Free

Wally came up with a good idea for me a few days ago, and I (like to) think that if I weren't already so stressed out, I might have figured this out for myself eventually.

But one of my lingering money problems has now eased. I took out a cell phone account for him in early '07, but within 8 months he had lost the phone and switched over to Doug's account. Before he could do that, he ran up an enormous bill for the month, for which I was stuck. Not being able to afford the outlay to cancel his 2-year contract, I just slogged along, paying the damn thing month by month and being quite vexed by the situation.

Wally (probably by way of Doug, but my willingness to give credit extends only as far as Wally) suggested that, since my number, unlike his, was not under a contract, I could just cancel it and transfer my number to the one he was using. Doing this was only as complicated as a brief phone call to the provider and a quick trip to the local brick & mortar to have them switch out the SIM card. I now have a few added bonuses: More minutes, unlimited text messaging (like I really need that) and a phone number with a local area code. There are a few people from our former city who liked calling me on the cell because it wasn't long-distance, but they are simply going to have to suffer :)

I've also been enjoying a bank balance that's (barely) sufficient for me to start putting money back into savings again, something I haven't been able to do for a very long time. So things are looking up.

There's also some "stuff" brewing with Doug, but that's for another post.