What's 1 way you enjoy being wasteful?
Ohioguy
frugal lately. We got lots of great answers, with people making big and
small changes to their lives to be more frugal. (mine was saving plastic
bags from cereal boxes, and plastic bread wrappers to use for lunches,
etc., so I don't have to buy sandwich bags as often)
This time around, I'm wondering what your guilty pleasure is? You
know, something that sort of bothers you because it certainly ISN'T
frugal, like most of your life, but you still want it enough to do it
anyway.
I have two:
A) comic books. I didn't subscribe to any of these as a kid, but I did
get to read yard sale copies a lot at an aunt's house. These days,
cover prices have gone up to about $3 a copy, and I subscribe to about
30 different titles. Of course, I've figured out a way to get them for
about 85 cents each. Never pay full price! Still, we're talking about
a hobby that costs me over $300 a year.
B) restaurant food. Yes, I realize that you end up paying 3-8x as much
eating out. However, I'm a stay at home Dad, and I fix a lot of the
meals, so this gives me a break. Once or twice a week, I eat out,
probably wasting about $100 a month that I could be saving for hard
times. On the plus side, I did turn it into a sort of hobby, by
starting a restaurant review blog, (www.DaytonDining.com) which also
lets me have some fun writing about my experiences.
How about you?
Rod Speed
> Last year I asked folks here what was one way that you became more frugal lately. We got lots of great answers, with
> people making big and small changes to their lives to be more frugal. (mine was saving plastic bags from cereal boxes,
> and plastic bread wrappers to use for lunches, etc., so I don't have to buy sandwich bags as often)
> This time around, I'm wondering what your guilty pleasure is?
I dont have any. I do have plenty of pleasures, but no guilt about any of them.
> You know, something that sort of bothers you because it certainly ISN'T frugal,
Nothing like that bothers me at all. I do whatever I feel like doing.
> like most of your life,
Most of my life is frugal. I just prefer to do things like that.
> but you still want it enough to do it anyway.
> I have two:
> A) comic books. I didn't subscribe to any of these as a kid, but I did get to read yard sale copies a lot at an
> aunt's house. These
> days, cover prices have gone up to about $3 a copy, and I subscribe
> to about 30 different titles. Of course, I've figured out a way to
> get them for about 85 cents each. Never pay full price! Still,
> we're talking about a hobby that costs me over $300 a year.
I dont bother with comics, I read lots of real books.
Some I get at yard sales and church fetes etc and Vinnies etc, some
I buy online used, some I buy new, some I read from the library.
> B) restaurant food.
I bother with very little of that. At one time when I was running a course
in computing, the woman who did the office stuff would organise a
decent meal every semester in a restaurant and I did attend all of
those, but dont bother with restaurants much at all otherwise.
I dont buy much fast food either. At one time I did have pizza delivered
quite often, but my house doesnt look much like a house from the street
so it wasnt that convenient to keep a watch out for the pizza delivery ape
and when they jacked their prices up too much, I buy the pizzas
uncooked at the supermarket and cook them myself instead.
I've been meaning to get into making them from
scratch but havent gotten around to doing that yet.
I did get into making marmalade from scratch this year, because the
operation that made the commercial marmalade I liked most stopped
making that marmalade and I didnt like their replacement as much,
so I made my own and end up with as good as they used to make.
> Yes, I realize that you end up paying 3-8x as much eating out. However, I'm a stay at home Dad, and I fix a lot of
> the meals, so this gives me a break.
I dont need a break, I've got the meals down pat and they dont
take much effort at all. I do use some pre prepared uncooked
stuff like chicken filo parcels etc, and only have to cook them.
> Once or twice a week, I eat out, probably wasting about $100 a month that I could be saving for hard times.
We wont be seeing any real hard times, we've recovered from the
clowns completely imploding the entire world financial system again fine.
> On the plus side, I did turn it into a sort of hobby, by starting a restaurant review blog, (www.DaytonDining.com)
> which also lets me have some fun writing about my experiences.
> How about you?
I basically buy whatever I feel like technology wise, have the lights
and heaters etc all fully automated, have replaced the VCRs with
a PVR that I assembled myself and record almost everything I
watch, so I can watch it when I feel like watching it, not when its
broadcast etc and so I can skip the ads etc. I record everything
that I might want to watch and buy currently 1.5TB hard drives
to store that stuff on since I watch less than I record.
