Broadband Internet is the American way when it comes to Internet service of choice. Americans love things that are bigger, faster and stronger. In the auto Industry we Americans are addicted to SUV’s. Our fast food places have our favorite giant burger, like the Big Mac, and the all American Internet service of choice is of course, broadband.

Though we prefer bigger and better, there are those who are content with small economy cars, a burger from the dollar menu, and dial up ISP. No, these people aren’t cheap, their frugal, and a wise group at that. In today’s economy it pays to pinch your pennies. Some people just aren’t impressed by high speed Internet since it cost’s more.

What the frugal may be unaware of is the usefulness of broadband Internet access can far outweigh the cost and even save you some money. Not just a little money, a whole lot of it! I know, you’re wondering how broadband can save money when it costs more than dial up ISP. In a word, technology. That’s right, put your broadband Internet to work.

Broadband Internet can save you money in ways you never thought possible, like gasoline and wear and tear on your automobile. Broadband Internet can even save you money on entertainment cost’s such as movie rentals, and music CD’s. Broadband Internet even saves you time wasted browsing online, and for some of us time is money.

How can broadband Internet save money on gas? Just think about this, how much money in gas does it cost you to go out and rent a movie on DVD from the rental store? Just one gallon is over 2 dollars. How much gas do you burn making that trip each year? How much rubber is worn off your tires and how many miles is added toward the next oil change?

With broadband Internet you can download your own movies. Some online movie rental stores charge you the same amount for 30 days as your local rental store charges for 24 hours! You can even download some movies for free and burn them to DVD. The same concept applies to things like movies and video games. The list is endless.

Did you know broadband Internet can save you a ton of money on phone service? If you have broadband cable or DSL you can take advantage of VOIP or voice over Internet protocol. VoIP also known as broadband phone service can cost as little as 15 dollars a month, and the big advantage to this is it offsets the higher cost of broadband Internet access immediately.

Even if dial up ISP were free, it could never save you any money and is hardly as useful as broadband. I am sure you can think of other ways to reduce your cost of living by using broadband. So to the frugal I say, keep your economy car, order from the dollar menu, but by all means, take advantage of the overwhelming usefulness of broadband Internet access. You’ll be glad you did.

Daymon Hoag is the Editor for Cheapest Service and provisioner of Cheapest-Service.com High Speed Internet

Tags: broadband, cable, cheapest service, dsl, high speed internet, internet, internet access, isp, usefulnessbroadband, cable, cheapest service, dsl, high speed internet, internet, internet access, isp, usefulness

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You’re always broke. At least, you feel that way. Your savings account is collecting
more dust bunnies than the corner under your bed and your paychecks just don’t
seem to stretch far enough. Take heart: With a few simple tricks, you can save more
than $100 each month.

1. Get a library card.

That often overlooked piece of plastic is your passport to good free stuff like
movies, books, and CDs.Why Pay $3 to rent a movie? Or spend $20 on that new
novel by so and so that you just have to read? Borrow them for free at the library. It
is a treasure trove of good stuff. You never know what you’ll find !

2. Cook at home.

Pack that lunch. Forgo that dinner out and fire up your stove. Eating out eats money
faster than the IRS. Watch this add up:

3 lunches out during the workweek @ $7 each =$21

2 dinners out during the week @ $11 each = $22

Grand total for the week =$43

If you do it every week for a month = $172/month

Every month for a year = $ 2064

That’s a lot of lettuce. Wouldn’t you rather use that money to go on vacation or pay
off your Visa bill? Eating at home is better for you and a whole bunch cheaper.
Not knowing how to cook is no excuse. Invest in a good cookbook and use it. (Or
borrow one from the library!) I bought a copy of 1001 Low-Fat Recipes and haven’t
looked back since.

3. Thrift baby, thrift!

Don’t go to the mall and spend $20 or even $60 on brand-new clothes. Go thrifting
instead and spend five. This year, I bought two like-new sweaters — one Banana
Republic and one Express — for a grand total of $7. Now isn’t that better than $50
each?

You never know what is waiting for you at the thrift store, but that’s half the fun.
And, your money is going to a help a nonprofit rather. It’s almost like shopping
without guilt.

4. Check that bank statement!

Do you know what magic fees the bank is charging to your account?

How much is the bank charging to maintain your checking account?

Can you get a free account or a better rate?

Are they crediting your account correctly?

