Review of Ting

We love Ting!

Okay, that's a pretty one-sided review, but let me tell you the reasons we love Ting.

1. It's simple.
Ting doesn't make things complicated. They have zero contracts and their website is super easy to use.

2. It's cheap!
J and I spend $29 for two smart phones with Ting. No, your eyes didn't deceive you. Just $29 for the two of us. On Verizon, we were spending $90 on bare bones flip phones. Here's our Ting plan:

3. You never get put on hold.
How annoying is it when you call a customer service number and you have to go through an entire menu, only to be put on hold? More annoying than a mosquito in your bedroom at night, that's for sure. With Ting, you call and the line starts ringing and someone picks up! It's amazing! I've also had to use their online form to submit a question, and I received a helpful response within the hour.

4. It runs on the Sprint network.
This factor could be good or bad for people, depending on Sprint service in your area. For us, it's great -- we've never had any issues with service. As an added bonus, you can take almost any Sprint phone to Ting.

5. You can get inexpensive phones off eBay.
The phones on Ting's website are pretty costly (for us cheapos), so I ordered Sprint phones off eBay. J got an HTC Evo Shift for $80 and I got a Samsung Google Nexus S for $60. Both phones are contract-free! If you go this route, just be sure the phone has a clean ESN. A bad ESN will not allow you to activate the phone.

The not-so-great features of Ting: They don't have any local retail stores, so you need to do everything online. If you are bringing over a phone from Sprint, you need to do all the nerdy stuff on your own. Ting provides very helpful guides, but it can still take a few hours to get everything up and running.

Switching to Ting = Saving $60/month for us.

If you are interested in learning more about Ting, visit using my referral link and save $25 on your first month of service or a new Ting phone!

This review is in no way sponsored by Ting.

The $1,000 challenge!

Summer is creeping its way into our home and things are starting to feel stuffy. It's time to eliminate the clutter!

When things in our house start to get cluttered, I get anxious (hence why I don't like hosting family parties in our tiny home), so now is the perfect time to get rid of all this stuff!

My goal: Sell $1,000 in stuff this summer.

This will include selling on eBay, craigslist, local swap sites, our garage sale in July, etc.

So far, I've sold around $500 in stuff, so I will try to update the blog as I go and give tips for selling!

To view my ongoing tally of sold items, visit The $1,000 Challenge page.

Glider Makeover: Before and After

Gliders are an essential part of a nursery, or so I heard. For Baby Z's room, we were on a strict budget, so we had to get creative in order to add a glider to her room. Thus, a DIY glider makeover was in order.

We found this beauty, with ottoman, on Craiglist for $20, and J was kind enough to pick it up:

It  may look alright from a distance, but it was pretty stained. This is after it was washed in hot water and bleach:

Thanks to some JoAnn coupons, I was able to buy new fabric and thread for about $40 total. To keep costs down, I opted for a plain fabric on the reverse side of the cushions. 

Of course, I completely forgot to document making of the cushion covers, but this is how the final product came out:

All the cushion covers are completely removable for easy washing.

My favorite part is the little pocket on the armrest -- it's come in handy to store our tablet for late-night feedings (i.e. late-night Internet shopping) and extra pacifiers for emergencies.

For $60, I am pretty happy with how it turned out and it looks great in her room:

What sort of DIY projects did you undertake for the arrival of a new baby?

Menu for the week of 1/14/13

Monday:
Bean and whole wheat pasta salad

Tuesday:
Spinach and rice stuffed peppers

Wednesday:
Cilantro lime chicken

Thursday:
Breaded shrimp with a chickpea cilantro salad

Friday:
Popcorn chicken salad

Saturday:
Mushroom pasta

Sunday:
Leftovers