I may well get an iphone since there is an app that makes a very
good X10 controller. Bit hard to justify what is essentially a rather
expensive remote control, but I'll likely do it anyway just for the
convenience and because I like technology.
I'll probably change the DSL router for one that includes voip support,
mainly so I will have a completely integrated phone service, even tho
I cant justify the cost. I currently just have two cordless phone bases,
one on the voip service and one on the POTS service. A fully
integrated voip router would just be rather more elegant.
I will completely redo the kitchen. I physically built the house quite
literally, doing almost all the work myself, but never did get around
to having the most comprehensive special purpose made drawers
etc for everything. Cant really justify it in the sense that the current
shelves work fine, but I'm into fancy design and that much more
interesting than say a coffee table etc.
I have previously done plenty of stuff like owning a light plane etc too.
The Henchman
"Ohioguy" <no...@none.net> wrote in message
news:0dChn.7913$jB5....@newsfe19.iad...
> How about you?
I collect Scotch. My budget is $100 a month for Scotch. The average price
I pay per bottle is about $80 or $90 so about one a month. Total waste of
money and I really don't drink much of it but over the last decade I have
amassed a very nice collection. I have 5 custom made red oak cabinets built
to display my bottles.
This year we got HDTV from the cable co. It's $18 a month extra and worth
every single penny but I dunno if we'll watch it enuf to justify it. We
have snow on the ground at least 4 months a year so HDTV is worth it for 4
months maybe.
MAS
Casino gambling with my best friend - about three times a year. Total
waste of money 97% of the time, but it's a whole day of therapy for us.
Marsha
Annie Woughman
"MAS" <m...@bbbb.net> wrote in message news:hm73hg$1cc$2...@news.datemas.de...
> On 2/25/2010 4:46 PM, Ohioguy wrote:
>> Last year I asked folks here what was one way that you became more
>> frugal lately. We got lots of great answers, with people making big and
>> small changes to their lives to be more frugal. (mine was saving plastic
>> bags from cereal boxes, and plastic bread wrappers to use for lunches,
>> etc., so I don't have to buy sandwich bags as often)
>>
>> This time around, I'm wondering what your guilty pleasure is? You know,
>> something that sort of bothers you because it certainly ISN'T frugal,
>> like most of your life, but you still want it enough to do it anyway.
>>
1. Cable television with the works. We have all the premium channels 2
digital boxes (two flat screen TV's), 10MB high speed internet and oh yeah
the telephone thrown in for $160 a month. Since we don't ever go to the
movies or rent or buy DVD's this is pretty much our entertainment budget.
2. I'm a real sucker for techie gadgets. We keep our computers updated with
the latest hardware and software. We have three desktops--all with 24 in
flat screen monitors and I also have two laptops, a 17in and a 14in, all
running Windows 7 and networked with a wireless Cisco router. I also have
two Ipod Touches, mostly for reading e-books.
m...@privacy.net
>I basically buy whatever I feel like technology wise, have the lights
>and heaters etc all fully automated,
what hardware are you using to automate lights and
heaters?
Rod Speed
h
<m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:bo3go5tjnrdfaldkq...@4ax.com...
Umm, that's Rod Speed, so don't believe a thing it says, just plonk it as
the rest of us have done.
The Henchman
"Jim...(8-| " <j...@home.com> wrote in message
news:c9hfo558g7h58pssv...@4ax.com...
.
>
> It has changed our viewing and now we avoid SD as much as feasible
> including waiting for sports events to be replayed by them in HD
> rather than endure the local stations commercial ridden blur.
> Our week would comprise 100+ hours of TV viewing in concert with our
> internet usage so I can't see any point being stingy with TV. Although
> our 101 cm Samsung whilst being a quality unit when we bought it 18
> months ago may have been better served being a bit bigger.
You made me think of a good point: Is high speed internet now a
nesscessacity in the home, like a washing machine or telephone, or is it
still a luxury?
To me television is a luxury, although it is useful from time to time: the
cooking shows and weather reports. What about Internet? And since many
people are now combining internet and television into one bill, that becomes
clouded to.
h
"The Henchman" <y...@yup.org> wrote in message
news:hm9pt1$9e3$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Depends. I'm self-employed and my website is my sole source of income. I
consider roadrunner to be a necessity, and it's a deductible business
expense Without it I would be spending many extra hours dealing with tech
stuff instead of making my products. When I switched to cable phone my
business started saving about $100/month. When I factored in all the
business savings I realized that adding in a few premium channels was
essentially free, since I no longer go to the movies at all anymore.
