Ting has offered some new cell phone plans and after talking about it a lot we decided to go with the one of them.  The unlimited talk, text, and data.  Right now we pay around $43 to $53 a month for our four phone lines and have data turned off.  The plan we chose is $45 and then each phone has a line fee of $6 a month, so $24.  So our base fee will be $69 plus tax.  We pay about $9 in taxes right now, so I figure it will now be somewhere in the $80 to $90 range.  We had no data before unless we paid an additonal fee.  Plus we get a $60 credit for switching (also for signing up), taken off at a rate of $5 a month for the next 12 months.

We travel so much back and forth to Seattle these days, being able to access online games along the way or to stream a show in the car would be really nice.  It is an unnecessay luxury upgrade, which we can do even on our new budget with 15% being taken out for retirement.  And so worth it to me.  And the bill will be a set charge instead of fluctuating with each bill depending on usage, so I can put it on the debit card instead of the credit card.  I also found out recently I can put Hulu and Netflix on the debit card as well.  Then the credit card will only need to be used for booking hotels.  Not even to pay for them, just to book them.

Also, it is still way cheaper than when we were back on Verizon with four lines paying $144 a month and no data.  Ting has saved us so much money in the last few years, even though we had to buy our own phones.  We just have motorola motos which are awesome, but not hugely expensive if you don't go to the highest end.  My daughter's was $99, for example.

They have to send us new sim cards for our phones, which may take 8 to 10 days, but the upcharge doesn't start until we install them in our phones, so the next bill will be partially one plan and partially the other.  I won't know until March 6th what a full bill on the new plan actually is.

Not meaning to be a commercial, but if anyone is interested in signing up for Ting, I do have a referral link in my sidebar.  If you sign up for it through me, I get a credit to my account and then if you sign anyone up yourself, you'll get a credit to your account.

It does feel a little weird to be increasing one of my monthly expenses, but it is nice that I am the one doing it and not the company.  It has been almost seven months since we have been out of debt, but I still have the mentality that everything should be cut to the bone unless I get sick and then takeout expenses go off the charts.

On the other hand, we do need to do something about the internet bill.  For the number of times it drops, we are paying way too much.  Plus if it takes me an hour to upload a video to youtube so be it.  I don't need to do it in ten minutes or less for that rate.