Phone Phun

While prices vary from place to place, we can probably all agree that we pay too much for gas. If you work at home, that's not such a big deal, but if you live in the outer suburbs or a rural area and have a long commute into work, that can eat up a sizable chunk of your disposable income. You could drive around looking for the cheapest gas in town, but that burns up what you've already got, so that's probably not your best bet. Turns out you can get a good idea of what's going on, price-wise, in your neighborhood.

GasBuddy.com is a fuel price search engine. Go to their site with your web browser, enter your city and state or a ZIP code, and they'll report back what they know about gas prices in your neighborhood. And if you're out and about, they've got mobile versions as well at GasBuddyToGo, or you can send an SMS text message to 368266 with the text "gasbuddy" and your city and state or ZIP code (like gasbuddy 90001). They'll send you back a list of prices in your area, so you'll save a few bucks when it's time to fill up.

One of the handy conveniences of most cell phone plans is the fact that Caller ID is built-in. When the phone rings, you know who's calling. Typically, if that number matches one of your contacts in your address book, you'll see their name come up; otherwise, you'll at least get a phone number. But who is that unknown person that's calling? Or maybe they've blocked their number, but they left you a voicemail message that tells you to call them back just as soon as possible, but didn't bother to let you know who they are.

800notes.com is a free service that can help you answer those questions. Their database is built from user entries, people like you who got a call from goodness-knows-where. You can read what other folks had to say about the number—maybe they figured out who it is, or at least they can tell you what they heard when they called it back—and leave your own information as well. Now the spammers and scammers can't hide, and you won't feel so bad about not getting right back to them.