This week’s episode features the utility bills, and he picked up on a tip I hadn’t thought of: Find out whether a cheaper wireless plan is a better fit for your actual calling patterns. The 700-minute family plans aren’t always the smallest plan now.

And when I was spot-checking family plan prices for a couple of companies to see what he was talking about, I also found at least one national wireless company offers a discounted “senior plan” for those age 65 and older.

You go to the trade-in page on the Wal-Mart site, look up your unwanted (unloved, unused, sniff!) digital camera, cell phone, whatever, answer a few questions and you’ll get a quote.

You’ll get money if your stuff still has “market value.” The trade-in money you get back is a Wal-Mart Visa gift card. If there is no resale value, the items get recycled at no cost to you.

Is this worth your trouble? Well, it’s good for the environment to recycle such things rather than throw them out. It’s also good for your home to declutter by getting rid of things you aren’t using any more.

And while my local readers in Monroe County, Mich., have access to a free electronics recycling program and a charity cell phone recycling program, those services do vary across the country. If you are one of my local readers, I have used the local recycling programs. They’re easy to participate in, but you will be doing your own dropoffs at the designated times / dates / location.

So weigh the Wal-Mart program against other options you might have available, and you’ll figure out pretty quick whether it works for you or not.

The lights that we left on the old-fashioned technology were the applications where the standard CFL bulb just wasn’t going to be the right product: such as ceiling fans, stove fan and bathroom fixtures.

This summer, several stores in Michigan have been advertising sales on CFL light bulbs in conjunction with a statewide campaign to encourage energy savings. It’s easy to find the single and multi-pack standard bulbs on really cheap prices right now, and some of the specialty bulbs also can be found on discounts.

Meijer in Monroe, Mich., has a sale until Aug. 1 on ceiling fan CFL bulbs: half off the usual price for the two-pack of 40-watt equivalents.

I bought six of those light bulbs last night to outfit our two ceiling fans in the two bedrooms at our home.

Hmm. ….

The lights didn’t seem as bright as we were used to.

We looked at the wattage. We took 60-watt bulbs out of the fixtures and replaced them with 40-watt equivalents. That was part of the problem.

How much of a difficulty will the wattage be? Well, there are lamps in each of those rooms that can be turned on for task lighting. So while we weren’t impressed, we think in the long run it won’t matter much.

The other part of the problem, as I have since discovered, is that these particular light bulbs seem to have had a break-in period. When I turned on the lights this morning, they were brighter this morning than they were last night. The lower wattage will always be a factor, but it is better.

Because of this situation, my husband warned me not to get CFL bathroom fixture lights until I can find a product that really will be the equivalent of the original light bulbs. He wants the bathroom lights to be as bright as possible – and, that makes sense since the bathroom is where he shaves and I put on makeup.

But I will tell you that we are pleased with the standard CFL bulbs we installed awhile ago in our overhead lights and lamps in the living room, dining room and kitchen.

If you’ve been wondering about CFL bulbs, go to GE’s information page to read about details such as ceiling fan issues and proper disposal of these products. Then, if you live in Michigan, take advantage of these special sales this summer.

To get the most out of your investment, use the light bulbs you purchased to convert over your most frequently-used fixtures. You can save the older bulbs for replacements in the fixtures you haven’t yet converted, or donate the older bulbs you no longer need to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

We’ve talked about the idea, although I admit it hasn’t gone very far.

The main reason is that a lot of the information I post on the budget blog is already going to be, or has been, in our newspaper at some point. If someone is a daily reader of The Monroe Evening News, they will see many of the headlines and announcements that I refer to or quote from.

My duties as Community Page reporter include scheduling the community event notices and public service announcements in the newspapers. If there’s anything in those notices that are useful to a family on a budget, I crosspost it here. And most of the sales and deals posts on this blog are from the Monroe newspaper advertisements – although I also post deals from other sources from time to time.

We know from discussions with Internet headlines-only readers that they were missing important information, and that’s why I crosspost so much of those notices on the budget blog.

Now, there are times when I do post tips and information first on the blog that would be of interest or useful to the print audience. That’s why, on occasion, you’ll see a notice or summary in the newspaper as to my topic of the day. On other occasions, we take an entire article that was posted first on the blog and reprint it in the daily paper or one of our specialty publications. For example, I have two pieces scheduled to run in the Back-to-School 2009 tab – one on school supply purchases, the other on packing up for the college dorm.

