Doing without a Cell Phone

One of the changes we made when we were trying to cut costs (on our second run of Lazarus at the Gate) was ending our cell phone service. I read a post over at Rowdy Kittens about ditching her cell phone, and it made me think of our journey to doing the same.

We don't have any phone contracts whatsoever. Eliminating our cell contract cut about $100/month from our budget. We talk to family and friends using skype and google talk, and Eug uses his Google number for most things. He uses a pay-as-you-go cell for when he's out and about. I have a work cell which makes me accessible in emergencies.

There are still some costs involved in being reachable, but we immediately save at least $1200/year of what we had assumed to be a necessary part of our budgets.

For me, the challenge that remains is to reconnect and have occasional long conversations by phone, which I used to really like as a means of catching up with people. I'd like to be available and present in other people's lives, so I need to be more deliberately reaching out, because I'm not easily reachable for a chat by phone.

Internet has totally transformed our need for cell phones, and it's one good example of a place where cutting a monthly bill allowed us to be more generous and pay off debt.