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Virgin Mobile today announced the lowest price I’ve seen for unlimited wireless calling at $79.99 per month. The plan, which requires you to pay upfront every month but requires no contract, is available July 1. Virgin operates on the Sprint network. I’m not necessarily endorsing that deal, but it highlights a recent trend among wireless carriers offering calling unlimited plans. Some include unlimited texting and data, while others don’t. Calling is getting cheaper and cheaper all the time. These recent developments point to a few tips:

• It’s never been a better time to cut the cord by canceling your landline and going only with a wireless phone, assuming your wireless phone works throughout your home. This is especially a good idea for on-the-go young people.
• Consumers might be lured into buying unlimited plans, even though they would be better off with a cheaper plan because they don’t use enough minutes to warrant “unlimited.” I’ve heard a break-even of about 1,500 minutes a month. I’ll be researching this topic soon.
• You have to pay attention to telecommunications services regularly because companies offer new deals and prices regularly.
• Light wireless callers, who use 300 minutes per month or fewer, are likely to be better off with a prepaid wireless plan. Good ones are available from Tracfone (same as Net10) and T-Mobile, as well as the aforementioned Virgin Mobile. (Since I switched to prepaid in March, I’ve cut my wireless expense from about $43/mo to $10/mo., averaging usage of about 85 minutes per month.)

There are many ways to get bargains on books and audio books. The best is getting them free from your public library. You could also get them used online at such sites as Half.com. Even Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble (with a membership) have decent prices. I personally have a subscription to Audible.com to get digital audio books.

Here are two for travelers that you might not have heard of. They come from a past issue of Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter. (Oct. 2007)

1. By plane. Buy a book in the airport bookstore, read it and return it within six months to another airport bookstore to get half your money back. The stores must be owned by The Paradies Shops, which include The New York Times Bookstore, CNBC News and TravelMart. It doesn’t even matter what condition the book is in, as long as you have the original receipt. For information, see the Read & Return program at TheParadiesShops.com.

2. By automobile. If you like audio books on long car trips, stop at Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores. Buy tapes and CDs at one Cracker Barrel and return them to another. Your refund will be minus $3.49 for each item per week.

Bankrate.com, a great source for a variety of personal finance information, today released a Debt Management Guide. It integrates some of the helpful calculators on the Bankrate.com site.

Best of all, it’s free.

Look for several upcoming Spending Smart newspaper columns, by yours truly, on one of the fundamental components of debt, learning about your credit reports and credit scores.

I consume a ton of personal finance stuff every week from books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, news releases, etc. Most of it is a rehash of stuff I’ve seen a hundred times before. When I run across something interesting, I set it aside or make notes.

Here’s a rundown of some stuff in my “interesting” pile.

-Rewards and loyalty cards are everywhere, but many are not bothering with. Consumer Reports, July 2008. I think rewards credit cards for those who pay off balances every month are fine and you need a supermarket loyalty card. Most other cards are probably more hassle than they’re worth unless you’re a frequent customer.

-Favorite coupon-clipping service, thecouponclippers.com, The Wall Street Journal, Cranky Consumer, May 22, 2008.

-Favorite travel-booking site, SideStep.com. For international flights, Mobissimo.com, Clark Howard radio show podcast. June 2008.

-Gas-price scouting sites, GasBuddy.com, GasPriceWatch.com, gasprices.mapquest.com. Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2008.

-Keep your credit utilization – the amount of credit you use compared with your credit limit – below 10 percent to earn the most points on your credit score. John Ulzheimer of Credit.com in BottomLine Personal newsletter, April 15, 2008.

-Gas myths. Morning fill-ups aren’t better than any other time. Air conditioning and driving with windows down don’t affect mileage much. Dirty air filters doesn’t affect fuel economy. Consumer Reports, June 2008.

-Compare target-date mutual funds, tdbench.com. BottomLine Personal, May 1, 2008.

-Car buying is less expensive than leasing. A 2008 Honda Accord EX would cost $4,597 more to lease. Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter. April 2008.

-Don’t buy gold as an investment. The value of $10,000 invested in gold during the last gold runs in 1980 would now be worth $10,600. The same invested in the S&P 500 stock index would now be worth $279,000. Money magazine, April 2008.

-Best travel reviews, tripadvisor.com. ShopSmart magazine.

-Positive review of Mint.com, a free budget and money-tracking service. Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2008.

-Upper- and middle-class white Americans are the biggest users of coupons. CMS coupons research firm.

HSBC Direct, the online-only division of mega-bank HSBC, this morning raised its savings rate to 3.5 percent. While that doesn’t sound like a high rate, it beats most others available now.

I think it’s a good idea to have your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses stashed in an account like this. They’re also good for squirreling away money for specific short-term savings goals, such as buying a house or saving for a car.