But the factors that were once considered as barriers to the Information Superhighway really don’t exist any more.

Age is not a factor – my 85-year-old grandfather FIXES computers.

Income is not a factor – the libraries have free public access computers. You can also find free wireless Internet in many places if you already have a laptop.

No, the reason people are not on the Internet these days is they’re just not interested. And until the usefulness of the Internet for those people outweighs the hassle of dealing with spam and viruses, the learning time if you are not familiar with computer operating systems, and the initial investment into equipment should you decide to get it for home … they will have no interest in joining those of us who are on the Internet.

My co-worker Jeff Meade has this article for today’s edition of The Monroe Evening News: No Internet, no interest.

This includes a lot of stuff you really don’t need.

If you want to save money during back-to-school shopping time, do not buy the following school supplies unless they are specifically required or requested by your instructor, teacher or school:

• Lunch box: If your student packs lunch on a regular basis, you will want a lunch box. But if packed lunches happen only during field trips, forgo the lunch box. The typical instructions on field trips are “pack a sack lunch.” The instructions are worded that way because teachers and chaperones do not want to be responsible for making sure all the lunch boxes and containers get sent home to the right families. The adults have enough to worry about on field trips with making sure the kids stay on schedule.
• Big binder. I have seen many grade-school lists include this instruction: “no big binders.” Here’s why: grade school desk shelves and cubbies are pretty small. The zipper-style binders in particular take up so much space that students have to park some of their books on top of their chairs or on the floor at the end of the day. So don’t get a big binder unless you are told to for a specific reason. For example, my daughter was told get a big binder to keep her handouts in a high school foreign language class.
• The really, really big boxes of crayons: Most brands of crayons come in boxes that range in size from 8 to 96. I don’t like the 8-color boxes. But there is a point of diminishing creative returns on the crayon box sizes, in addition to limited space in the students’ cubbies and desks. Aim for the 24 or 48-count crayon boxes unless your teacher or school specifies otherwise.
• Colored markers: Unless you are told to buy a specific size / style / brand of colored marker, do not buy markers for grade school use. Parents and grandparents: you know what it’s like to get marker ink all over the kitchen table or the walls. Teachers and classroom aides don’t want to clean up that mess either. Get the kids some crayons or colored pencils instead.
• Highlighters: College kids want / need highlighters to mark up their textbooks or notes. But the potential use is limited for K-12 students, where textbooks often belong to the schools and highlighter marking is discouraged because the books need to be re-used from year to year.
• Academic day planner: This may seem like an odd thing to skip over for the high school and college students. But you first want to check and see whether there is one sold or distributed by the school. If you’ll get a day planner at orientation with the school’s dates already entered, why bother buying a day planner on your own?
• Scientific calculator: You will see that equipment automatically listed on some back-to-school high school lists at the stores. They are, however, pricey. Don’t buy a scientific calculator until you have heard from the instructor that the equipment will be actually used in that math or science class, and what the technical specifications are.
• Flash drive, DVD-R or any recordable media: You need to find out  which computer systems and connections are in use in the classroom before you purchase recordable media. I’ve seen people bring a variety of recordable media and gadgets to The Monroe Evening News newsroom and ask that my co-workers download pictures for the newspaper – but sometimes we can’t access the images because we don’t have the connectors for their media.
• Computer for the college kids: Don’t buy any computer for a college student until you find out directly from your college’s information technology staff what the technical specifications are. This detail varies quite a bit from one campus to another, based on what we saw when my daughter was attending college open houses. You also might get a better deal buying the computer via the college’s purchase plan or at the bookstore than if you bought the computer at a retail store.
• Liquid glue: The preferred glue in many grade-school classrooms is the glue stick form. Students don’t like glue sticks because they will dry out fast if not capped and stored correctly. But liquid glue creates a huge mess for the teachers or classroom aides to clean up when students don’t know how to handle it.
• Ink pens: There are many teachers who insist students use only pencils in class. If ink pens are allowed, in many cases the required color is blue or black. Save your money and don’t buy red pens or other color pens unless you are told to.
• Facial tissue and hand sanitizer: These items are popping up more frequently on back-to-school lists. If your teacher or school requests such donations, please contribute if you can. If they are not asked for, you don’t need to supply them.
• Paint kits: If the teacher asks for a paint kit, get whatever is asked for. But they’re not needed in all elementary classrooms. Sometimes, the teacher already has a supply of paints that he or she uses from year to year.
• Index cards and posterboard: You will likely need index cards and posterboards for specific projects at the junior high and high school level. But don’t buy them until you need them – or you happen to see a really cheap sale.
• Dry erase markers: There are still classrooms in Monroe, Mich., that have traditional blackboards / chalkboards instead of the newer dry erase whiteboards. Dry erase markers are expensive, so don’t get them unless you know they will be used in class.
• Scissors: Your K-6 student will probably need a pair of paper-cutting scissors, and there are some classes at the older grades that need cutting supplies. The question you need to answer before buying the equipment is: which cutting materials are considered safe and appropriate for that grade level?
• Digital cameras and mp3 players: Yes, there are academic applications for such things. The mp3 players, for example, can be handy for foreign language classes. Digital cameras might be expected for art, photography or journalism classes. But don’t buy this equipment for school use until you find out exactly what technology the professor recommends.
• Cute character erasers: You want a pencil eraser that does the job, not one whose purpose is to look pretty.
• A padlock: Student lockers sometimes have combination locks built in. That means you might not need to provide a padlock until the semester or year when the student is scheduled for physical education class. Don’t buy a lock until you need it, or you might forget the combination in the meantime.
• Specialty notebooks: Some schools and teachers do require composition notebooks, five-subject notebooks or “blue books” for specific assignments. But if you don’t know of any special requests for your students’ classroom, get a stack of the cheap one-subject spiral notebooks in assorted colors.

