Everyone wants to save money fast, including me.


When we moved to the homestead, our financial lives were out of control. 

I mean beyond out of control, spending money hand over fist. We weren’t in debt, but we were blowing through our savings, and I had had enough.

We needed to get to a $0 net-overhead lifestyle ASAP, and I didn’t care what sacrifices we had to make or the amount of work needed to achieve that goal.

We consumed more than we produced, and we couldn’t achieve any of our own personal life goals and were way stressed because we were constantly trying to keep up with the financial output.

With this one simple step, I saved over $350 per month, and gave myself some better security. I put myself in control. What was it?

A pay-as-you-go cell phone for both my husband and I.

If you haven’t done this yet, hear me out. For years, I thought a pay-as-you-go plan spelled trouble, and the service couldn’t possibly be as good. And of course we needed the data plan.

Then, one month, we were charged $800 by a cellular provider that claimed we went WAY over our data plan limits even though we were attached to our home WiFi the whole month.

After multiple discussions with this provider, it became clear we needed to make a change that allowed us to be in control.

With our pay-as-you-go plan, the service is just as good, and in many ways it’s better.

My cellular service, with a data plan, used to cost me $400 for two lines, and often times cost me more. There were surprise fees and added costs we couldn’t control.

I now pay $30 per month, per phone. We have unlimited minutes each, unlimited texting, and no data

(I keep my phone attached to our internet at home and to free WiFi when out and about. You would be surprised how easy it is to live without data all the time, and how often you are at a location with free WiFi).

We aren’t automatically charged every month, so we’re in control – we choose when to pay.

With the exception of the data, this plan is almost identical to the monthly plans I had with providers who wanted to charge me over $200 per month plus taxes and hidden fees.

We were able to use the phone we’d already had for years, so the change cost us nothing except for the new plans.

If you do want a data plan with your phone, there are pay-as-you-go plans with data, and they’re a fraction of the cost of monthly plans. The service is just as good.

The quality of the service with our pay-as-you-go provider is exactly the same. I’ve never had a problem texting or making a call, or getting on the internet.

If you want to know which provider I use, please contact me and I will share the full details, but there are plenty of mobile companies to choose from. Make sure you choose one that has service in your area.

Want more money-saving advice? Here’s 11 Ways to Save Money and 3 Steps to Gain Control of Your Finances!

I’d like to hear from you!

Do you have any money saving tips? Leave a comment below!

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Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category.  Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.

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6 Comments

  1. I’ve thought about going with a pay as you go, but I’m still stuck in my contract. Luckily I get a discount through my day job. But now that we have open wifi at work the only time I use data is when we’re out and about and I swear my phone is my 3rd hand. But it’s definitely a great way to cut expenses!

  2. My in-laws are paying for our phones while my husband finishes school and then we will definitely be switching to a pre-paid plan. It just makes more sense!

  3. Nice! My husband and I both have monthly payment phones, and we’re thinking about doing something different. This is something to look into!

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