4th gen iPod touch and $260 in store credit!

Fast forward to today and my husband wants to sell His iPhone 4s so we go to a different Game Stop.  His goal was to be able to get an iPod, and a cell phone with a qwerty keyboard... He did!  He picked one up for me too.  The phone I had been using was missing texts because of it's age.

I decided to sell my iPhone 5 also... as I'm sitting here typing, the realization of what I've done is sinking in, and QUICKLY!  My calendar/appointment book, my alarm clock, my YNAB app (that's another blog all together) WHAT AM I GOING TO DO????????????????

I am going to use part of my cash for an iPod 5, but a refurbished one has to be ordered.  It won't be here for a week.  I'm sunk

And I'm being so drama right now, but wow, what DID I do??

This is cold turkey folks!

A 24 hour manic cycle...

Last week I had the coolest AND most embarrassing experience since "losing" my iPhone...

Tuesday nights are Financial Peace University nights, and during the share your success part of the class, I waited for everyone to share their successes thus far. I tell the class we did THE ultimate in cutting back... We cancelled the service to our iPhones and are now using "dumbphones"  In a dramatic fashion, I hold up both my iPhone and the other phone I am now using...

The looks on their faces was PRICELESS!  They were all like:

It was a great feeling, and I was like "Wow!  This isn't so bad!"  

Then came Wednesday... and it was all like:

Let me explain... I don't know why, but I was so stressed out about not having my iPhone anymore. The past three days I have had a few people tell me I looked "frazzled".  I loathe this purple phone SOOOO much!  Texting on it stinks!  Every single time I have to hit the backspace button to correct my own misspelling ticks me off even more! Lunch time rolls around and I'm like "Forget this peanut butter!  I want something good!!!  It's not fair I have to give up my iPhone and eat peanut butter every stinking day!"...  I was determined to not eat another peanut butter sandwich and got Subway for lunch.  I didn't care which budget category this was coming out of... It was like an internal temper tantrum, not. even. joking.  Forget that I was a participant in accumulating all this debt, I was so over trying to save money!

 It all came to a head about 5pm after grocery shopping.  Tuesdays I usually pick up our crop share from a local farm, and I had forgotten, so I thought I'd swing by after a relaxing hour at the local Walmart.  I get to the farm, and my crop share isn't in the cooler.  It isn't in the fridge either.  I won't lie I was getting aggravated... I get my iPhone out to google the phone number... oh yeah NO SERVICE!  I had forgotten to save the phone number, so I literally start panicking.

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO????  

I call my husband and ask him to text me the phone number as I am walking around this HUGE farm looking for another human being.  Then a dog starts barking, and Mrs. Farmer comes out.  Very nice lady, very apologetic that I came all the way out, and my bag wasn't there... "Let me get a hold of my husband she says" as she pulls out her iPhone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and  I couldn't help it... I'm all like:

I am sure she was thinking "I have to get this crazy lady off my property and STAT!"  She was so nice and listen to me whine about giving up my iPhone because we are trying to save money to be debt free.  She ended up telling me about a book she just read about positivity... and how to change your outlook on things... the more she talked the more embarrassed I was, the more I cried.

This was my bottom... and I hate even admitting I was this attached to a piece of technology...

What in the world does that say about me?

Week one... pluses and minuses

Thinking over the week, one major plus has been being able to run apps like  Spotify, I heart Radio, Pandora & Swagbucks TV app without it kicking off wifi and using expensive data... I was forever having to stop the app and turn the wifi back on.  We could never figure out why the iPhone 5 did this, but my it happened to my son all the time while using Pandora.  If you're not paying attention, it can eat up your data quick!  It never failed that by the middle of the month we were receiving a text saying we have used 60% of our data plan

If you don't know what swagbucks are, check it out...

Check out Swagbucks HERE

Off to church... hope their wifi is working so I can use my Bible app

Old habits die hard...

JR & I head out to town, we get around the corner & I realize I had my iPhone and left the cellphone at home... not to worry, upon coming home, I discover no one has called or texted me.  And the world hadn't ended either :D

We aren't destitute...

We left the cellphone store at exactly 6:11 pm on a Sunday evening... by 10:49 am, I had posted on Facebook (via A TEXT MESSAGE!)  "Having iPhone withdrawals"

I'm not even joking... I had the shakes.  I kept picking up my iPhone to check for messages, and all I see glaring back in the top left corner are these words:

No Service

No Service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's it... I have no service.  I activated the Facebook mobile, but have no idea how it works.  I cannot jump on safari to see what the folks on the BS2 accountability thread are doing... I cannot see if I won the last round of Running with Friends, or Words with Friends.  I can't even get on my Facebook Messenger... (Aren't I supposed to be working??)  My head is going to explode.  Then I hear my cellphone making noise.  (I cannot figure out how to put it on vibrate)  It was one of my friends asking what happened to my iPhone??? (must have been on Facebook)  It takes me probably two whole minutes and a lot of backspacing and retyping to tell her that we are trying to save money so we dropped them off our plan.  She says "I thought you guys were getting caught up!"  Imagine how long it took me to reply "We aren't destitute.... besides it lowered our plan over $100 a month, that's $1,200 a year!"  She says in lightening speed "Yeah but to give up your iPhone?  Bummer!" 

