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Your personal computer, combined with an Internet connection, is the ultimate information appliance.  I’ll show you 8 ways you can use the technology you already have to save some money, whether you’re looking to be more frugal in general or are planning a big purchase in the near future. Regardless, I bet you’ll find at least one tip in this list that you can implement today to save a bit of scratch tomorrow.

Shop Online and Compare Prices

Nearly every business that sells a product has a web site these days, and most at least list their products and prices online if they don’t offer a way to purchase directly.  It’s worth your time to do a bit of comparison shopping to get the best price on an item.  Where to start?

Google Product Search: Google has a search engine specifically for online shopping that helps you search for products for sale online and compare prices.  If you find what you’re looking for at a price you like, you can easily click through to the seller’s site.

Amazon.com: Amazon is a valuable shopping tool due to their huge inventory of products, easy to use interface, comprehensive product descriptions and user review system.  Keep an eye out for the “More Buying Choices” link on the product pages.  That’s a gateway to the Amazon Marketplace, where 3rd party sellers can set up a storefront inside Amazon.  You may be able to find the same product for less than Amazon sells it, or a used item, which is often perfectly acceptable for things like books, DVDs or video games.

eBay: If you’re trying to find used or hard to find objects, somebody might be selling it on eBay.  eBay has been making changes recently to give buyers more protection in their system.  Sellers on eBay have been complaining, but, in general, eBay is a safe place to shop as a buyer these days.

Travel: You can use these same techniques to find the best prices on airfare.  Use one of the online travel agencies like Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, or CheapTickets to compare prices.  Tip: decide which flight you want and then visit the airline’s website to book directly with them and you’ll avoid the additional fees the 3rd party booking sites charge.

Gasoline: Several sites exist to help you find the best price on gas for your car.  GasBuddy, MSN Autos, and GasPriceWatch are examples.  These rely primarily on user submissions and allow you to enter your current location to see a map of nearby gas stations and their prices.

Take it on the road: Do you have an iPhone? With Mobile Safari you can use any of these websites anywhere you go.  Beyond that, there are many specialized applications in the App Store designed to help you save money.  GasBuddy has an iPhone app, for instance.  Mashable has a list of 5 of the Best iPhone Apps for In-Store Savings, which includes a shopping list application, coupon finding apps, an app for unit price comparison, and more.

Sell Things on Craigslist

The free online classifieds site, Craigslist, offers a quick and easy way to buy and sell nearly anything in your local area.  Don’t spend money on a few words in tiny print in the newspaper classifieds that nobody reads any more. You can have as much space as you want on Craigslist for free, with pictures.  Even if you have stuff you think nobody else would want, somebody on Craigslist will, if you price it correctly.  Just be sure to use common sense and be aware of scams and Craigslist can be very rewarding to your pocketbook.

Give Something Away, Get Something For Free

If any price is too much to sell something on Craigslist, you could try Freecycle.  Freecycle is a email mailing list that people in your community post to when they want to get rid of something without putting it in the trash.  One person’s trash is another’s treasure, as they say.  We’ve used the service a few times in the past and it’s amazing how quickly the odd whatsit you figure nobody would want leads to an enthusiastic person looking to add it to their lives.

Are you an avid reader who enjoys book swaps and has read everything in the local library?  Non-profit BookMooch is an online book trading system that arranges book swaps between its members using a points system.  You send books to others, fulfilling their requests to gain points, and then spend points to request a book and somebody who has it sends it to you.  It’s a fun way to get new books without spending a lot of money, and you can find interesting books to read by interacting with other BookMooch users in their forums.

Like BookMooch, Goozex is a points based trading system for video games.  There can be long waits for titles that are in demand at any particular moment, but it’s great for catching up on older games you may have missed or for getting something out of that popular title that you just didn’t like.  Goozex is definitely a better value than your local Gamestop.

Take Your Television Viewing Online

Netflix: With broadband Internet access getting ever faster and ever more common, the age of streaming online video is upon us.  Most people Michelle and I know are Netflix subscribers.  If you are you should try their Watch It Now feature.  Netflix offers a large portion of their catalog for instant streaming, either to your computer or to a Netflix enabled device, such as an XBox 360, Tivo, or LG or Samsung Blu-ray player.  Some people connect a computer to their television.

