When you are living on a budget it is important to see where your money is going each month. Are there any unnecessary expenses? Did you forget to opt out of that trial you signed up for months back? If you don’t need, want, or use it, it’s time to get out. Put that money towards some other area of your budget. Can you cut back on anything? We often sign up for more than we need or use just because a special deal was offered. Its time to reevaluate your choices and see if there is any way to cut some costs.

New technology emerges daily. There are some things out there that can really save you money each month. It is common these days for people to get rid of their landline phones and just use a mobile phone as their primary number. This can make a lot of sense when you look at the cost of a landline and all the taxes and fees associated with them. Some phone companies charge for calling features, have separate long distance plans, and line maintenance fees. But what if you aren’t ready to give up that landline? Are you stuck paying all these charges just because you want the school or doctor’s office to have a central number you are comfortable with? Maybe not! Let me tell you what we did to keep our house phone in operation but break away from crazy phone company charges.

Friends and co-workers were trying to sell me on making the switch for almost a year before I took action. Why did I hesitate? Because like a lot of people, I don’t like unnecessary change. I figured if my phone wasn’t hurting anybody and I felt better just having my landline, what was the harm. The harm was being done to our finances, it was slowly sucking away a chunk of our budget every month and there was no reason for it. If you are intent on keeping your home phone but are sick of paying what seems like a ridiculous amount for the small service I have one word for you folks… Ooma. Ooma is your answer to cutting ties with the phone company, paying a crazy reasonable amount for phone service, and all you need is an internet connection. It sets up in minutes and has a super easy setup guide with giant pictures so you totally know what you are doing. The best part, it only costs me $4.23 a month!!! Click Here to see how much you can save per month, it only requires a Zip code to find out!

Let’s talk a little bit about the upfront costs. There is the ooma telo device itself and the cost will vary depending on your preference. I purchased a refurbished unit, $69.99 at the time of this post, and am thrilled with it. For those of you a little leary of refurbs you can purchase a new ooma telo here for $90.93. As I mentioned earlier, setup is SUPER easy but follow the start-up instructions because there are steps you must complete BEFORE hooking your ooma telo to your computer. For some people, the device cost, will be their only cost, but it really depends on how attached you are to your current home phone number. When setting up your ooma, you will be given a list of available phone numbers to choose from. The number is of no cost to you and you must choose one to complete the setup. My total setup time was maybe 8 minutes and I was making calls with my new phone service only 10 minutes after opening the box! It was awesome! (*Note: They do sell “ooma cordless phones” but understand that you do NOT need to purchase a new phone to use ooma, I plugged the base unit of my multi-handset cordless phone that I’ve had for 10 years into my ooma and BOOM! I was good to go). Now switching to ooma is just like switching to any other phone company if you want to keep your current phone number, there is a one time fee to port the number over to ooma telo. The fee is $39.99 and once you submit the port phone number request to ooma it typically take 2-3 days to complete. DO NOT call your current phone company to cancel your phone service during this time or your phone number will be put back into queue as an available number for new customers. Wait until ooma notifies you the port is complete and give your home a “test call” to verify for yourself, THEN call to cancel phone service at your own company. That my friends, is the end of the road for cost-to-switch, there is nothing else to purchase, you just sit back and enjoy your new phone service and a nice chunk of savings each month!

Ooma telo service is available for home and business, I don’t personally have any experience with the business service but the business savings cost calculator looks pretty phenomenal. Ooma telo basic service includes free U.S. calling, comes standard with voicemail, caller Id, and call waiting. Free ooma-to-ooma calling anywhere in the world, and you can add on a low-cost international calling plan if you need to. The device is equipped with its own answering machine and can notify you electronically of voicemail messages if you choose. Click here to see all the features of ooma Basic service. When you activate your ooma, you are automatically given a trial of ooma premiere service. It is up to you if you want to keep the premiere for $9.99/month, and if you you don’t it is super easy to opt-out, just check a box and you’re done, no customer service trying to guilt you into keeping it, no long wait in a customer service phone queue, just check the box, submit, and done. I am LOVING my ooma phone service and saving $35.77/month, that’s $430 for the year!!! With that kind of savings, my upfront costs were a no brainer and I’m sorry I waited so long to make the switch. So what are you waiting for, go see what ooma has to offer!!!