Ugh. I am chagrined to say that we have been suckered into committing into recurring payments. After the last blog post boasting about not wanting to get involved with installment payments, my husband went out and got himself an iPhone 8.

Karma? Yeah, it likes to bite you in the ass.

Alright, I didn’t buy the phone, but hubby did and it was a lot of money.

My husband has had his phone for a long time. In fact, up until yesterday, he still had an iPhone 4s, the first one we got when we first switched to a smart phone. We got it in January of 2012 and it lasted all this time. We both got ours together and at that time I was determined to make mine last. I was going to hold out of getting a new iPhone until the iPhone 10 came out–I couldn’t. Unfortunately, in the summer of 2014, I dropped my phone into the toilet and had to get a new one because the speaker didn’t work anymore. Since then, I’ve had an iPhone 6.

All this time, hubby kept his. He is good like that. He doesn’t really use his phone much, he just uses it to send texts and make phone calls. Occasionally, he’ll check scores of his favorite sports teams. Sometimes, he’ll use the Google maps app to get directions.

That’s all he uses it for.

The reason he’s kept it all this time is that he doesn’t want to be bothered with learning how to use a new one.

But yesterday, he was meant to send a text out to his coworkers. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t go through. This caused his superior officers a lot of upset and they recommended that he get a new phone because these messages are important for work. Since his old phone was still on the old 3G network, he wasn’t able to send or get messages sent by work. He also is in an area where it’s very difficult to get cell connections.

Of course, it was pretty much an order from above so he couldn’t refuse. As soon as he came home he tells me that he needs to get a new phone. NOW.

I guess it was time to upgrade, but at the same time I knew it was going to be very expensive. I told him maybe getting something cheaper, like the 7 or perhaps another type of smart phone. He thought about the 7, but getting a new smart phone was out of the question.

We got to the Softbank store and he explained the situation to the clerk. As soon as my husband handed his old phone to the clerk, the man said, “How nostalgic,” or “Natsukashii na” in Japanese. He said that he hasn’t seen one of those in a long time.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the 7, they only had the 8 or the ten (X).

Oh gosh. I braced myself as hubby asked how much the phone would cost.

¥94, 320.

Ouch. I couldn’t help the groan that came out of my mouth. Holy shit. That is an expensive phone. It’s the same as buying a plane ticket home to New Jersey!

The clerk then explained that the price didn’t really change that much if we had opted for the iPhone 7 either. He then proceeded to explain several options. We ended up with keeping my husband’s monthly plan at about the same at ¥7,000. But, we had to commit to a two-year plan. In addition, the phone had to be paid off at 40 installment payments, which meant that it wasn’t a two-year commitment but really four years.

The man did recommend going through Y!Mobile, which would reduce the payments to half the price. My husband, hating to change the status quo, chose not to. He didn’t want to be bothered changing his email address.

As a Mustachian, this was very difficult to swallow. First, I didn’t like the idea of being tied to making these small installment payments for four years. Second, to be able to save money by going through a little bit of a hassle was always worth it. Imagine the savings and putting that money to better use. Finally, I feel like the iPhone 8 was wasted on my husband, who just really needed a phone to text and make calls. He’s not really a techie or interested in the latest flashy gadgets. He just really needed a basic phone. Instead, he got himself a super expensive toy that he wasn’t really going to use to its full capacity. It’s like buying a suped-up computer only to use it for word processing and playing solitaire. It just doesn’t make sense in my mind.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper on the way home.

But, I guess since hubby hadn’t really gotten a new phone in a long time, it equates to about the same thing. If he had gotten a new phone a long time ago, we would still have to go through the same thing. I just wish he had opted for the cheaper plan.