Tracfone is super affordable. And you can also get almost any cheap-ass phone from Amazon, pop one of their cards in it, and even if you have to call them to activate- you're still good to go.
I spend $16 a month. And I have kids, so I HAVE to have a phone. I dunno what'd I fucking do if I had to rely on one of the big companies and sign a contract or anything.
I've use Tracfone with an $80-ish dollar smartphone, no damn difference in service.
The one I got for my dad uses sim cards I was wary of dealing with a sim card when I got mine like 4+ years ago so just got a 'decent' one off ebay for like $110 phone and a year of service back when they had rollover on the smart phones, mine is still grandfathered in. When I'm doing better I'd like to upgrade the phone, I'll lose my rollover benefits but I don't come close to using up the 1500 mins/text or data every year so no big deal. I was also pleasantly surprised when the phone died like a month before the 2 year manufacturer warranty was up but they directed me to tracfone and they replaced it with a 'refurb/used' model. They sent me a prepaid mailer and got me the replacement in a like a week, it looked like new, and has worked flawlessly coming up on 3 years now. I lost more time trying to contact and get my factory warranty honored with the manufacturer before they told me I had to contact tracfone.
I also only got the phone for work cause it was better to be able to communicate with one of the managers for extra work, keeping up to date with his needs/requests for extra hours. Before that I had ditched my mobile cause I didn't use it enough, used to have virgin mobile but after a few years they changed their plans and the cost seemed like a waste with my use, plus flip phone/older network connectivity so very limited.