Basically, it is a little larger than a standard USB thumb drive or flash drive.
You plug it into the USB port of any computer with high speed internet access, anywhere in the world.
On the other side is a phone jack, like that which you plug your phone into the wall, at home
You can then plug ANY phone into this jack, and make regular calls on that phone like normal to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada for free, just as you would with a regular landline phone.
You are assigned a U.S. phone number, for which you pick from a large list of area codes in the U.S.
Therefore, anyone can call you no matter where you are in the world, as if it were a local U.S. call (if they had the same area code as the number you picked) or long distance U.S. call.
The product cost $40. This gives you unlimited calls for one year. Thereafter, it is $20 a year.

Applications:
For people settled outside of the U.S.:
1) This would allow them to make unlimited calls to anywhere in the U.S. for $20/year
2) The other person would NOT have to be a subscriber (i.e. you can call any cellphone or land line in the U.S.)
3) There is no static or delay, as is common with programs like Skype
4) People in the U.S. could call from their cellphone or land line to the person overseas with magicjack (the overseas person would have a U.S. phone number for this, making it local or U.S. long distance)

For people who travel frequently overseas:
If you take a laptop with you, and have access to high speed internet…then, you can take this small device with you (slightly bigger than a thumbdrive), plug it into your laptop, and then you can plug any landline phone into it to make unlimited calls back to the U.S.

Even for people in the U.S.:
You can get unlimited local and long-distance phone calls in the U.S. for $20/year (useful if you cellphone service has limited minutes, etc.)

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*You must have high speed internet access for this; dial up connections won’t work
*Your computer must be on, connected to the internet, with the product in your USB port, and phone plugged into it in order to make and receive phone calls from that phone.

Oh, and I have an idea for your next installment of this series. How do you give gifts to people (family birthdays, Christmas, etc) without breaking the bank? We spend an average of $50 per person for each birthday and then again at Christmas. Any ideas? I don’t want to give a gift that looks like I am being cheap, but also would like to save a little. Hope you have some wonderful advice as usual!

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Money Saving Mom here: We use Basic H and Basic G for pretty much 100% of our cleaning. Basic H is an all-purpose cleaner, Basic G is a disinfectant. Between the two of those, that pretty much covers all the bases.

I use the Shaklee laundry products, too. They do take some extra care (basic H on stains), but I really like the environmentally safe aspect.

The Shaklee Get Clean items were one of Oprah’s Favorite Things the last time she did them (2007).

Thanks for the great Blog

amity t.
michigan

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Money Saving Mom here: Hi, Amity! I’ve tried most of the other cleaning products from Shaklee (someone generously sent me samples of the whole product line to try!), but found that I only really liked Basic H, with Basic G being a close second. The laundry detergent was pricey and didn’t seem to work any better than regular laundry detergent.

As far as using Basic H on glass/mirrors, it takes a little getting used to to get the mirrors streak-free, but once you’ve got it, it works well.

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Money Saving Mom here: I’ve not had a problem keeping bathtubs and toilets white with Basic H, but if you are having trouble, you might try baking soda. It works really well on hard stains and grime and also seems to do a good job of whitening. Definitely try it out if you’ve not done so already!

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Money Saving Mom here: I personally didn’t especially love the laundry products or feel they were really worth the extra expense. We just use regular laundry detergent right now. I normally get whatever I can snag for less than $2 (on sale with coupons) and we usually go with Arm and Hammer’s Perfume and Dye free for Sensitive Skin or Tide Free.

I’ve tried making my own laundry detergent without success, but I know many folks who have done so very successfully. Tammy has a helpful tutorial here if you are interested:
http://tammysrecipes.com/homemade_laundry_soap_recipe

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Money Saving Mom here: Yes, ma’am! So far, I’ve not found a surface it doesn’t work on.