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February 9, 2006

14+ money saving computer user ideas

finance — by TDavid @ 1:33 pm PST

In the last 60 days we’ve saved over $200 USD a month by eliminating some excess from our computing lives. How much excess is in your computing life? Time to get out the budget sheet.

Below are some money saving ideas focused on the internet and computing. All of these are ones we’ve tried ourselves or are in the process of trying. Not all may be appropriate for all computer users, but if you can even snag a few ideas here and trim some fat, it’s well worth the reading time. At the end, feel free to add your own computer-related money saving ideas in the comments and we’ll see if we can make this a list of 100 or more tips, tricks and ideas for saving money:

  1. Switch to VoIP. We saved over 75% on our telephone expenses by switching to VoIP nearly two years ago for both our home (completely) and both our businesses (75% of lines converted to VoIP, we kept a couple lines with the traditional telco)
  2. Keep a running list of online subscriptions, time spent using, and axe the ones you aren’t using. MMORPG might be cool, but if you haven’t logged into WoW in the last couple weeks, maybe it’s time to cut that one loose? Some online role-playing games like EverQuest will keep your characters activated after a certain level, so you could always come back later and continue onward. Games in general can be major time and money pits, so look very carefully at your online games spending.
  3. Consider turning your online hobbies into mini businesses. If you love Second Life, for example, can you make enough $Linden to offset your subscription costs? Wired ran an article recently how some SL citizens are making over $100,000 USD a year inside Second Life. For example, I became a SL citizen on 12/31/2005 and already have seen how $50 USD a month can be made, after land tier fees and premium membership fees. So this $50 USD could be used to offset other online subscriptions (see #2)
  4. Setup a MythTV box or buy a Media Center PC instead 0f subscribing to TiVO or paying the cable company extra for a PVR box. Yeah, TiVO might be cool, but unless you are a developer who writes programs to plug into TiVo Series2 devices, why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free?
  5. Those with cable internet, stop renting the cable modem. You can buy a cable modem at your nearest retailer for 50 bones. Yeah, if you rent one for a three bucks a month, but let’s say that modem lasts 24 months, at $3/month that is $72 for a cable modem. You roll the dice that the modem you buy will last and odds are it will.
  6. Curb the practice of buying media multiple times. I’m really, really bad about this one and it’s definitely a cost cutting area. For example buying the Lost download via iTunes instead of PVR’ing it or waiting and buying it on DVD. Patience is a money saving idea in itself.
  7. Buy annual subscriptions or lifetime subscriptions instead of monthly for services you use regularly and believe will last three years or more. The cost break for an annual subscription is usually fairly substantial. Using Second Life as an example again, it costs $9.99/month ($119.88) vs. $72 USD, which works out to a 40% savings. Yes, more outlay upfront, but if you turn your hobby into a mini-business (see #3) you could reduce these expenses.
  8. Use music subscription services to decide which tunes/albums to buy. And consider tip #7. Unfortunately not online music subscriptions are equal so you may not be able to demo all the music you are interested in, but these services can save music buyers lots of money.
  9. Don’t forget to cancel after trials if you aren’t that interested. Trial offers are there not just to try the product/service but also can trap lazy consumers who sign up and forget about them. The longer trials like 30 days or more are especially useful for seeing just how much use you’ll get out of the product/service. If the answer is very little, then cancel before the plastic starts getting banged.
  10. Buy magazine subscriptions in multiple-year deals OR wait until the very last minute to renew. PC Magazine likes to send me increasingly better offers the closer I get to the cancellation date. The last offer and sometimes even the offer after you are gone is the best offer. Be patient and wait for it.
  11. Consider eBooks vs. print. This is a new one for me and I must say that many eBooks are priced more favorably than their paperback equivalent. You have to get used to reading on the screen but once you do — especially those with Tablet PCs where the screens are like built for e-reading — you will rarely look back at those tree killers again.
  12. Use technology to save gas. Let’s face it, gas can be a major expense, especially if you have some gas hogging vehicle. Use services like Gasbuddy to find the best gas prices and then Google Maps or virtual earth to plot the best distance to/from stations. Remember if you have to drive 40 miles and get 20 miles per gallon to factor that into the equation. This could be a good mashup idea: something that would monitor the optimal fueling station for cost savings.
  13. Join the reward clubs. This one is controversial and people are still commenting complaining about Best Buy Reward Zone program, but there are reward programs for a lot of things that pay back free offers and money, and if you are spending the money anyway, why not get something back for it? You also will get your share of spam, so make sure to sign up with emails that go through extreme spam filtering.
  14. Plug everything electronic into a good UPS. A proven method of shortening the life of your computers and electronics is to plug them directly into the wall. Get a good quality UPS and not only do you get some much needed surge protection you won’t be subject to brownouts. How does this save money? Easy, you won’t have to buy a new circuit board that is fried.
  15. Use anti-static mats and/or ground yourself before touching the computer. Static electricity kills electronics. Those who work with hardware know this one can be a major money drain. Definitely don’t touch your keyboard after you’ve been playing Dance Dance Revolution in your socks on a shag carpet.

