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Archive for the 'Alt+Save Money' Tag

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Cell phones aren’t cheap, how to save money

November 14th, 2008, 1:35 pm by

If your budget is getting crunched and the future looks dire, have you thought about getting rid of your cell phone? Well, if it isn’t that dire, there are several ways to cut back. 

The Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a nonprofit that has been publishing consumer guides for 25 years, offers five tips to help consumers save on mobile phones. TRAC’s five tips summarized:

1. Switch to pre-paid service. While calls cost more per minute, you only pay for what you use. With some pre-paid phones selling for as little as $15, this is a much more affordable alternative for those who talk less than 200 minutes a month. For texters, Boost Mobile recently launched a pre-paid plan with unlimited texting.

2.  Dump your landline. This is a good option for people who don’t use the landline much anymore and don’t have children at  home.

3. Opt for a more basic-rate plan, which could mean blocking text messages. Something obvious: Make calls at night and on weekends if your plan offers free minutes during those hours.

4. Mind the bells and whistles. You don’t really need customized ring tones, games or other software on the phone — especially if you can’t pay next month’s bills.

5. Don’t let telemarketers “steal” your minutes.  Sign up all of your phone numbers for the Do Not Call list at www.donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you wish to register.

Read TRAC’s full report HERE.

Other ways to save money on any cell phone:

More ways to save money:

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • | 4 Comments »

How to get cheaper cable TV in O.C., part 2

October 22nd, 2008, 9:45 am by

**UPDATE** Added comments from Cox Cable below.

I heard from plenty of readers yesterday after mentioning that a colleague called Time Warner Cable and got $40 knocked off her $170 monthly bill. 

Some readers have been doing this all along — calling the cable company every six months to successfully get a discount.  Others said they tried but the customer service rep shot them down.

I heard from folks who said they squabbled with Time Warner over the $10 difference that new customers get for the same package deal. And I heard from many people who recommended cheaper alternatives to cable TV — like AT&T’s U-Verse TV, Verizon’s FiOS TV and satellite TV services.

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I also heard from Cox and Time Warner.

Patricia Fregoso, the media person for Time Warner Cable in our area. She said that yes, if a current customer calls in, there’s a chance their bill will be reduced via the company’s customer “retention packages.” But discounts aren’t just handed out because a customer calls to complain about a bill being too high or a promotional discount expiring.

“Yes, of course our customer service reps do have latitude and often times, there are packages available that we can move folks to. Sometimes it works, sometimes not,” Fregoso said. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • | 10 Comments »

How to get cheaper cable TV from Time Warner Cable

October 21st, 2008, 7:13 am by

**UPDATE on 10/22** “How to get cheaper cable TV in O.C., part 2″

I’ll get right to the point: Call and ask for it.

That’s what my colleague Nancy “Fast Food Maven” Luna did over the weekend. After reading my post on Time Warner Cable last week (see “Time Warner Cable plans more channels in O.C. despite fines“), she complained to me about her $170/month bill for TV, Internet and telephone. I suggested she ditch the phone service and just use her cell phone, or opt for a cheaper alternative such as an Internet phone like Vonage (which I use for $25/month). 

Before making any change, she called Time Warner for a detailed explanation on every charge that appeared on her monthly statement.

“Of course, every crazy fee was fine. Then, I said: You guys are way too expensive, and I can find cheaper phone service elsewhere. Is there anything you can do for me? Are you running any specials?  She says, ‘ Let me check.’ Then the next thing I know, she gets back on the line, and knocks $40 a month off my bill,” Nancy told me.

And no, Nancy says she wasn’t mean or nasty and she didn’t threaten to leave. She asked why they were offering this and the Time Warner employee said, “We don’t want to lose you as a customer. So we want to help.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • | 42 Comments »

1 PC, multiple users, plus headlines that will save you money

October 18th, 2008, 8:07 am by

Deals and freebiesSince I can’t get to every story out there, I compile a list of money-saving stories to give you something to read on the weekends. I’ve been tracking money-saving tech headlines for a few months now and in the past week, there have been a ton. Most are just common sense tips, which we probably could all be reminded about. 

