Slash Cell Phone Bills

For those who know me know I'm just slightly addicted to my Blackberry... and addicted might be a tad too loose of a term.  Pretty sure I keep better tabs on my phone than my children sometimes.  Well, we've been looking for ways to cut costs as we move our life into the living-on-student-loans-and-loving-it-mode.  One "extra" we pay for is the data plan on my BB.  Which means I get IM, Facebook, Internet, etc all from the nifty little thing in my hand.  However, it costs me an extra $20 a month which equals an extra $240 a year.  Blast.   What's a girl to do? 

Well, get excited.  For those of you who get the shakes just thinking of going without the data plan on your phone.... there is a new wonderful program called OPERA MINI that you can download (while you still have your data plan).  It somehow grabs low running network and allows you to continue to use BB messenger, all the other IM plans (yahoo, msn, aol, etc), facebook, and certain news webpages.  Yes friends.  That means you can have those plans WITHOUT paying for the data plan (or being charged for RIM access).   Plus, it forces you to be a leeeetle less connected to the internet. 

Wanna take it a step further?  Get all your friends who usually text you to download it and then you can all talk on the IM's on your phones.  You'll still be "texting" but won't be paying per text nor having to pay the extra $15 a month for the unlimited text.  Potentially, if I was able to cut out my unlimited text and data plan, I would be saving myself $35 a month = $420 a YEAR!  

I downloaded it tonight and am calling to cancel my data plan tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it all goes. 

**update** apparently I'm not super duper tech savvy. This plan will only work if your phone already has a Wifi chip. Most "smart phones" released in the last two years do, but of course mine doesn't. geeeeeez. good thing I'm getting a new phone next month eh? yay for a contract expiration!!***