With economic times tough, we're all looking for ways to save a little money here and there. Some people are turning back their cable plans, cutting channels or doing away with the service altogether, in favor of something like Netflix or Hulu. Others are able to save a few bucks a month by downgrading cell phone plans or cutting out all that expensive texting. One way that some internet users are finding to cut back on their monthly expenses is to forgo broadband and all its luxuries for a tried-and-true dial-up connection.

While they were all the rage in the 90s, with so many broadband options available to so many people nowadays, it seems a bit archaic to still be dialing in to your ISP, listening to those eerie modem protocol negotiation whistles as your connection becomes established. Despite how dated it may seem, about 9% of internet users in the U.S. are getting online with dial-up, which is a sizable amount when you consider they outnumber Mac users.

Considering whether or not to go dial-up really depends on your surfing habits. If you're a news/scores/email user who only goes online for half an hour or so a day, you can probably get by just fine on a 56K modem connection. Sure, that means you'd have to largely miss out on content like streaming video and elaborate Flash-heavy sites, but you can balance that against the savings. While the average broadband connection costs over $30 a month, dial-up can be had for as little as eight dollars. If you're already pinching pennies, savings of $270 a year or more might make a big difference in your finances.

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