Welcome to the 8th Edition of Everything About Personal Finance!
In this carnival, just like the previous ones, you’ll see a wide variety of collection of fresh articles about Personal Finance in the topics of  career, credit card, debt manag…

@Andrew – Er, well I didn’t say all commitments *did* come with a one month notice period. (Ask your mother, she sounds pretty with it and would understand I’m sure ).

@Tim – Well, Apple didn’t allow Google’s VOIP iPhone App as I understand it (I think the FCC in the US is investigating it?) so I guess they see the potential for voice over the Internet to disrupt their business model with the carriers? I was tempted to go down the Touch route, but you have to pay for the data, which was £15+VAT last time I looked. Add that to my mobile bill and I’m back at the £35 I’d pay for iPhone anyway. (Yes, I’m sure I’m persuading myself anyway I can, as Rob Lewis says above!)

Yet I’ve managed to stay with an eight year old B&W nokia which can fit 3 x 8 characters of text on the screen becuase it works fine as a phone, and how, you might ask, how could I put up with this archaeological relic of a phone, and the answer is simple . . . .

I bought an iPod touch. I’ve got a 2 gen iPod touch with around 70 app’s on it, even managed to convince work to make an iApp! WiFi is becoming available most places – often for free, and the touch does most of what I want the iPhone for but doesn’t cost me, well, anything really after the intial purchase. So a one off price of $320 (Aus) vs around $100 a month for a decent iPhone plan that locks you in for two years. Sorry, the numbers still don’t work for the iPhone.

I also wonder whether the success of the touch will make Apple think, hang on, if we put more of the iPhone into the touch as Wi Fi becomes every more ubiquitous and cheaper do we really need the phone companies? VOIP works quite nicely on the touch now. The rumored mic and camera in the next touch may be part of a cunning long-term plan by Apple. We’ll see.

btw, my 71 year old mother is considering an iPhone purchase, after seeing mine in action !

You can get a little bit of money off the handset, via Quidco:

http://money-watch.co.uk/5345/new-iphone

And don’t forget, you may be able to get some money for your old phone. Well, maybe not in your particular case, but if you were trading in a year or less old phone, you could get £20-£30 for it from one of the many mobile phone recyclers.