Cell Phone Plan Savings

You don't just need to use coupons to save.  A few weeks ago, my family and I upgraded our cell phones to smart phones with the upgrade we added a data plan.  Before this we only used our cell phones to make telephone calls and text.  We spent hours comparing cell phone plans on the top cell phone carriers.  After the hours comparing we discovered that unlimited data did not make the most financial sense for our family.  

I went to facebook and asked my friends how much data do they use.  Never having a data plan I really did not know how much data we really would need.  Their answers varied, but it did give me hope that we wouldn't need unlimited.  This got me thinking, since some of the answers said they didn't really use much since they mostly connect to wifi.  At least 90% of the places I go to have wifi or I'm able to pick up a hotspot from my cable company.  If I don't have wifi while I'm out whatever I need to do can wait until I get home.  

Before we purchased our phones we made sure we can change our data plan as we find necessary without changing our contract.  We started out higher than we really needed.  Since our billing cycle just ended we decided to make a change to our data. We went down a few gigs.  We have alerts set for 50%, 75% and 100%.  If we find that our data usage increases we can always increase it and it would still be less than what an unlimited plan with a different carrier would have cost us. Don't let the salesperson talk you into something you don't need.  Stand firm on your decision...it's not their money they are spending, but yours.   

On a side note, check with your cell phone carrier or your job to see if they offer discounts that will lower your bill each month.