Here’s another potential way to cut those monthly expenses. FreedomPop is a start-up offering wireless 4G data service with a free basic plan including 500 megabytes data per month. You can earn more free data by referring your friends or doing things like product surveys or trials. No contracts, no cancellation fees, no ads. Otherwise, small overages will cost $0.02 per MB and bulk plans start from 1 GB for $10 per month. More details:

• 4G Coverage details. The service is currently based on being an MVNO of the Clearwire WiMAX 4G network which has a coverage area of about 1/3rd of the US. There are stated plans to use Sprint’s 4G LTE network plus their 3G network as a fallback in 2013.
• You’ll need a WiMAX modem, currently available as a USB modem stick or mobile WiFi hotspot “hockey puck”. The modems are “free” with a $49/$89 refundable security deposit and $5 shipping. Alternatively, you can pre-order a iPhone 4/4S or iPod Touch sleeve for $99 which won’t add much bulk.
• No per-household limit. Based on media interviews, they are okay with households getting multiple devices each with their own free 500 MB allotment.
• Fees and Upsells. They say no gotchas, but… they want $3 a month for “Speed Plus” which removes any data throttling. Usage alerts? Another $2 a month. If your account balance falls below $2 and you’re within 100 MB of your limit, it will automatically “top-up” with a $10 charge (you can turn this off in your billing settings). If you don’t use the service that month (less than 5 megabytes) they will charge you a $0.99 inactivity fee.

500 MB per month likely isn’t enough to replace your broadband internet connection, but it could definitely improve your cell phone bill. Brainstorming the various ways you could use FreedomPop to lower your monthly phone costs…

If you already pay for data, you could use this service and downgrade your current plan. If you only have a cheap basic cell phone plan for under $10 a month, now you can supplement any smartphone with free data. You could even turn an iPod Touch into a smartphone with no monthly costs at all by using Facetime, Skype, Google Voice, or other free VoIP services like the Vonage Mobile app. There are even rumors FreedomPop may start their own VoIP client. As a rough rule-of-thumb, a Skype-to-mobile/landline runs about 1 MB per minute. I’d still try and use WiFi or text messages when possible.

Looking at our billing history, I use around 1 GB a month and my wife uses only 300 MB a month. I think if I actually paid attention, I could stay under the free limits. However, I’m not sure I like the vibe of this company as their business model seems to be to advertise a completely free service but nickel-and-dime you into paying at least a few bucks per month. Once our contract is over, I don’t know if I’d rather deal with this or just switch to a Straight Talk $45 Unlimited prepaid plan with a used iPhone. But the upfront commitment is small, so I may try it out.

More: Businessweek, TechCrunch, GigaOM

My parents gave me a very generous present of an iPod Touch for Christmas 2009. It came in very handy while traveling and at the gym, but then I got an iPhone (business expense!) and stopped using the iPod. It felt tacky to sell, so I waited. Finally, with all the talk about selling “old” iPhones right now, I figured it was time to sell (and use the money to help pay for a plane ticket for a grandparental visit, of course). I didn’t want to mess with Craigslist or eBay, as right now I just want it done quick and easy. There were a lot more options out there than I thought!

Details and condition: Apple iPod Touch (3rd gen, 64 GB). I don’t believe she paid the original retail price of $399, but it was at least in the mid $300s. Fully functional with original box, charging cable, and headphones. The screen is still smooth as glass and unscratched, but the metallic backside has many small scratches.

Real World / In-Person

Here are the options I found if you prefer to walk into a physical store and sell your electronics.

Online / Mailing it in

With these websites, you get a quote and then mail in your gadget using a prepaid shipping label. Once they inspect and verify, they will send you payment via gift certificate, check, or PayPal. There is the added risk of loss during transit, or a rejection if they disagree on condition, but most of them will ship it back for free.

Vendor	Offer Price	Details
Amazon Trade-in	$108.75	Amazon.com credit only
eBay Instant Sale	$81	Paypal only
NextWorth	$80	Paypal, Target gift card, or check
Gazelle	$69	Cash quoted via Paypal or check. Get 5% extra with Amazon gift certificate
BuyMyTronics	$63	Check or PayPal

The wide range of prices shows that you should definitely compare prices when selling this way. That was surprising, considering Apple products are nearly commodities now. I shop at Amazon.com regularly and value Amazon.com credit at least at 95 cents on the dollar, so I went with them. The Amazon brand backing helped as well. I probably could have gotten more if I listed on eBay (remember to account for eBay and Paypal fees), but I went ahead and printed out the prepaid UPS label and dropped it off at the nearest UPS store. I’ll update this post if I have any issues with the sellback. Please share your own experiences in the comments.

