Not my normal schtick, but it's still me, I swears it.

I have to set aside talking about the size of my butt for just a minute (don't worry, we'll get back to ithat soon enough), because I just had a freaking LIFE CHANGING.... well... BUDGET CHANGING experience and I thought that yes, I have to share this with all the humans.

Husband and I have been Sprint customers since the dawn of time.  Because they were cheaper.  Because husband didn't want to lose the phone number he got when we were in college.  Because because because.

And our Sprint bill has gone up over time, (because that's how you thank long standing customers, I'm SURE) and we have now been paying $150 plus taxes and surcharges ($161 total) per month to use our two iPhone 4s's.  It felt ridiculous.  We need data plans for our jobs, but paying this much feels outrageous, doesn't it?  Like, how is this one thing that's getting continuously MORE EXPENSIVE to use?!  Isn't technology supposed to get cheaper over time?  Shouldn't competition somehow fix this ridiculous rise to make your cell phone bill look like a second freaking mortgage?  Save me, Capitalism!

And because the universe is a beautiful place, it turns out, that if you know where to look, there ARE other options.

We found Ting.  It uses Sprint service, and charges you for what you use, bumping you into slightly higher brackets based on your actual usage.  No overages.  No guesswork.  You just pay for what you use, and YES, you get to share your everything with all your devices.

So what does this mean for us?  For one, it means that we now have Ting services using the iPhones we have used for the past 2 years, and are still in great shape.  It means we don't have contracts, and since our contract was up this month anyway, it was a freebie.  (Though they do provide some fiduciary support for folks who need to get out of their current contracts.)

And most importantly, it means that instead of a $150 bill, based on our higher month's usage, we'll be paying about $45 a month.  Most months, lower than that.

Oh yeah, and when I called customer service to have them plug in Husband's parents as our refer-ers (we each get a $25 credit for that referral), a human answered the phone.  No service asking me to push 3 for help with my international wireless television service or push 7 if I'd rather speak in Cantonese (I would, thank you very much).  Just a super friendly guy from Toronto who says it's like, stupid cold there and he's crazy jealous of our 80 something degrees.  I almost died right there on the phone. I had no idea what to do.  I kept trying to shout account numbers and social security numbers and my mother's maiden name to see if that would direct me to the right Hold Time. I tried pushing a combination of numerals and pound signs until he had to ask me very politely to stop before he came to visit and take my phone away. Doncha know.*

So I'm sorry that I sound like an advertisement, but I like saving money (Lie. I LOOOVE saving money.) and when you find something great, it's good to share. I learned that once.

So here's a link if you wanna check it out for yourself.  And yeah, if you use that referral, we both get $25 bucks off and oooh how sweet that is.

THIS. THIS IS IT. CLICK THIS.

And oh yeah. In advance, you are very welcome.

*That was a joke about Canada, eh.**
**So was that. Cuz he's from Canada. You get it.