Super Single Girl Money Saver Number 2- Prepay Cell

I admit, I am not leashed to my phone. I've been known to misplace it for weeks as a time. The only thing I really use it for most of the time is the alarm clock function. But I have one, because, well, everyone does.

It's a cheap phone. It came free with two months' minimum service. The whole deal cost me $30 plus tax. It texts, calls, and alarms. It doesn't surf the web, I can't connect it to my computer, it does not have bluetooth. I don't need any of that. I've never yet had an emergency requiring internet access.

So for $15 a month, I get 150 minutes (incoming and outgoing both charged) or 300 texts (both directions, again), or some combination of the two. Wait, let me say that again, 'cause I don't think it really makes as much of an impact here...

$15 is my monthly cell bill.

I pay another $60 a year for a Skype number, voicemail, and all the stuff that goes with that, plus another $3-5 a month in talk time. Most calls I use Skype for, actually- they only charge for calls I make and the price is pretty reasonable.

So my total monthly phone bill is $25. At least one phone number travels with me everywhere in the world, and I can pick up voicemail from anywhere with internet and a computer.

This wouldn't work as well with a snazzy phone. It wouldn't work as well for my dad, who uses more data transfer in a day than I have in my entire life. The crackberry users would need a different service, but even they might save. There are prepay options that are $45 or so for unlimited use. There are ones for $30 that are close to unlimited. There's one that offers fewer minutes than my service does, for much less a month, but more per minute. And that's just in the US!

Best part is, when my minutes get low, or my "service end" date gets close, I can just not refill. I have a month or two after I run out of "service" to refill before I lose my number. So if I don't have $30, I can just let it slide for a couple days. I'm good right now until the end of May, as long as I can keep my family trained to call my (local) Skype number.

Note- Google wants me to change crackberry to BlackBerry, and actually offers it as a fix- down to capitalization.