Hulu: Initially a joint venture by NBC/Universal and Fox, and joined on April 30th by ABC (Disney), Hulu is an online streaming service offering content from those three broadcast networks and their related cable networks, often with fewer advertisements.  If you miss a show or want to watch it again, this is a great way to get it, and more content is being added regularly.  CBS doesn’t participate in Hulu, but offers its stable of programming online at cbs.com.

Plex: Software that turns any Mac into a set-top-box.  Plex is an interface similar to Apple’s Front Row that gives you an easy way to watch DVDs and video files, listen to music, and access the online video services I just mentioned in one easy to use interface.

How do these relate to saving money?  The services I’ve just listed are free, or included at no extra cost as part of another service in the case of Netflix.  If you start using them you may find that you don’t need that expensive extended cable package.  Why pay for more channels than you can watch when you can get exactly what you want through an Internet connection you already have?  Michelle and I live in an urban area where we can get all the broadcast channel over the air in high definition with a simple antenna.  Between that, Netflix and Hulu, we get all the TV we can watch at a very low cost.

Use Your PC’s Power Saving Features

Modern computers have many power saving features that can help you reduce their electricity consumption and extend their lifespan.  A modern desktop computer with an LCD monitor running 24 hours a day can cost you over $150 a year to operate.  Turn it off at night, at least, and you’ll reduce that cost by one third.  Instead of a screen saver, set your monitor to turn off after 10 or 15 minutes.  Set your hard drive to turn off after a few minutes as well.

Best yet, have your computer sleep or hibernate after a half hour.  When you return, the computer will start back up and return directly to what you were doing when you left.  You won’t have to manually turn it off and it’ll be saving electricity, and money, all by itself when you’re not there.

Take a look at this article at LifeHacker for more ways to reduce your computer’s consumption of electricity and other resources like paper when printing.

Cancel Your Magazine and Newspaper Subscriptions

Chances are you subscribe to a newspaper or magazine.  Many publications now put their content online, much of it for free.  You won’t be able to do this with every magazine, especially those in certain specific niches, but even one makes a difference.  Take a look at our recent tip about RSS feeds for an introduction to making things that you’re interested in online come to you.

Try Instant Messaging and Skype

There are many ways to talk to people over the Internet with streaming audio and sometimes video.  If you have a Gmail account, you have access to Google Talk which is Google’s instant messaging system.  The best part about Google Talk is that it works on pretty much any platform that has a web browser, and integrates into nearly every chat client, so you can use it from anywhere you can get online, even a smart phone.  Beyond just text chat, Google Talk has recently enabled video chat direct from the web interface.  If you have a webcam you can start using it right away to video chat with your friends or family.

Skype is an Internet telephony application with which users can make free calls to other Skype users and inexpensive calls to anybody with a telephone.  Skype’s rates compare favorably to metered long distance, especially for international calls.  Video chat is available for Skype to Skype calls if you have a webcam.  Skype works on Windows, Mac, Linux and a variety of mobile devices such as smart phones.

Drop Your Land Line

One in five households in the US now have no traditional land line telephone service, and for the first time ever, more households use only cell phones than use only land lines.  Between a cell phone, your Internet connection, and instant messaging and video chat services we discussed in the previous section, do you really need that (at least) $15 per month dinosaur on your desk?

But Wait, There’s More

Those 8 items are not the only ways to save money using your computer or the Internet, but they’re a place to start.  I’ve done all of the above, and continue to look for more value in my monthly ISP fee.  The web has innumerable resources designed to help you save money; consider this article a starting point.  Other blogs I read for money advice are J.D.’s very educational personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly, and The Consumerist, a blog dedicated to consumer advocacy.

Finally, comment on this article to tell us and other readers how you use your computer to make or save money.  We want to hear from you!

Tagged as: amazon, bookmooch, craigslist, ebay, freecycle, gas, google, goozex, hulu, im, iphone, magazine, netflix, newspaper, phone, plex, power, rss, skype, subscriptions, television, travel