Time to put my money where my mouth is! Being cheap in Seattle

I want to keep a list of the shortcuts I'm taking on living cheaply in Seattle.

Freedom Pop has a portable 3G/4G device with various data caps...a refurbished device is $20 or $40, but then 500MB / month is free. The idea is that your phone/tablet connects to wifi when you're at home/cafes, and only uses the data when you're out and about and REALLY need to browse Reddit or show your friends that stupid cat pic.

I still needed an American phone number, so my $60/year Skype phone number is how I'll be making/receiving calls, and Facebook messenger and good ol' email is how I'll be talking to loved ones.

We're at $80 for 2015 communications, with no phone yet. We'll see how annoying it gets carrying my tablet around. I'm already used to only using my phone for text messages on the bus, thanks to Japan and it's no-voice-call culture.

Just got a refurbished LG ZTE Force for $25. Beware about getting all your good prices at Freedom Pop in one go. Their promotions don't link to each other, and I ended up making two separate orders, using two separate links.

UPDATE: 3.25 Okay, time to open the boxes! The phone is unscratched, looks new, and is pretty light and has a snappy response. There is no phone number, and upon connecting to wifi, takes you to the same 'find a number' screen that doesn't actually have any numbers available in my area. Time to call Freedom Pop! Also, as a side note, smart phones should come with Google Maps preinstalled. Google Play is, compared to Amazon and Apple's counterparts, awful. I can't even find Google Maps upon a search.

The 4g/wifi device has a few scratches (part of the refurbished deal) and powers up quickly. I found my Sprint signal for 4G in about 45 seconds, and am connected to the device via my phone. No hardware problems!

UPDATE: 3.31 Alright, readers, this phone experience with Freedompop is terrible. The FP Messenger application, which is what you send/receive calls and texts through, works about 20% of the time. My initial boot received text replies and calls. After a day or two, receiving turned off, but I didn't notice until a few days later. I've spent a total of 45 minutes on Skype calling Freedompop's very helpful customer service, and they've fixed my errors each time. Problems with FP's phone service: awful battery life (5-6hrs), relying on Google Play, which itself crashes more than it loads correctly, "network issues."

I'll repeat that FreedomPop's customer service is great and has a 100% rate for solving my issues...just the volume of issues is a bit high. Again, this is a free phone service.

The wifi hotspot, however is great. It takes about 30 seconds from standby to broadcasting a signal that multiple devices can use (I had my iPad, iPod and FP phone connected at once).

UPDATE: 5.28 After struggling with this service for 2 months, I cannot recommend Freedompop phone service for anyone short of my worst enemies. I bought a used iPhone 4 for $135, a new sim card from Ting for $9, and gave their $20/unlimited everything service a shot for the last month. It. Sucks. As before, data stuff works great, and using Facebook chat is how I communicate. But anything running through the Freedompop app is pure garbage. Texts show up on your notification screen and then never again. Missed calls simply don't register at all. Calls I made from the phone, through the FP app cut connection. Their big fix? "Resetting" my phone every 10 seconds. Like, there's a point where an unreliable phone means missed work opportunities, and I lose money. Is free service worth that? Bottom line: F MINUS for phone service, A PLUS for data.