Library Elf is a third-party website worth checking out that helps you keep track of library books that are due soon, overdue, and ready for pickup. Their free service offers basic e-mail reminders on borrowed items that are either due soon or overdue for a single library card.

Their premium service features text message alerts, alerts for holds that are ready for pickup, and the ability link up multiple library cards (handy for families) for a $20 annual fee. New users get a free trial. If you’re really lucky your local library might be listed as a subscriber, meaning they’ve paid a bulk fee so that all of their patrons get premium service for free.

If you really want to manage multiple cards with basic alerts while still avoiding the annual fee, there is a simple workaround. Simply sign up each person’s card with a unique e-mail address (don’t all kids have their own e-mails now?), and then make a filter to forward the Elf e-mails to your primary desired e-mail. Even simpler, if you use Gmail you can use “name@gmail.com” and “name+whatever@gmail.com” to sign up for separate accounts, but all incoming e-mail will end up at the same place.

I love my local library, but their online library software leaves a lot to be desired. Hold notices still arrive only by snail-mail which I think is wasteful since they could just use e-mail. Until a few months ago, I had to call in to renew any titles; finally at least I can do that online. I only get overdue notices if I’m already late by over a week. I guess I’m just frustrated because I know that this type of thing is not very difficult to program and implement. I know that returning late library books are my responsibility, but a better system would prevent overdue books overall and thus improve book availability for everyone.

Every Friday this summer from now until August 17th, you can get 2-for-1 movie tickets from Fandango.com if you have a Visa Signature card and use it to buy the tickets. You can also get $5 off $25 in Fandango Bucks gift cards which can be used any day of the week and are instantly redeemable online.

Tickets must be purchased on a Friday for a Friday show time. Limit 1 movie ticket per Visa Signature card purchase, per 30 day period following the date of a purchase in connection with this offer.

Check out your credit cards, you may be surprised to have one and not know it. If you’ve gone after some of the juicy $500+ sign-up bonuses this year, you probably have one of these cards.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred with $500 in travel bonus = Visa Signature card
• Hyatt Credit Card with 2 free hotel nights at any Hyatt in the world = Visa Signature
• Citi American Airlines AAdvantage card with 30k miles + free baggage = Visa Signature
• British Airways card (expired 100k offer) = Visa Signature

If you are a member of AMC Stubs, you can get the Fandango service fee waived as well at those theaters (membership costs $12 a year).

There are lots of places to backup your files online – Dropbox, Box.net, Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive, SugarSync, and Picasa all give out free cloud storage on the order of 5 gigabytes (often more with various promos). If you’re like me and wish you could combine all those free buckets together into one, you should check out a new service at Otixo.com that lets you manage multiple cloud services with just one login. Hat tip CNN Money.

Otixo links up with each service and makes it easy to organize and view all your files across various platforms. You can even transfer files directly between services. The free version of Otixo promises 2 GB of free bandwidth (not storage) per month forever. Upgrading to unlimited bandwidth costs $10 a month. Personally, I intend to use Otixo to track the long-term archival of pictures and documents across lesser-used services, and keeping my precious Dropbox space for real-time automated backups. This way, I can keep everything backed up safely – even in case of a house fire or burglary – without adding another monthly expense.

If you sign up through a referral link (that’s mine), both the referred and referring person gets an additional 100 MB of bandwidth (up to 4.9 GB max). Refer your family and friends for more bandwidth.

Home improvement chain Lowe’s just announced a new “smart home” system called Iris where you can monitor and control your home through your smartphone or computer. The DIY system can be installed with just an ethernet broadband connection and a screwdriver.

You can either buy everything a la carte or via three bundles. The “Safe & Secure” kit includes the central hub, a motion sensor, keypad, and two door/window sensors for $179. The “Comfort & Control” kit includes the hub, a smart plug, and smart thermostat for $179. You can get both kits for $299 (includes range extender but only one hub). However, if your going to outfit an entire home, you’ll probably want to add some extra sensors. The good part is that the basic service has no monthly fee, while the premium service costs a flat $9.99 a month. Available online now, or in 500 stores by August.

The ability to turn lights on/off and your thermostat up/down remotely has always seemed a little bit overhyped to me, more an amusing feature than money-saving necessity. I see commercials about it, but I guess I just don’t think about light switches when I’m not at home. Otherwise, a simple programmable thermostat works well enough for me. I do like the idea of real-time power usage reporting though (here it requires a $150 meter reader).

Cheap Home Security?

Mostly, I was interested in the home security aspect of Iris because of the lack of monthly fees. Such monitoring fees can add up to hundreds of dollars every year and quickly make up the bulk of the system’s overall cost. I recently installed a somewhat similar Simplisafe system (review) that is also based on using various wireless sensors with 5-year lithium batteries (and costs $15 a month for monitoring). Is my investment outdated already?
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