Day 6 - My nice shiney new i phone

... imagine how excited I was to receive an email with an offer from o2 notifying me of an offer as I'm at the end of my contract... amazing... I thought I would just be plodding along on my 75 minute, stupid decision of a contract for ever more! So, though my contract costs just £20 a month... it is ridiculous, and I mostly spend £40. Actually, some months I am good and manage to never ever speak on my phone ... and pay them just £20 for the privildge of my own discipline. So how extremely wonderful to learn that for a little less than I normally end up paying I could upgrade to a lovely lovely i phone... one that organises my life, sychronises with my macbook and the calendars of my workmates...and stores all my favorite music and holds lots of scrummy pictures... but for some reason I just didn't click the purchase now button in the checkout in the world of o2.
Wondering what was wrong with me... a simple good offer yeah?... I posted on my facebook status "can get an iphone on my upgrade...why am I hesitating...?". 20 comments later and I am amused at the difference of response to my last facebook staus question about how much is too much for a new dress -in which the 'boy' response if any was £5 or 'what do you need a dress for you've got one already?'. This time- at the mention of an i-gadget all the boys come out of the woodwork and tell me to go for it... but a couple of friends - girls- brought up the annoying question of actually cutting back the cost I have been spending and save with a better deal. :( tough challange which I ignored for about 2 hours and nearly got my i phone and then it started to eat away at me.
Then the big kick came - a nice polite lady from Tesco's phoned to tell me my card had been declined for my shopping and I realised we must again be in 'a total mess'. Putting my bread and milk and value fruit and veg on the mastercard I realised the i phone dream had to end :(

So hello to my new plan... its not a phone yet... it will be a different model at less money every month...and I will pay for my groceries with a card with pennies on it that belong to me. I did briefly consider the challenge that I didn't really need a phone at all... but I'm not trying to be a martyr... I'm just trying to be wise about what I need and spending money on things that will enhance and aid my living without going without and without totally screwing up my finances. My friend Charlie did all the research for me, as one of the best with money friends I have and it turns out to be sensible I can still give myself a pretty good Samsung Tocco with unlimited internet, 500 minutes, unlimited texts for £25 a month from Virgin...and £30 back if I do it through quidco (oooh look that up if you don't know what it is... my friend Al told me about it last weekend and its brill). See... saving can be fun! (just don't think about the i phone)