But!

If you are purchasing a computer for a college student, your first task needs to be a phone call or e-mail to your college’s information technology department or to look up the I.T. department on your college’s web site.

What you need to find out is the computer specifications on that campus. It would be a waste of a lot of money if you bought the wrong computer and the student can’t use it at school.

Each college has its own policies. You sometimes find very specific instructions for students in certain majors. Here are the possibilities:

• Some colleges say, “bring whatever you want.” After all, if the student has a hand-me-down computer that is good enough for typing papers but not much else, many colleges do have computer labs with all the latest software.
• Some colleges have instructions that students in this or that major should have a Windows or a Macintosh or a laptop or a PDA device or a digital camera that can shoot video or a certain software bundle. You’ll want to leave room in your budget for those special applications.
• Some colleges have detailed specifications as to which Windows or which Macintosh model you should purchase in order to be compatible with the college’s wireless network or commonly used software.
• Some colleges will tell you “this is your computer” and bill that purchase as part of your tuition. (There are some advantages to this setup, so don’t get too freaked out.)

Now, here is another reason you want to check with your college before buying that computer: College student discounts are available on the retail market, but your bookstore or IT department may have even better pricing.

We bought my daughter’s computer at her campus bookstore during summer orientation. My husband had checked the pricing for the recommended equipment, and he knew the bookstore offer was the best deal we could find. Two other relatives were purchasing my daughter’s computer as a graduation gift, but we didn’t want them to spend more than necessary.

That conversation has ramped up quite a bit with recent headlines that many newspapers these days are shutting down, publishing less frequently or converting to on-line editions in order to keep operating financially. Several Michigan papers are making that leap this year.

It’s pretty much taken for granted, given the typical patterns, that younger people like the immediacy and search capabilities of the on-line newspaper, and older people like the print edition they have long been familiar with. That’s why the question keeps coming up: What happens to the print newspaper readers when their print product disappears?

Here is what I’m seeing: it’s not AGE that is the root of today’s digital divide. Some of the cause is MONEY, but the bigger cause is ATTITUDE.

There were a lot of discussions about the “digital divide” when the Internet and home computer usage was fairly new, and the “information superhighway” promised to make news and information much easier to access around the clock. I saved some of those industry and news reports from the 1990s because I thought it would be interesting to look back on them on that years later. They really are fun to look at. (I even have a black and white digital photo from 1995!)

The digital divide predictions of wired vs. nonwired populations are indeed coming true, but not for the reasons most commonly cited.

Let’s talk about AGE:

Several years ago, I wrote a package for PrimeTime magazine, which was then the Monroe Publishing Co.’s publication targeted to retirees. The magazine’s focus that month was on computer usage, training and interest among older people. My editor and I found more than enough stories and topics to fill the magazine.

