My Dad has been paying for my cell phone through his plan, he's been doing it for me and my brother for years. And it was never that we could never afford our own, my Dad is the type of guy that he wanted to get us these phones so we could stay in touch - my brother and I never approached him about it.

But as of Oct 1st, I need to start paying for my own phone because of the situation with my Dad.

And in that process, I wanted to get a different phone cause there were features that my dinosaur blackberry (I have the old models) didn't have. We also have a Mac so having an iphone would make it easier for me to sync everything. But when my phone was free, I wasn't going to complain about what I got.

I wanted the 3GS and after talking to my DH, he was unhappy with the idea - that if I got one at all, it'd need to be a refurb cause thats what he got. But he couldn't talk long.

So then I talked to my best friend and told her the full dilemma. She's probably one person I can go to w/o feeling judged & she can tell me "NO don't buy it" and I will probably take the info from her to heart cause she knows my goals and wants to see me stay on track.

Talking to her, we came up with a plan to exchange my Kindle cover that I bought for a cheaper one... which saved $15, we agreed on the iphone REFURB (not the newest model), and her husband would give me his extra Clarifi case (I asked her if I could buy a case and told her that was the case I wanted, and thats when she said her husband had that case just sitting on his desk as a paperweight since he bought the 3GS). And to help offset all this, we would cancel our extra cable box we have.

Her and I even went over pricing my plan together to see if there was a difference between my blackberry's monthly fee & the iphone.

She did tell me she'd be extra proud of me if I got rid of the Kindle, but wasn't going to hold her breath either. I don't know if I'll be able to, I really wanted it and the space factor was huge for me but she told me you could read books from the Kindle on the iPhone.

I'm just really grateful to have a friend like her because without calling her, I'm sure I would have bought the 3GS and kept the more expensive cover for the Kindle & not canceled the extra cable box.

I told her, with where I am in life right now, I need someone to report to... I feel like I'm an emotional spender & since I handle the finances, that when I'm unhappy I can rationalize anything I want. So I need someone to call to help make sure I don't fall too much off to the wayside. And I'm just glad that I have her.