The thing to remember with this service is that it is operated voluntarily by people within your local community and all the items listed must be offered for free, with no strings attached!   If you want to offer your old couch because you have a new one arriving next week then you are free to do so, but you cannot ask for any compensation, finanical or otherwise and all offers are made on the assumption that the recipient collects the item unless other arrangements are agreed between yourselves.

We have received a number of items which we have benefitted from using this services, and equally we have re-offered these items or other items when we have had no further use for them.

With New Year just a couple of days away why not make it your New Years resolution to Freecycle your unwanted stuff before you throw it out.

Buying a new PC on a low budget can be a nightmare! You want to buy at a low price but you do not want to lose out on the vital additions like an extra 1GB of memory or Vista Business or XP Pro instead of Vista Home Premium. How can you reduce the cost and still have a fully functioning PC?

Have you considered using Linux instead of Windows as it is free? I can hear many of you cringing as you read that but if you decided to use Linux you would only have to pay for the components and not any licence fees for the Windows operating system or Microsoft Office. Based on my PC usage (and that of my friends and family) either would be more than suitable. A home PC generally only has a handful of tasks to perform:

- Check email
- Browse the web
- Chat with instant messenger
- Write & print letters
- Listen to music
- Play solitaire

There will be one or two others for your particular circumstances but this probably makes up 95% of what your computer does so why do you need Windows for that?

I recently set up a new computer for myself and decided to try a Linux alternative and after having a quick look on Google I found that Ubuntu was supposed to be a relatively user friendly variation so I downloaded it for free from their website and installed it.

The installation was straight forward and anyone who has installed Windows before could follow it without any problems. From a default installation it had a email client, web browser, OpenOffice (a free alternative to Microsoft Office), solitaire, music player and an instant messenger client capable of connecting to about a dozen instant messenger services including MSN, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo. I even connected up my USB printer, went through the “Add Printer” wizard and was able to print right away… no fuss… no downloading drivers.

Now from that basic list above my Ubuntu computer will perform all the daily tasks I need to do and I have not had to pay for an operating system or a licence for Microsoft Office, which in itself could save a few hundred pounds. Ubuntu is no harder to use than Windows, but like with anything that new it will take a little time to find where everything is. If you have changed your Windows version before then you will already be aware that you have to find where things are again in the new version anyway.

Businesses are literally throwing away thousands of pounds on Windows and Office licences which are not required as many of their staff are simply using features which are free and readily available on a Linux operating system. OpenOffice gives you the equivalent of Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point and can also open files made by these programs and save them so they can be opened on a Windows system. There is even a free Linux alternative to Exchange Server so as you can see there is plenty of opportunity to reduce costs and save money!

My gut reaction, like a lot of people I imagine, is “how on earth am I going to afford that?” but after sitting down and thinking about things I’m a little calmer.

First off I didn’t think “How can I get more money in?” but rather “How can I make the best use of the money I’ve got?” and I’ve come up with several, rather common sense ways to stretch out the money I’ve got and I’m hoping some of these will help you out.

Switch of the Sky box and TV when not in use

I don’t know about you but I’ve got my Sky Box, TV and DigiSender in the living room and another TV, DVD and the receiver for the DigiSender in the bedroom. That’s a lot of things to be turned on just for watching TV, especially when we’re only watching TV between 6pm and 10pm. I’ve now got in the habit of turning it all off for the other 20 hours a day that it’s not in use. Those of you who have Sky+ may be aware that it has an Auto Standby feature where it goes into standby when it has not been used for 2 hours after 11 pm.

PC Power Saving

Apply a power saving scheme to your PC and switch it off if it’s not needed – A PC switched on and left running 24 hours a day would result in electricity costs of £139 per year (Source: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/efm/1-2-20.html). In addition, if you have an old CRT monitor then consider upgrading to more energy efficient TFT one.

Energy Saving Adapters

A lot of people leave their monitors and speaks on even though the computer itself it turned off which will again be wasting energy. Now you can purchase Energy Saving Adapters which have 1 master and 2 slave sockets on them and the appliances in the slave sockets will only be turned on if there is power being drawn through the master socket. So, plug your PC into the master socket and the speakers and monitor in the slave sockets and then when you turn of your PC the speaker and monitor will automatically be turned off too!

Energy Saving Light Bulbs

I’ve just changed all my light bulbs in the house to energy saving ones and fair enough it’s a different colour of light and takes a little time to warm up but I’m looking forward to the price saving. You can buy the bulbs for a couple of pounds each in Tesco so it’s not like it’s a big expense. Take the advertised energy saving with a pinch of salt though… I saw the big save 80% compared to your traditional bulb but on closer inspection this was based on the equivalent wattage i.e. if you buy a 20W Energy Saving Light Bulb (equivalent to a 100W traditional bulb) and you’re using it to replace a 100W bulb then you will save 80% however in my case I was replacing 60W bulbs so I’m only saving 66% but it’s still a good saving.

Also, if you’re a British Gas customer then you should be receiving 4 free Energy Saving Light Bulbs absolutely free courtesy of British Gas so you’ve got even less reason not to change!

Solar Powered Chargers

I’ve been meaning to get one of these for a while now and the look like fantastic looking gadgets. You can leave your Solar Powered Chargers on your window sill at home catching the rays and charging up and then use it at night to charge up your mobile phone, or your MP3 player. If you do that on a regular basis you could probably stop charging your phone from the mains completely! It comes with a variety of connectors so you’re bound to find something you can charge with it.

mySupermarket.COM

I’m a regular Tesco shopper because that’s right beside my house but I often pass by a couple of ASDA stores and recently I’ve stared using mySupermarket.COM to see if I’m better off getting my shopping from ASDA. Some things only have a few pennies difference, but on the cart total it can make a big difference. Why not see if you can save money by getting some of your shopping at a different store!

So now I have a few things to try before I start panicking again and hopefully some of these ideas will help you out too!