What's the best way to store your essential digital data, like legal documents and archival photos? You're going to be surprised. 

 

MarketWatch.com warns us that "Yesterday's hot trend, tomorrow's buyer's remorse."

1. Cable TV

Though cable providers still have plenty of subscribers--roughly 101.7 million Americans, in 2014, according to research firm IBISWorld--those numbers are declining. The firm predicts that cable providers will lose a net of around one million subscribers for each of the next several years, reaching 97 million in 2019.

One of the reasons for this subscriber defection: Consumers are increasingly embracing (often cheaper) cable alternatives. Indeed, PricewaterhouseCoopers notes that subscriptions to cable alternatives like Netflix (up 25% over 2013), Amazon Prime (up 14%) and Hulu (up 3%)-each of which costs around $8 a month-are on the rise.

Next year, you may have more reason than ever to cut the cord, as cable TV rates are rising, even as more relatively inexpensive streaming options emerge. In 2015, research group NPD expects the average pay-TV bill (for basic and premium channels) will hit $123 a month, up from $86 in 2011.

What's more, in 2015, there will be even more streaming options to watch: In October, HBO, Univision, and CBS all announced new stand-alone streaming services. "There are a lot more options out there so we don't all have to subscribe to cable anymore," says Sarah Kahn, an industry analyst for IBISWorld. -- Catey Hill

2. Name-brand razorblades

Americans love their Gillette razorblades-so much so that the shaving giant controls 66% of the nearly $13 billion shaving industry. But just because Gillette is popular doesn't mean it's cheap, especially if you're buying the blades (or cartridges, to be exact) at the corner drugstore.

Which is why more shavers are turning to membership programs; the Dollar Shave Club, whose membership has grown by nearly 200% in the past year to 1.3 million, is perhaps the most prominent example. Such clubs sell blades on a mail-order subscription basis for a fraction of the cost. A blade purchased through Dollar Shave can run as little as $1.50; by contrast, a Gillette blade can run as much as $5. And the blades aren't necessarily inferior: A survey by the grooming-oriented Sharpologist website gave high marks to just about every low-cost Gillette competitor.

Still, what if a shaver swears by Gillette? Gillette and shopping experts says consumers can still find ways to save on their beloved blades by buying them at discount retailers (Costco is an oft-mentioned example) or creating what amounts to their own subscription model--meaning purchasing the brand-name blades in larger quantities on a recurring basis through sites like Amazon.com and Drugstore.com. -- Charles Passy

3. Bottled water

Who would pay $2 for what amounts to a bottle of tap water? Millions of Americans, it turns out. In the four decades since Perrier water was launched in the U.S. market in the mid-1970s, U.S. consumption of bottled water has surged 2,700%, to 10.1 billion gallons in 2013, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. And sales in the U.S. rose 4% year-over-year in 2013 to $12.3 billion. The Beverage Marketing Corporation predicts that bottled water will become the top-selling packaged beverage in 2020, up from No. 2 currently.

Scares over possible water contamination have helped boost demand for bottled water over the last few decades, experts say. The American public thinks bottled water is going to be safer and cleaner than tap water, says Mae Wu, attorney in the health program at National Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., but "for the most part, that's not true."

Indeed, 45% of bottled water brands are sourced from the municipal water supply-that's the same source as what comes out of the tap, according to Peter Gleick, a scientist and author of "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water." Bottled water sourced from municipal water supplies include Dasani, owned by Coca-Cola and Aquafina, owned by PepsiCo.

Consumers can purify their own tap water for a fraction of the cost, says Nick Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx, a brokerage and a services firm. It's more economical and better for the environment to filter tap water at home, "and one way to avoid using a lot of scrap plastic," he says. Filters from companies such as Brita and Pur start at around $15 for a year's supply. --Quentin Fottrell

4. Credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance

The year 2014 saw an almost unrelenting avalanche of security breaches that struck retailers, banks and medical providers, among many others. At least 744 data breaches have been disclosed this year, with more than 115 million consumers' records exposed, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

To protect themselves and their data, consumers may opt for credit monitoring services or identity theft insurance. But such coverage, which can cost anywhere from $25 to more than $100 a year, may not be worth paying for, consumer advocates say. "It depends on how important peace of mind is to you, because that's essentially what you're buying at the end of the day," says Al Pascual, senior analyst for security, risk and fraud at Javelin Strategy & Research.

Some credit monitoring services place all of a person's financial information in one place, making it easier to check your account for fraudulent activity. These services also often help victims of identity theft get through the crisis, aiding with paperwork and potential fees or expenses like lost wages, if a person has to take off work to deal with the fallout, though such extensive cases are rare.

But you may not need that kind of help. Banks have zero liability policies that protect consumers from unauthorized charges. For free, people can opt to receive alerts each time a transaction is made over a certain value; they can also ask the credit bureaus to put a security freeze on their account to prevent fraudsters from opening new lines of credit.

And if you decide you want the protection, chances are you already have multiple offers in your inbox that can give it you free-given that many breached companies extend these services to customers free of charge to save their reputations. -- Priya Anand

5. DVDs and CDs

Compact discs and DVDs have going the way of the dodo, and streaming media will keep that trend going in 2015, experts say.

Sales of DVDs and high-definition Blu-ray discs dropped by 8% to $7.78 billion last year, and are expected to have fallen even further in 2014, according to Digital Entertainment Group, an industry trade group. Revenue for DVD rental subscriptions from companies like Netflix and Red Box-plummeted 19% last year to $1.02 billion. And while digital movie purchases are playing catch-up on DVDs, revenue still soared by 47% to $1.19 billion last year.

Digital music tracks also declined for the first time in 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and that slide continued throughout 2014. On-demand streaming of music rose 42% year-over-year to 70 billion songs in the first half of 2014, while digital track sales fell 13% to 594 million in the same period. Sales of compact discs dropped by 19% year-over-year to $716 million in the first half of 2014, according to by revenue in the Recording Industry Association of America, although vinyl LP sales surged 43% to $146 million in the same period. -- Quentin Fottrell

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