The first recession ever ended

I'm however not sure I believe the first recession ever ended, and I sure hope things don't get any worse. I've seen many loved ones struggle as layoffs forced them into a difficult job market. I know families who have had one parent relocate out of state to find work and have to telecommute long distance with spouse and children. During technology helps, this is a difficult situation, however one some families have felt forced to make.

To change our financial situation, we must make more money, spend less, or both. That's budgeting, plain and simple. One way I cut my budget years ago was by cutting my home phone service in every way. I wasn't going to continue to pay a monthly bill for a landline out of habit, when my need didn't justify the expense.

Voice over Internet Protocol providers offer alternative cost plans that can save your family a home phone bill if you have high-speed Internet service. Ooma, Vonage and Magic Jack are then-known providers of this service. Many offer a porting fee allowing you to keep your current phone number, and all have differing cost structures.

Free adapter

Vonage is currently offering a free adapter, with monthly fees of $11.99 plus taxes and fees for domestic calls.

Skype and Oovoo are similar VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services that are free and do not require an adapter, using a computer or rather than a telephone. I use Skype quite often to keep in touch with my international friends and family members for long-distance visits on the holidays. I found Oovoo when trying to locate a cross-platform video conferencing service that would allow video calls from Android phones to Apple phones and computers; it as well works computer to computer such as Skype, and with a video camera on the computers, both work for free video calls.

Before canceling any contract, be sure you do not have to pay a cancellation fee on your current plan, and price the porting fees if you want to transfer your current phone number to a new plan. With VoIP phone plans, an interruption to Internet service would as well disrupt telephone service, as could a power outage if your adapter does not have battery backup.

I wanted to add that Google Talk will sometime in the near future start allowing you to port your existing landline number to Google Talk. That is you could keep a long existing landline number and have it forwarded to a cell or VOIP number without paying any fee.