Beat the credit crunch with your PC and save over £800

As the world tightens its belt and prices rise, it’s good to know that there really are some things you can get for free. So instead of ditching your car for walking, or shopping at Aldi instead of Waitrose, make your savings on your PC instead.

There are loads of great free programs out there which perform many of the tasks of expensive alternatives – and unless you’re a power user, perform just as well as you’ll need.

Check out other great posts on the best ways to get free music and movies here.

1. Paint.net vs Adobe Photoshop

Everyone knows the power of Photoshop, but few the versatility of Paint.net. The program started as a student project to improve Windows Paint, and ended up incorporating some of the specialised features of Photoshop including layers and effects, making it a great free alternative.

Saving: £485.98

2. PC Tools Free Antivirus vs Norton 360

If you’re looking to save some money on security, then look no further than PC Tools Free Antivirus. The free virus killer has a great features set, and you can double your protection with PC Tool’s ThreatFire, which is designed to sit along existing anti-virus software and provide behavioural detection.

Saving: £52.98

3. PDFCreatorvs Adobe Acrobat

If you want to turn documents into PDFs, a copy of Adobe Acrobat is an expensive way to go about things. PDFCreator lets you make PDFs quickly and easily, and most importantly – absolutely free.

Saving: £238.48

4. Avidemuxvs Adobe Premiere Elements 4

If you’re a budding video editor, and want some software to get started on then put away your wallet and try Avidemux. It features some decent tools, making it easy to do basic editing and encoding tasks, and saving you a packet on more complex programs such as Adobe Premiere Elements.

Saving: £66.99

5. GIMP vs Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

While Paint.net provides a free alternative to image manipulation in Photoshop, GIMP rivals more commercial programs such as Corel Paint Shop Pro in terms of basic touch-ups. If you want to make those holiday photos look their best then try GIMP before you shell out for more expensive alternatives.

Saving: £ 39.98

TOTAL SAVING: £884.41