you’re killin’ me, smalls

We are frugal around here.  And by we I mean me, because Hubby’s level of frugalness is in a whole other dimension.  A dimension he is quite proud to inhabit.

I have not always been frugal.  Oh no, when I was in college and had no money I almost exclusively bought clothes from The Limited.  But I bought them off the sale racks! And that meant I was getting a good deal!  I haven’t stepped foot in that store in years.  Probably since before G was born.  And that’s not because there is no longer a Limited in Wichita.  No, in Tulsa there was a very pretty one with lots of pretty clothes and snooty sales people.  But have you noticed the prices? Sheesh.

Now I am very proud of the way I spend money: we rarely have to throw out wasted food, I know which items are best for my family and at the cheapest prices, and we buy cute clothes from truly inexpensive stores.

Okay.  Now for the rest of the story.

Last month, like early December-ish, I broke my phone.  My phone that I’ve repeatedly dropped on the tile in our entryway, on the concrete sidewalk and driveway and porch of our house, suddenly decided to throw in the towel when I barely dropped it on the wood in our bedroom.  Just turned itself off and refused to turn back on.  But no problem!  We qualify for an upgrade with T-Mobile!

Off to the T-mobile website I go and find ONE FREE PHONE they offer to returning customers.  Um, I have been paying around $90 a month for the past two years, which equals approximately $2,160 (that figure hurts me a bit), and they can only offer me one measly free phone?  When they offer almost 10 free phones to new customers, customers who have not paid their bills on time for two years?  Thanks for your loyalty, T-Mobile.  I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

But I’m not paying a cancellation fee.  No sir.  And I’m not buying another plan while ours with T-Mobile is still active.  So since early December Hubby and I have been sharing a phone.  Kind of a drag, but not too bad.

Saturday I thought would be the day for new phones.  Hubby went to the T-Mobile store and told them we’d like to cancel.  (I made him go in by himself.  I do not like confrontation!  And although Hubby said it was nothing personal against the nice worker, it still felt like a confrontation to me.)  Hubby came out a few minutes later, telling me that we had to call to cancel, and can’t do so until Monday the 18th.  Grrr.

I suggested we go ahead and get new phones from Verizon that day.  I mean, we’d only be overpaying for a week.  No biggy!  But Hubby pointed out how we’d be wasting $25.  And $25 gets us a meal at Jason’s Deli, a place we all love to eat.  (Okay, so we’re not frugal when it comes to the frequency with which we eat out.  But we’re working on it.)  We drove home with no new phones.

Last night we couldn’t find the lone phone of the household.  And I had him!  I told him we should just march ourselves to Verizon this afternoon and buy new phones.  Then we’d only be double-paying about $15 worth.

He looked me straight in the eye and grimaced.  ”Yeah, but it’s still $15.”

You’re killin’ me, Smalls.