Monthly Musings: Week 21

Here is this week’s spending report.

Week 21 Spending
Groceries /Food	$41
Clothing	$51
Toiletries	$5
Gifts	$9
Basketball fee	$5
Total	$111

Lots of graduation and wedding invitations are arriving in the mail, so I need to decide how we’re going to handle them. How do you determine to whom you send a graduation gift? Is a thoughtful card enough? If we send a gift card, what is the correct amount to send? Is it appropriate to send a charitable donation in honor of the couple or graduate? These are dilemmas I face each year. I would love to hear from you on how you handle this.

My phone is dying, and I’ll need to replace it very soon. Currently we have 5 lines of basic phones for $150 a month. Three of the phones are out of contract, and all 5 are eligible to upgrade. I could buy a phone on E-Bay and keep our current plan. Our kiddos that are on the plan really want smart phones, and they are willing to pay $40 each for them. (We pay for basic cell phones for them as long as they are in school.) To change any of the phones, we have to switch to a new plan since ours is no longer available.

So far, the best deal I’ve found for Smart Phones is for $65 per line with 2 GB data each. This is with a 2-year contract that includes the phones (iPhone 5c 32 GB). We are limited to Verizon or Straight Talk because of sketchy cellular service in our area. Straight talk is $50 per month, but you have to provide your own phone. $15/month for 24 months is $360. Can we get good smart phones for less than $360? The iPhone 5c 32 GB retails for $699 and the best price I found for an unlocked one on E-bay is $419. Please jump in here with your input. I know ours isn’t the only family trying to make sense of this.

Summer is almost upon us. Esther is playing summer basketball through the end of June. Piano lessons are done for the year. I usually use the budgeted piano money from summer to have any repairs or tuning done and to buy new lesson books for next year. Hopefully we’ll be able to take a trip over the summer, although I doubt we’ll be camping. Wondering why? Just take a look at my Mother’s Day Fail post from last week.