I need a new cell phone. My phone is an Apple 10. I am trying so hard to limp my cell phone along until we can get out of credit card debt. Some days, my phone works fine and there are no issues. Other days, it freezes for minutes at a time and no matter how many times I click on an app, nothing happens.

I don’t upgrade my phones very often. I try to use them until they die. The phone before my 10 was an iphone 4. I don’t’ want to use my (already small) emergency fund for a phone. I also don’t want to slow our debt payoff to fund a phone. Lastly, I DON’T want to go into more debt by trading in my phone and then adding the payment to my phone bill for two years.

When my phone is working well, I think “I might be able to sneak by with this phone for another 12-18 months. But when my phone is glitching, I think I can’t get by with another 12-18 minutes! In all honestly, my phone works way more often than it doesn’t, but it does glitch a couple of times a week. The glitches are usually less than 5 minutes long, but they are still so frustrating!

Lately, however, I haven’t been getting text or call notifications. My phone doesn’t go off. I see the notification on the screen afterwards, but I am missing texts and calls. This is proving to be more problematic than an app not opening.

In my opinion, phones are so expensive. I don’t understand people who upgrade every time a new phone is released. My brother-in-law does that. EVERY TIME.  He upgrades for himself and his two teenaged children. I just don’t understand it. It is so expensive to get a new phone, plus you have to learn all the new nuances and work out all the kinks. The hassle and cost just aren’t worth it to me.

I am so hoping I can make this phone work for another year or so. Once our credit card debt is paid off, we will be able to buy me a new phone outright within a month or two. Then we will be able to get serious about saving. But… one step at a time. First we just need to keep plugging away at our debt!