Lou
> news:c9hfo558g7h58pssv...@4ax.com...
> .
> >
> > It has changed our viewing and now we avoid SD as much as feasible
> > including waiting for sports events to be replayed by them in HD
> > rather than endure the local stations commercial ridden blur.
> > Our week would comprise 100+ hours of TV viewing in concert with our
> > internet usage so I can't see any point being stingy with TV. Although
> > our 101 cm Samsung whilst being a quality unit when we bought it 18
> > months ago may have been better served being a bit bigger.
>
>
> You made me think of a good point: Is high speed internet now a
> nesscessacity in the home, like a washing machine or telephone, or is it
> still a luxury?
For my wife and me, I'd say it's just over the line into the necescity
class. With it, my wife can work from home at least one day a week, every
week. Her daily commute costs about $25 for gas and tolls, so over the
course of a year, working from home saves around $1,200. Pretty much pays
for itself. With dial up, she'd have to go into the office every workday.
On an irregular basis, I use it to work from home as well. My daily
commuting expenses run only around $7, so though it's not much money, it's a
little frosting on the cake.
> To me television is a luxury, although it is useful from time to time:
the
> cooking shows and weather reports. What about Internet? And since many
> people are now combining internet and television into one bill, that
becomes
> clouded to.
If I had to pick, I'd give up cable for TV before I'd give up high speed
internet. You could still fish local TV out of the air. And there's a
wealth of video diversions available over the internet.
Michael Black
Telephones aren't a necessity, one could live with mail. That virtually
everyone has a telephone is mostly the way society has decided.
The internet is probably that way, you can do a lot with it so most
people aren't willing to abandon it.
But high speed? What you'll probably find is that most of what people use
high speed for doesn't rate as a necessity. If TV isn't a necessity, then
getting it over the internet sure isn't. Sure you can download songs
faster if you have high speed internet, but many wouldn't consider buying
music (or stealing music) a necessity. A lot of things that make high
speed internet "valuable" is a result of things shifting to the end user.
Great, some independent movie maker can distribute their movie "for free"
but it relies on the end user paying for high speed internet.
Michael
Rod Speed
>> X10
> It doesn't sound like you have reverse cycle A/C?
Nope, I use a swamp cooler in summer, vastly better value.
I use electric heat, and have just lately changed over to using a
heated throw rather than keeping the entire room nice and warm.
The house is passive solar and that works fine unless its a very overcast heavy cloud day.
> The heat from that is splendid for a warm up job when
> cold and I think rather rends olde style heaters past it.
It doesnt work that well here, its too cold outside when I need the
heat most, first thing in the morning before the sun comes up and
I get the advantage of the passive solar sitting in the sun. Its too
cold outside for reverse cycle to work well here, and the main
room is very lossy with vast amounts of north facing glass.
It wouldnt be economical to replace that glass with very high tech
tripple glazing now, it makes a lot more sense to use an electric
storage heater that gets charged overnight to warm the room up
quickly. I get up very early indeed, often 4am or earlier and thats
well before the sun comes up. So it makes more sense to use
a heated throw and then turn that off when I'm sitting in the sun later.
> Not a difficult job to fit a split system A/C either and
> they can be had at a pretty reasonable price now.
Sure, but the problem is that the outside temps are so low when
I want it to provide heat that they dont work that well in my situation.
Makes more sense to get the quick boost of the air temp using
stored electrical heat and use the heated throw until the sun comes up.
Even in the evening after the sun has gone down, a heated throw
costs a hell of a lot less to run than any reverse cycle system does.
Same for the days with no sun too.
Ohioguy
>still a luxury?
It depends on who you ask. Try asking a homeless guy on the street,
and his answer will likely vary from that of a guy with a $400k house
and a nice suit job.
I'd still classify it as a luxury, because as I'm typing this, I'm
connecting using dialup. (all2easy.net - $5 a month) However, more and
more websites are ASSUMING you have high speed Internet, and are
becoming very difficult to use if you have dialup. Plus, if you have
dialup, nobody can contact you when you are online, unless you are
willing to pay another $7 a month for call waiting. I'd much rather pay
$20 a month for DSL than $12 for dialup and call waiting. Of course,
I'd also much rather pay about $10 for high speed Internet than $20.
