Like owning a car, a cell phone can also be a status symbol. Some people are willing to pay $400 for a cell phone that does everything and then some. Sure, these are a nice luxury, but you really need to ask yourself, do I really need all of that? Here is a list of cheap cell phone plans that will offer you less than a luxury plan, but also save you much more in the long run.
There are thousands of reasons a computer can die, but most of them can be avoided. Whether you’re a computer novice or a computer whiz, you’ll save a lot of headaches by following some of these common sense tips:
If there is a power outage, not only can you lost what you’ve been working on, but your computer can also be damaged physically. Purchase a specialized power strip to put all of your computer’s power cables into, and next time there is a power outage your computer will remain on for 10-30 minutes afterward. This allows you to save all of your work, and keeps your computer from suddenly frying from a power spike.
Always make sure you have downloaded the latest operating system service packs and updates into your computer. This is especially important on a windows based PC. Keeping on top of this will help patch any holes in windows, thus keeping viruses and other malicious content off of your system.
The best method I have found to backup your system regularly goes something like this:
There is a lot of anti-virus software out there, some are great, others will make your computer run worse. You should scan your computer of viruses AS REGULARLY AS POSSIBLE. There is so much out there, that you never know when something could damage your computer. It’s better to catch these things early on. Here is some of my favorite free anti-virus software:
Once again, these are all free and easy to use. I’ve had a lot of experience cleaning viruses off of people’s computers, and these are by far the best 3 I have found. For further documentation on how to use any of them, please refer to their websites.
Defragmenting your hard drive is a process that will re organize the data on your drive (picture a library with books scattered all over the place, it’s harder to find them if they’re not organized, right? Defraging acts as a Librarian going through and organizing all of these books, so your drive runs more efficiently).
The process sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Once you Defragment you should notice your computer running faster, do to the efficient organizing it did while defraging your drive. Here is a great article and video that shows you how: How to Defrag your Hard Drive
Having more RAM in your computer is a great, low-cost way to add useful life to your computer. If you have under 1 Gigabyte of RAM, then you should probably look into getting more. At crucial.com you can find any type RAM out there, plus the site helps you pick out which RAM is best for your system.
In your printer options you can choose to print in “draft quality”. Unless you’re printing up that award winning photo, you’ll want to leave your printer on draft quality most of the time.
Similar to the above tip, when printing something that is only black and white (such as text-only) you will want to go into your printer settings and change the quality to “black and white”. This makes sure that your printer is only using the black ink cartridge.
There is a great font called “Ecofont”. This font has small little holes in each character that allows you to save 20% of your ink, without loosing readability. Other fonts that help you save ink are Garamond, Courier and Brush Script, just try not to use bold.
We’ve all experienced it, you print something off a web page, and the whole web page prints out! There is a great service called “Print What You Like”, which allows you to print only certain parts of a web page. As an alternative, and maybe for the more tech savvy, you can also highlight the text you want, paste it into a program like Microsoft Word or Notepad, and print from there.
Print at least one item a week. Cartridges will die if not used regularly. Recently I left my printer in storage for awhile and couldn’t figure out why the prints came out the way they did. Turns out, lack of use made the ink go bad.
You can buy Ink Cartridge refill kits for about half the price of an Ink Cartridge. This tip is really only for the hardcore DIY’er. You need to follow the instructions that come with your kit VERY carefully. Here is a great link to get you started.
A lot of companies will do the work of having to refill your cartridge for you. They will take a name brand cartridge and refill it on a professional level, so if you’re a little hesitant about the DIY aspect, and don’t spending a little extra money, this is a good alternative to the tip above.
When your printer is not producing the results you expect, sometimes you can get away with replacing the drum in your printer. This costs a lot less than having to refill an entire cartridge.
You can find much better deals online. Just make sure you’re buying the right kind of cartridge for your printer. You can even find some trusth worthy generic cartridges out there, just make sure you read the reviews. Also, if you buy in bulk, you may save money with free shipping.
You wouldn’t just slam the power button on your computer to shut it off, the same goes for your printer. If you power it down the wrong way, your heads could be in the wrong position, and this can cause the ink to dry out faster.
Get the best frugal advice by following these amazing frugal tweeters!
With information coming at us at such an overwhelming rate, I thought it would be a good idea to list the 5 people whose tweets I feel do the best at giving advice on pinching those pennies. These are all legitimate tweeters, no spam happy tweets here. So with no further ado, I present my top 5 frugal tweeters.
#1. myfrugaltips – Fantastic resources and usually always posts with a link in their tweet. I read almost every single post from them, and am never disappointed in the quality of their content.
#2. frugal – Not only great tweets, but a wonderful blog as well. You can visit frugal’s blog at Idea’s for Frugal Living.
#3. mrsmicah – Mrs. Micah is currently paying off $100,00 in student loans, so her tweets are always frugal-minded. Great tips, especially for someone in a similar situation.
#4. home_recipes – Not so much dedicated to being frugal, but amazing recipes you can make at home, and they’re healthy! What better way to save money, then to stay inside and cook at home!
#5. YouCanMakeThis – Why buy it when you can make it? Great articles for the crafty types who want to save money. Not only good links to articles, but also general advice on ideas to save you money.