Bummer is right!  I cannot wait until lunch so I can get on wifi and see what the rest of the world is doing.  I feel completely disconnected.  I hate not knowing what is going on around me.  There are important things I am positive I'm missing out on, and I am completely unaware.  I actually feel as dumb as my phone is.  

This is no smartphone...

The excitement of saving money was quickly lost in the realization that I no longer had a fully functional iPhone.  Let me introduce you to my current phone:  It's a Samsung Solstice...

This is NOT a smartphone

JR acquired it back in 2010, it's purple!  He swore he thought it looked black on the website, but I used to tease him about his purple dumbphone... while I was sporting around an iPhone 3gs, complete with a John Mayer Heartbreak Warfare case.  At the time, he was a blackberry guy, and vowed to never have an iPhone.  How ironic that I am now carrying this thing around.

I do not know how to do anything from this phone... and JR doesn't remember how to do anything from this phone.  Folks, it has a 2.0 megapixel camera on it!  What am I supposed to do with that?!?

When I put it in my pocket, I think "Oh yeah, this is one of those phones made to fit in your pocket!"  The battery lasts like ALL day! These are the positives I have found thus far about my phone.  Oh, another positive is that I don't want to use it... so much so, I am finding myself to be more productive ;)

"That's not good enough..."

These are the baby steps folks... after we decided to quit the iPhones, we waited a day to get alternate phones, then we waited another day to turn them on.  When we walked into the store to do the deed, I was thinking "Wow we are so awesome!  Look what we are doing... saving all this money!"  When it was our turn, and we told the customer service representative we wanted to switch from iPhones to "dumb" phones, I followed it up with an "I bet you don't hear too many people say that!" She says, Oh yes, all the time... 

However, once she really started the process, it was clear she had never completed a transaction like this before.  She actually admitted she misunderstood what we wanted to do at first.  She tried to talk us into keeping the iPhones. She asked if she could get our bill down to where we wanted, would we keep the iPhones.  We both say "YES!" If you can get the phone bill down to $100 a month, we will for sure keep them!  But alas, she could only get our monthly bill down to $168 a month plus tax.  I said "Sorry, that's not good enough"  She tried again, and I finally said "PLEASE!  Just activate these phones.  We don't want the bill anymore"  I admit, I was losing my resolve, and I wanted to get out of there as quickly as we could.

About an hour later, we walk out of there with an estimated bill of $89.56 per month pre-tax!  I was like wow, that's going to save a lot of money.  Probably a little over $100 a month!  That's twelve hundred a year!... it adds up!  We go to visit our daughter, and end up on a different road.  JR says to me, "Which way do I go to get there?"  I pick up my iPhone to get directions and BOOM... it hits me.  I say "I don't know!! We just cancelled our iPhones!"  And my shoulders slump... no more GPS!

For the Love of iPhones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not many know about our decision to be debt free, but we want to be weird... No one noticed when we stopped eating out as much, and packed PB&J sandwiches for lunch.  It was strange when we voluntarily shut our cable TV off.  When we refused the offer of "basic" cable just for the local channels, the operator asks "How will you watch TV then?" Back when I was a kid, we had these things called rabbit ears... now we have this thing that looks like a bat and it Velcroed to the wall.  They are called antennas!

However, nothing prepared me for the reactions we received when we decided to dump our iPhones... Our cell phone bill is a few dollars short of $200 per month for three lines... that's $2,400 per year, to have a phone!  Now, I love my iPhone.  I've had one since February 2010, and it was my best friend... it kept me company on late lonely nights when I was single, it kept me connected to all my friends on facebook, texting was so easy!  And the games.... there were games galore available to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Of course there are the other perks like looking like the smartest person at work because Google was at my fingertips.  I even told my boyfriend (now husband) that if I could marry my iPhone I would... I loved it THAT much.

So, after a love affair that spanned 3+ years, how did we come to the decision to break up with our iPhones you ask?  I began co-facilitating Financial Peace University & insisted my seventeen year old son come to the classes.  The first class after we did the zero based budget lesson, son says "Hey... if I get a dumb phone can I keep this $15 a month I pay you for my cell phone?"  I say sure, not really believing he would be serious about such a thing.  He says "OK, I'll do it if I can have an iPod."

That started the wheels spinning... I call our carrier and ask how much we would save per month if we drop one smart phone.  $20 per month... how about TWO smart phones,  $80 per month before taxes.  EIGHTY DOLLARS PER MONTH!  (before taxes)  This starts the wheels spinning faster... so I text my husband and say I am dropping my iPhone too.  "WHY??"  He asks?  Because our bill will be around $120 per month.  I guess the pressure was on because I receive a text back saying "I'll give up my iPhone too"

Three days later we were at Walmart buying pay as you go "dumb" phones that we could put regular SIM cards into. Let the adventures begin...