Your holiday cheer can quickly diminish when you first glance at your post-shopping credit card bills.
With the excitement of the season, holiday spending can easily get out of hand. But with these three tips you'll go into the new year with money to spare.
* Think before you shop. Impulse buying is what gets most people in trouble financially around the holidays. Budgeting is key. Make a list of who you're getting gifts for and how much you plan to spend on each person.
* Participate in free community events. Look in local newspapers for free concerts, light shows or other activities in your neighborhood that you and your family can enjoy.
* Keep in touch cost effectively. The holidays are a great time to catch up with friends and family. To avoid long-distance charges, send holiday cards, gifts or even a newsletter informing people of what's happening in your life.
Or try calling your friends and family over the Internet. Vonage, the leading broadband phone company, has come up with a way to make and receive phone calls without the high long-distance costs. With Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, phone calls are converted into data that you receive right through your high-speed Internet connection.
This service works with any touch-tone phone. Your loved one doesn't need to have Vonage for it to work. If he or she does, however, calling each other is free.
Vonage provides each subscriber with a free phone adapter, when purchased at www.vonage.com, allowing the phone signal to be sent over a broadband connection and into the Vonage network. Once plugged in, the adapter installs automatically. The adapter is also sold at various retailers.
Linksys, a provider of broadband, wireless and networking hardware, has teamed up with Vonage to offer consumers affordable and easy-to-use VoIP products for their homes or small offices. These products turn an existing Internet connection into a high-quality phone line for placing and receiving calls.
You also can get a secondary number called a virtual phone number. Even if you live across the country from your friends and family, you can talk to them for the price of a local call if you choose a virtual number in their area.
Vonage offers two calling plans, the Residential Basic Plan for $14.99 per month and the Residential Premium Unlimited Plan for $24.99 per month. The virtual phone number is $4.99 and is available with U.S., Canada and Mexico City-based phone numbers. - NU
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