Technology and Budgeting

Eventually, I’ll figure it all out!  

I bit the bullet and got a new phone. My boss kindly (yeah, right!) gave me a couple of options. The first was for me to pay off the remaining balance on the cell at the cost of $234 and they would pay to break the contract which still has nine months to go.  Um, no thanks on that. I had no intention of paying that much for a phone and benefit she is taking away! The second option was for me to get another phone, which of course would be my own expense. With both options, she said she would release my number. The smarter choice was the second. So, I hightailed it over to Walmart before she changed her mind!

I now have a shiny new i-phone 6. No, it isn’t the latest and greatest, but it will more than do the job for which it is intended. It was also “only” $199, which still seems like a crazy amount to spend on a phone. The last phone we bought was a couple of years ago from Republic Wireless at the cost of around $150. And I thought that was a lot of money! Walmart does now offer a cheaper no-contract $35 plan via Straight Talk. Less data than the $45 plan, but still plenty for my needs. Funny thing, after it was all said and done, she doesn’t want the old phone back! I’ll use it to running Swagbucks mobile.

I’ll have to take a little time to figure out this new phone as previously I’ve always had an Android device. When my PC died last Fall, I made the switch to a MacBook Air. On a positive side note, I did cash cash-flow it via my business. The operating system took a little getting used to, but now I would never go back! Hopefully, I’ll feel the same way about my new phone. The older I get, learning new technology seems to become more challenging. With all the changes, YouTube sure is a fantastic resource for how to do almost everything!

Speaking of technology, I hope I fixed a bug on my site over the comments issue. The problem seemed to be on my hosting related to Endurance Page Cache. Fingers crossed, comments will again post without all those funky warnings. I appreciate your patience while I figured this out. Please let me know if you experience any more issues with commenting.

August’s budget continues to go down the toilet fast. Aside from paying some balance transfer fees to reduce what we are paying in interest, and the new phone and plan, I also forgot to budget for life insurance that is due by September 4. I temporarily pulled this from savings.  Next year, however, I will have it on the books as an expense that comes due in September!I am highlighting all these irregular expenses which will make budgeting much easier next year.  Eventually, I’ll get it all figured out!