Use Your Broadband Connection to Save Money

This is where I get all cocky and proudly report that I've done everything recommended in a New York Times article before the article was published.

David Pogue's recent article "Many Ways to Plug In to Tech Savings" lists several ways to cut back on what I call "copper spending": TV, internet, and phone service. Pogue's argument, which is common sense for anyone who's been on broadband for a few years, is that you can use your broadband internet connection to replace older, more expensive technologies.

His recommendations:

1. Cancel your cable tv or satellite service and watch TV online. Online TV is free through the major networks' websites and aggregator sites like Hulu.com or Joost.com. Online TV ads are just a minute or two per show, compared to 10+ minutes on TV.
   
2. If you can't go TV cold turkey, cancel all those movie channels. C'mon, is anyone really getting their money's worth paying for dozens of movie channels? Doesn't it make sense to choose the movies you want to see instead of what your provider is offering? Switch to a DVD-by-mail or on-demand download service like Netflix.com or Blockbuster.com. Cost: As low as $9.99/month.
3. Cancel your cell phone service and switch to a pay-as-you-go plan. Seriously, is cell service really worth $40 or more per month? You can get the same phone quality and connectivity on a T-Mobile pay as you go plan, which can be as cheap as $8-9/month. Yes, that's $8.00 or $9.00 per month.
4. While you're at it, cancel your traditional landline phone service. Why pay $60/month when you can use VoIP services like Vonage for $20/month or Ooma, which is 100% free after you buy the device (check Costco and Amazon for promotional pricing. We got ours for $190).
5. Buy refurbished computers. Or, don't buy them at all. Do you really need a 3.2 ghz chip? Do you really need Vista or Windows 7? If you're not doing processor-intensive tasks like video or sound editing, more RAM or a faster rpm hard drive will probably get you the performance you need. If you're attentive and quick, you can get people to give their old computers to you for free (see Freecycle, Craigslist) or for cheap (eBay). My desktop is a hand-me-down 1.7 ghz Pentium 4 with WinXP, and I got a similar laptop on eBay for $270. After some cheap upgrades, I've been happily using both for a few years now.
   

Check out my guide on ways to lower your phone costs.