I have simple needs and had a "stupid phone", but I needed email access to 3 different accounts while I was away from the office while my wife was ill.
I got a Cricket account, and ZTE Grand X phone.
$99 phone (after $50 rebate), and $35 month (1gb data). Works OK for me.
But, you are the electro toy guru, so, I figure you already have all the 1 and 0's lined up!

Your plans are way too expensive for me ..... I am thinking $25 or less a month and a phone that won't cost more than $180.

Republic Wireless sets this benchmark for me -- a Moto G with 16 gigs cost $179 and a wifi/3G mixed plan costs $25 a month, but during normal stay at home weeks I can cut it back down to only $10 a month.

Art, how much would you like to bet me on your bet?   How expensive are your hats?

Especially after you done told me you gots wifi out there for the pluckin'.    You will have to share your wifi password with me of course unless you have left your router open to the public (and most businesses that see you as a repeat customer really don't mind sharing the password so you can get calls in their store because the data load for calls is so miniscule for simple words and text (jest a few kilobytes) so yep, even the ones that don't offer an open router to the public will let you take a call).

I bets you the same $179 phone running only just the $5 a month cheapie Republic Wireless plan can let you sit in your wifi equipped store and do calls ALL OVER THE WORLD and TEXT ditto ditto ditto  and also get unlimited fast internet searches all day long (or until your router resets itself due to the constant use, anyway).

$5 a month for the plan  &  $179 pay me cash up front for the special guts modified phone.

Like Art, at work I have a campus jest slam full of open wifi so I gots $5 plan Republic wifi coverage at work and at home.

But since the upgrade plans are so durn cheap that for my wife I'd hedge my bets with some 3-G cell tower coverage for her phone calls made when away from good wifi (while driving for example) with the $10 a month plan .... and for some vacation craziness I'd opt up to do a week at the $25 a month plan rate (yep, that's $5 whole dollars pro-rated for an entire week's worth of splurging on the unlimited everything max 3-G coverage plan that will mate up right well with the 3-G Moto G phone).

Hey Art, really, I don't have to know how to make it work -- Republic builds it right into the guts of the special phones so you don't HAVE to understand how it works.   It just does, and it switches off automatically between wifi and cellular depending on where you are and which signal is coming through better.

But is sounds like Republic Wireless was made for you, buddy.

https://republicwireless.com/info/phones/moto-g-1st-gen/

I got the first gen Moto X for my first 'smart' phone.
Love it.  With the Google design and minimalist Android OS, it does things no other phone does.
New version is a little bigger.  One reason I liked the phone was it's small size but I think I would appreciate the bigger screen now.

Save the cost of that hat and apply it towards your next phone -- I enjoy the hunting and searching as it gives me something to do.   And I don't wear hats, I am a toboggan sort of guy.

But you gotta admit, $179 for a phone and a plan that ranges from $10 up to $25 a month will save a lot of us Hundreds of Dollars a year compared to what we are doing now.

And I am sorta rural, though I don't phone much
These days I want my phone to work anywhere, or close to it, in case I break down or crash on one of my longer rides
my Galaxy S3 was $279, and it's about new, so it'll be a while before i replace it, though I like the MotoGs toughness, and my $45 unlimited everything (including long distance, but not out of country) still seems like a decent cost to me for what I get, so I'm still pretty happy

It was never a bet since I already knew the answer, since because of that knowledge there was no element of chance or risk -- I would have to think that would actually be closer to the definition of a con job than a bet and I wouldn't do that.

Plus, until I've actually gone and done it, it is all theory.

Besides, instead of a $180 phone I want to find a way to get a HUNDRED dollar phone to go along with my $10 phone plan.

And I think I may be able to do that.    When the new Moto G comes out at Republic a whole lot of the immortal little original Moto G's will hit Swappit for lower and lower ever cheaper dollars.   A new battery would cost $16 if one winds up being needed.


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Any good plan requires a point of commitment.  



$4 isn't much of a commitment, but it is a start.