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...