The smart people are currently looking for ways to cut their expenses to save money and feel more financially secure. Today I found a way to save $33 a month without even giving up anything. I looked at my cable bill and decided to make a change.

My cable bill is paid each month via a credit card which I pay in full every billing cycle. I wasn't paying much attention, until I saw that my cable bill for the month was $151. Huh? My bill wasn't that much. I took a look, and saw that my bill used to be $135 a month, until I got a mysterious increase in my internet access. I thought I'd give the cable company a call and see if I couldn't get that extra $16 a month removed.

By the time I got off the phone, my monthly bill was down to $118, and it didn't hurt a bit. As I talked over my bill with the customer service representative, I was reminded that I was paying $13 a month for HBO. If I had to guess, I'd say I watch HBO once a month at the very most. Time to give up the HBO that I won't even miss anyway.

Everyone has the list: the list of what we can and can not live without. And in these days of $4 gas (it's nearing $5 already where I live in Southern California, by the way), we're all dusting off these lists to see where we can cut costs.

I recently discovered an obvious category I can cut out of my monthly nut: My newspaper subscriptions.

Why should I pay for any newspaper I can read entirely online for free? I'm already paying the phone company for high-speed internet, which enables me to read everything online in the first place. This is like paying twice.