Bits and stuff

[susandennis]

After I got back from the gym, I scrambled up some eggs that were delicious. The last time I was at Costco, a giant jar of capers caught my eye and and now I am on a huge capers jag.  They perk up lots of foods and scrambled eggs is one. 

After I finished and just as I was deciding what to do next, Lee called "wanna go for a walk?".  So we wandered down to the block so she could buy tickets to some roller derby thing tonight and to a Heart concert in August.  Then we ran into Ann and Ron (other neighbors) who were off to find an art show that was supposed to be in Occident park on Saturday mornings.  Lee and I wandered around a bit and then she decided she needed to get home and get the place vacuumed and cleaned up before Sherry, her partner, got home from out of town.  So I wandered down to the park to see the art.  The art, apparently, never made it. 

It will be there a week from Thursday, though.  For First Thursday - which is the art walk every month.  Last month I was on my way to somewhere when I passed by the park and saw it was crawling with artists and crafters so I'll go back a week from Thursday.

Then home and catch up on LJ where I read that canuckgirl has ditched her cellphone for a prepaid deal from Tracfone.  Hmmmm  wonder if that might work for me?  I do need to keep my number BUT, if I could keep my number...  It might just be worth my while to pay out of my Sprint contract, and pay as I go.  I ran the nums and, sure enough, over the next two years, my current Sprint contract will cost me $912.  The contract penalty PLUS 2 years worth of all the calling I would need at Tracfone would be about $400.  Hmmmm

I've never heard of anyone using their service in Seattle.  I posted a note over in seattle looking for experiences.  This is looking like an excellent option.  It seems a little too good to be true.  Wonder what clue I'm missing here.  There's a very nice Radio Shack not terribly far from here, I may go over and talk to them about it.  Maybe tomorrow.

And now it's nearly mid-afternoon! What luxury, though, to be able to do what I want when I want.  And it's nice and cool and comfortable in here. 

Comments

[lordjim.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest you looking into pay-as-you-go phones. I will be changing to that when my contact expires, unfortunately that will be a while. Best I could tell, T-mobile had the best plan, after the first $100 for the first year, it worked out to $.10 per minute and even $10 recharges last a whole year.

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

My mom dropped her AT&T service when it expired last year, and went to Tracfone. She has been *extremely* happy with it.

You can get a nice Motorola phone for Tracfone from Walmart for $14 and change.

However, here's the fine print. While it works great for her, it would not work for me. My mother uses maybe 15 minutes a month. I, on the other hand, ditched my wired line years ago and average almost 1000 minutes a month on the cellphone. When my mother was first talking about switching, I sat down and "ran the numbers" for her. At Tracfone's rates, around 30 - 45 minutes or so a month it starts to become cheaper to go with a standard cellphone plan, unless you talk so much that you buy the high-minute cards and get the cheaper rates.

[canuckgirl.livejournal.com]

I use it about as much as your Mom, maybe a tiny bit more on some months. I'll see how it works out. And I bought the $14 phone from Wal-Mart, too. :)

[canuckgirl.livejournal.com]

She said it would take about a month to transfer the number, and I"m not really attached to it that much. :)

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Verizon and T-mobile have pay as you go as well. CB liked T-Mobile better than Verizon because Verizon's minutes expire. T-Mobile worked pretty well for him.

[susandennis]

Really good to know cause T-Mobile is reputed to have good service around here. If this new Tracphone does not work out, I'm heading over to T-Mobile.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

I'm liking my tracfone. I've got a minute doubler card on it and it works well. Nothing fancy, just a phone.

[susandennis]

Oh THANK YOU! I was a little worried about how it worked in Seattle. I do not 'get' the minute doubler. You buy it once and thereafter all the minutes you buy are doubled?

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

Exactly, they have doublers that are for life and others that are for 1 year, I think mine is for life.

On the coverage, I've not had any issues. Even when my families t-mobile phones have no signal I'm still fine.

[susandennis]

Cool and cool. I'm feeling good about this and I haven't even gotten to use the phone yet!

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I have Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go, and I *love* it. They have several different plans, so you can pick the option that suits your minutes usage best. And you can change it monthly, too -- as often as you like. Addons like $10 for 1000 text messages to whichever plan.