Many people still have land phone lines to their homes. Depending on the way you use it, this can be a real expense. The phone companies toll costs have not caught up with the rest of the world. While I do admit it is nice to have the security of a land line when the power goes out, it is not a good way to make toll calls.
Most people use their cell phones to make long distance or toll calls because they are free or included with their minutes. If you don't want to use your mobile or only want to use it for business, then there are some other options.
One option is an IP phone service. With this option, you have to have high speed internet service. The IP phone company will send you what is called an ATA adapter. You hook this up to your home network and to your internal home phone lines. You then can make free local and long distance calls for free. All you do is pay an annual fee for about $20 per month. With this service, you can often transfer your existing home number to the new service and get free voice mail to email service.
Also, if you only occasionally make long distance calls, you can get a service like Magic Jack. Magic Jack is a low cost service that hooks to your home computer to make phone calls. Now with Magic Jack it costs money to transfer your existing number and there is also a yearly fee assessed when keeping it. Also, Magic Jack has come out with a service called Magic Jack Plus, but it costs about the same as the IP phone service.
All in all, it is almost never cost effective to use your home phone land line to make long distance calls. Consider other options and save some money.
Here are some common IP Phone Services:
Packet8
Vonage
Lingo
Do any of you use other methods to save money? Please leave comment and let us know.
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Thursday, October 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Budgeting=Boring! 5 Tips to Help You Budget Better
Everyone wants to get your money, it is up to you to decide where it goes. Here are five basic budgeting tips to help you keep more of your money.
1) Sit down and create a very realistic budget.
You really just need to devote the time to this. One easy way to get started is to take a month and save every receipt that you get. I mean every single receipt. Be diligent! It will pay off! ( A little budgeting humor) This will help you track where every penny of yours goes. You can then sit down at the end of the month and make realistic budget categories. Avoid categories like miscellaneous, or extras... they show no detail of where your money is going. Do this and apply it to your real take home income. Prepared to be shocked at how much money you are wasting.
For some free budgeting spreadsheets, check here.
2) Be realistic!
I know this sounds like a recurring theme, and it is. If you are not realistic about your budget you will never stick to it. You need to be realistic about cutting and spending. Assign realistic amounts to each category. You will always have emergencies that pop up. Try to account for these in your categories. For example, automobile repairs always seem to pop up when they are least expected. If you don't have any automobile repairs this month, put that money in your savings and save it for when you do have to have your automobile repaired.
3) If you have trouble, use an envelope system.
The envelope system is a cash system. You assign categories to envelopes and when the money is gone out of that envelope, it is gone for that category. For some examples of envelope systems check here and here.
4) Commit to sticking to your budget.
No matter what budgeting system you use, commit to stick to it. It will pay off in the end (there's that humor again). You will never know if it works if you don't stick it out.
5) Evaluate Constantly.
Stay on top of your budget and review it often. The more often you do it, the easier it is to stay on top of it.
You can do it, go out there and take control of your financial life!
If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks
1) Sit down and create a very realistic budget.
You really just need to devote the time to this. One easy way to get started is to take a month and save every receipt that you get. I mean every single receipt. Be diligent! It will pay off! ( A little budgeting humor) This will help you track where every penny of yours goes. You can then sit down at the end of the month and make realistic budget categories. Avoid categories like miscellaneous, or extras... they show no detail of where your money is going. Do this and apply it to your real take home income. Prepared to be shocked at how much money you are wasting.
For some free budgeting spreadsheets, check here.
2) Be realistic!
I know this sounds like a recurring theme, and it is. If you are not realistic about your budget you will never stick to it. You need to be realistic about cutting and spending. Assign realistic amounts to each category. You will always have emergencies that pop up. Try to account for these in your categories. For example, automobile repairs always seem to pop up when they are least expected. If you don't have any automobile repairs this month, put that money in your savings and save it for when you do have to have your automobile repaired.
3) If you have trouble, use an envelope system.
The envelope system is a cash system. You assign categories to envelopes and when the money is gone out of that envelope, it is gone for that category. For some examples of envelope systems check here and here.
4) Commit to sticking to your budget.
No matter what budgeting system you use, commit to stick to it. It will pay off in the end (there's that humor again). You will never know if it works if you don't stick it out.
5) Evaluate Constantly.
Stay on top of your budget and review it often. The more often you do it, the easier it is to stay on top of it.
You can do it, go out there and take control of your financial life!
If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks
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