Modern technology is such a big part of my life, especially now that my social life relies mostly on mobile technology. Nowadays, I could never leave the house without a mobile phone and rarely a week passes by when I don’t surf the net. But since times are harder now, it’s wise to make my techno-related expenses lighter on the pocket. Here’s how I do it:
Subscribing to Sun Cellular. I’ve always been a Globe subscriber. I maintain a Globe postpaid line for more than a decade now, and it’s not something I intend to give up in the near future (see my earlier post on this topic). But since I’m a heavy texter, I often find myself exceeding my 500/month free SMS. Limiting my text usage means less access to my friends and risk dying of boredom! Mid of this year, a mommy encouraged me join in her Sun network. Never in my wildest dreams did I think of using a Sun sim, but the unlimited calls and text was indeed very enticing, so I bought one. The first few weeks were terrible; I always had to stay near our front door to get a good signal. But after a month, I was immensely enjoying doing text marathons with some mommy pals. Enjoying Sun-to-Sun unlimited texting with free 4 hours of Sun-to-Sun calls for a price of just P150/month, is a steal! Happily, the signal strength has significantly improved the past couple of months. To maximize my Sun sim, I registered it for my one-sim, load-all e-loading business. Soon, my hubby and my best friend also joined in the foray. With two of my “lifelines” already in my Sun network, I found myself using my Sun sim more than my Globe account. Now, I don’t worry much about exceeding my Globe G-Text limits every month.
YM-on-the-Go. Who’s not addicted to chatting over YM? Chatting compensates for my lack of social life nowadays; I get to reconnect with relatives and friends in and out of the country even without leaving the house. However, since I spend only a few hours a week going online, I get so bitin when I use YM using a PC. When I found out that Sun Cellular offered unlimited IM services via mobile phones (it works similar to sending and receiving SMS), I wasted no time and tried its service. P20 for whole day unlimited chatting isn’t bad, but the weak signal in our house can be a nuisance. So I got thrilled when I learned that Smart and Globe was offering their own IM services to their subscribers. Smart was first to launch Uzzap and Globe followed suit with its Unlichat; both are offering free trial of the service for the time being. Initially, the Unlichat service had very few compatible phones so I downloaded the Uzzap application instead. But since I’m not really a Smart user, I got to use the service for less than 5 times (but I can say the Uzzap app works better than its Globe counterpart). After knowing that my mobile phone was already compatible with Unlichat, I immediately downloaded the app and voila! I’m logged on to YM almost 24/7! Unlichat’s free trial has been extended twice already and I’m not about to complain. I love freebies!
Prepaid Wireless Broadband. To this day, I’ve managed to resist the temptation of signing up for a wired broadband connection. But since my dial-up connection has been severely testing my patience the past couple of months, I finally bought a Smartbro prepaid kit for my broadband needs. The price of the modem is still hefty at P2.5K (bought the unit while they had a 2-day promo; original price at that time was at P3.8K, but they dropped it again to P2.5k as of this writing). I figured it was better to pay such amount than to subscribe to a wired one and get stuck with a one-year (2 years for some) lock-in period and be forced to pay additional P600 or more every month for a broadband connection that I may not be able to maximize considering my very limited hours for surfing the net. Though I have more to rant than to rave about Smartbro’s performance, it nevertheless satisfy my need to get a faster connection for uploading and downloading files, something I don’t always have to do anyway. I’m planning to get the Globe Visibility version since my hubby often bring the Smartbro modem to work and I’m hoping that Globe Visibility will finally make my netsurfing a breeze.
Buying 2nd-hand items. I’m a gadget enthusiast, so it’s not surprising that a big chunk of my savings goes to my gadget luhos. But I’m well aware that investing on expensive gadgets that easily depreciate is not a smart move, so I try to find ways to reduce the costs while still able to get the gadget that I want. Two of my heavily-used gadgets, my digital camera and my mobile phone, are both 2nd-hand items (2 months old and below at the time of purchase) which I was able to buy at a reasonable price over at eBay. I now use a Nokia smartphone and it cost me just under P9K when it’s being sold at the black market for more than P12k! Pretty cool, huh?
