This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Walmart Family Mobile. All opinions are mine alone. #Save4Summer #CollectiveBias
I’m not sure when it happened, but it seems that my cousin Renee and I have been attached at the hip for as long as I can remember. This is hilarious for several reasons. She’s not blood related to me, and I’ve only known her a little over 15 years now. I know that 15 years seems like a long time, but the fact that I REALLY only got close to her in the last decade or so is epic. Except it’s not. For me, I think it’s the fact that in a way, she reminds me so much of who my sister was. Supremely stylish, and a LOVER of organization. She also loves a great trip during summer vacations like I do, and she’s always one of the first people who I can call to do an impromptu hangout with the houseful of littles and me. One thing that we do agree on is the fact that summer vacation CAN NOT BE EXPENSIVE! We’re always looking for ways to save while doing the things that we love, along with keeping our children involved. Our phone plans from Walmart Family Mobile help us do just that, and they keep us connected while we plan all of our girlie things that we try to do throughout the year. We even scored MORE savings because the ZTE ZMax is marked down to $149.99 from $179.99. Each month, we only pay $29.88/month for the first line, which includes Unlimited Talk, Text & Data service plan which includes up to 1G of 4G LTE data. Great deal for moms and families on the go. ESPECIALLY during summer break for the children. It’s crucial that we have ways to look up budget friendly things to do on the fly, because that’s what summer is all about, right? Those experiences and those memories.
Disclaimer: All prices for phones and plans included in this post are accurate as of the date of posting; however, these prices are subject to change. Please refer to http://cbi.as/ax84 or your local Walmart for current pricing.
Renee happens to be one of the very first people who I persuaded to switch over to the Walmart Family Mobile plan, and she LOVES it! Loves it so much that when her poor ZTE Zmax met an early demise with a bowl of fruit juice, I felt her pain. She uses her phone for quite a bit. Calendar keeping – she has children in two different schools and each of her daughters has at least one after school activity throughout the school year. Not only that, they are in activities and whatnot, and it sometimes makes ME dizzy. Me. The mom that other folks say is always on the move. It’s what I really appreciate about her. While it may make us super tired, knowing that our kids will HOPEFULLY be able to say how awesome their summers off from school were, whether it’s because we spent long afternoons at the zoo, or decided that one time to take an impromptu cruise on Lake Michigan, they’ll have those memories. Or, you know, they could get ready to go ziplining, and have their mom there to capture it too.
The BEST thing overall is the voraciousness for saving money that Renee has. She can find a deal in a hot minute, and usually I reap the benefits. If it’s on Groupon, she knows it. If it’s in a store, she sends a picture. Oftentimes, we are in different areas of the city, and we’ll text each other photos of things that we know the other has been looking for. Being able to do that without having to wait until getting home to call is pertinent to how this works. We need a reliable service, and Walmart Family Mobile does that. Now, getting back to her phone. She had the ZTE ZMax. It died. Sorta. She was still able to make phone calls on it, but had to keep the phone always in her line of sight so she could SEE it light up when it rang. She didn’t get notifications anymore, and the camera stopped working. THIS WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE! So when I found out that I had the chance to gift someone with the ZTE ZMax, I knew she had to be the person. She helped Mr. Houseful out one day while I was in Malawi (he twisted his ankle for a SECOND time) so that he could work from home in peace, and she’s always down for coming through my ‘hood for an interior decorating tete a tete. Even though she married into our family, she’s as good as blood.
Now, with her new phone, she’ll be able to hang out in IKEA, or Marshall’s or HomeGoods (our personal favorite) and send me photos of things that I MUST HAVE! I can do the same. For instance, she was able to snag a set of Le Creuset salt and pepper shakers, while I was able to snag some mason jar salt & pepper shakers. You see how this works? WE NEED OUR PHONES! Not paying a lot for the service is key as well, otherwise, important acquirements won’t happen for our homes. Honestly, how else are you supposed to get your point across without texted photos? The switch for her was seamless as she was already and existing Walmart Family Mobile customer, and I WISH that I could have caught the squeal of delight as she HEARD her phone start giving notifications on startup.
We pin from our phones, we Instagram from our phones, and we call from our phones. Did I mention she actually likes talking? On the actual phone?! That’s true blue friendship, yo! How do you and your family save for the summer? Give me your BEST tip for keeping the cost of summer fun down! I may need them.