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Less Food, Fun & Clothes – But Honey, We Got Phones!

Reporting today in The Wall Street Journal, Anton Troianovski reveals families in America have cut back on food, clothes and entertainment in order to create room for cell phone expenses.

The WSJ says, “More than half of all U.S. cellphone owners carry a device like the iPhone, a shift that has unsettled household budgets across the country.”

WSJ reports:

As more people paid up for $200 smartphones and bills that run around $100 a month, the average household's annual spending on telephone services rose to $1,226 in 2011 from $1,110 in 2007, when Apple Inc.'s iPhone first appeared.

Families with more than one smartphone are already paying much more than the average—sometimes more than $4,000 a year—easily eclipsing what they pay for cable TV and home Internet.

According to the Labor Department, Americans spent $116 more a year on telephone services in 2011 than they did in 2007 -- even as total household expenses grew by $67. At the same time, spending on food outside the home dropped by $48, apparel spending declined by $141, and entertainment spending dropped by $126.

With nine in 10 of all adults in America having cell phones, this article is definitely worth calling home about.

Read the full Wall Street Journal article Cellphones Are Eating the Family Budget.

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photo credit: blakespot