I Cut My Phone Bill From $55 to $25 a Month With Mint Mobile

Starting small: the snowball approach to cutting costs

Have you heard of the snowball method for paying off debt? You pay off the smallest debts first, and the quick wins motivate you to keep going. I think something similar works for cutting costs. Starting small feels less daunting to me, so I'm starting with my phone bill.

What I was paying

I was paying $55 a month for T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go plan with unlimited calls and texts. While that's not outrageous, I'm committed to taking a closer look at every budget item, no matter how I initially feel about it.

Switching to Mint Mobile

After some quick googling, I found a cheaper option. I was a little worried about spotty service, but this is all an experiment, after all, so I wanted to give it a try.

I switched to Mint Mobile and paid $297.11 upfront for a year of unlimited service. That comes out to $24.76 a month.

Why an unlocked phone made switching easy

I bought my current phone unlocked from the Apple Store years ago so I wouldn't be tied to a contract and could use local SIM cards when traveling. Because of that, switching to Mint was as simple as activating a new SIM, with no carrier to get permission from first.

Has the service been worse?

Honestly, I haven't noticed a difference at all. That makes sense: Mint runs on T-Mobile's network, so I'm on the same towers I was using before, for less than half the price.

What I'm saving

Switching saves me $30.24 a month, or $362.88 a year. That one change is worth more than half of a nursing shift. Glad to have those hours back.

(No referral link here. I'm not paid for this!)