Waiting in my inbox today was the monthly email from netmums bloggers network which I had a quick scan through as always. This month something caught my eye and that something was the astounding statistic that one million children within the UK don't know where their next meal is coming from. Think about that for a moment.

In the news there are always stories about children in third world countries that are starving but I feel that we've grown numb and tend to be able to block them out. However when you learn that in this country, a supposed first world country, there are starving children it does come as a bit of a shock. The shock is even greater when you learn that there has been an increase in British children turning to charities to be fed. That increase is 233%.

In order to do something you would normally need to put your hand into your pocket and find some loose change or donate with your credit/debit card. Fortunately this time this isn't the case.

Netmums have teamed up with the charity Kids Company and created the Mobiles for Meals campaign. This is a simple campaign that means you can find any old mobile and take it to your nearest T-Mobile or Orange shop where you can hand it in so it can be converted to cash that goes straight to the charity.

(Photo credit: carnero.cc)

Simple yet effective. So simple in fact that I have a mobile that is sitting in a box doing nothing that I am going to take to my nearest shop to hand in, you should do the same. Click the picture below to find out more.

I decided that I needed a new mobile phone, mostly because I have a Blackberry and the only thing that it is useful for is BBM (Blackberry messenger) as it is free and I can message Emz. She is getting a new phone herself soon.

Off I toddled this morning to the local shopping center to have a poke around the various phone shops and see what deals I could get.

First up was Carphone Warehouse who were doing some good deals online. They lived up to my expectations and told me about a contract, an upgrade from the PAYG I have, that is only £12. With the Blackberry I am paying £15 a month for the privilege of using a free messenger, something I can get for free on an Android phone, and not much else. The deal meant a new phone – an HTC Wildfire S – lots of free minutes and texts with unlimited data.

Now, being a bit frugal (ie. skint) I decided to shop around so my next stop was the O2 store. Bear in mind I’m already on O2 PAYG I was expecting them to want to keep my custom.

Me – Hi, I’m on PAYG on your network but would like to upgrade to a contract and a different phone. What deals can you offer me?

O2 – What phone did you have in mind?

Me – Err, HTC wildfire (I wanted to see if O2 could beat what I had been offered).

O2 – *tapatappatap* ok, we can do 50 minutes, 50 texts and 100Mb of data for £15.50.

Me – As I’m a customer can you beat this deal I’ve been offered: 200 minutes, 200 texts and unlimited data?

O2 – No, sorry.

Me – Ok, I guess I’ll take my custom elsewhere then?

O2 – Ok, goodbye.

 

Needless to say I went back to Carphone Warehouse.