Other online-only banks that traditionally offer high rates are EmigrantDirect (currently 2.75 percent) and ING Direct (3.0 percent). Rates change regularly, but you won’t go wrong stashing cash in one of these three online banks. These divisions of regular banks can offer higher rates because they have no branches, tellers and other expenses because they’re online only.

All three banks have FDIC insurance, meaning your money is safe up to $100,000 even if the banks go belly-up, which is pretty unlikely anyway. The main drawback of these accounts is you often don’t have instant access to your money. Usually, you have to electronically transfer money from the savings account to your checking account, which can take a few business days.

Another option for even higher rates is to go with a rewards checking account. Read more about those accounts here. To further research savings rates, go to Bankrate.com.

The pitch: Earn 6 percent on a bank checking account with no ATM fees and free online bill paying.

The catch: You have to make 10 debit-card purchases per month, create at least one direct deposit and get an electronic statement instead of a paper one.

If you can handle the requirements, this offer from Southern Community Bank and Trust in North Carolina, at www.smallenoughtocare.com, might be a good account for you. The bank can offer such a high rate of interest, in part, because those debit-card purchases — which must be made with a signature, not entering a PIN number – are very lucrative for banks. It passes on some of that profit to you in the form of a higher savings rate.

Southern Community Bank is one of many small banks offering such “rewards” checking accounts. For others, see http://www.highyieldcheckingdeals.com/

Most banks cap your interest-earning balance at $25,000, although some have higher limits.

In print, on TV, on radio and in live presentations, I talk about spending money smarter. One of the examples I often use is getting prescription eyeglasses starting at $8 from ZenniOptical.com. I have two pair myself and am satisfied with them. (Full disclosure: I learned about the site from consumer advocate Clark Howard.)

Today, an announcement comes from EyeBuyDirect.com, which undercuts that amazing price by a nickel. It offers prescriptions glasses – frames and single-vision lenses – for $7.95. Shipping for both online retailers costs you $4.95.

One advantage of EyeBuyDirect.com is you can upload a photo of yourself and “virtually” try on the glasses by superimposing the frames on your photo. I don’t know how much it helps in trying to pick out frames, but it seems better than nothing. In buying my glasses from ZenniOptical.com, I was just guessing at how they would look.

At the least, either retailer could be a great place to order a backup pair of glasses for around $13.

Citing increased costs of dairy ingredients and energy, the nation’s two largest ice cream makers have been downsizing. They reduced their 56-ounce cartons to 48 ounces, according to MousePrint.org.

This is the second time in the past four to five years that Nestle (maker of Dreyer’s and Edy’s) and Unilever (maker of Breyer’s) have downsized their products. For decades up to that point, the half-gallon container (64 ounces) had been the industry standard.

“Unfortunately, unless shoppers check the net weight statement on the package, they may not realize they are getting snookered,” said Edgar Dworsky, editor of MousePrint.org, a consumer education blog that spotlights the “gotchas” in the fine print of advertising. “Downsizing is a sneaky way to pass on a price increase because the product looks the same, the shelf price remains the same, but you are getting less for your money.”

Neither manufacturer calls attention to the reduced contents of their packages. The new Breyer’s container is the same height as the old, but with subtly tapered sides. The Edy’s package is slightly shorter. Dworsky said other ice cream manufacturers are likely to follow Unilever’s and Nestle’s lead.

This has been going on for years for a variety of products. For example, Hellmann’s mayonnaise in 2006 reduced its typical jar size from 32 ounces to 30.

That’s why it’s always a good idea to compare unit prices, such as cost per ounce. Bring a calculator to the supermarket to do the math or use your cell phone, most of which have a calculator function.

You might have missed it, but besides help some consumers are receiving to avoid mortgage foreclosure, there’s been other good news.

• Walmart today began expanding its discounted prescription drug program to offer 90-day supplies of popular generic drugs for $10 and lower the prices on more than 1,000 other drugs. I know some people can’t stand Walmart for a variety of reasons. But this is good news for people struggling to afford prescription drugs. More about it here.
• On Friday, the Federal Reserve proposed new regulations for credit card companies that will limit some of their more unsavory practices. More here.
• The bad news on Monday? Oil prices hit a record $120 a barrel. That’s gonna hurt, maybe as soon as the next fill-up.

As more consumers struggle to pay the mortgage, Sheila C. Blair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., offered this advice in a speech I attended this morning at the annual conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in Baltimore. Blair’s photo is at right:

• Work with a reputable housing counseling agency. Many are the same that offer general credit counseling. Some of the good ones go by the name CCCS, Consumer Credit Counseling Service. See this column on how to choose a good credit counselor.
• Call your loan servicer. This might or might not be the bank that originally approved your mortgage. It’s the company you now send checks to.
• Seek a loan modification. With a loan modification, the lender generously modifies your loan terms – such as extending the length of time you can remain at a favorable interest rate. This is different than a mortgage refinancing, which will incur fees. “These loan modifications are supposed to be free,” Blair said. “There should be no cost with a loan modification.”