The Internet is quite possibly the best money saving device in the history of mankind. In fact other than paying to access it just about everything useful, popular and successful on the Internet is either totally free or offers significant ways to save money. Music is a good example, much of what any music lover wants to listen to is available free (albeit often in violation of copyrights that are seemingly unenforceable on the Internet) and even if you decide to go legit and pay, the price of music acquired in cyber space is not only lower in cost but also available as individual songs meaning you need only pay for what you want. This 'free to use' mentality or expectation of Internet users makes it almost impossible to envision a successful business model that requires users to pay. It is a distinctly human quality to take what's free. However, accessing all these free products and services requires another human quality that is not always in abundance with regards to the Internet - trust. You have to give at least an e-mail address to utilise everything from Facebook to Fancast (a free online TV service) and there is usually at least an element of doubt when handing out personal information on the world wide web. However, if you are willing to trust it there are tremendous savings and services to be had.

VOIP

Voice Over the Internet Protocol technology allows for free communications around the globe using a variety of services, the most popular of which seems to be skype. Undoubtedly the saviour of long distance relationships skype (and others) allows interpersonal video conferencing for free. No more long distance phone charges, just the cost of an ISP and an broadband provider (which you are probably already paying for).

Paperless society

The Internet may yet save the world's rainforests from annihilation. Online banking and payments, e-mailing documents and storing photos on a hard drive are saving us both the cost of paper and the cost of sending that paper while decreasing our need to cut down trees.

Digital entertainment

As mentioned above, music is now easily downloadable on the Internet, as are TV programmes and movies. Sites like iTunes offer pay-per-view services that limit spending to specific choices. Greater savings can be found in the area of Internet radio and TV. Instead having to download music websites like jango.com, pandora.com and musicovery.com offer free services which essentially allow users to build their own, custom, radio stations. Using the choices of people who like the same music as you do the 'radio stations' learn what you like over time and play it back to you. Jango for instance, allows you to build multiple stations based on various genres and then choose and rate the songs so that you can shape what you will hear in the future. It also plays songs that other members enjoy allowing for you to be exposed to new music. Of course it is free. TV sites such as hulu.com and fancast.com offer similar services with popular TV programmes and movies but at the time of printing were only making their content available to US residents. They are however advertising that content will be available worldwide in the future, for free.

CYber Money

Perhaps the most important way to make ends meet is to establish a budget. For most people this has meant buying software and continually needing to upgrade it. However in recent times established players such as Quicken and mint.com started offering their budgeting tools online, for free. But do you want your financial details sitting out there on the Internet? Is it safe? A cursory investigation (on the Internet) suggests that storing your data online is actually safer than keeping it on your home computer. These websites protect your financial information with the same security that large financial institutions use. Your home computer, by comparison, rarely has the equivalent firewalls, virus protection and passwords and is, in fact, more vulnerable to a hacker. In addition, the established money management websites do not request personal information beyond an e-mail address and do not store account or PIN numbers nor do they allow you to move funds, only to manage them. Of course the security procedures of any website should be examined before signing up and well known security services are easy to research.