There are times, specifically towards the end of a billing cycle, when unemployed people around the world are just universally impossible to reach. No, they haven’t died, nor have they lost their phones, they’ve just stopped answering them because they’re almost out of minutes and would rather ignore a call and innocently text back going, “What’s up?” than deal with the consequence of picking up a phone call. At $0.40 or higher per minute that exceeds what’s alloted in a cell phone plan, the unemployed just can’t afford to jibber jabber with just anyone.
For many people who have just been laid off, cutting down on cell phone minutes is one of the easiest ways to reduce monthly bills. Back in the day when they had places to go and people to see it made sense to pay $100 per month to have nearly unlimited minutes to gab for hours with even their least favorite acquaintances. But the minute a job is lost, those minutes are cut down in half, or in drastic cases by two-thirds – whatever seems like the best plan to get by and not appear dead to the outside world.
When half of the minutes are spent on hold after calling the unemployment department not much is left for casual conversations. As such, most calls go straight to voicemail which is only checked on nights or weekends. It might be aggravating to never get through to someone, and then not hear back from them until five hours later when calls are free and whatever was relayed in the voicemail becomes irrelevant, but it’s nothing compared to those who actually get through. For example, if mom keeps calling and the unemployed pick up hoping for offers of money to help supplement those delightful unemployment checks, the unemployed who are skint on cell phone minutes are likely to act like an ungrateful child who has no interest in hearing about Mom’s day, or about the neighbors who are up to no good. The “Uh huh, uh huh, listen, I gotta go” is a typical sign off that is sure to grate against the nerves of well-meaning loved ones – but when they don’t get the hint and a conversation rolls over just a few seconds past the minute mark, it’s the unemployed who have to deal with watching one second round up to the next minute. And that hurts.
Tags: desperate and unemployed, rationing, stretching a dollar, unemployment shame
Copyright © 2012 Stuff Unemployed People Like All rights reserved. Amazing Grace theme by
This is TOTALLY MY LIFE right now. Freakin’ recruiters calling and blathering on and on and on.
Same here, I had to call T-mobile and ask for some bonus minutes so I could do a phone interview….
It is free to check your messages from a regular phone if you have access to one at work or at friends or a family member. I am assuming of course that you only have a cell phone for calling. I totally understand the minutes thing. Also if you can do a family share plan you get a better deal. You just have to be able to trust the person you’re in it with to pay their half. Thats what I aim to do!
If you’re unemployed, shouldn’t getting rid of your cell phone be one of the first things you do? I don’t know why unemployed people have cell phones, wide-screen tv’s, cable tv with HBO and high speed internet service.
@Sue Brown: Wow. Some of us ONLY have cell phones, and the cost is about the same as for a land-line with the right plan. And, you think if someone loses his/her job he should be required to sell his TV and cancel his internet? I’m glad you aren’t ‘the boss of me’. People like you make life even tougher for those of us facing hard times. It’s not your business HOW we spend our unemployment checks. We were the ones who worked for them, not you. It doesn’t come out of your tax dollars, much less your private pockets. We HAVE to have a phone, and having internet is almost a necessity when job-hunting. I, personally, have never had HBO or any of the ‘premium’ cable TV services, but if someone else does, then it’s not my business. I went grocery shopping with my neighbor a few weeks ago, and she happens to have food stamps, as she is a single mother of 3 children who was laid off about 6 months ago, and who’s unemployment checks won’t pay for all she needs. Anyway, she had put a single 2-liter bottle of store-brand soda (89 cents) in her cart, and when the man behind us saw her paying with her food stamp card, made a loud and obnoxious comment about HIS money paying for HER ‘indulgences’. (Her cart otherwise contained things like 3 for a dollar mac and cheese boxes, the cheapest bread, milk, etc. plus as much fresh and/or frozen fruit and veg as she could afford. She was very nearly in tears. I spoke up and told him he was an idiot, and of course he ranted on the entire time I was paying for my own stuff. The cashier finally told him to shut up. He was very disappointed to find that I was paying cash for mine, because he was watching each item I put on the counter as well, waiting to pounce. (I had 3 Hershey bars, buy 2 get one free, which I was buying for Linda’s kids as she kindly drove me to the store) Anyway. Keep your nose on your own business, not everyone else’s. Thank You.
Actually, the comment I initially MEANT to leave, before being ‘distracted’ by ‘Sue Brown’, was that, for me, a ‘Go Phone’ is the way to ‘go’. I get all the advantages of a contract, actually, with roll-over minutes, free nights and weekends, etc. My phone cost under $30, as I recall. I set up an ‘automatic’ payment plan, so that my minutes are automatically refilled and payed each month. SHOULD I need more minutes (it’s never happened once in over 2 years) I can easily order them, either on-line or over the phone. I ALWAYS have extra minutes. Oh, and, BTW, Sue, with most cell plans, all long distance calls (within the US) are only the price of the minutes, while with a land-line you will pay exorbitant long-distance charges. And, yes, many unemployed people are looking for jobs all over, even out of state. If I had occasion to call overseas, even those costs are MUCH cheaper than they would be with a land-line. I can also call from anywhere in the US for nothing extra. FURTHERMORE…when job-hunting, one always has one’s phone with them, so missing an important call is unlikely. At any rate, I just wanted to tell other unemployed that ‘pay as you go’ plans are often more cost-effective than contracts, although I got this plan before I was unemployed, as I’ve always watched my pennies. I did my homework before my old contract with Sprint ran out, and found this to be MUCH better, so didn’t renew my contract. I don’t need all the ‘bells and whistles’ on a phone anyway.
Why not just get a landline for $20.00 a month? No minutes
to worry about there, get a long distance provider that charges .03
cents a minute or less. Use 800 numbers which are free from
landlines. I do not think an unemployed person should have a cell
phone. Why, are you a Dr. or a sales person that needs the phone to
make a living. I lived 55 years of my life without one and I still
do not have one. I see people all the time with cell phone bills
$150.00, $200.00 a month or even more. That is a car
payment!
hey everybody get metropcs its $40 per month unlimited talk and text anywhere and i got my phone at their store for $10! never had a problem in 2 years.
all those buffoons talking about land-lines, it’s 2012, forget about land-lines. what good is a phone you can only use at home? what if that job you really wanted or someone else that’s important calls you while you are at the store or walking your dog? plus, the cost to install one of those things and the cost of the apparatus itself is a few of my monthly cellphone bills. very inconvenient and unreliable.
@Sue Brown, shut fuck up and mind your own business.