This post is a sponsored collaboration between Broke & Beautiful and MintSIM.
Sometimes I try to imagine what middle school and high school would have been like if smartphones had been around. It’s a scary thought. Navigating the awkwardness of my social skills was hard enough as it was, I definitely didn’t need social media butting in and making things worse. Plus, my ADHD would be no match for Candy Crush – I’d have been a goner for sure.
Now, I can’t imagine any of my friends going through their day without their phone. On top of the fact that we all need to be in constant communication for some reason, my phone is so wired into my day-to-day that it has become a non-negotiable life tool. The more capable the phone, the higher the bill, and when there’s no wiggle room when it comes to the amount of data I need… Yikes.
Let’s just say what we all think when that monthly bill comes around: phones are really freaking expensive. The least we can do is figure out ways to make this amazing, tiny, handheld computer work in our financial favor. After all, if it’s so smart, it can get a job and work like the rest of us! We came up with our top five life hacks to make your smartphone start working for you, instead of the other way around!
Download apps for your favorite stores for mobile-exclusive sales & coupons.
Nearly every popular shopping destination has their own app for your phone. Whether it’s a clothing store, shoe store, grocery store, home improvement store or otherwise, it probably has an app. Moreover, that app probably has mobile-exclusive coupons and promotions that you should be taking advantage of.
Frequently, these apps will also send you push notifications every time there is a major sale. Since e-mail inboxes and social media can get so clogged up with all of the brands and people you follow, these little phone alerts are one of the best ways to stay up to date on sales.
Use a financial tracker to figure out where all of your money is going.
Financial apps have improved so much over the last decade. I remember learning about balancing a checkbook in grade school and wondering how on Earth people kept track of all their expenses! Now, though, all you need to do is hook up your bank account to your preferred money-tracking app, and it’s like having a built-in accountant! Once you see the areas of your life where you spend the most money, and it can be a humbling.
If you’re a coffee-everyday person, I highly suggest taking a look at how much you spend per month on whose paper cups of coffee. It changed my life! Now, by making coffee at home, I’m saving over $100 per month without sacrificing anything at all.
These apps are often optimized to help you figure out where you can curb spending, and what your next financial steps should be. If you’re managing a 401k, stock market accounts, or IRAs, these apps can turn confusion into streamlined control over your money.
Use phone apps to hide money from yourself.
Did you know that this was a thing? I’m not joking! There are apps you can put on your phone that will “round up” your purchases and deposit the extra change into a real, FDIC-backed account without you knowing. Then, when you need extra cash, you can withdraw it right into your bank account – or just leave it to grow and grow! Some of the programs have interest programs and reward programs that will allow you to actually earn extra money while you save money…!
I used to use internet bank accounts to sneak off little lump sums of cash, but now there are apps that do all of the hard work for you. In this case, the less you know about what it’s doing, the better!
Kill your phone contract & switch to MintSIM.
Cheap phone plans have always been my bread and butter. It’s been years since I’ve had a contract with a phone company that lasted longer than one month, and I thought my last program was as good as it got because I paid under $50/month for 1G of data and 300 minutes. Then I found MintSIM by Ultra Mobile.
If you’re excited, I’m here to tell you that you absolutely should be. You’re also probably wondering exactly how cheap MintSIM gets. How does $15/month sound? Because when you pay for three months, it’s only gonna be $45. That’s 2G/month of data, unlimited texts, and unlimited calls. Yeah, seriously.
Use this code to get 3 months for $45 (a special $15/mo. price):
LIFEHACK
Just enter the code when you order your first SIM card from the MintSIM website. This is a big deal because, like I said, the more months you pay for up front, the lower the price. Usually, you need to buy 12 full months of service in order to get the $15/month price, so needing only three is a huge discount!
The other special thing about MintSIM is their data plan. With my old carrier, I couldn’t go over 1G of data without paying an extra fee. Combine that with crappy service areas, and you have me hitting that limit almost every month with no control. MintSIM crunched the numbers and discovered that the average phone user uses around 5G of data every month. In order to get that much data, many people have to select “unlimited data” packages which can be super expensive.
With MintSIM, they have three data packages: 2G, 5G, and 10G per month. Extra gigs of data are available, too: $10 for 1G, $20 for 3G. It’s one of the most customizable phone plans I’ve ever seen, and control is definitely something I want to have when it comes to (what used to be) one of my biggest bills of the month.
All you need in order to get started with MintSIM is an unlocked smartphone of your choice – Android, iOS, whatever you like. Then, just pick the data plan that best fits your needs and order your pre-paid SIM card! It will automatically reload your card after your term is up, and you can change your plan at the end of any billing cycle. You can pay every month, every three months, every six months, or every year. As you might predict, the pre-paid year is the most economical, but even the monthly payment is less than half of a regular big-brand phone bill.
They send you this adorable little card with a SIM card embedded in it. No matter the size your phone requires, you can pop it right out of this card and into your phone. The way it works is actually super slick!
Basically, MintSIM makes it easy: get off of your phone plan with the binding, multi-year contract and into this simplified, ultra affordable new way of getting smartphone service. (Oh, and by the way, the MintSIM service is stronger than my old, internationally renowned carrier! #ByeFelicia)
Use Wifi for calls and texts.
This is a huge hack for people who live in areas with terrible service, like me. I used to have a major international carrier and in my not-that-small town, the service was awful. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even get text messages until the next day! Pretty much everywhere I go, there’s a wifi connection, and prior to switching over to MintSIM, I fantasized about using it instead of my crappy cellular service.
Now that I’m on MintSIM, I can opt-in to using wifi for calls and texts, as long as it’s available. That way, I don’t needlessly waste my data on a struggling connection when I could be using the internet connection that exists pretty much everywhere.
You can also download free apps that allow you to text people all over the world over wifi which can alleviate expensive international messaging fees. If you’re lucky enough to have friends all over the world, the least you can do is grab a free app to make communicating with them cheap and easy!
There’s no way that you and your phone will ever be two autonomous beings. You rely on each other, you’re best friends, and it’s time that they started pulling their own weight.
If you’ve tried any of these money-saving life hacks, tell us about your experience in the comments!