Tag: money

December 2024 Goal Progress (New Mobile Phone

I finally caught up with my savings shortfalls of the previous months. My guess is that there’s increased demand for consumer opinions around Christmas and Boxing Day since it’s the major time people do their shopping. Though I can’t complain since it translates into more money for me.

Microsoft Rewards / Scavenging & Canning

Microsoft was kind enough to cut the benefits of Microsoft Rewards by about 50% in mid-December. Whether this will be a permanent change or one that is rolled back is anyone’s guess. As a rule of thumb no rewards program ever gets better over time and this one is turning out to be no different. Despite this change I earned $15 once again in December that was put into Amazon gift cards. The difference however is that I liquidated the Amazon gift card balance on various orders and put that money into cash. I will reiterate that I dislike having any gift card balances but especially Amazon because in my experience they can arbitrarily decide to apply it to an order (despite you indicating you don’t want to use it). That and the fact your money is trapped in a walled garden and they can decide to ban your account at any time and for any reason thereby forfeiting the money.

With that in mind I turned the gift card balances into cash and combined it with the money I had earned scavenging/canning. I didn’t earn any money this way in December since the only people drinking outside during Winter are the homeless and they are less than forthcoming with their empties. That leaves me with $51 in cash sitting in my repurposed (but also scavenged) Classico Spaghetti sauce jar.

As an added bonus the cash smells faintly saucy now too!

Swagbucks/Leger Opinion

I ended up making $107 this month by doing surveys. Swagbucks was as consistent as ever but the other survey website I have been using – Leger Opinion did finally pay off for me though. I netted $30 alone that way this month whereas I had earned nothing the previous two.

Summary

Between all the work I ended up making $122 in December which is my best month yet. I’m about 70% of the way to my goal but I expect since the holiday season is now over, January will be rather bleak on the survey front.

Not all is rosy though. A big problem that I’ve been slowly coming to terms with is that I don’t think $400 will be enough to buy a Google Pixel 8a. I was overly optimistic when I started saving in October and thought by March 2025 the phone would have dropped in price to those levels. It hasn’t however and didn’t even brush against those levels on Black Friday or Boxing Day. My best guess is that it will reach that threshold sometime in the summer 2025 when Google announce the Pixel 10. Which means I have to really think about alternative choices of phone. I can say confidently that I know much more than I did when I started saving but I have also grown quite weary about the whole process – both learning and earning. I basically just want this thing to be over with so I can move on to other things.

Goal: New Mobile Phone

As I wrote in my previous post I need to acquire a new mobile phone by the end of March 2025. I have known about this problem since early October so have been saving what I can since then.

The problem is that I’m broke. What money is not going to just living is going towards my debt. First servicing the interest on the debt each month and then using whatever money that is left over to pay down the principal (if any!). There is simply no money left to save for a phone at the end of the month.

I would get another job but it’s not feasible given the constraints of my life. Since that is not an option I have had to get creative with my finances.

I’ve resorted to the domain of so called “Beer Money”. Doing menial tasks for bits of money with the time I have spare. Programs like Microsoft Rewards, Swagbucks, Cash back sites etc. It’s often pennies but it adds up. I’m not stupid so I know my time is worth more in theory but in practice this does not translate to real world results for me. When you’re poor pride can be a dangerous thing to cling on to if you expect something to change.

Now for the specifics:
Goal: New mobile Phone ($400 saved)
Start Date: October 01, 2024
End Date: March 31, 2025

Best Case Scenario:

  • A phone with 4-5 years of support in regards to security and Android updates so I can use it a long time without having to replace it.
  • A phone powerful enough to replace my aged Lenovo Smart Tab P10 that is reaching it’s end of life.
  • A phone with a good enough camera to replace my point and shoot Fujifilm Finepix AX600 that I’ve been using for Ebay ($15 thrift store find FTW).
  • 5G capability so it’s futureproof and I don’t have to do this whole scenario again so quickly.

With this criteria in mind I was thinking of targeting models like the Google Pixel 8 or Samsung A35/S24. Ideally it would be a new phone as I’ve seen how some people treat their phones over the years but I’m not totally against buying refurbished as long as it has a warranty attached to it.

Worst Case Scenario

  • A phone with 5G capability

I would have to settle for an inexpensive model like the Motorola G play 2024. Unfortunately if this does occur I will still be left with the problems of an aging Tablet/Camera that need replacing. Not to mention a cheaper model phone will not get extended support with new versions of android or basic security support beyond say 2025. As far as I know no manufacturers besides Apple, Samsung or Google have committed to 5-7 years of Long Term support.

As an end note I suppose I should discuss the option of leasing a phone. Before October of this year I thought leasing was for cars or office computers. Apparently leasing is a very common practice in the mobile space that I’ve been completely ignorant of.

Basically leasing boils down to paying for a more expensive contact per month over a certain period of time (2 years is the most common). The mobile carrier will subsidize the cost of the phone. You either pay a fee in addition to your plan cost each month, pay nothing each month or pay a fee/prepayment combined with either of these options. At the end of the contract you either return the phone, pay a “Bring It Back” fee to keep the phone or in some cases just keep the phone outright paying taxes on the original retail price of it.

Unsurprisingly it has been complicated for someone like me who is unfamiliar with the process. I’ve slowly been learning the terminology and what these contacts usually entail. I read online that it is common for people to do this practice to have the latest phones trading them in every 1-2 years for updated models. In some cases some people can wind up with very favorable transactions coupled with promotions like Black Friday or carrier loyalty offers than substantially lower their cost per month below what would otherwise be offered to the general public.

In my case a BYOD (Bring your own device) plan will cost between $20-25 a month in addition to the upfront cost of the phone for what I need. That will be the basis I use to evaluate buying outright vs. leasing. Overall I’m skeptical I’ll go the leasing route however as there are pitfalls you can fall into and from looking I’ve not found anything cheaper than what I’m saving for anyway.