I need some hive-mind advice.

My salary doesn't seem to be covering my expenses well enough anymore. while I'm working up the nerve to ask for a raise, I've been trying to figure out how to cut my expenses. 2 things I've thought of are a less expensive isp and dropping my monthly cell bill and just going with pre-paid.

I've done a little research and it already seems complicated. so, does anyone have experience with either really cheap internet or pre-paid cell phone service?

I have pre-paid cell through Virgin. It works for me, but I don't tend to have a lot of long conversations on the phone. YMMV. But I like not having to sign a contract longer than my lease.

boss does pre-paid. Used to be some company which I'm forgetting, where you just put more minutes on whenever you needed. Now, I think it's T-mobile.

I went with Virgin pre-paid too. I'm pretty happy with them. I get no service in my actual house, but elsewhere it's fine. The first ten minutes used on any given day cost $0.25 a minute, and after that they drop down to $0.10 a minute.

I also really didn't want one of those chirpy phone-to-phone thingies, and Virgin doesn't do that.

I don't use it much, I just have in case of emergencies.

I've seen commercials for Virgin. Does your boss like his service, Heather?

TAR: WTF? What did the Mother/Son team do to run out of money, halfway through the leg ?

I was on some prepaid phone a few years ago. It was ungodly expensive unless you bought $100 at a time. And then if you didn't buy any time for 45 days, you'd loose all the time you'd already bought.

Guess what happened to me twice?

eta: Virgin sounds cool. Any company that can send a jet around the world nonstop unrefueled with only one crew member has to have a good cellular system.

I've seen commercials for Virgin.

I absolutely adored their ad campaign this last holiday season, with their ghetto-fabulous low-budget ads singing this wonderful, slightly-off-key carol to winter holiday inclusivness.

How can you not love a campaign that includes the musical exchange -

Blonde: "I'm a Scientologist"

Older Guy: "Well that's kind of a religion."

It was ungodly expensive unless you bought $100 at a time. And then if you didn't buy any time for 45 days, you'd loose all the time you'd already bought.

Virgin only requires you to put money on the phone every ninety days. And the rates are fixed.

And the rates are fixed.

Ooh, that's cool. I've been thinking of buying a prepaid phone.

What are their rates? he-who-is-too-lazy-to-look-it-up asks....