I found a few things on our bills that must have seemed like good ideas once, but not anymore. On our local bills, we're charged $7 a month for something called WirePro, which is insurance to cover home wiring problems. As with an extended warranty on a new TV, not having it is something of a gamble, but the money saved is worth the risk.

On the long-distance bill, we were paying $9 a month to lower our national and international by-the-minute fees. But even with the higher fees, we weren't making long-distance calls totaling $9 a month.

So that's another $16 saved--as long as our wires hold out and we don't go overboard on long-distance phone calls.

Into the VoIP

Luckily, we have another option for long-distance calls, and it's dirt-cheap, with nearly unlimited minutes: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).