And they were ENORMOUS! I’m used to strawberries that, from the tip to the stem, is about an inch in size, but these..?
So, we got a bunch of frozen berries the other day, my youngest sons birthday were coming up. In order to have berries for a berry-filling on a homemade birthday cake for the little guy, the Lady and I agreed on blueberries, strawberries grapes and raspberry. However, we bought more than for the cake, since I like to sometimes fill up a bowl of frozen berries with a bit of milk to eat as is, and in one of those bags I expected a lot of normal size strawberries, 20-25 or so of them, but what I got was a bag of.. I dont know, 10 supersized ones? They were basically 3*3*3 inches monsters, and when I poured the first one out of the bag I didnt know what to say. I’ve legit never seen a strawberry that size before.
It was the size of like, half my fist!
To top it off, I started to pour the blueberry bag, and those were like 3 times the size of normal blue berries as well. What the hell is going on?
Moving on.
I’ve looked over some of our..lets say, communication options. Phone and internet. September is coming up soon, and with it the cost of our internet will spike a bit. When we moved here, I signed up for a 500/500 internet for a specific price that would hold for a year, and then it would cost the same as the usual after that.
We’re also changing school for our oldest, so she’ll go to the school in the same area we live in now, instead of the same school she was in before we moved. That means she’ll live in the same area as her new classmates, and that in itself means that she’ll be able to visit her friends more often than before. She was in kindergarten with some kids, and had the same school as them for always, so we were kind of hesitant to change school for her when we moved. We let her commute to and from school instead, we bought the busfair for her to do so and learned her how to navigate the buses herself. It turned out pretty well, but it also had the side-effect that she rarely visited friends at all. Before we moved, she had a couple of friends she visited on regular basis, but that rarely ever happened after we moved. The thinking is, that after we change her school, she’ll make friends and will be able to visit them regularly now, meaning she wont be stuck at home as much.
That in turn, means we need to have a more reliable way to communicate with her as well, and vice versa. And as my paternity leave will end soon, I hope to go from stay-at-home dad to be able to actually do something. Anything. Which means that I also need to be reliably able to communicate with the rest of the family. So far, me and our oldest have been using pre-paids, but that’s not going to last. So, looking into the whole thing, I realized something very strange..
First, we needed to change the internet speed to a lower one to save some money. The same speed would have cost almost double what it costs now. I’ve grown used to a 500/500, as well as the rest of the family, but the new price would be pretty hefty. Going from $43 to $80 is.. well, I think it’s not too bad, but compared to what we pay now, it’s steep. And I looked around for cellphone plans and they were pretty steep too, ranging from $30-80, depending on what we chose. So coming from a 2 pre-paid/500 internet costing us ~$65/month, to something like $140-240/month depending on the cellphone plan… yeah.. And sure, we could probably make due with a smaller speed, 100/100, but the price change would still kick in, to $50/month. Add what we usually pay for pre-paids now, that’s still $75/month. And considering we’re going to need more reliability on our communications, since I will be away from home more often and our oldest will – hopefully – visit more friends more often (on top of her aunt coming up with the idea to let her visit them every other weekend), we’re probably going to see costs of upwards $116+/month.
And honestly, for a fifth of the same internet speed, as well as two pre-paids, that’s just too expensive. Since it’s pre-paids, we’re probably looking a bit more.. I had to work something through here.
Anyway, what I found out is that my current internet provider had an offer that if I had a cellphone plan with them as well as the internet, they could bump my speed one step without it costing any extra. The steps are going from 100, 250, 500 and 1’000. I also checked up with my current operator for the cellphone if we could work something out, since I’ve had the same number with them for 15+ years. There was, but; a cellphone plan alone apparently costs more than a cellphone coupled with a phone does, just looking at the plans, I mean. A single plan cost ~$30, but the cellphone plan coupled with a phone costs ~$10 (not counting the cost of the phone, ofcourse). And voila, this is probably the best deal I could’ve gotten away with;
Starting next month, when my internet deal would’ve been over anyway, our current cost of ~$65/month for internet and prepaids, will jump to $140/month. It’s a bit more than double the montly cost, but, our costs currently wont be the costs we have in September anyway. The minimum cost for just having the lowest internet speed as well as active prepaids will be at $75/month, and to be able to use our cellphones as we need come autumn, it’ll be more like ~$116+/month anyway. The difference is only $24/month, but it’s what we get out of those $24 that I like.
Officially, we get the lowest speed, 100, but coupled with one plan it’ll be 250. We only halve our internet speed, but in turn we get 2 cellphone plans as well as a brand new phone for me. My current one will be taken over, along with the plan coupled with the internet, by our oldest, so she can have a better phone (storage and spec-wise) and a cellphone plan to start hang out with her friends more. Her old phone will be used by our oldest son, so he have something to play with and watch in car-rides or if his tablet needs a battery charge. What that means for me, is that I suddenly have a phone and cellphone plan so that I can hopefully be more active on the jobmarket.
So, again, compared to current cost, $65/month, going to $140/month is a lot. The current cost will not be the cost come September anyway, the minimum cost of September and forward will be $75, just to have active prepaids. Come September, cost will therefore just be slightly less than twice than if I didnt take these deals. To actually use our phones the amount we will need to, on prepaids it’ll costs us a great deal more, close to $120/month. And compared to that, the $140-deal now will actually give us some pretty neat quality of life stuff; 100 internet, old phones and prepaids that runs out almost half a month already during Covid summer times, compared to 250 internet, brand new phone for me, upgraded phone for the oldest and a play-phone for my oldest son, as well as cellphone plans? That’s worth the extra $24 if you ask me.
Oh, and that’s still not counting the “extra package” that comes with the new phone for free, either a true-wireless headphones (Samsung Galaxy Buds+) in the music package, or a bluetooth Xbox controller for playing on the phone (as well as being able to be used with both PC and XBox), a wireless charging stand and 3 months of Xbox Game Pass. I’m leaning towards the music package, the wireless headphones, since I have a clock radio next to my bed with integrated wireless charging anyway, and truth be told, I dont need the controller.
..not that I would use it paired with the phone anyway. Only way I would use a cellphone xbox controller, is with Diablo Immortal anyway, and I’m not sure that game will support such a controller – if the game even was available.