Disclosure:  I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #cbias and their client, #FamilyMobileSaves.

For the longest time, we have been the parents that did not allow our daughter to have a phone. Our stance was that she was always in the presence of an adult, so there was no need for a phone. About a year ago, she and a friend started a babysitting business together. We discussed getting her a phone at that point, but had decided not to because she could simply use their home phones. I had not considered the fact that some families no longer have home phones. The realization that one of the families that they babysit for did not have a home phone changed our minds. I did not want her to be in an emergency situation without a phone. We began the search to find the best wireless plan for our daughter.

We sat down and had a very serious talk about our expectations.

Becca, over at My Crazy Good Life, has a great series about technology, tweens, and teen if you need any tips on how to set expectations and rules about technology.

Enter Walmart Family Mobile Plan! The first feature that caught my attention was the family controls:

• Limit how many minutes or messages can be used by any line on the account
• Block usage at certain times of day
• Set up to ten Always Allowed and Never Allowed numbers for each line
• Block 411
• Receive alerts when lines on your account reach or exceed a Family Controls limit
• Assign another line Parent Line permissions

I had always assumed that we would be adding at least $60 to our monthly bills. With the adoption finalizing soon, that is just not an option for us. After researching the plans online, we learned that for the talk and text only plan, it was only $29.88 per month. Your plan and activity can be viewed at their online account management and information website. It makes it so easy!

We have already had a few funny moments where I have been able to text her “Hey, can you have dad send me the grocery list, since I forgot it at home?”. (And did you notice the word “unlimited” above?! How many phone plans still off that? Not many we found out.)

There is a great article in the Live SoFab Back to School Digital Magazine, page 11. (Check out the rest of the magazine for some great back to school ideas!)

Do your kids have cell phones? I’d love to hear how your family does it!