
Let’s see how much we spend on cell phones. I have a $39.99 plan along with a $15 per month data plan for my iPhone. SMB has a un-smart phone which is $39.99 per month. With discounts, taxes, service charges, we pay $110 per month. Some months the charges get higher. Let’s look at the common causes of higher than normal charge. 1. Data charges when SMB checks her email etc from outside of Wi-Fi area, cost is $1 for up to 1 MB of data. This is frustrating, as when you click on your email icon, even if accidentally, you are slapped with a $1 fee. 2. Cost for test messages. We do not have text plans (which costs $5 per month) rather, we pay for per-use. For At&T it’s 20 cents per text, you receive or you send. That means when you send a text message and get a reply, phone company earn 80 cents, 40 cents from each of the parties. 3. Going over free talk time. It happened only once, few years back when I was frantically taking interviews for a new job. I went over the free minutes (400 minutes in our case) and paid hefty penalty. I


