My phone is broken. I’ve managed to smash the glass cover for the camera lens and the battery won’t stay charged. I’m plugging it in nearly once a day now, and it beeps angrily at me when I try to make phone calls. The juice is gone - it has been since July.

I have a saving grace: according to Verizon it’s time to upgrade my phone. We all know what that means - deep, deep discounts on new phones to bait me into renewing my two year contract. And I took the bait - but I didn’t make the same mistakes this time around.

Just a little refresher - here are the five mistakes I made when buying my last phone:

1. Not asking myself “Do I need a new phone?”
2. Not carefully evaluating what features I needed and wanted.
3. Rushing in.
4. Not checking reviews.
5. Charging it on a credit card that I couldn’t pay off.

Did I end up totally screwed last time? No, but those mistakes did hurt me. I ended up with a phone that soon went out of production, and was never able to find a replacement battery for it. And I could have had a cute LG Chocolate for the exact same price.

Determined not to be a silly goose this time around, I deliberately avoided all five mistakes. Sort of.

Ok Steph, do you need a new phone?
Yes! A bit. Well, “need” is an interesting thing. I do need my phone for work and in order to keep using it I need either a new battery, or to switch to a different phone. In the end I got a new phone - but only because it was free.

Features!
The sole reason I upgraded last time was that I was sick of being the only person without a camera phone. Dumb reason, right? Especially since I’d just bought a new digital camera a few weeks earlier. But having that phone for a year an a half taught me what I do (and don’t) use in a phone. All I really need is a phone that calls and texts, and I like to have the camera function, but it’s not necessary.

Rush In!
Opps. Failed this one. I spent less than day and a half debating phones, and never stepped foot in a store - I did it all online. What can I say? I’m impetuous.

Reviews!
I checked the reviews on CNet this time. In fact, they’re the reason I picked the Samsung Juke (free) over the Motorola Krzr K1m ($20). The Juke has far better reviews (and did I mention the free part?).

Credit card? We don’t need no stinking credit card!
Free, with free shipping. My mom decided to get me the $5 belt clip as a gift. Booyah.

Bonus: Declined the insurance plan. Because it’s basically a scam.
$5 a month and a $50 deductible on a phone that retails for $80? No thanks. Not when I have two old backup phones sitting around.

Oh Mr. FedEx guy, I can’t wait till you bring me my new phone tomorrow!

Those of you who advised me on whether or not I should buy a bike (and what kind) will be happy to know that I bought one! I answered a listing on the Facebook Marketplace about a bike for sale, and paid $20 for a women’s bike with a bent wheel. I’m going to have to replace the wheel, which will be another $30, but I’m content with that.

I looked several places, including Craigslist, and made plans to visit some bike stores and ask questions. But then the listing for a $20 broken bike popped up on my Facebook page, so I made an appointment to check it out. I took my boyfriend, who very un-helpfully shrugged at me most of the time (even though he supposedly knows more about bikes that I do).

But the bike is in good shape (aside from the back wheel!) and looks good for what I need, so I bought it. Hopefully we’ll get it in working order before summer “vacation” hits, so that I can take advantage of a more lax schedule.

I absolutely recommend, if you’re a Facebook user already, that you use the Marketplace feature for both your “wanted” and “for sale” classifieds. I’ve bought and sold textbooks on there before, and it works pretty well. The nice thing is that it puts the listings in your area, and it pops up on your friends’ pages, so you might just be able to make a transaction with someone you already know!

I’ve got a bike!

I want to buy a bike. At least, I think I want to buy a bike. I used to love my bike, when I was a kid, until we moved further out into the country when I was 13 and there wasn’t anywhere to particularly bike to, and it meant a lot of “on the road” biking, which I wasn’t entirely comfortable with.

Now, we’ve moved to the suburbs and there is a giant bike trail system that runs directly behind our house. And so, I think I want a bike.

Is it a guarantee that I would use it? No, of course not. I’ve got a pair of roller blades in the garage that I’ve yet to teach myself to use. But at least I’ve tackled the learning curve on riding a bike.

Trouble is, I haven’t had a bike for years now, and I know absolutely nothing about buying one. And I have relatively no money (as you know). But I’ve got to figure that at least one of you out there has some useful knowledge on bikes so…

Where do I start?

If it helps at all, I’m a tall, largely out of shape, skinny woman that will be riding mostly on flat, slightly stone-y terrain. So I probably don’t need anything that could be described as “x-treme.”

I’d rather not just hop into Target and buy the prettiest cheap bike that I see… or is that my best option for the cost? See, I don’t even know! Seriously - who out there knows something about bicycles?