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With all the new tech gadgets and services available today our tech budgets are getting bigger and bigger.  There are ways to trim the fat and put that extra money back into your pocket.  Here is MrCheapStuff.com 10 Tips to Slash Your Tech Bills By $1033.40

1.  Dump Your Landline - Savings $40/month or $480/year

If you have a cell phone it’s time to dump your landline.  I know it can be hard to give up but if you have a cell phone you probably get free long distance included in your plan.  Plus when was the last time you made a call using your landline?  I personally cancelled my landline service and have not looked back.  Just doing this can save you almost $500 a year.  You might also want to check out free VOIP services like Skype if you make a lot of calls.

2.  Pay Your Bills Online - 5 Bills x $0.39 = $1.95/Month or $23.40/year

This one is more about convinience and saving time than about the money.  Paying all your bills online gives you the peace of mind of not worrying if you paid on time or whether you forgot to pay your bill.  With most online bill paying services you can set up autopay.  You also have the peace of mind of not worrying about mail and identity theft. 

3.  Downgrade Your Cell Phone Plan - $10/Month or $120/year

This may not work for everyone but if you check your previous phone statements and realize that you fall way short of your available cell phone minutes then downgrading your cell phone plan can save you some money.

4.  Turn Off Your Computer - $5-$10/Month or $60-$120/year

I’m going to sound like a tree hugger but your computer is using a lot of electricity which is burning a lot of fossil fuels and a hole in your wallet.  If your like me you may have your computer on almost 24/7.  If you have a power workstation setup you could be using even more electricity than you realize.  It may even be costing your around $50 a month just to power up a power workstation.  Ouch!  Simply put turning off your PC will save you money.

Don’t forget to enable your monitor(s) to auto turn off when not in use and for your computer to at least go into standby mode.  Also here is another good tip, when your computer is off also flick the switch to turn off your power strip.  Your laptop/computer/electronics still sucks up electricity even when their not in use.  By turning off the power strip you prevent this with one simple flick.

5.  Unplug that Cell Phone Charger

Unplug your phone charger after your done charging your phone.  According to the Future Forests, only 5% off the electricity drawn is used to charge the phone the other 95% is wasted due to heat when not charging.  Ever notice how hot your cell phone charger is when it is plugged in.  Nokia is actually working on implementing an alert on their phones to remind people to unplug their cell phone chargers.  According to them, if 10% of the world’s cell phone users did this then it would conserve enought electricity to power 60,000 European homes per year.

6.  Share Your Wireless - $20/Month or $240/Year

Sharing is caring, but it can also save you some money when it comes to Internet access.  Even though this is not recommend by Internet service providers they do not enforce it (Please do this at your own discretion).  If you live in an apartment you may be even able to split your connection multiple times.  Just be sure you set up common access password.  A lot of ISPs even give wireless routers for free when signing up. 

7.  Don’t Buy the Shiny New iPod

I know it can be hard but hold off on buying the newest gadget out there.  If you wait a few months till the next generation gadget comes out you can get a much better price as merchants want to get rid of older models.  This hold true especially in the tech world as new products and services roll out so often.  You will get the most value for your money while still having a cool gadget.

8. Don’t Print Your Digital Photos - $50/Year

I’m going to sound unsentimental but you really don’t have to print all your digital photos because of all the great photo sharing services available like Flickr.  Today you can send photos by email and share them using online photo sharing services which are much more convinient for the both of you.  You can also burn your photos on a CD or DVD (cost about $0.20) instead and mail them to family and friends.

Also many people believe that printing their own photos will save them money.  I think that is what the ink industry must be promoting because the actually cost of doing this is probably much more than online printing services or digital kiosk.  They also do a much better job.  The cost of buying ink cartridges and photo paper to print your own photos just don’t add up.

Check out our coupon for free Shutterfly.com prints if your looking for an online photo printing deal.

9.  You think 99 cents is cheap for a song?

iTunes is the undisputed king of paid online music downloads but there are some better deals out there.  eMusic.com lets you download DRM-free MP3s for a 25 cents (40 downloads/month for $10 subscription).  Yahoo music also offers and unlimited access to over 1 million songs for $5 a month.

If your looking to save even more you can check out Allofmp3.com which is going through a legal battle right now but offers $0.10/track which is the lowest by far that I have found on the web.

10.  Go Shopping in Your Underwear

The competition on the Internet is fierce which means lower prices.  Shopping online allows you to get a huge selection and great deals.  Watch out for hefty shipping charges though as some merchants like to lower their prices and raise their shipping charges.  Subscribe to deal site RSS feeds or newsletters like the one here at MrCheapStuff.com.  They regularly pump out great deals and deep discount coupons from online merchants and even offer printable coupons for Brick and Mortar stores.

All together you could save up to $1033.40 not including savings by buying online and purchasing second generation products.  Although not everyone can do this even if you do a couple of them it can quickly add up.  If you like this article be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay current with all the deals, coupons and free stuff.    

Now the real question is what do I do with the $1033.40?

Any more tips or comments?  Please feel free to add your 2 cents in our comments section.

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