Budgeting CellPhone Data

In these days and times, budgeting, even though we might hate to do it, has to be done to keep your head above water unless you have a rich uncle that just got out of the poorhouse or you're rollin' in dough.  I have everything budgeted as far as bills and such and would choke a dollar bill to death!

However, this year I decided I would get myself a new I-phone and either trade-in or give my Apple 5-S to my granddaughter who as a teen wants to be like everybody else (a whole other post).  My choice?  the Samsung 6 Edge with 32 GB and I got it for a decent price.  I bought it straight out and put myself on a monthly budget plan for 40 bucks, that's it. Daughter-in-law says she rather fight than switch, was never an Apple user ....  but the vote is still out on that one for me.  I do miss being able to voice Siri to call "Sister" while in motion or not.  Maybe Samsung has a comparable app for that.  I'll have to hit up the ever popular Android guy!

So...Bloggers are you an Android or Apple user?

Apple or Samsung?

I was pretty lost when I first got this phone on all its features, which are a lot, and I wanted to ensure that I was keeping within my boundaries as far as data.  The teen always runs over her data in 3 to 5 days (luckily she is not on my phone plan) but is set at a limit on somebody else's plan.  She is allotted a certain data amount and when she runs out, she is restricted to wifi use only.

Apps can certainly burn up your data and quickly, but I find that Pokemon Go doesn't burn as much as some other apps and one would have thought it would.  Yes I play a little, not too much, and usually with the kiddo teen.  About 7 years ago my teen (who is now 24) broke my bank account every payday with overcharges, I'm talking a hundred or more, it was nuts, back then you couldn't even cut them off at a certain point, ugh!  Anyhoo in case yuns didn't know you too can restrict data by turning off apps that run in the background and whether you open them or not, some of these apps (chat, messaging, email) are still burning your data, A lot of people think that if the app is not open they are not using data -- this is not true necessarily, folks!  If you're using wifi mostly and are wondering where all your 'data' goes well consider looking here.

On my phone I go to >>Settings>>Data Usage>>scroll down to By Application where it lists all the Apps I have downloaded and most of which run in the background unnoticed.  You would then go down your list tap each one and turn on "Restrict background data"  ... and believe me this has cut down on the data, in fact I hardly used any data the last two cycles.   Well, I hope this helps if anybody is interested in knowing how to save a little cash on an otherwise not unlimited plan!