Some tech gear has outlived its purpose. Here are some better, more convenient and less expensive choices.

One of the more tiresome habits we personal-finance writers have is lecturing people about the difference between wants and needs. The things we truly need are few: food, shelter, clothing, companionship. Our wants, by contrast, are endless.

That knowledge is supposed to help you winnow out the unnecessary when it's time to cut the budget. But humans are also creatures of habit, and sometimes we grow dependent on stuff that has simply outlived its purpose. Better, more convenient, less expensive technologies may exist, but we can't discover them if we're still clinging to the old.

The following are technologies that wormed their way into our lives and that now may deserve the boot: