my current plan, which i have had now for as long as i’ve had a cell phone is a super basic plan. i get plenty of anytime minutes, free nights and weekends starting at 7pm, and, of course, free long distance. what this plan does not include is a data plan or text messaging.

for EVERY text message i receive or send, i am charged 20 cents. for every kilobyte of data i incur, i am charged 3 cents. now, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, except…to check email, IM, and browse the web, who knows how much data is being sent? it just seems like it’s going to get expensive fast.

the thing is that sprint’s cheapest text messaging plan is $5 for 300 texts. the big question now is, will i send/receive more than 25 texts in a month? that’s the $5 question.

as for the data plan, the cheapest all you can eat data plan from sprint is $15. so, will i regularly download more than 500kB in a month? that seems like a pretty easy goal to meet. the thing is that i never use a data plan right now. will i use one if i get a new phone? will i use one if i get a smart phone? these are the questions to ponder.

i’ve had my current phone now for about 3 years. i think it’s about time to upgrade. it’s served its purpose and i want something that will make it worthwhile to text and browse the web. i want a cool phone. it seems like the iphone is the cool choice to get, but i’m trying to figure out the total cost of ownership here. with $70/mo recurring charges, that’s a pretty expensive phone.

i guess i could always just upgrade my current phone and stick with the plan that i have. *sigh* decisions, decisions.

now that i see all of these charges on my bill, the other big question is, “was that text that i got REALLY worth the 20 cents it costs me?” or better yet, “is it really worth 20 cents for me to reply??”

sigh, it’s bankruptcy for me, 20 cents at a time.