The Henchman
"Michael Black" <et...@ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.64.10...@darkstar.example.net...
> Telephones aren't a necessity, one could live with mail. That virtually
> everyone has a telephone is mostly the way society has decided.
I think that opinion is not correct. Telephones are a necessacity. For
example, this week I had to file an insurance claim. I had to make this
over the telephone, as there were no papers to download from their internet
site that related to my claim. When a winter storm hit this week and I was
going to be two hours late picking my wife up from work I phoned her and
told her. When Granma slipped and fell in her house, slashing her leg open,
she use a telephone to call us for help.
>
> The internet is probably that way, you can do a lot with it so most
> people aren't willing to abandon it.
>
> But high speed? What you'll probably find is that most of what people use
> high speed for doesn't rate as a necessity. If TV isn't a necessity, then
> getting it over the internet sure isn't. Sure you can download songs
> faster if you have high speed internet, but many wouldn't consider buying
> music (or stealing music) a necessity. A lot of things that make high
> speed internet "valuable" is a result of things shifting to the end user.
> Great, some independent movie maker can distribute their movie "for free"
> but it relies on the end user paying for high speed internet.
>
> Michael
Yeah you've made some good points on the high speed issues and it describes
some of the patterns in my home, but around my town basic high speed
internet is lower in price than dial-up (although before I cement this
claim, I should check-out the small independent). At least with the utility
and telecom companies dial-up is about 22.95 a month, unlimited usage and
basic high speed about 10.99 a month (with 10 gb data cap). My town is full
of fibre optic and high quality copper wires, plus there are all kinds of
hills with towers that offer wireless. Competition and availability has
made high speed very value priced.
Another argument with high speed internet is it's replaced my car in many
ways: All my banking and finances are done online (so no bank line-up), all
my bills are paid online, taxes filed online, some clothing and books etc
purchase online, at lower prices. Online shopping has replaced catalogue
shopping I believe.
Another example: all my retirement planning has been done online (research,
purchases, sales, investment accounts). I guess I can go to a "guy" but I
do all my own research and keep the fees to myself. With high speed, the
public library is in my house 24 hours a day. High speed allows us to free
more time, use the car less, plan more efficiently, save a few dollars.
Shawn Hirn
wrote:
For me, broadband Internet access at home is an essential part of my
life, but I work in the computer industry. I have the fastest broadband
I can get in my area. Just about an hour ago, something came up at work
and I had to VPN in and fix it. If I was on dial up, that process would
have been painfully slow. With my fast broadband service, it took me
about five minutes to fix.
I am in graduate school too. A good deal of the content for the courses
I take is online, even though we have weekly class lectures. We have to
go online and read some materials every week prior to class, in addition
to reading our textbook.
I have a cousin who is a few years younger than me, maybe around 42. He
is well below the poverty level. He and his mom share a one bedroom
apartment and they barely get by each month on his disability and her
social security income. They have Comcast's basic Internet and digital
cable TV, which they got as a package deal.
Even applying for a low skilled job such as convenience store cashiers
is done online. With the cutbacks at the public libraries, getting there
and finding an available Internet station is a real challenge, so even
for my cousin and my aunt who don't have two dimes to rub together most
of the time, Internet access is important.
About two years ago, I set up my cousin with a used Gateway PC with
Windows XP which I bought for a mere $25, including the monitor. My
cousin uses it for a variety of things, including making a few extra
dollars online each month doing surveys. So the little bit of money he
makes pays for their ISP service, but not much more than that.
Even my cheapskate dad got hooked on the Internet. My folks are
fortunate that they really don't have to worry about where their next
meal comes from. My dad has no real expenses other than some co-pays for
medicines my mom takes and his real estate taxes, which only amount to
maybe $120 a month. So for him, having DSL is not a big crimp in his
budget.
My sister had to move in with my parents for a few months last year. She
needs broadband for her job and my dad complained a lot about having it
installed in his house because he said its an unnecessary expense. My
sister got her way (as she usually does with my dad). She eventually
showed my dad lots of things that interest him on the Internet such as
wikipedia and google searches. My sister moved out six months ago. When
she moved, I got my dad a cheap Mac mini and he continued the lowest
level DSL which my sister originally had installed. He's hooked now on
the Internet and now he's learning about email and facebook. My dad can
spend hours online looking up info on topics such as botany, fishing,
and home repairs and other topics of interest to him and now through
facebook, he's hooked up with some family members that live thousands of
miles away. For the $20 or so my dad spends on his DSL a month, it is a
bargain. Than again, from my perspective, my dad's broadband is still
way too slow for my taste. If I do a Mac OS X security update, for
example, it can take 20 minutes to download on his Mac mini, whereas the
same update might take a minute or two on my iMac, but for my dad, his
slow DSL is fine.