Will keep updating, as more money-saving ideas come in
This is what I have so far and would like to keep adding to the list (and thus increasing the number in the title), so do you have any good money-saving (or non money-wasting, whichever your prefer) suggestions? Please just list the ideas you’ve actually tried, not links to list of ideas by others elswhere (maybe we could start a separate list for that).

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  1. If you need more than one computer, consider virtualization. I use Microsoft Virtual PC (primarily because it comes with my MSDN Universal subscription). Not only was I able to eliminate one system that I used as a ghostable test system, but I also created separate virtual machines for each of my client’s software, so I wouldn’t get interference between their systems. It saves me a lot of time, which according to the famous equation, = $.

    At some point in the future, my wife and I hope to move around to maybe three different homes throughout the year, as well as doing a lot of other traveling. My plan is to build or buy a notebook that has enough horsepower to run my entire business (server, workstations, and test machines) as virtual machines. Even though I expect that notebook to cost a few thousand dollars by that time, the cost savings over replacing my existing five systems should be pretty good.

    Comment by Sterling Camden — February 10, 2006 @ 1:12 pm PST

  2. Save money with your computer

    Lifehacker reader TDavid has a nice list of ways you can save money with your computer. Sometimes these things are things you should stop doing… Keep a running list of online subscriptions, time spent using, and axe the ones…

    Trackback by Lifehacker — February 13, 2006 @ 7:52 pm PST

  3. Regarding TIVO vs. Myth TV/MEdia Center - that’s just not practical advice for average Joe. The time spent building a PVR out of a PC and making it work - could be better spent doing something else. TIVO may cost a monthly fee - but it just plain works and there’s nothing more to do. A 40 hour TIVO is $49 - say it lasts three years - at $13 a month. That’s $468. How much does a Media Center PC cost? Is it really worth your TIME to set one up or would you rather spend the $$$ amortized over a monthly basis and have something you never have to fiddle with?

    One of the biggest things that affected the things I spend money on is the Time vs. money comparison. How much time will you spend doing something to save money? If you compare your broken down hourly rate of pay - you can do the math. Your time is worth money, and if something costs but saves you time over the long run - it’s probably money well spent.

    –*Rob

    Comment by Rob Usdin — February 13, 2006 @ 9:08 pm PST

  4. Hi Rob - I’ve seen Media centers for $550 USD and they are getting easier to setup than when I reviewed one a year ago. Even TiVo isn’t completely painless for average Joe to setup. I’d be more apt to agree with your sentiments with MythTV on a Linux box, but the Linux geeks reading this (of which I consider myself, somewhat) are already doing that. The only viable reason for one of these type people to have a TiVO subscription is to write TiVO Series2 programs.

