Frugal Way - Living well within your means

Cutting down on your long distance cost.

There are many ways to cut down on your long distance spending, one is to stop making long distance calls altogether and just use emails or chat. Or you could always make free calls through the internet (PC to PC) like Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, etc.

Call on weekends. When using mobile phones, most providers give unlimited minutes on weekends or at night so you can make your calls (whenever possible) on those times to call for free.

Use phone cards. You can also use phone cards as oppose to your local phone provider when making long distance calls. Personally I am using Onesuite services because it's cheap and reliable at the same time. Rates are as low as 1.9 cents per minute and you don't need to pay any other fees unlike other phone cards and all transactions can be done online.

VoIP. Another option is to use VoIP and drop your landline which saves you about $20 to $25 in an instant for monthly fee. There are about hundreds of VoIP providers out there trying to jockey for position but I suggest read the terms and conditions carefully and check their fine print. Sometimes they advertise low rates but also charge you for incoming calls which if you receive a lot of calls, then it defeats the purpose of getting a VoIP to save. Onesuite also has their voip service called SuiteAdvantage which for $2.95 monthly will get you a phone number and unlimited incoming minutes, good deal for those people who makes moderate calls and get incoming calls a lot.

But dropping your landline is not for everybody. Take note that VoIP is internet and power dependent so better have an alternative if one those bog down. A cell phone is a good alternative but again it will cost you so maybe weigh things down if you will get a landline or a mobile phone.

Text it. Instead of wasting your minutes or paying for your call why not just say your message through SMS. You can make it brief and concise. Sometimes when we call, more than half of the conversation gets out of hand and we stay on the line unnecessarily.

Send your SMS free online. There are dozens of websites offering free sms. You just need to search whats working and whats not. Google "free sms online" and you will be taken to hundreds of websites. I also found textmefree that list free sms sites around the world.