The Mrs. and I have been looking for some more money hacks lately, and we stumbled across a great one!

By combining both of our lines into one “Family Share” plan with Verizon Wireless, we’ll have maximum bang for our buck :)

I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier, but it’s all good now! All carriers work a bit differently, but the concept is pretty much the same and SUPER easy to set up – most times you can even do it over the phone (esp. if you have the same carrier)! It may not be convenient for everyone, but if your spouse/significant other has a separate account than yours, you could be missing out.

I was paying around $115/mo, or my company was actually as it’s also used for work (holler), and the Mrs. was paying around $65/mo. Now combined, however, we’ll be paying around $110 TOTAL! That’s a savings of $60 a month (or $720 a year) for only about 45 mins of work.

Here’s what we did to get hooked up:

1. We reviewed the last 3 of each of our statements online to get a good picture of exactly how many minutes, texts, pictures, web visits, etc we use. Like most people, we originally picked a plan for ourselves that we *thought* would be good, and then left it alone until the next renewal time. So we had to see how well we guestimated our uses, and figure out if we still actually NEEDED a bazillian minute plan.
2. We chose a new plan that fit into our usage. It turns out we barely call anyone outside of our network! Guess all that convincing of my friends and family to switch over paid off. Plus, we text wayyyyy more than we actually call people! haha…. how awesomely strange our generation is becoming?
3. We made a phone call and combined our plans! Well, actually we made two calls. Mrs. Budgetsaresexy had to call and give permission to have her account converted over to mine, and then I had to call and actually combine them. We ended up with a 700 min shared plan for $69.99, a $5 insurance plan, and two $10/mo text packages to cover our thumb’s addiction.

And that’s it! Pretty easy, right? I was pretty convinced it was gonna take a week or two to get it all sorted out, or at least a visit to a store to sign some paperwork – but nope. All it took was some quick online research, and a quick call or two! This may vary by having separate carriers of course, but i’m sure it’s a lot simpler than back in the day.

Oh, and the best part? None of our contract dates were extended! Sexyyyyyyyyyyyyyy time. The only difference is that now I’m held responsible for her phone line. So if i wanna skip on over to AT&T and pick up the newest iPhone (or better yet the Sidekick w/ T-Mobile!),i’ll not only be breaking my contract, but her’s as well.

But whatever, we both have under a year left on them, and since most of my friends now have Verizon, I doubt i’d switch anytime soon anways… Now if they start handing out those Sidekicks for free, then i’ll be in trouble ;)