Making Your Smartphone Pay for Itself
There’s no way around it, smartphones are expensive! The monthly bill for our iPhones is a sobering reminder about the cost of technology. But there is hope! Here are a few of the things we do to offset the monthly expense of our iPhones.
Search for coupons everywhere.
My wife searches for discounts every time she shops. She can always find online coupons when shopping for clothes for our girls or when buying craft supplies. Most stores now accept coupons directly from smartphone screens, so the days of taking a paper coupon to the store are fading away. She will often come home and tell me she saved $5, $10 or $20 on a shopping trip just by doing a quick Google search for a coupon. She has trained me to take one minute and do a quick coupon search before I checkout. Just the weekend that saved me $8.24.
Many companies are embracing mobile advertising by publishing exclusive coupons to customers via text message. Target is one of the best in this category. Their weekly savings via text message are easily viewed and simple to use. Want to elicit savings envy? Almost every time the cashier at Target scans the QR code from my phone screen, the person in line behind me will ask, “What just happened there?” I know other stores will follow Target’s lead with this tool.
Average monthly savings estimate – $50
Price comparison / Shopping Around
I can often be found in stores scanning the bar code on a box to get a price comparison. There are tons of apps that easily facilitate in-store comparison shopping. I typically use the Amazon app and RedLaser. Both use the camera on the phone to scan the bar code for an item. Amazon will typically offer a lower price, but not always. RedLaser is a good way to find other local stores that might have the same product at a lower price.
Smartphones also make it amazingly easy to shop around while out and about. We have often sat in a store parking lot calling around to various locations to find a specific item. With the cost of gas, it is a big savings to ‘let your fingers do the walking.’
Average monthly savings estimate – $20
Craigslist
My home screen – Someone obviously doesn’t return phone calls or reply to emails.
I always have a couple of things listed on Craigslist. My iPhone is a HUGE help with getting things sold. When I first started using Craigslist (CL) I had to take photos with the digital camera, go inside to the computer and load the photos, log onto CL, write the ad, and upload the photos. Now there are any number of apps that will allow you to post ads on CL from wherever you are directly from your phone.
On the iPhone I just snap a few pics of the item to be sold, open up the app which is already logged into my CL account, write the ad and pick the photos I want to use. Posting on CL will usually take me less than 5 minutes. I typically keep photos of several unlisted items in my phone and will write ads and post them when standing in line or waiting somewhere. I recently posted 4 ads while waiting at the DMV 🙂
Smartphones also help close the deal on CL. Buyers can be very finicky and don’t like to wait. I have a separate email setup for my dealings on CL and I can quickly respond to messages from my phone. I have found that a good number of buyers will lose interest if they have to wait more than 4 hours for a response. And of course CL isn’t just about selling items, I also buy a lot of things on there as well. Good items go fast so mobile browsing let’s you stay on top of the game.
I also make a bit of money on CL by selling things for other people. Several people know I do a lot of listing on CL and ask me to sell their stuff because they don’t want to mess with it or don’t have time. I take a percentage and everyone is happy. If you use CL, you might bring it up in conversation from time to time and it might lead to a little commission work.
Profits from CL activities vary month to month but can be very good.
Bonus: Free music!
While this isn’t necessarily a money saver or maker, free music options abound for smartphones. And let me mention, the free music is completely legal and tailored to the user. Pandora, Spotify and many other options are out there that allow you to listen to the music you like. I prefer Spotify right now since you can stream entire albums and can be more selective about the artists that play. With little kids this is great because listening to the same kids CD over and over and over again can drive Daddy a little crazy…Mommy too.
Final thoughts…
These are just a few of the things that we do with our iPhones to make them pay for themselves. These apps and activities are the ones that have measurable savings or income associated with them. There are tons of other apps and activities that people use/do to make technology pay off for them. There is an emerging market of customer data apps like Shopkick that will pay you to take surveys, answer questions and check-in at stores.
I personally believe that the cost associated with our phones is well worth the productivity, efficiency and security they provide. Being able to process information and answer questions on the go is great! It is also nice to know we can offset that large monthly bill with some simple activities.
One closing thought. Do you have a passcode set for your phone? Every smartphone should be protected. If you don’t have the passcode turned on for your phone, do it now! 🙂
If you have a smartphone, how do you use it to make or save money? I’m always looking for some more great ideas. Also, if you enjoyed this post would you consider sharing it via Facebook or Twitter?
Hey John this is Steven Camp
One of the big ways our Droids save us money is Wireless Tether! We basically use the Internet we are already paying for to be our Internet on our computer, Roku (equivalent), Tablet, and TV. You see we also utilize Netflix, Verizons, NFL Mobile (for football), and other free streaming. SOOO we don’t have Cable, Dish or any other TV service. No regular TV equal Better Christian Viewing as a good perk as well. So the phone is our TV, service it is our Internet Service and our phone service all in one. (We have no regular phones) If you were to piece together all of these services together it would cost you a bundle, but by doing it this way we save ≈1500 per year. To get internet service where we are in the Country would cost us $60.00 dollars per month. (720 per year) To get basic cable it would be $45.00 dollars per month. (540 per year) For a basic nation wide home phone number it would cost us $20.00 dollars per month. (240 per year) So we save appoximately 125 dollars per month by this alone. If you put that in tandem with your previous article your smart phone will be paying you to have it!!
Now I have questions Steve 🙂 I’m guessing you’re with a carrier that has no cap on data? Do you ever notice ‘throttling’ of your data stream as you use more? I think what you’re doing sounds great! I would love to cut some of the services we use but with a 4Gb cap on our data, we would get in trouble. Great ideas and great savings for your family!
Well yes and no. We do have unlimited data with Verizon because we are grandfathered in. Soooo that may work for some but not others. As far as throttling goes….. it hasn’t been an issue. Even if you do get throttled on 4G with only one bar…. it goes down to twoMbs per second. That is easily enough to run a steaming device. Now y’all might consider giveing Tmobile a look. They are Rapidly rolling out high quality 4G. They are doing a major overhaul right now…. calling themselves the uncarrier. Unlimited talk text and data for 70 a month. You can’t hardly beat that. In fact we may make the switch.
The wireless world is definitely an interesting and ever changing competitive market place. I think you know I was once in that industry. I’m amazed at how far things have come in just 10 years.
Great article, Jon! I actually ended up making money the last time I upgraded my iPhone (from a 4 to a 5), but I’m lucky as I have an employer who pays for my cell service. I use most of the ways you talk about, but I don’t really scan bar codes anymore. I don’t know why – but it never seemed to give me any decent results when I did. Maybe the technology has improved since I last tried – you mentioned the last 10 years, but even the last 1-2 have been crazy in the speed of development!
AB
Thanks AB! I get to knock off a portion of my cell phone bill for tax purposes under the special code of taxes for ministers, but that’s not near as good as having an employer cover the cost of the phone. I read this article today (http://moneysavingmom.com/2013/04/how-im-earning-80-in-free-gift-cards-every-month.html) that deals with various apps that can earn points that can be turned into gift cards and even cash. Mobile marketing is definitely going to be the big thing for the next few years. It’s no surprise that the research firms are developing all these apps (like Shopkick and Viggle) to research customers.
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