I had a visitor recently ask me about our cell phone bill and why it's so high, so I thought I should tell the story.
My wife has gone through thick and thin, when she first moved to Illinois, she was living in her car for a period of time. She moved here because she felt God leading her away from a bad relationship and her closest biblical friend was moving to the Chicago area.
Later, when things got better, her friend and their husband needed cell phones, my wife needed a cell phone and they talked quite a bit on the phone. So the idea was, "They're like family, let's get a family plan so we can get free mobile-to-mobile minutes together! It'll save us money!". So in our "destitute of mind" days, we got a large family plan.
Move up a bit later and the two of them are relying on the phones for their business, but they keep getting dropped calls. So in our "destitute of mind" days, we drop the plan (and incur a large fee), go with another carrier and they say "Hey, your husband should get a phone too..." and "We know another guy that desparately needs help getting on his feet...". Before you know it the phone plan has 5 phones and is at $400/month.
Fast-forward to today. The guy that has the 5th phone hasn't been calling us back to check on the status of his needing the phone and seeing if he can chip any money into the phone plan (he still uses it very little). My phone was given to the other family due to my anger last summer about the phone situation. My wife dropped some services on the phones to cut costs recently, but half the bill is still $160/month (I know, we're paying 1/2 the bill for 1/5 the service, that's another subject I don't know how to talk to my wife about).
The good thing about this is that my wife has changed her view on this and is seeking to get this split so that we have only one phone and are not co-signing again. I had tried to argue my point of view on this and it didn't work. Only until broken promises occurred regarding the other half of the payment started occurring month after month did this view come about.
Today's Lesson - DO NOT CO-SIGN. THERE IS A REASON WHOEVER WON'T EXTEND CREDIT TO THEM.
"A man lacking in judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor." Proverbs 17:18
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1 comment:
Good Luck in getting out of debt. DON'T EVER GIVE UP. I too am working on my debt problem.
It sounds like you have a good handle on ways to save.
I used to have credit cards but cut them up so now all I use is a debit card. That has greatly helped me.
Just a thought of encouragement. I can only imagine what it will be like to be debt free and not owing anybody any money. No Visa's or Mastercards getting all my money.
Once again good luck.
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