How to save lots of money on software

There are many great programs for your Windows PC or Apple Mac, but unless you are a lottery winner you might find it difficult coming up with the money to buy them all. You end up you buying the essentials and the rest is put on a wish list. You wish they were cheaper and you wish you could afford them. There is a way to bring down the price to a much more affordable level and it is very easy to do.

Instead of buying software, always download and install the free trial. Most software is provided as a free download these days and you usually get 30 days use before it stops working or you have to pay for it, although some software companies are a bit mean and offer you less time.

Always register the software or the website. It is sometimes a condition of the free trial anyway, so don't worry about it. It is all part of the plan. In fact, it is an essential part of the plan. The software company needs to know your email address and that you are using the free trial.

Don't buy the software. As the end of the trial approaches you will get an email from the company with a discounted offer that saves you money. This is tempting, but if you hold out a little longer you might even get a last-chance offer at a bargain price.

Here is an example. The regular price for Ad-Aware Personal Security is $24, but instead of buying it, I downloaded the free trial.

A week or two later I got this email with an offer saving me $14 over the regular price of the software. It is now just $9.95 and all without doing anything special. Just running the free trial and registering with my email address.

This practice of emailing users of the free trial with discount offers is very common and I frequently see mail in my inbox offering fantastic deals. It means you can save a lot of money and software that seemed out of reach could well be affordable.

Go and download the free trials on your software wish list and wait for the offers to come in!