    The hourly rate vs. time spent is a good point but maybe average joe can barter that time out with his computer savvy friend to get the PVR rocking?

    I’ve setup computers for friends and been bartered out, so that’s something to keep in mind.

    Comment by TDavid — February 13, 2006 @ 9:35 pm PST

  5. Number 2 is a Male cow excrement. Quote from theinquirer.net: “Why pay anything for online. you pay 50 USD for a game and over top of that you would have to pay to play? Again, the term Male cow excrement comes to mind!

    Comment by anonymous — February 13, 2006 @ 9:41 pm PST

  6. Me, or the memory of me

    TDavid writes some money saving tips that really make me go hmmmmmm.
    Not that the tips are bad, which I guess they are not. Many make sense.
    I guess in this day and time there are good reasons for some of these tips. Like tip #3, how to make money…

    Trackback by Commented.org — February 13, 2006 @ 9:49 pm PST

  7. Another thought: Consider spending less on movies, music, and books by going to the local library.

    Comment by menotyou — February 13, 2006 @ 10:15 pm PST

  8. […] “14+ money saving computer user ideas” has some useful advice for saving money on technology. I am proud to say that I have recently done a few of things on the list, including 1) ditching our local phone line (although we got cell phones rather than VOIP) and 4) building a MythTV box. I was most impressed by how I resisted buying new hardware for my MythTV box as well. I was originally going to buy a new 250GB hard drive so I would have 120 hours of recording time. Instead I opted to stick with an old 10GB hard drive with only 6-7GB free (so 3 hours of recording time). Somehow I resisted spending that extra money on a bigger hard drive. Initially I thought that my MythTV box hadn’t saved me any money as the TV tuner card I bought cost $175. But when our main DVD player had to be given back to a friend I realized that the MythTV box could be used as a DVD player as well, rather than buying a brand new system. I hooked up a DVD-ROM drive I had laying around and so that saved some money. I also recently 11) bought an eBook rather than print. I paid about half the price (when you include shipping for the book) and only printed the chapters I needed using a laser printer fueled by dirt cheap toner refils from eBay. One thing I have not done is backed up my data recently! As mentioned in 14), you never know when something might happen. […]

    Pingback by Investing Intelligently » Blog Archive » 14+ Money Saving Tips for Computer Geeks — February 14, 2006 @ 4:39 am PST

  9. Switch to Linux from Windows. Windows not only costs lots of money per computer (usually a hidden cost, built in to the computer you buy), but also costs lots of time in maintenance (due to susceptibility to viruses and other malware). In addition, Linux comes with (in effect) a huge variety of free software, which is basically as good as corresponding commercial software for typical users (e.g. Open Office vs Word, Gimp vs Photoshop, etc). Finally, the time it takes to set up a Linux box with all the latest software is a small fraction of the time to set up the equivalent Windows box.

    Comment by Chuck Messenger — February 14, 2006 @ 7:21 am PST

  10. You missed a big one: Stop paying for software!

    Open Office completely replaces M$ Office. GIMP completely replaces Photo$hop. (For vector
    graphics, use Inkscape or GLIPS.) Audacity completely replaces payware sound editors. PDF Creator replaces Adobe Acrobat for 95% of users (some advanced Adobe features not implemented). Always check Sourceforge.net and NoNags.com for free alternatives before paying for software. All this stuff is in the “no-brainer” category.

    Save even more: Linux is free, and your local Linux User Group (LUG) has “installfest” events where competent volunteers will install the Linux flavor of your choice on any box you bring, for free. That knocks quite a lot off the price of a new computer, or enables you to resurrect a “slow old machine” by increasing its efficiency. Nearly all Win32 applications run on Linux, thanks to WINE.

    Comment by Steve K — February 14, 2006 @ 10:37 am PST

  11. Turn off the computers at night and when your at work, unless you need them running for something important. most bios will allow you to set a time for the computer to wake up.

