The Frugal Retiree and Her Lifestyle Upgrade

So, yesterday the gals group went to one of those pottery painting places where half of us painted pottery and half of us did glass fusing projects. We had so much fun that some of us are going to go do it again next Tuesday-this seems to be the best "crafty thing with an end result" that we have done since the group started. Afterwards of course we had to go to lunch....becase...lunch. Hopefully next Tuesday I'll have a photo of my finished project.

I am a phone geek. Mind you, when it comes to tech in general I am not the most knowledgeable.  I own neither a laptop nor a desktop and manage life with a tablet large that has a really good keyboard. While I have a couple smart devices in general I am  not really interested in having a smart home or car as such. And the smart devices I have now I use mainly for music and for asking the time instead of all the other things they say that they can be used for.

But I love my phone. I need my phone. My phone is everything. It is my calendar. It is my record of prescriptions. For exercise it is my daily diary. It carries my photo storage (via Amazon photos and the app. I only do online banking and only through my phone (USAA doesn't actually have real branches). My finance tracker is on my phone (Personal Capital rather than Quicken). I stream music and pod casts and videos through my phone when I exercise. My car car insurance card is on my phone as well of pictures of all my documents in a secure folder. I have apps for places like starbucks and so on to get rewards and it's where I store all of my digital coupons. I even have a wallet section where I type in my gift cards and debit credit cards so that I can use a pay app.

I am NOT one of those people who uses their phone all the time. Were we in a restaurant I would ignore the thing, The same at many social engagements, in class or other times. BUT my phone is my lifeline. I don't carry a purse. Or a notebook. Or a calendar. Or a checkbook. Or a picture of a pattern I want to make. I can, (and generally do) leave my home license, and a ssingle card and my phone (my insurance cards are documented in my phone and I keep wipes, perfume, chapstick and hand lotion in my car).

I especially love my phone camera, although as all you readers can attest, I could use some help on the picture front (and am taking online classes to help with that). I just dont have the patience to either use or carry a "real" camera-even a portable one)

Which leads me, friends, to what I did on Monday in the midst of 99 degree weather instead of going to an outdoor barbecue. I stayed home with the dogs, I did some sewing. And yes, I also went out and upgraded myself to the latest, greatest, most up to date Samsung smart phone.  Understand, if you will, that the previous phone was the next to newest Samsung smart phone. That's right, after two years I upgraded from the Samsung 9+ to the Samsung 10+ (I will never own an IPhone for more reasons that I can say, but among them is the fact that 128G is standard on a Samsung).

The bad news?  Now that said phone is paid off, the monthly cost will not be lowered by forty dollars (my base for phone payoff and service is fifty dollars and I pay for data as I use it). The good news, is that the the bill will stay what it was before. So while I would have saived that extra thirty five dollars a month when the phone was paid off, I have not increased my monthly phone payment in any way. And I can live with that.

I am not in general someone who has to have the most recent or mot popular or most up to date thing. I prefer classics in most areas-clothing, music, home dec and so on. And I am willing to settle for second hand and clearance on every level, if it is quality. While I pay attention as a blogger and shopper to what is in and new, I do not always need to have it, do it, or try it (Although post wedding, I may be asking my pedicurist for the new "skittles" style with each foot have different colors on each toe). But there are some areas I am a sucker for the new and the best and Frugal Retiree or no, this is one of those areas. What can I say, I am what I am.

So tomorrow I'll be spending time updating my phone apps, playing with the new size, and yes, very possibly taking really, really poor pictures with the five different cameras now in my phone!