This week’s collection:

NComputing’s solution lets multiple users share a single PC and save money and electricity (The Nation) Looks at NComputing, in Redwood City, is pitching a PC subscription plan. Multiple people share one one computer through a virtualization process.  Each person, however, must have their own keyboard, mouse and monitor. But all are connected to the same PC. 

Six money-saving secrets to help stretch your tech budget (ZDNet) Buy refurbished hardware, get educational discounts, watch out for hidden costs — not a bad post.

Money-Saving Office Tech (Forbes) — Focuses on free and discounted software for wrting, spreadsheets and other office-type activities.

How to save money and stay tech-savvy in tight times (Austin American Statesmen) Mentions comparison shopping, cheap/free software and cutting back on some monthly tech expenses.

Money-saving tips for home-based entrepreneurs (The Street) – Do-it-yourself, outsource and barter.

78 Ways for Your Small Business to Save Money in this Economy (CRM) Categorizes tips into advertising, overhead, office items, insurance, travel and technology.

Save Money, Fire Your PR Agency (SitePoint) As the author points out, “…for many web 2.0 startups, PR is a luxury, not a necessity.”

Save money on groceries (ABC News) Not very techie, but several tips for the grocery-shopping crowd.

This week’s Gadgetress posts you may have missed:

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • | Comments Off

Blu-ray DVD players drop below $300, even $200

October 14th, 2008, 7:28 pm by

Wow, I just noticed that Blu-ray DVD players have really been dropping in price.

What sparked my search was news that Sherwood America, based in Cerritos, just introduced its first Blu-ray DVD player for $299.95. The  BDP-500 is pictured below (photo courtesy of Sherwood):

Sherwood’s model has 1080p video playback and lossless audio from both Dolby and DTS. It also plays regular DVDs by upscaling their quality so video appears high-def. The $299 price is MSRP, by the way, so when the player is actually available next month, chances are the ‘street price’ will be less. 

Blu-ray is the remaining high-def DVD technology, having won the VHS-vs.-Beta-like war against HD DVD format earlier this year. Maybe that’s why prices have finally come down from the intial $1,000.

Over at Amazon, there are quite a few Blu-ray players for under $300, including the Sony BDP-S350 for $278, the Samsung BD-P1500 for $225, Sony BDP-S300 for $249 and, well, pretty much every player is under $300.

The cheapest at Buy.com is $217, the Samsung BD-P1500, with free shipping.

But the best deal I could find on the Web was at a site I’ve never shopped at, the Consumer Depot, selling the Sony BDP-S300 for $169 (what, no remote?) 

Of course, these players should get even cheaper because it’s technology and, well, you know, technology prices always fall. Plus, I’m sure there will be a ton of deals for the holidays.  Besides, the movies aren’t that cheap at around $20 each so the boxes should be getting cheaper.

Hopefully this all means that Sony will soon be dropping the price of its $399 PlayStation 3, which has a built-in Blu-ray drive. 

Do I hear $100?

More deal-related posts:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • | 4 Comments »

eMachines finally comes out with sub-$300 computer

October 10th, 2008, 4:55 pm by

eMachines, now part of the Acer computer family based mostly in Irvine, finally offers up a PC just $2 shy of $300. It’s a 25 percent price drop from its $399 price tag that eMachines slapped onto PCs 10 years ago, which changed the entire price scene of the PC market. Until now.

Its first small desktop computer, the EL1200 Desktop Series PC, is an interesting offering for the brand, which isn’t known for its pretty PCs. But this must be different. Even the press release calls it ‘stylish.”

eMachines has come out with sub $399 PCs before but those usually had lesser hardware and weren’t that interesting. The brand started in Irvine, was later acquired by Gateway, which in turn was acquired by Acer last year. eMachines and Gateway are now brands of Acer.

