Downgrade your phone to a limited data plan
Your phone is probably on an unlimited data plan. Which is great if you want to watch AI slop while you walk into traffic, but bad if you have any aspirations whatsoever.
If you're like me, wasting your entire life scrolling through endless reams of contextless bullshit isn't reason enough to make you stop doing it. What you need instead is a small financial incentive.
Downgrading your phone to a limited data plan saves you money and forces you to be more mindful of your phone use while you're out and about.
I've reduced my data plan to 5gb a month. If I go over 5gb I'll be forced to purchase additional data. This threat has had a prfound effect on my day to day. I read a book, I interacted with another person, I even saw a tree — and you could too!
Even if you choose not to downgrade your data plan, you can still benefit from using less data.
Using less data…
- Improves your phone's battery life.
- Increases the lifespan of your phone.1
- Saves you a tiny amount in energy bills. Perhaps
$0.13a year!2 - Sends less data to advertisers. This improves your privacy and reduces the efficacy of targeted ads, significatntly decreasing your chances of buying a novelty shower curtain.
How much money can you save?
Changing from an unlimited plan to 5gb saves me £20 a month, or £240 a year.
If you put that £20 into a 3.25% APR savings account that compounds daily. You'll end up with an $244.29 after 1 year and $1303.07 after 5 years. According to the Practical Betterments compound interest calculator.
In the USA unlimited plans are cheaper than in the UK. You're more likely to save around $10 a month, or $120 a year.
If you are going to try and save money on your phone bill you should switch to an MVNO while you're at it.
Some tips for saving data
In rough order of the amount of data you can save, here's some data saving tips…
- Disable mobile data for data intensive apps. Particularly short-form video apps like instagram or TikTok
- Set podcasts to download on WiFi only.
- Install a content blocker (ad blocker) – see previous practical betterment on content blockers.
- Setup an DNS content blocker. This blocks ads and trackers within apps and games too – see previous practical betterment.
- Pre-download all of Wikipedia - see previous practical betterment.
- Enable low data mode3
- Switch off autoplaying videos. Many apps have this setting.
- Switch off background activity – see previous practical betterment.
- Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters – see previous practical betterment