The world financial crisis everybody has been talking about during the last few months does not affect only big banks and international corporations. Average people, people like you and me, also have trouble trying to make ends meet by the end of the month. Prices, taxes and mortgage rates are constantly raising while wages seem to have frozen, which means that keeping a reasonable standard of living is much harder than it used to be.

For those of you who are in this tricky situation, I've collected a series of software-related tips that can help you save some money. While this list is not the perfect solution for the financial crisis, at least you'll be able to loosen your belt a bit.

• Track your personal monthly expenses more efficiently with a home accounting software tool. You can find very decent apps for free, such as Buddi, Money Manager Ex and Personal Finances.

• Save energy with LocalCooling, a small tool with very handy tips to use your computer in a more environmental friendly way.

• Use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, Active Pixels or GIMP instead of Photoshop and in general any free/open source app you can find instead of the correspondent proprietary software.

• Buying movies and books can be an important burden on your budget. Try sharing them more often with your friends, and track those loans with Movienizer and BookDB.

• I know traveling is great, but it's also expensive. If you can't afford a trip abroad, at least treat yourself with a nice tour on Google Earth. Here's some advice on recommended Google Earth sightseeing routes.

• Save on long-distance calls by using Skype, Gizmo or any other VoIP application. Plus some of them support webcams, so Mom will be able to check on you and immediately find out if you're eating properly.

• Sell stuff you don’t use on eBay and also watch out for bargains. eBay Desktop can help you with this task.

• Forget about expensive gym fees. You can exercise for free (footing, jogging, biking…) and keep accurate statistics of your results with SportsTracker.

So you've decided to start your own blog. Congratulations! Whether you intend to create a professional blog or simply write a personal diary, blogging is an excellent hobby that keeps you in touch with the rest of the world. It lets you meet new people, learn different perspectives and share anything you like, from news headlines to your newborn son's first photos. Once you've made up your mind, it's time to get down to business. Here's a list of all the software applications and online services that may be helpful in your blogging adventure. Remember that perseverance is the key to success! Try to update your blog on a regular basis and you'll soon see the results.

• First of all, you need to choose the blogging platform you're going to use. The most popular ones are Wordpress, Blogger and to a lesser extent, LiveJournal.

• If you don't fancy writing your posts on an online editor, you can use a desktop blogging tool like W.bloggar, Post2Blog or the Blogger extension for Word.

• When it comes to capturing images for your articles you have a wide array of options, where Screenshot Captor, SnagIt and EasyCapture are probably the best choices.

• After taking a snapshot you'll probably need to improve or retouch it in some way. Download a graphic editor such as PhotoFiltre, PhotoScape or Active Pixels for these easy editing tasks.

• You may also need to make video captures to record screen activity. These videos are great to explain software tips or show off your skill in a particular videogame. You can capture them easily with HyperSnap-DX, WeGame or AviScreen Classic.

• Podcasts are another element of added value for your blog. Create them with Wildvoice Podcast Studio, ePodcast Creator or PodProducer and use them to develop more extended content and reach your readers in other formats.

• Blogging platforms usually provide a bunch of ready-to-use templates but in case you want to use your own design, download a coding editor such as Dreamweaver, UltraEdit-32 or EclipseStyle and let your inner artist loose.

• Besides an attractive design, web promotion is also a key element in your blog's success. Use Good Keywords to find the right keywords, Link Popularity Check to track your search results and AdSenseDesktop to manage your ad revenue.

Active Pixels is an excellent photo editor with which you can retouch and optimize your images. It supports layers and features powerful tools, as well as a wide selection of filters and special effects to apply to your pictures. It also includes some extra apps, like a red-eye fixer and a screen capture tool. Best of all, it's free!

Thanks to today's technology, anyone can produce great photos. All you need is a digital camera, a bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time, and press the button. Add a few Photoshop retouches  to that, and you'll get a gorgeous picture.

Here we explain a very simple Photoshop trick to make your photos stand out, with three possible variants. They're all easy to apply and don't require an extensive Photoshop knowledge, so why don't you give them a try?

1. Open the image you want to work with. In this tutorial I'll be using this royalty-free image from stock.xchng. Grab the Marquee tool (M) and select the area you want to highlight.

2. Go to Select > Transform selection and the selected area will become a square you can resize and move freely on the screen. Put the mouse near a corner and when you see the pointer turns into a double arrow, move the mouse to tilt the selection a bit. When you're done, release the mouse button and hit Enter.

3. Now press Ctrl+J and the selected area will automatically be copied to a new layer. Make sure this new layer is active, click the layer style button and select Stroke.