All I can say is – About time! eMachines should have led the latest trend of budget-priced PCs (see “Netbooks everywhere. Do consumers really want them?“). The small form factor has already been done by everyone else, including Gateway. Dell has really nice-looking ones in the $599 range.

Getting back to the latest machine … The EL1200 is “one-third the size of a traditional PC,” according to the company. It’s 40 to 55 percent lighter than eMachines smallest desktop. Yet, as with traditional eMachines, the series “pack as much computing power as most mainstream full-size towers.”

The goods?

It has a 64-bit AMD Athlon 1.5 GHz chip (OK), 1 to 2 GB of memory (can add more cheaply), NVIDIA GeForce graphics chip (not bad), 160 GB hard drive (the going rate) and a DVD SuperMulti drive with Labelflash technology (fun!)

A nice touch: a low-power 15-watt CPU that uses less energy than a standard desktop (let’s hope so).

Two versions are available now. The $298 is at Wal-Mart. The $349 version, which has a larger hard drive and faster chip, is at Best Buy.

The new eMachines EL1200 models are available now. The EL1200-05w, available at Wal-Mart, has an MSRP of $298. The EL 1210-01e can be purchased from Best Buy, and has an MSRP of $349.

Specs are after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Computers • news • • • • • | Comments Off

D-Link’s free update lets users share a printer, more

October 1st, 2008, 8:16 am by

If you’ve always wondered why you can’t easily share a printer between multiple computers and never bothered to find out (you need a print server, a piece of hardware), it now is, apparently, that easy.

D-Link has integrated USB over TCP/IP technology into some of its routers so USB devices can be shared on a home network. The Fountain Valley company calls its technology SharePort and it’s a free software download for owners of its series of Xtreme N Gigabit Routers.

Just plug a printer, multi-function printer, external hard drive, scanner, etc. and anyone on the home computer network can use the device.

Explains Dan Kelley, D-Link’s senior director of marketing:

“This is different than building a print server into the router, as it uses a new technology called USB over TCP/IP that can support virtually any USB device. With the print server approach, you need to build drivers for printers directly into the unit, which can be difficult and a main reason we waited to get this new technology in place. It is nice to be able to go back to the thousands of existing customers and offer this free upgrade as this was one question we repeatedly received on our routers as to ‘Why can’t I use that USB port for storage or printers’.”

The upgrade applies to D-Link models DIR-655, DIR-825, DIR-855 and DGL-4500 Gaming Router with GameFuel. The SharePort technology upgrade is also available on the RangeBooster N DIR-628. Just visit D-Link’s upgrade page online.

This news coincides with a new D-Link router, announced today. The Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router (DIR-825), which also has SharePort, is $199.99.

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Posted in: Wi-Fi & networking • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Alt+Save Weekend: Save money, win stuff this week

September 28th, 2008, 8:14 am by

Deals and freebies

Welcome to the weekly deals report…

* Apple giveaway: Dotster is giving more stuff away. But it’s much better than a year’s worth of doman registration, which is only worth about $8.75/year. The freebie this time is four $500 Apple gift cards. That’s enough to buy the biggest iPod Touch and 100 songs.

There are two ways for a chance to win: Buy a domain from the company or mail in an entry. The latter requires mailing in a 3×5-inch card hand-written with your name, address and phone number and “Dotster Apple Gift Card Giveaway.” Mail it by Oct. 29. Here are the rules.

* Free museum admission: If you bank at Bank of America, you can get free admission to a bunch of museums on the first Friday’s of the month. In Orange County, only two museums are participating but they are pretty good ones: The Discovery Science Center and the Laguna Art Museum. Los Angeles includes LACMA, while San Diego includes the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Just bring any Bank of America card to get inside. Details at www.bankofamerica.com/museums

* Help Google help people contest: Google’s Project 10 to the 100: Submit an idea that can change the world. Semifinalists’ ideas will be voted on. Google has committed $10 million to implement ideas. Submit by Oct. 20, 2008. (One snarky take on the contest: “Google’s charity, At your expense” at Information Week.)

Headlines that can save you money: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

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