Worth Your Money: Ting

One of my most recent mini money goals has been to reduce our monthly telephone costs. Normally we spend around $150 a month for our cell phones through Sprint, and after thinking about it, this seemed a bit ridiculous to me. In my hunt for possible money saving solutions I came across a lovely company called TING.

Ting allows Sprint users to switch to their services free of charge, and charges a reoccurring monthly fee based upon your usage. There is no sign-up fee and no contract commitment. You can start with a plan as low as $3/month for up to 100 minutes. See all their plans HERE. What differentiates Ting from other companies is that they do not offer subsidized phones, so you have to pay out of pocket if you want a new one. By not subsidizing phones they can offer bare bones monthly rates. This works out great for a person like me who plans to use my existing phone until it dies, and then buy a used one whenever it needs to be replaced. So far, in our two months with Ting we've spent an average of $64 total for two phones, a savings of $86 a month or over $1,000 a year. Heck yeah, mission accomplished! If you would like to switch to Ting, use this LINK to sign up online and you'll receive $25 off your first bill.

“If you can, you will quickly find that the greatest rate of return you will earn is on your own personal spending.” ~Mark Cuban

Worth Your Money: Amazon Prime

There are not many bills I look forward to paying, but when it's time to renew my Amazon Prime, I quickly hit the pay button. If you don't know about Amazon Prime, it's a service offered by Amazon that gives you unlimited shipping for a year. They also throw in extra perks like free instant streaming of selected movies and television shows, as well as selected free music. For a household like ours it's a real steal, we regularly milk the heck outta that baby! Though we try hard to shop local, Amazon is our go to source for certain hard to find items, and any large sized purchases that won't fit into our tiny car. We get waaaay more than our money's worth in shipping, plus free entertainment when we've exhausted our going out budget for the month, or just want a night in.

Worth Your Money: LL Bean Totes

Recently, I got two new navy blue L.L. Bean totes from my company Originull Networks (one in size medium and another in size extra-large pictured above). I wanted to blog about them, cause well, these things are awesome! They are affordable, classic, extremely durable, and constructed in the USA. If you treat it right, one can last you a lifetime. They provide a more sustainable and stylish alternative to plastic and paper bags. I can think of about a million and one uses for them, from weekenders, to grocery bags, to toy storage, to gardening storage, or to hold laundry. The size you'll want will depend on your needed function. I find the medium to be a good size for a light grocery trip, while large would be ideal for more substantial shopping. Extra-large is a bit overbearing for shopping usage, and would work better for laundry or storage. If interested you can purchase one here. Occasionally, they go on sale so be on the lookout.