This app is sort of like Google Voice, there are apps that will let you send text messages for free.
Download the app and voila and you can send messages for free.
Kinda like this, http://www.textplus.com/
http://www.textplus.com/rates/ I use text plus free app for texting at home, they also do phone calls for a fee (kind of neat to make a call with my tablet) the link has their per minute cost by country. (Edit: I got free minutes when I signed up, I don't actually pay/use the call service)
I use this for domestic and international texting and it's completely free. Problem solved. AT&T fucked me over and told me I had 1000 txts a month that could be used for both U.S. and Canada, as part of my Nation+Canada plan, but actually I only get 100 to Canada/month - and incoming counts towards that. So, it's really only 50. Been using this for a couple weeks, and I have no complaints.