If you are on a budget, you can’t beat free.  There are many services, places, and products to be had for free or almost free if you know where to look.  Here are five free or almost free ways to cut your expenses, save money and yet still enjoy life.

Free Books
The public library may be the obvious choice for all things free, but in the current economy library use is up due to all the free goodies they provide.  There are over 16,000 public libraries in America and according to a 2008 Harris Interactive Survey Poll, 2/3 of Americans have a library card.  The library is a great free source for more than just books.  Patrons can check out DVDS, CDs, and computer software.  There is usually a story hour for kids and free internet access for students and adults.  Some libraries have movies nights and guest lecturers or classes for the community.  

Free Phone Calls
Save big on all of your phone calls through the website Talkster, an ad-supported phone company offering free local and international phone calls to more than 30 countries and territories.  Sign up for an account for yourself and up to five friends and all of your calls are free.

Free Yoga
Who doesn’t need some rest and relaxation from all the economic news?  Yoga is a wonderful practice to release tension and stress.  Many yoga studios are willing to offer free classes in exchange for work around the studio.  Contact your local studio and see if you can work out a deal.

Almost Free Movies
With the average cost of a movie ticket running $7.18, you’re better off spending $1 on a movie rental from Redbox.  How it works: choose a movie from RedBox, reserve a copy from one of 17,000 locations, pick up the DVD from the location you choose, return DVD when finished.  Redbox charges $1 per day, per movie until the DVD is returned to any Redbox location.

Free Accommodations
Vacations are a big part of American life, but with the high cost of flying, hotels and gas many Americans are looking for ways to cut back yet still enjoy some time off.  According to a Harris Interactive Poll, the average American spends about $1,700 on a weeklong vacation.  52 % of those polled said they would be looking to cut back on accommodations.  CouchSurfing.com is a non-profit, on-line network that connects travelers with locals in over 239 countries and territories around the world.  Participating hosts open up their homes to allow travelers to stay for free and see the how people in  different countries live. 

The Free Trend
Getting stuff for free is a growing trend.  According trendwatching.com, more and more companies are vying for consumers’ attention by offering free products and services.  This is good news for consumers who are looking to squeeze the most out of their dollars.

Once you’re in college, you may pay less attention to finances and more attention to trying to live independently now that you’re out of the house. Besides tuition costs, over-spending and carelessly buying things during college is a large source of debt for many college students. Here are a few tips to help you save money while you’re in college, and still have a great time discovering your freedom.

Food: Try finding new places to eat meals. A great way to save money is to get together with your friends each night and eat at their place. Then once a week, have dinner at your place. If you get enough friends together, you’ll each be paying for only a couple of meals a week. Over time this can really add up. Be sure to check out the student cafeteria. Sometimes they offer healthy food for reasonable prices. As an example, UNR’s student cafeteria gives free fruit to their students.

Textbooks: Unless it is completely necessary, do not buy your books new. A full semester of books can run over $500, which is ridiculous for books you will probably only use once in your life. Instead, buy your books used and then sell them back to the school at the end of the semester. You can also sell them online and possibly make more money for them. Another option is to rent textbooks instead of buying them by using chegg.com (http://www.chegg.com). They send you the books you need, and when you’re done you send them back. While you don’t get money back, you can save hundreds of dollars upfront.

Tuition: Look into scholarships and grants before you ever look into loans. Depending on how much your tuition is, you can cut out a large chunk with grants and scholarships. Even though there may be a lot of forms, in the end if you receive the financial aid it really is worth it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, because sometimes people don’t take the time to fill out the forms which means the money is left untouched and ready to be used.

Starting your life out of the house can be scary, but debt later in life can be even scarier. If you take these steps, you will be on the way to protecting yourself from financial hardships. While it may not cut all of your debt, any amount saved helps.

