When I switched over to Netflix, I chose the three-at-a-time plan because my wife and I love to watch movies and catch up on TV series we have missed. We were already saving over our Blockbuster plan, and with the addition of Netflix's Watch Instantly feature, it seemed like the best choice.

After a few months, I decided to check out my renting habits using Feedflix.com, which calculated my cost per rental and other statistics about my Netflix subscription.

I knew I had been lax about watching and returning DVDs but I didn't realize that my cost per rental is an astonishing $8.49! More than double what I would pay at any local rental store. Thankfully my per-rental price drops to a more reasonable $2.55 after you take into account my new-found obsession with the Watch Instantly feature.

While I could cut back my subscription like my colleague Tom Barlow did, I am going to try to maximize my value using the alerts that FeedFlix provides. Now, I'll get an email every Tuesday if I have kept a movie more than five days. This will help me stay on top of rentals and make sure that I have something good for the weekend. If my cost per rental is still too high next month, I'll drop my subscription plan down a notch until I find a good balance.

FeedFlix is free and easy to try out, making it an excellent tool for any Netflix subscriber. Taking a closer look at one of my subscriptions has only reinforced the notion that we often overestimate the value of our subscription plans. I wish I could get a similar tool for my Gamefly subscription, since I have a tendency to keep games too long as well.



Via Lifehacker

The tech news sites have been aflutter with details for the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to run Google's mobile operating system -- dubbed "Android". The phone packs loads of features and looks like it will give the iPhone a run for its money, especially if all applications are as useful as ShopSavvy, which was chosen as one of the 10 winners of the Google Challenge, and which will be offered for free when the G1 launches.

I haven't had a chance to use the ShopSavvy application yet, but after watching the demo, which is embedded below, I'm ready to get a G1 today! This little program looks to do more on your phone than most full-fledged price comparison sites. Checking the price is as easy as scanning the product's barcode with the built-in camera. From there you can see local and web prices as well as set a price alert in case you're waiting for the product to fit your budget. If you plan to buy the item in a local store, as determined by GPS, ShopSavvy enables you to map their location or give them a call.

If the price is cheaper online, you can email yourself the link or visit the product page right from your phone. Speaking of online features; you can even create your own wish lists just by scanning the items with the camera. I wish we would have been able to use this feature when we were building our wedding registry a few years back. The fact that ShopSavvy helps you avoid clunky in-store systems plagued with downtime all while publishing the items to the web for guests to buy wherever is freakin' genius!

Live.com is a search engine owned by Microsoft and they just rolled out a new program which provides great shopping comparisons and a discount in the form of cashback for using it to find products. The search engine calculates a "bottom line" price which includes shipping and tax minus the cashback amount. The amount of cashback varies from store to store, in a recent search I found cash back rates between 2 and 10% for technology items.

The inclusion of all fees in the pricing comparison including the discount empowers you to make the best decision without bothering to visit 15 different online venues and signing up for 10 different locations just to get the final price. Additionally since the cashback is handled by Live.com rather than the merchant you should be able to double up your discounts and use any current coupon codes to save even more. The one catch to the program is that you need to accrue $5 before you can cash out, but for anyone making technology purchases this shouldn't be an issue.

This cash back program is pretty nifty and while I don't plan on switching over to Live.com for my general search needs just yet, this offer combined with the "bottomline" shopping guide has already earned Live.com a bookmark. In my test search for a new monitor I was able to net 10% back and save $20 without any hassle and in just a few minutes. Any service which saves me cash this easily is well worth the addition to my set of shopping tools.