An attempt at being frugal

Wondering about the Rs 2,000 Vodafone (Vi these days) bill yesterday, I was curious why I was paying so much. These thoughts are generally prompted by infrequent bouts of interest in savings and idle curiosity, but this time, it was due to a determination to be successfully and therefore frugally retired.

Lo and behold! I was being charged outdated elements. Clearly it’s in a cellular provider’s interest to have harried, over-worked, over-paid employees as customers, who don’t feel the pinch of Rs 500 disappearing here and there. So I had a Rs 500 plan, which allowed 75 GB data, unlimited local and national calls and a Prime membership (unused, as I have had my own for years). So far so good, though for some reason I had thought I had only 7 GB, and there was a faint disquiet in some corner of my brain. Never mind, so let’s see what else is there. I also realised the format of the e-bill has changed and it took me a while to find the actual details. Summary are great things, because when I finally located the bill, I almost choked. There were two other monthly charges: Rs 300 for some 600 minutes of STD calls and Rs 800 for, wait for this, 7 GB of data! Add-ones from another era were nestled away from prying eyes!

Correction was immediately sought. Which meant 45 minutes of dedicated effort to find the latest customer care number, getting distracted by the cool new ViC, the chatbot, figuring out new IVR till I reached an actual person and being on hold till the person (thank you Deepak) sorted through everything. 

Frugality will need to come through other means. This was simply stupidity and lack of interest in money matters. And millions of dollars being spent in behavioural science and its application on day-to-day interactions for a great customer experience, which also includes how to prevent a customer from stopping spending. Seamless, fast, simple experience created using cool design thinking stuff (I do love the methods) is for when you want the customer to SPEND. Why blame only poor Facebook and Instagram and whatever? All businesses are digital these days.

Anyways, I will save enough money monthly to Swiggy in four idli-vada breakfasts for Man and me. Which tees up nicely the next post on my renewed frugal mindset.