After hearing some fairly positive reviews of the new version of the Amazon Kindle, I decided to “bite the bullet” and pay the $359.00 fee for the Amazon Kindle 2. The new version of the Kindle doesn’t come with a protective case, so that will easily add $29.99 to your total. If you want the device to ship in a reasonable amount of time and have it sometime within the next couple of weeks, you’ll probably want to opt for two day shipping. When all was said and done, my total bill was $411.96, ouch! That seems like a bit of a hefty price tag for a product that Amazon bills as a “money saving” device. Will Amazon’s Kindle actually pay for itself?

The Kindle is priced at a whopping $359.00 primarily because it includes lifetime access to its “WhisperNet” wireless network (which actually piggyback’s off Sprint’s cellular network). This is a very high up-front fee, but the average cost per book is lower on the Kindle than comparing to a new paperback or hardcover book. Typically, you can get a new book on the Amazon Kindle for $9.99, whereas a new paper-back will likely go for $14.99 whereas a new hardcover book will run for $24.99.

I would argue that the real figure that people typically pay for a new book is probably a lot less than the $20.00 average between a hard-cover and paperback book because many people tend to buy books used, get them from friends, or from a local library. With the Amazon Kindle, that’s simply not an option.  For argument’s sake let’s say that the average new book does cost $19.99, that means you’ll save $10.00 per book that you buy on the Kindle that you didn’t buy in paperback or hardcover form. That means you’ll have to buy 36 books before the Kindle becomes “worth it.”

The typical American reads less than two books per year and one in four Americans don’t read a single book in any given year. For the “average” reader, it would take decades for the Kindle to pay for itself, however most people who but an Amazon Kindle will read much more than what an average reader will consume. A reasonable number would be more on the lines of 10 to 15 books a year for a casual to a moderate reader. This means that the Kindle would pay for itself in 2.5 to 3 years.

The “return on investment” for a Kindle isn’t particularly stunning, but it’s still a fun gadget to get, just don’t persuade yourself that you’re going to be saving a “ton of money” by getting more affordable books. The mathematics really don’t work out, especially if you tend to buy used books or get them for free from friends, family and the local library.

The Christian bible is the single best-sold book throughout history. It’s been translated dozens of time from Hebrew and Greek to English and other languages. It contains historical narratives, Hebrew poetry, apocalyptic literature, the wisdom of the ages in the form of proverbs, and even a legal document. Whether you are a Christian or not the bible is definitely worth a read as a classic piece of literature. And because of the evangelical movement in the last 100 years, there are all sorts of places that will give you a copy of the Christian bible for free.

There are all sorts of places that you can read the bible for free online. Perhaps the best place for online reading is BibleGateway.com .They have dozens of different translations in a number of different languages for you to checkout. You can even compare how different translations match up if you’d like. They also have bible reading plans that will help you consume the work by reading a few chapters per day in Chronological order.

If you’re looking for a free physical copy of the bible, the best place to go is a local church. Almost every church is more than happy to hand out a free copy of the bible to you. Most of them have line items in their budget for bibles and others simply have a massive collection of bibles that have been “left behind” by attendees in the past and no longer have homes.

There are two different websites that will let you order a free copy of the bible. A Ministry called “Bibles for America” will send you a free copy of the New Testament (the second half of the bible), which contain a lot of great footnotes and some study material along with that. You can pick that up at BiblesForAmerica.org.

Another organization, the Free Bible Society, will allow you to order a free copy of the bible (even shipping s free). All you have to do is send them an email at freebiblesociety@gmail.com with a request. The best part about this website is that they won’t pester you and send you a bunch of mailings after you get your free copy of the bible. In essence, it’s completely anonymous.

For Amazon Kindle Readers, you can download a free copy of the bible from Amazon. They have the ESV bible available for free until May 20^th. The English Standard Version (ESV) is a newer translation that does a great job of providing easy-to-read text while maintaining the meaning of the original Hebrew or Greek. Simply logon to the Amazon Kindle store and search for “ESV Bible,” and you’ll be able to download it and send it to your Kindle for free.