I’ll probably not be able to post too much useful stuff this week because I spent the better part of the week recovering from the Mom incident and, consequently, found myself seriously lacking in inspiration regarding my DIY LA guide.
But I have been meaning to talk about managing budgets because it’s a skill you’ll have to learn sooner or later if you plan on staying any length of time in this very expensive city.
I spoke about rent and transportation in previous posts. And I’ll talk about groceries soon. But it is amazing how much money people will waste on the fine art of communication. In other words, phone and Internet bills. And trust me, it’s not worth it. Time was when you had to buy expensive calling cards to call your home country and chewed your nails counting each precious second that you were on the phone with your family. But things have truly changed. In the current scenario, it’s practically impossible to go wrong with phone and Internet connections. But in case you are still wondering, here are a few pointers. As usual, I learned things the hard way. But thankfully, I hadn’t spent a fortune that I didn’t have anyway.
#1: Companies like Tracphone lure you in with promises of free phones if you buy the phone minutes. It’s a scam. I spent about $100 getting a Tracphone connection, when I didn’t know any better, because I thought I needed a US-configured phone. Turns out that is not the case. After I wasted money on a very ordinary handset and a Tracphone connection that charged me minutes for incoming calls – and my phone minutes disappeared in two-and-a-half days when I hadn’t really talked or listened that much – I discovered the world of free calls to at least 60 countries. It had seemed too good to be true and I had been a suspicious convert.
#2: Get connections like Lycamobile or Ultramobile (and I am not getting paid to mention them here). If you have a dual-SIM phone from your home country, you can simply get a new SIM and get started. All of this may sound pretty lame to a super tech-savvy and super-informed person. But I’m talking about people like me who had to start from scratch when they first got here.
#3: It’s probably not a good idea to get into expensive long-term contracts with companies like T-Mobile, Verizon or Spectrum if you just got here. A pre-paid connection with monthly refills ranging from as little as $21 to anything higher would probably suit your requirements just fine.
#4: and there’s good ole’ WhatsApp, of course. Although it may not be useful for local communication – you still need a local phone connection for that – it’s a God-sent for communicating with home in the early days when you’re still working out your 'communication' strategies.
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