    Comment by JStrider — February 14, 2006 @ 10:47 am PST

  12. I can’t read from the monitor, i become uncomfortable and then so distracted i can not remember anything i just “read”. i like to make use of my library. while i am there, i spent as much time as i can reading the book i just took out on loan. this gives me a good jump on the book. i also buy books from Amazon’s used section. great savings and yes, it is nice to save a tree.
    thanks.
    marty13

    Comment by Marty — February 14, 2006 @ 11:02 am PST

  13. […] Those visiting the website the last 12 hours may have noticed a number of “database down for maintenance” messages. Last night our recent post on 14 money saving ideas for computer users was linked by Lifehacker (thank you). All was going well there with that traffic burst, so I went to sleep thinking no problem. […]

    Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Hmm survives the perfect traffic storm, changes ahead [site news] — February 14, 2006 @ 12:53 pm PST

  14. [NOTE: this comment was made during the site transfer, if the original author would like to repost his/her comment this will be removed]

    Hi,

    Found your great article through LifeHacker.
    Had something to add that was money-saving and inspired by software, but not directly related to computers/electronics.

    -The Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts approach to economics. (I should have learned this in class; oh well)

    I was working in PShop on a job for Kraft and a friend said, ‘You should really learn the keyboard shortcuts. They might seem inconsequential, but the thing is, when you do PShop all day, you’ve probably done about 1,000 operations at least. If you can save a couple seconds on something you do even a hundred times per day, it really adds up over time.”

    So, I learned the shortcuts. -Which they promptly changed in the next version. Thx, Adobe! :)

    Some time afterwards, I walked into the supermarket and noticed that I kept buying the same stuff all the time.

    I started thinking, if there’s anything you buy a lot, just like doing repeated actions in photoshop, that is a commodity and you can horizontally (same/similar quality) substitute another product that costs even a small bit less, your savings over a month/quarter/year will really add up.

    For example, I save about $100/year on Soy Milk by going to the store across the street that prices it $0.30 less than the other.
    In percentage terms, it’s more impressive; ~35% less. I also save about $75/year on Cereal the same way. Etc, etc, etc.

    Oh well, hope this helps.

    -Will

    Comment by Administrator — February 14, 2006 @ 9:05 pm PST

  15. If you consider virtualization, for those who have no MSDN subscription or don’t support MS you can consider xen (www.xensource.com), read this oreilly article “What is Xen, and Why is it cool?” to learn about it (www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/6522?wlg=yes), and learn how to install it through this tutorial (http://cosi.clarkson.edu/knowledge/workshops/sp05/installingxen/xen-tutorial.html).

    The interesting point here for servers is to virtualize each and every service so if one fails, the others are unaffected.

    Comment by Iz — February 15, 2006 @ 8:29 am PST

  16. […] Make You Go Hmm: » 14+ money saving computer user ideas from digg. (tags: money computer) […]

    Pingback by links for 2006-02-15 at Akkam’s Razor — February 15, 2006 @ 9:00 am PST

  17. Money-Saving and inspired by software, but not directly related to computers/electronics.

    -The Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts Approach to Economics.

    I was working in PShop on a job for Kraft and a friend said, ‘You should really learn the keyboard shortcuts. They might seem inconsequential, but the thing is, when you do PShop all day, you’ve probably done about 1,000 operations at least. If you can save a couple seconds on something you do even a hundred times per day, it really adds up over time.”

    So, I learned the shortcuts. -Which they promptly changed in the next version. Thx, Adobe! :)

    Some time afterwards, I walked into the supermarket and noticed that I kept buying the same stuff all the time.

    I started thinking if there’s anything you buy a lot, - just like doing repeated actions in photoshop-, that is a commodity and you can horizontally (same/similar quality) substitute something that costs even a small bit less, your savings over a month/quarter/year will really add up.

