I’ll admit that, when it comes to bartering for a deal, I’d rather leave it to my husband. He always seems to be on the lookout for a good deal. Aren’t we all? But what sets him apart is that he finds new deals on products or services we already have and doesn’t hesitate to act if he thinks we may be getting a raw deal.

Case in point: About a week ago, he saw a commercial by our current cell phone provider offering a better deal than the one we have now. I have to say it got him a little fired up. “Are you kidding?” he scoffed. “That’s like . . . $80 less than what we pay now! Unbelievable! Maybe we should call and complain!” (Not quite the word he used, but whatever.) I told him that if he felt that strongly about it, then he should call. He should call. Not me. I’m not comfortable with that. Don’t know why. It doesn’t matter.

Anyway, after a few days, a couple more commercial sightings, and some mental number-crunching, he decided it couldn’t hurt to call and ask if we could get in on the deal. He picked up the phone and dialed. We spoke to a very nice man who told us that we could, in fact, get the same advertised price. We have 5 phones. Do we have to upgrade all the phones? Not at all. Will it affect our contract? Nope. We have automatic billing. Do we have to set that up again? No. When will the new price take effect? Immediately. So our next bill will be lower? Uh huh. So we’ll have unlimited talking and texting? Yes. And tons more data? Yep.

Alrighty, then! Do it!

And so, with one phone call (that lasted less time than being on hold) we got more for less. We’ll be saving $80 per month. That’s $960 per year. I like that. And I love that my husband took care of it all. He’s always got an eye for a good deal. Maybe it comes from being a closet conspiracy theorist or simply not wanting to get screwed over, but whatever the case, I’m glad he’s in my corner!