First of all I have to apologize. This Children’s Ministry blog has been a little light on the Children’s Ministry stuff lately. I’ll get back to the ministry stuff soon. It’s been a busy season for me and I’ve been lucky to write any good posts lately.

Well, I’m in a bit of a quandry. I have a Cingular 8125 cell phone. I’ve had it almost two years and it’s been a great phone… my first smart phone. For almost a year I had it on a data plan. However, once I left Cross Timbers, I had to cut expenses and the $40 a month for email on my phone was the first to go. I’ve never added it back. So I’ve been using the Cingular 8125 as just a plain old cell phone. The thing I love about it is the full qwerty keyboard.

Ever since the iPhone 3G was announced, I knew I wanted one. I was really just buying my time, not in any rush. I have an iPod touch, so it helps give me most of the iPhone experience. Well, about a week ago the 8125 started to kick it. It could just be the battery, but it shuts off like the battery is dead, but then 30 minutes or so later, it comes back to life. So, it’s time to get a new phone, but I’m really not sure what to do.

Looking at the money, I don’t want to spend $30 a month on the data plan. I totally want an iPhone and will totally use it… but I don’t “need” it. I want it, but don’t need it. I can’t really justify spending an extra $360 a year for the data plan… or $720 over the life of the contract. I was hoping to lower our plan by $20 which would be motivation to do it. We have the 1400 shared minutes a month plan. We use on average 1000-1100 minutes a month. The next plan down is 700. Dang! We got rid of our land line, so it isn’t realistic to scale back. So, I’m just stuck. So it looks like I might not be going to the iPhone at this time. We’ve got some things to focus on financially though.

So, I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what I want. I’m not going to do a data plan, not worth the money right now. However, I’d prefer to have a phone with a full qwerty keyboard. Also I need to stick with ATT. So, I’m trying to figure out what I want. Maybe you can help. Here is what as caused the quandry I am in.

Facts:

  • If I go with the discount phone with ATT, I lock myself into a 2 year contract and I’m stuck with that phone for 12-18 months before I can upgrade.
  • I have a $200 allowance from work to upgrade my phone that I can use every 2 years.

So, I’d like to keep my options open. If I get a new phone with ATT by signing a new contract, I’m stuck with it for a year or more. I can buy a used phone off ebay or craigslist with some of my allowance, but then I won’t have access to that allowance again for 2 years. So what do I do? I’ve thought about getting a really cheap “bar” style phone or $30 or something so that way I still have my allowance and I’m not locked into a device. That way, if I find a way to afford the iPhone allowance or soemthing else comes along, I have options. However, if nothing changes, then I’m not taking advantage of the allowance I have or the opportunity to get a new phone by signing a contract. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

Last question and then I am done.

If I just stick to my guns and say, “no iPhone for me,” then I might go ahead and take advantage of getting a new phone. What do you know about wifi enabled phones? Can I set that sucker up to sync with exchange. That way, I will have email, calendar and such that syncs up anytime I have access to wifi. Here is my main reason. Most of these smart phones will only sync your contacts through exchange. I’ve tried to connect via usb and I can’t get access to contacts. So, I’d love to have access to all my contacts on my phone synced with outlook. Let me know if you know anything about that.

If you read all of this… bless you!