For years, I was the mug who always had the latest phone, paying top dollar every month like I was made of money. That was fine when it was just me. But now I’ve got a whole rugby team of kids and three of them already need phones — one of them to monitor her diabetes — and another is writing “MOBILE PHONE” in bold on his Christmas list to Santa. Suddenly, that £50+ a month per contract adds up real quick.

So I had a dad epiphany: new phones don’t do anything groundbreaking. They just do the same stuff — scrolling, texting, calls, and the occasional dinosaur game — but a bit faster. As long as you’re not stuck with a Nokia 3210 (iconic, but let’s not lie to ourselves), an older Android will do the job.

Take mine for example: I’m running this entire blog from an old Samsung A71 that I flashed a custom ROM on. It’s now rocking Android 15 and it works like a dream.

The Plan: Keep Your Phone, Dump the Contract

When my last contract ended, instead of getting locked into another 24 or 36-month money pit, I jumped on a SIM-only deal. At first, I found Smarty Mobile: £7 a month for 8GB of data. Not bad. Then I added more family members, and Smarty gives you 10%–20% off per extra SIM. We were all on it eventually.

But — because life — those costs crept up. Again.

So I went hunting. I trawled the comparison sites, read forums, checked cashback offers. I was willing to go full bargain-hunter mode, and I found a unicorn on MoneySavingExpert:

  • Provider: Lebara
  • Deal: 15GB data, Unlimited minutes/texts, + 150 international minutes
  • Price: £0.35 a month.
  • No typo. Thirty-five pence.

It’s a promo price for 7 months, after which it jumps to £7.95. But the beauty of 1-month rolling contracts? You just switch again before that happens.

My Household Phone Bill: £2.10 for 6 Phones

Right now, six of us are on rolling SIM-only deals. We’ve got unlimited calls and texts, and more data than any of them use (they’re on Wi-Fi all day anyway). And it’s costing me a grand total of £2.10 a month.

Let me say that again for the dads in the back: £2.10 for 6 active SIMs.

Final Thoughts (a.k.a Dad Wisdom)

  • Keep your phone. If it works, don’t bin it.
  • Custom ROMs can breathe life into older phones (just know what you’re doing).
  • Look for short-term promo deals — especially on sites like MoneySavingExpert.
  • Avoid long contracts like the plague.
  • Switch often. There’s no loyalty reward in telecoms, only punishment for staying.

In a world where everything’s going up, your phone bill doesn’t have to.
Be the smart dad. Or mum. Or cool uncle. You get the idea.

Got your own mobile money-saving hacks? Drop them in the comments or tag me on social media. Let’s keep those bills lower than a limbo stick at a kid’s party.