by Tom Duffy
In these times of economic recession, it is important to save every penny that you can. The internet, as you all know, contains a vast world of services and products. A lot of them can save you money! You probably know about most of the services that I’m going to talk about here, but many people still aren’t taking advantage of them. So here’s my top 5 money saving internet services:
5. Online DVD Rental
Companies like Netflix have changed the way we can rent movies. A lot of people are already using Netflix, but the real money saving potential of Netflix is the combination of the Watch It Now feature and canceling any home cable or satellite services that you have. With more and more movies available on the Netflix Watch it Now site, it is obvious that we can pull our Netflix plan back to the 1 DVD at a time minimum and take full advantage of watching movies on our computer. I can already hear all of my readers who use Linux groaning. That is because Linux isn’t supported by Watch it Now which sucks, but it is still a very cool feature for Windows users. With Watch it Now, you can watch as many movies as you want on your computer with no extra fees. If you have a supported device, you can even stream the Watch It Now movies directly to your TV! Some of them are even in HD.
4. Free TV Shows
By cancelling cable or satellite services, we can save at least $50 per month. You would be surprised at how many networks allow you to view their shows on their website for free! CBS, NBC, FOX (no Linux support), A&E, and many more networks have full episodes that are viewable online for free. There are also sites that have many different networks to watch all in one place such as WWITV.
3. IP Telephone
Services like Vonage use the internet to make phone calls. That’s only kind of cool though because they still want you to pay 20 bucks a month for it. Services like Skype allow users to make internet phone calls from PC to PC for free! They will also let you make PC to Phone calls for very cheap. Sign up for Skype! Get all of your friends and family to sign up too! Then you can save cell phone minutes by using Skype when you are near your PC. After a couple of months you will probably notice that you can pull back your minutes on your mobile plan which can save you some cash.
2. Online Retail and Grocery Coupons
There are a bunch of online coupon sites that are not very good. If you are patient, you can find some real deals on some of them though. I’ve had the most success with Wow Coupons which allows you to print coupons right from your computer for use in various retail and grocery stores. Remember, every penny that you save adds up over time!
1. Host Your Website At Home
This one isn’t for everyone. If you have a website that you host through a hosting company, you might be paying anywhere from a few dollars per month up to 40 dollars per month depending on the hosting company and features. If you have an internet connection with a high upload speed, you should really consider hosting your own site. It takes some work and some patience, but it feels great knowing that you aren’t forking out any money to that hosting company anymore! The best part about hosting your own site is that you can get all the features that you need for free! All you need is a computer that you are willing to set aside as a web server. For an operating system, you should use Linux because for web servers, it is much better than Windows and it’s free. I recommend CentOS or Ubuntu Server. There is a ton of information available on how to setup a web server using Ubuntu or CentOS out there on the web. Do some research and start your project. If you don’t have a static IP address you can use a service like DynDNS which lets you host a site without a static IP.
All of these services can really save you some money! By canning your home cable or satellite service, your home phone service, and pulling back your mobile minutes you can save up to $100 per month…or more depending on what you were paying for them! With Skype, the key is really to get your friends and family on it. I hope this list helps you save some money in these tight times. Good luck to everyone!
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