She gets it!

A couple of recent conversations has made me realize my daughter grasps the concept of being frugal and not always needing pricey things.  After getting the nice gift of the Keurig coffee maker, I was cleaning off our old little 4 cup Coffee Mate pot (we aren't big coffee drinkers) to put into the cupboard for storage. Dd wanted to make sure I was keeping it and not getting rid of it because when she goes to college in a couple of years she will need a coffee pot.  A few days later, the 2 of us are making some Keurig coffee, along with Ds's girlfriend, and GF makes a comment "ya, I told my mom I'm going to need a Keurig for my dorm room next fall".  I saw my Dd give me a "look", LOL.

Last Fall we took Dd off of my mom's family cell phone plan (she wanted to go to a single plan, since she didn't need a family plan with my dad now passed on) and Dd bought a smart phone for $100 and went on a prepaid plan with Virgin Mobile for $35 a month unlimited. I agreed to pay $15 and Dd would pay $20 (from her allowance) Well....that has not been the best deal.  Her phone spends so much time searching for a signal that her battery is dead by the middle of the day and half the time she isn't getting the texts her coach is sending during the school day regarding practice updates, etc. Ds thought it was her phone causing the problem and they went to buy her a new phone weekend before last. They came home with a $300 phone!! (Dd only had $100 and her brother paid the rest for her) I was none to pleased about them spending $300 on a phone.  But the phone also ended up running the battery down in less than a day, just like her first phone. In short, Virgin Mobile is not a good plan in our area.  They returned the phone and got their money back the next evening.

Dd spent the evening being pissy because she wanted an iPhone like her brother has. I told her he has an iPhone because he has a job and because he was able to get on his GF family plan for $45 a month. The next day the 2 came to me and said they had figured out a new plan that I would be pleased with. They would put Dd on a T-Mobile (like I am on) prepaid plan that is $30/month with only 100 min talk (she rarely uses talk) and unlimited text/data. She would just buy a cheap phone to use for awhile and later get a smart phone (maybe even an iPhone) that she could just swap her sim card into. So, we went to Walmart and bought a $50 phone and a $30 card and so far so good. (though it was a MAJOR hassle getting T-mobile to port her phone # over so she could keep her same #).  Battery has lasted all week so far and she gets good service at school and she is saving $5 bucks a month.  I'm glad they came to their senses about the $300 phone without me having to throw a fit about. it.