Is a company still deducting automatic payments even though you cancelled your
service?

Keep your eyes peeled. Most of all, watch those ATM charges. Using the ATM can
cost you a bundle in fees. If you use another bank’s machine watch out. You’re
getting charged twice — once by your bank and once by the other– just to grab
that quick $20 you needed for lunch.

5. Make Your Own Vanilla Soy Latte.

Starbucks is everywhere, and their creamy fancy coffee drinks are good. Too many
will lead you straight to the poorhouse. Don’t go cold turkey, by any means. Cut
back or make your own steamy beverages.

My husband was drinking us out of house and home, buying three cups of $2 coffee
a day. So we bought an industrial-size thermos and some coffee beans. We send the
thermos to work with him everyday and keep those precious dollars in the bank.

My weakness is hot chocolate. The other day I paid $4 for a grande hot chocolate at
a local cafe. That one glass cost me more than one gallon of milk, so I decided to
turn cheap and start making my own at home and at the office.

6. Drink That Six Pack at Home This Weekend.

Do you really need to spend $50 every Friday night boozing it up with your friends?
When I was single, I spent all that and more every weekend just to go out and
socialize. I’m not asking you to be a recluse. Just give up one of those nights every
month and use the cash for something else. Pay extra on a student loan or tuck the
money away in your savings account to help buy freedom from your slave-driving
boss.

If you’re feeling really ambitious, give up two nights a month and invite your friends
over for movies and beer instead. Drinking at home is much cheaper, and you still
get to hang out with your friends.

7. Get on the Phone or on the Internet and Haggle.

Call your credit card companies and haggle for a lower interest rate. If they won’t
give it to you, switch to a low or no interest card. Last year, I switched from a high
interest card to one with no interest for six months. I saved a few bucks while I paid
off the balance. It’s worth it. Why give 20 percent or more to the people who send
you nasty bills and revel in your financial ruin?

Search for coupon/ discount Web sites and see if you can lower your utility and
phone bills or car insurance by switching carriers. Be sure to read any fine print on
deals that seem to good to be true.

Oh, and don’t forget the phone company. Do you really need call waiting, privacy
manager and wire maintenance service? I didn’t think so.

See? That was easy. Now you are well on your way to saving money each and every
month.

Denise Trowbridge is an award-winning journalist residing in Ohio. Her work has
appeared in newspapers and magazines across the United States, as well as on her
site http://www.DeniseTrowbridge.com.
Denise is also the editor of the women’s Web magazine,
http://www.PussycatMagazine.com.

Tags: get out of debt, save money, spend less moneyget out of debt, save money, spend less money

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Electronic device manufacturers and content producers have
got to back away from the forest and see the light filtering
throught the trees. Consumers want to control the content
they purchase and want to be able to use their electronic
devices together without restrictions placed on them.

Standards and interoperability will have to come to digital
devices, just as Google co-founder Larry Page said in his
Consumer Electronics Show keynote speech when he introduced
Google Video. Right now, only those video’s purchased through
Google Video that are NOT copy protected will play on video
iPods and Sony PSP’s - the rest only work on Google Video.

http://www.google.com/press/podium/ces2006.html

That news about Google Video and Digital Rights Management
(DRM) standards of interoperability had me fuming about my
inability to use my content (photos, movies, music) on
devices made by different manufacturers or between cell phone
providers. Today I ran across a story about an Anti-DRM group
in Britain campaigning to demand an end to DRM.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/18/drm_consumer_opposition/

Obviously I’m not the only one disturbed by the fact that I
cannot move digitally recorded movies from my Tivo to my DVD
recorder (purchased for exactly that reason, but before I
knew it wouldn’t work) I only found out that I couldn’t
record movies from the Tivo to the DVD recorder when I called
Pioneer customer support to ask why the recorder wouldn’t
record my movies. It seems that I can only move digital
movies from the Tivo to my computer (which I found I could do
with free Tivo Desktop software when I called Tivo customer
support.)

So instead of recording directly from my Tivo to my Pioneer
DVD recorder, I have to move the movie over to my computer
via Tivo Desktop software, then burn a DVD from my computer.
Very smart move on Tivo’s part, as it means I definitely
won’t buy the DVR from my satellite TV provider because they
don’t support skipping commercials, nor do they support
moving movies to my computer.

