How are you dealing with the increase in the $$ cell phone providers want

[sherryinutah]

I just have a basic cell phone and it costs me almost nothing.  I like keeping my life simple and being able to manage financially.

I guess I really am fortunate.  

[Notalwayshere]

I'm in the same boat as the original poster. If my parents made me pay my portion of the bill I would be up a creek. Someone asked how you can have a job and not afford a cell? Well, for me, its because I have a mortgage and car payment. Both of my parents are medically disabled and we all live together so I can keep a closer eye on them. I pay mortgage and part of the food costs, they split the rest up. Ends up to being about $1000 a month for me and around $400 a month for them. Sure, we could split the costs more equally but I make more than them so it wouldn't be right. This lets us all be in charge of a specific bill instead of money passing hands constantly. So no, I couldn't pay my own cell phone bill, nor could I pay my own car insurance. They do that for me because I pay for the house we live in, our cable, and a few other things.

Thankfully, we've had our shared plan from back before Alltel merged with Verizon. As long as we don't change our plan any we have a set rate of around $160 a month for three cell phones and unlimited data for my iPhone. It would only be about $10 less per month if we each went with prepaid but since we live in a rural area, prepaid phones don't get reception. Heck, even verizon doesn't get service in parts of our house and we have to step outside to make a phone call.