My in-laws, who are in their 70s, had just purchased their first computers at that time. My husband helped them pick out desktop computers that fit their needs and interests, without getting too expensive on their budgets. The in-laws will still phone call us, rather than e-mail us, if they want to contact us. But now my father-in-law is talking about upgrading to a laptop computer so he can be on the Internet while sitting on the patio. Obviously, he’s hooked.

In the meantime, my husband’s aunt got a computer. She has physical ailments that make it hard for her to get around. But she can get onto her Internet connection to play games and stay socially active. She’s entertained.

But the trump card I usually bring out on those discussions is my 85-year-old grandfather.

He not only has his own laptop computer, my grandfather also happens to be one of the family’s go-to people whenever someone  has a problem with their computers.

Yes, my oldest living relative is one of the family’s computer technician hobbyists.

Age is no longer a barrier.

Let’s talk about MONEY:

My husband and I got our first home computer and web connection in 1996. I created and hosted my first web site in 1998. My husband does a lot of his shopping on line. We use instant message to talk with the college daughter when she’s at her computer. And yet, we’ve been slow in adopting trends such as online billing (we find it to aggravating to have to print out our own paper to make receipts  – where’s the “green” value in that?).

But that 1996 computer is the only computer my husband and I actually paid retail price for. We used some of his savings to buy it.

His current computer was purchased second-hand, and he recently put the time into rebuilding / refurbishing the system so it will keep running for another couple of years.

My laptop is a hand-me-down from my dad.

The daughter’s laptop was a high school graduation gift from two of the relatives.

Now, that is just one example of how a frugal family became, and remains, Internet-savvy.

But I’m finding a lot more examples today.

Keep in mind that many of today’s financially struggling families had money at some point during the past 10 to 15 years – and / or learned how to use the Internet at school or work.

I have seen people who are chatting on frugal living blogs and forums report they connecting via a library connection.

Or they’ll explain that they’ve cut out their cable, wireless phone, landline phone, newspaper subscription … but won’t give up that Internet connection. The money-saving information they find on line is too critical for their family to be out of the loop. And once you’ve paid for the equipment and software, it doesn’t take much money to keep an Internet service active.

The sagging economy is certainly aggravating things. If you don’t already have a computer, or need to make some upgrades to your equipment, it would be hard to justify making such an investment at a time when your family has to cut back on other expenses.

But for those who can’t keep up an Internet connection at home, they can always visit their local library.

And the libraries have met the challenge. Every time I stop by one of Monroe-area library branches, I see the computer labs are full of library patrons.

Money is no longer a barrier.

Let’s talk about ATTITUDE:

If you know someone who isn’t using computers by now, the real reason they don’t want to. That’s the bottom line. They don’t see the point of learning something new when it has no appeal for them.

I know very well that with The Monroe Evening News, we have two distinct audiences: print and online. As I told someone else the other day, I can put a story online any time. But my sources and readers will complain if the information I post is not also in print. To them, the print edition is STILL the real newspaper.

Now, my hunch is that more people would cross that digital divide if they found things they are interested in that they could be done on the computer.

For example, don’t brag to your grandmother about all the cool hiphop music you are finding in iTunes. Show her how easy it is to find music on the Internet that she listened to during HER high school years.

If your aunt has heard way too much about the seedy side of the Internet, show her the sites, blogs and twitters that religious people have created to educate people about faith traditions and raise awareness about social justice and charitable causes.

And if your dad has been telling family history stories for years, help him learn how to compile all that information into a genealogy database and find census reports and other vital records on line.

If you, as an Internet-savvy reader, are convinced that digital is the way to go, and the way to save the newspaper industry from complete extinction, then your help is needed in breaking down barriers for those who have not made that connection.

You have to remember that age or money are no longer the root causes of the digital divide.

It’s attitude.

Now, since I am a frugal living blogger, what about those Sunday newspaper coupons? You can’t get those from the e-edition of The Monroe Evening News.

Sorry, I haven’t found a satisfactory replacement for getting the majority of my grocery coupons from the print edition of the Sunday papers. The ecoupon / printable coupon resources that are currently available have too many limitations.

The Internet, however, has taught me ways how to make those newspaper coupons have a bigger impact on my grocery budget!

My co-worker Charles Slat has this post at Consumer Alert! Is your favorite TV channel missing?

Associated Press story at MLive: Hundreds of TV stations to end analog on Feb. 17.

Associated Press story at Detroit Free Press (slightly different angle here): 4 TV stations in Michigan among hundreds to end analog next week.