Phone Calls on the Cheap

Monthly household expenses can be real budget busters. One of the monthly bills which was really eating up a significant portion of my pay check was telephone service. I used to get phone service from SBC, and with long distance calls I was paying about $120 a month. However, I am now among a growing group of people unplugging the land line phone for a cheaper alternative.

I now use a VOIP, or "voice over Internet protocol" service called Lingo. After I registered and paid online, I received a box in the mail that looked like a cable modem. It easily connects to a broadband cable modem box, and a phone is then plugged into the Lingo box. I now get unlimited long distance calls anywhere in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Western Europe, and features like voice mail and caller ID, all for about $25 a month. Total savings: about $95 a month.

Others are going even further, forgoing a home phone altogether and simply using their cell phones for ALL of their calls. I prefer the "pay as you go" plan at Virgin Mobile. The phone cost about $40, and I pay about $14.95 for 100 minutes, which usually lasts me about a month. I don't talk on my cell phone much.

How would you like to make phone calls for free? You can with a service called Skype. It requires you to download Skype software. Calls to other Skype users are free, but Skype also offers a plan which allows you to call any phone for about $30...a year. With prices like these, alternatives to the land line are definitely worth checking out!