Hobby phone ?'s

What's the common practice with this? My thoughts are to take an old phone of mine and do exactly what with it? Hoping to avoid buying one of those throw aways. Of the old phones I currently posses, do I use the smart phone or an old Samsung flip phone? Anybody have some "Hobby phone 101" for me. Thank you for the help.

Google Voice is an option. That way you only have one phone to carry. I use it for calls and text. One disadvantage is the numbers you call show up on your bill.

Use a Verizon $35 a month phone, renew with cash so no electronic history. Can ditch if needed. Leave hidden in truck. Would NOT put any ap or Google Voice on my RW phone, somebody may see or use phone. I know you can turn off Google Voice but could forget.

I miss pay phones...., lol

I hate my cheap phone, some guys send texts and it's wayyyy to hard to send text on this cheapo phone

My 5 y.o. Nokia old school works fine as hobby handset...cannot get photos. It is web enabled but I use an Andoid for that stuff.

imo all of us need a hobby phone of some sort at least because you can lock it away when necessary. If you cannot afford 20 bucks a month for separate cell you shouldn't be hobbying.

I started with a Tracfone flip phone and that worked fine but texting was a bitch. I never mastered the technique. That phone died this week and I just replaced it with a $49 Android phone from Tracfone at Target. Paid cash. Went online and ported my number and minutes to the new phone using the bogus account I had created there when I started. Texting with the new phone is great, almost as good as my Galaxy S4. As a bonus I get Google maps, so I don't have to take my real world phone with me when hobbying. I can leave it at the office.

As an extra bonus, it came with a 4gb micro sd card to hold some tunes when I need some music to set the mood.

Oh, and I pay $19.99 every 90 days for more minutes than I can use.