    For example, I save about $100/year on Soy Milk by going to the store across the street that prices it $0.30 less than the other. (In percentage terms, it’s more impressive; ~35% less.) I also save about $75/year on Cereal the same way. Etc, etc, etc.

    Oh well, hope this helps.

    -Will

    Comment by Will — February 15, 2006 @ 10:23 am PST

  18. […] 14+ money saving computer user ideas - [Make You go Hmm] This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 11:35 pm and is tagged under computer, money . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Add this post to online bookmark systems . Leave a Reply […]

    Pingback by 14+ money saving computer user ideas - lifehack.org — February 15, 2006 @ 11:08 am PST

  19. Using a ups or powerstrip is great an added bonus is it’s easy to turn power off to all the devices thru the strip.
    which keeps the power transformers from drawing current.

    Comment by D.R. — February 15, 2006 @ 3:34 pm PST

  20. Beware of #14. While it may save you money (and time) on fried electronics, the UPS itself is constantly drawing power. The resulting electric bill may offset any cost benefits obtained from a consistent supply of power. The “Cool Tool” at http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001067.php may help you figure this out before you keep things on all the time.

    Comment by JLobster — February 15, 2006 @ 5:22 pm PST

  21. This one may have mixed results from some people, but if you find yourself (and some of your family) buying alot of stuff on amazon (or been considering it since you spend a fair amount of money at your local stores, but saw Amazon’s prices are much better, but can’t bring yourself to always buy there due to costs of shipping, since you end up only getting “free super saver shipping with orders $25 or more”). Then a good option might be to get Amazon’s “prime”. Yes, it costs $79 up front, but not only can you buy any item you want without having to “wait” and spend $25, but you get 2 day shipping for free and overnight for $4 per item. Four Dollars!! I spent more on regular shipping for a book recently just because I wanted to get the book and not wait for another 3-4 items. Now the feature amazon hides at first about “amazon prime” (That really makes it worthwhile) is the fact that you can share it with 4 other “household family members”. I think in theory they mean “people who live together”, but as long as the other family members have their amazon accounts created first with their own addresses, it works fine. My Mom has already paid for a good chunk of her subscription costs since she had wanted to buy 3-4 items on amazon and needed it in time for someone’s birthday (making the purchase on friday, needed it by monday) and they wanted to charge her $45 in shipping for overnight, she decided to get Amazon Prime, her shipping changed to $11. She decided to share the subscription with me and I have already bought 3-4 items in the past couple weeks. I don’t pay tax (amazon doesn’t charge for my state) and I get 2 day shipping, so my “instant gratification” is still moderatly satisfied. Now I have Amazon set up on my cell phone and when there is something really interesting looking at the store, I can price compare and amazon still beats them 85% of the time, so I just purchase it right there and don’t buy the item from the store. Also for those “used book buyers”, I realized buying new through amazon is still cheaper with prime: New book - $7.99+No shipping=Total $7.99, Used book - $4.99+$5 Shipping=$9.99, So STILL paying $2 more for used. I Don’t work for amazon, I just found this has already saved me alot of money on taxes as well as buying normal items since Amazon is cheaper.

    Comment by zyphbear — February 16, 2006 @ 6:33 am PST

  22. Great Savings Idea!
    It is amazing how much money leaks out of our pockets in the name of convenience.

    Now…do you know what that $200/month will be worth when you retire?

    Lets sa you’re 25 work til 65 and were able to invest with a 7% return, your savings would be worth $531,287.00. Not bad for cutting back on a few little extra’s checkout my site and calculate the value of your own savings.

    Comment by xoip — February 17, 2006 @ 11:37 am PST

  23. Saving Money

    Latest Update: Updated from a single link to a bit of content of our own and a couple more links.
    A page on being smarter with your money, to save you from having to spend all that precious creativity time working.
    Tips
    Buying Cheap Own Brands

    Works for

    Trackback by PigPog — March 1, 2006 @ 10:04 am PST

  24. Voip is making a major dent in cell phone company bottom lines and of course the standard landline companies. Vonage is growing at ridiculous rate these past few months. We have been using Skype for all our conversations long distance. Using Skype Out is also amazing. EXTREMELY low rates to call any cell phone or land line world wide.

