Saving Money on the Phone Bill

When I married Daniel, I was introduced to a very thrifty idea on how we can save money on our phone bill. Since we live in the area where cell phone signal is non existent, having a land line is a must. The absolute cheapest plan that we signed up for was $16 dollars a month. If you have a land line you know that phone companies love to attach all kinds of taxes and fees making the actual bill twice the original amount. Our cheap plan offered nothing fancy like caller waiting or caller ID, the only thing that the plan did offer was local area coverage. Hmmm… most of our friends and family live further than 30 minutes away, which means calling them would be considered long distance. This also means that if we call them using our current phone plan, our bill each month would be outrageous filled with extra charges.

Since we were trying to keep our phone bill low, my husband shared a money saving trick with me. When we call family and friends, we dial their number, let the phone ring several time and then hang up before they have a chance to answer it. Once they see our number (all of our family and friends have caller ID and long distant plans) they know to call us back. We then enjoy our conversation without stressing about the phone bill. This system has worked for us for almost 3 years now and saved us lots of money. If we do need to make a long distant call to someone who does not know our system, we use a calling card. In fact, one calling card ($10 in value) lasted us over 6 months.

Calling card or no calling card, you too can save money on your phone bill. If our calling system is not appealing to you, reduce your phone bill by canceling all the extra services like caller waiting and caller ID. Ask yourself if you really need these services. Yes, I can find lots of excuses to justify the convenience of knowing who is calling me. But I can live without this luxury and I promise you too can live without it. You may say that it is only $20 dollars more a month but that is also $240 dollars a year. There are many more ways to save money on the phone bill and I would love to hear from you. What is your money saving trick?