A lot of free Android apps--especially games--use ads to help support themselves. Unfortunately for you, this means that apps which normally don't use data must connect to the Internet to download and refresh ads. Ads are also a data-draining (and generally annoying) part of many webpages. Eliminate ads, and you will cut down the amount of data you consume each month.

You can get rid of ads in a couple of ways. First, you can purchase the Pro or Paid version of the apps responsible for the lion's share of your monthly data usage (see our earlier tip about Onavo). Second, you can use an ad-blocker app like ($2, for normal, un-rooted Android phones) or (for rooted Android devices). But remember that blocking ads from downloading probably decreases ad revenue for the developers who made the ad-loading apps--which are free because they're ad-supported.

You use a lot of data when you browse the Web--but you don't have to use as much as you do. Instead of using the stock browser that comes with Android, try downloading a lighter and more data-efficient browser such as or to reduce your data usage while surfing the Web.

Opera Mini is a free and speedy little mobile browser that compresses websites before sending them to your Android device in order to reduce your data usage. Opera Mini is also available on iOS and features tabbed browsing, "Speed Dial" websites, and automatically adjusting page sizes to make your Web browsing experience faster and more efficient.