This also means I don’t NEED my Pioneer DVD recorder - so
their DRM which stops Tivo digitally recorded movies from
recording to DVD means that I won’t use that Pioneer DVD
recorder and will now sell it. The other DVD player connected
to my other television will suffice. If I want to record
something, it goes on the Tivo because it is so easy to use
and works so extremely well. I’ll use the free Tivo Desktop
software and move it to my computer and burn DVD’s of my
recorded television and movies there.

Clearly Tivo is doing all they can to make their device
consumer friendly - but they are being besieged by television
and movie content producers, who are screaming at them to
stop the “piracy” of their users. Tivo now disables the 30
second commercial skip button daily (which you have to know
how to program - Select, Play, Select, 3-0, Select). They do
this via automatically updated internal software because
advertisers screamed at them for several years about the
consumer ability to skip commercials. The result is that I
reprogram that function daily anyway - annoying, but not
nearly as annoying as not being able to control my own device
the way I want to.

I’m convinced that content producers will lose this battle
over the long term and I’ll do all I can to fight them
myself, like supporting anti-DRM groups wherever I find them.
And I’ll research more thoroughly before buying products
which contain DRM to make certain they will work with my
existing devices - meaning no Sony CD’s or DVD’s. There have
been rumors that Apple is creating a set-top box and service
similar to Tivo and I’d buy one in a split second as I’m sure
I could use my iPod, iMac and iPhoto seamlessly between all
devices.

Maybe they’ll make a phone with a Mac OS and a PDA as well (I
actually used to own an early Apple Newton PDA and oh, how I
wish they had continued to develop that wonderful little
thing). I’m happy to use anything Apple produces - but I
won’t switch cell providers or switch my Satellite TV
provider. Interoperability and standards are essential to me.
It’s about choice. Pioneer limited my choices and lost a
customer and Motorola lost my ROKR iTunes phone business
because the device is only available from Cingular.

Obviously, I’m a Mac user and had studiously avoided
purchasing Windows machines until I had to buy a Windows box
to run business software not available for my Apple machines.
So I bought an extremely cheap $299 PC to run the three
programs that won’t run on my Mac. That cheap machine now
serves as my DVD burner for movies (with a cheap external
hard drive as movie storage drive). Pioneer lost a customer
because they don’t allow me to record movies to DVD from my
Tivo. How about a Tivo/Apple partnership? That would be a
marriage made in heaven due to the customer-centric design
and usability so elegantly addressed by both companies.

I’ll put up with Apple’s walled garden (iTunes and
proprietary AAC files) and their own DRM only as long as
everything they make works seamlessly together. Apple
products always have worked elegantly together and probably
always will. Somehow most third party software seems to
interact well with everything else on the Macs. The moment
Motorola makes that ROKR iTunes phone available through MY
cellular provider, I’ll consider buying that phone.

Being in the market for a phone, I had been looking at a Palm
Treo 650 phone/PDA and was excited when they introduced the
new 700 model, just as I was about to make that purchase. So
I read a few reviews and discovered to my horror that Palm
just fell victim to the dominance of Microsoft and replaced
their own well designed Palm operating system on that new
Treo 700 with a buggy, slow and cumbersome Windows OS!

In the process they lost another customer, because I can’t
stand the clunky way one must navigate with Windows
(reviewers agree) and refuse to buy that machine now, the
same way I avoided all other PDA’s running Windows for the
past 10 years. This is all because Palm couldn’t port
Microsoft documents and Windows related bits to the Palm OS
when corporate users required that interoperability. Thanks
to Gates & Company, Palm lost another customer - and their
own elegant OS.

If mainstream electronics device manufacturers continue to
take the path of least resistance by kowtowing to content
producers, lowest common denominator software and stifled
functionality and interoperability, then consumers will
eventually find a way to take back the control. We’ll avoid
buying products (CD’s & DVD’s, “rented” music) that don’t
work with their existing devices (Tivo’s, DVD recorders,
PDA’s, iPods) and will find companies that make all of this
stuff work together and buy from them - but only so long as
ALL devices and ALL content work with each other
interchangeably.

Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
Specialist and blogs about web content at:
http://
weblogs.Publish101.com and distributes articles about
business at: http://
Publish101.com while operating a small
business ecommerce tutorial at: http://WebSite101.com

Tags: apple, cell phone, digital rights management, DRM, iPod, Mac, movies, music, photos, videoapple, cell phone, digital rights management, DRM, iPod, Mac, movies, music, photos, video

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