    Skype has saved our bacon a few times now..

    Comment by Brent — April 5, 2006 @ 5:59 pm PST

  25. like the guy saying that MythTV is way harder to deal with than a TiVo I would say something similar about Linux… Linux is not for the “average Joe”, period. it is infinitely harder to set up to begin with and I just don’t believe that the average Windows user is prepared to make that leap…

    OTOH, there is some merit to switching away from Bill-ware apps. There are LOTS of ways to save $$$$ by not buying Microsoft apps or their gratuitous and expensive upgrades! You can find very capable free Office replacements, GIMPShop has been designed to look like full-on Photoshop, Picasa works well for someone who doesn’t take 3GB of photos every time they go out, … and that list can go on and on.

    I would like to test that claim about Windows apps running on WINE though… I have some apps that *if* they ran on WINE, I’d seriously have to think about moving off of XP Pro… Long term we will all have to move once the “industry” rams “trusted computing” (TCPA) down our throats!

    One more point about Linux vs. Windows; most people get Windows “free” (as in the cost is buried in the final system price) when they buy their new desktop or laptop. So switching to Linux isn’t going to “save” anyone anything… More to the point, when was the last time you saw a PC system offered with a lower cost if you buy it without Windows? It just doesn’t happen… (If you are talking about building a system yourself, well, that is a different kettle of fish since you generally do not get a copy of Windows along with your purchase of a bare motherboard anyway…)

    Comment by dennis — May 10, 2006 @ 4:15 pm PST

  26. […] Dynamic digg plugin The first was the Digg vote button which will dynamically appear on posts that have been dugg by readers (see example live post above). You can see an example of this pictured above and at the bottom of each post near the comment box. If you have a Digg account and somebody has already dug the post, then it will show the vote button and you can click it and send some love if you think the post is useful, interesting or entertaining. If somebody has not already dugg the post then it will show the “digg this” link. I have submitted a few posts in the past to digg myself, but it feels wrong submitting your own stuff, so I haven’t done it for a long while. I feel better asking readers to submit or vote on the posts they like. It helps the site, it helps me and in the end it will help you in the form of more posts of that type quality being produced in the future and made freely available. […]

    Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » How to add a dynamic digg vote this button, show related posts and more using Wordpress — October 15, 2006 @ 12:58 am PST

  27. […] Saving Money with your Computer - (via Lifehacker.) […]

    Pingback by Montblanc Pens » Saving Money — March 15, 2007 @ 6:00 pm PST

  28. […] Saving Money with your Computer - (via Lifehacker.) […]

    Pingback by Music and Songs » Saving Money — June 19, 2007 @ 6:38 pm PST

  29. I couldn’t agree with you more. The UPS tips are great, I didn’t know we will shorten our computer life by plugging it to the wall. Unfortunately though for the gas tips, the gas prices here fixed by the government, you either take it or leave it.

    Comment by Badxp — August 25, 2008 @ 12:24 am PST

  30. Saving money on a pc is actually pretty easy. You can pretty much do everything online so you really do not need an
    expensive computer.

    Companies like Google have a ton of web applications that allow for cheap low power computing.

    Comment by consumercowboy — September 5, 2008 @ 1:42 am PST

  31. VoIP is certainly the way to go, if you have a stable internet connection. Mine is good most of the time, but when it goes out, it drives me nuts! At least I have a cell phone when it blips out. I never had too much luck making money in SL, but a friend of mine makes what many would consider a decent annual pay out of it. Just amazing what you can do with a computer these days!

    Comment by Chris Hutcherson — September 30, 2008 @ 9:24 pm PST


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