Data Plans

How much data does one really need? I was on an unlimited plan with a major carrier and paying quite a bit. I switched down from 100 to 60, then 60 to 55. I know I can do better but part of that cost is subsidizing the cost of a phone over 2 years (it's a good deal, a Google Pixel for 240, but that's a topic for another post!) Anyhow, that's 45 saved each month or 540 dollars per year! Not too shabby!

But using less data became sort of a fun game for me. Could I go from a 5 GB/month to 2 GB/month? This is 2018 after all, 2 GB/month really? So my carrier has a an app with a widget on my home screen, makes it very easy to track data usage. So I just keep an eye on it and stay low. If I go over 2GB it become 128kbps which is sloooow in 2018. The other cool thing is that the data I didn't use on the 5 GB/mo plan actually rolled over into my current 2 GB plan so I have more data rolled over and I can try to protect it as long as possible.

Update 5/20/18: Apparently this is not possible anymore on my plan. I can't carry forward data forever, it goes away after 1 month

As long as I don't have to tolerate it for more than a day or 2, I can deal with it. I listen to way more podcasts too rather than just streaming YouTube for the news on the way home. I never download podcasts on mobile, and I also installed an app called Datally. My estimated mobile data savings from Datally was 37%. Datally is a new Android app by Google that saves you mobile data. Download the app at https://goo.gl/ATt6gU

Ok, clearly that was a copy and paste, however now you have the link. It allowed me to essentially lock apps from using data. I know Android settings has a data saver mode, however this is much easier, and it draws on the screen over the app you're using with it telling you how much data your app is using in real time. You can lock them right then, or unlock them if you want to allow data through.