It seems that now-a-days everybody has a smartphone. And along with such an awesome phone, comes an awesomely expensive phone bill. Not only that, but they can be used to help you organize your personal information. So here are a few ways to not only help you save money, but keep yourself in order…

1. Instead of talking on the phone for hours and hours every night, try using skype or Google Voice– skype can be used for both video and voice calls, and google voice is just used for voice calls. Also, they are both downloadable apps to your smart phone!

2. A major contributer to the high-priced bill are text messages. Everyone does it so much and often, that one person can average over 200 texts in just one day! Maybe even more than that, so try dowloading a free texting app; like TextNow or Textplus. Through these you’ll either be given a user name or an actual phone number, and they work just the same as texting!

3. If anyone else noticed, just about every store around has some sort of “rewards plan” going on. In these plans you can recieve points that’ll translate into free things, or some sort of store cash. Another thing with the rise in rewards, is the rise in the number of plastic cars you have in your wallet. Apps like CardStar or Key Ring Reward Cards digitally store the barcodes of your store loyalty card. This way, you’ll have it stored in your phone and won’t have one more piece of plastic to remember for your wallet or key ring.

4. You can quickly check to see if any online prices are better than what you’re seeing locally. You do this by scanning the barcode on the back of a product with your smartphone’s camera and a price comparison app. For iPhone, try RedLaser or Google Shopper.

5. Try switching to a pay-as-you go plan. If you are paying for a phone with a strict budget, then a pay-as-you-go plan is the perfect solution. You will never pay for minutes or data that you don’t need and you will never have to worry about those dreaded overage charges. Also, you can add minutes anytime you want, and even though you’ll be throwing down a little bit of money at a time, you’ll realize that you’re not spending all of your money on your smart phone.

Try some of these helpful hints, because in the end, it will really help! You’ll be able to watch your cell phone bill go down and spend that extra money on something new.