My dad refuses to pay for cable or satellite TV, but he has TWO fairly
new HDTVs. He has HDTV rabbit ears on both sets and the quality of the
over the air HD is amazing on his two televisions. For me, I have no
choice but to subscribe to paid TV, although HDTV is a luxury. Due to
the construction of the apartment building where I live, rabbit ears
will not work and an exterior antenna is out of the question so I have
Comcast HDTV, with one HD DVR and one HD box (non-DVR). I hate watching
SD TV now, but if I had the choice between broadband and paid TV, I
would ditch the paid TV and keep the broadband because I need it for my
job and I can always watch popular TV shows and the news via steaming
video.
Shawn Hirn
Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
But these days, even applying for most jobs requires that the applicant
fill out an online application, plus doing things such as banking online
is a hell of a lot more convenient than doing it face-to-face, not to
mention that one of my bank accounts is with ING Direct, which is based
in Europe. I am in NJ, so going there to make a deposit, up until
recently, wasn't a viable option. ING does now have a brick and mortar
bank branch near me though.
Hell, just this morning, I checked on three bank accounts (all local
banks) without leaving my apartment. This resulted in a big savings in
time and money (no gas). I transferred money from my tax rebate to a
checking account at a different bank, then I logged onto that bank and I
scheduled an extra car payment in the amount that I transferred to that
account.
I also trade stocks online a few times a year. For example, one stock I
bought last year (SIRI) has made enough profit to pay for my broadband
ISP service for several years to come if I sold it now, which I do not
intend to do.
I am also shopping for a house. I haven't had any luck finding a home
that fully suits my needs yet, but the online realtor.com web site has
been invaluable to me in searching for homes, not to mention the
realtor.com iPhone app, which is the best thing since sliced bread for
those who are shopping for a home. Without Internet access, I couldn't
even imagine how much of a drudge it would be to shop for a house. Even
with Internet access, I find home shopping to be tedious and boring.
Rod Speed
> Rod Speed <rod.sp...@gmail.com> wrote
>> Jim...(8-| wrote
>>> Rod Speed <rod.sp...@gmail.com> wrote
>>>> m...@privacy.net wrote
>>>>> Rod Speed <rod.sp...@gmail.com> wrote
>>>>>> I basically buy whatever I feel like technology wise,
>>>>>> have the lights and heaters etc all fully automated,
>>>>> what hardware are you using to automate lights and heaters?
>>>> X10
>>> It doesn't sound like you have reverse cycle A/C?
>> Nope, I use a swamp cooler in summer, vastly better value.
> Yeah, i didn't think of your dry heat, those evaporator things are useless here.
>> I use electric heat, and have just lately changed over to using a
>> heated throw rather than keeping the entire room nice and warm.
>> The house is passive solar and that works fine unless its a very
>> overcast heavy cloud day.
>>> The heat from that is splendid for a warm up job when
>>> cold and I think rather rends olde style heaters past it.
>> It doesnt work that well here, its too cold outside when I need the
>> heat most, first thing in the morning before the sun comes up and
>> I get the advantage of the passive solar sitting in the sun. Its too
>> cold outside for reverse cycle to work well here, and the main
>> room is very lossy with vast amounts of north facing glass.
>> It wouldnt be economical to replace that glass with very high tech
>> tripple glazing now, it makes a lot more sense to use an electric
>> storage heater that gets charged overnight to warm the room up
>> quickly. I get up very early indeed, often 4am or earlier and thats
>> well before the sun comes up. So it makes more sense to use
>> a heated throw and then turn that off when I'm sitting in the sun later.
> I'm in the process of boarding up our windows, we don't need any sun shining in,
Dunno, I would have preferred it in BrizVegas one time when
I showed up in Oct, too cold for me in shorts and T shirt.
The parents did have a wood fire too for winter,
but that at night when the sun is long gone.
> and anything to quieten the outside noise is a bonus.
Not a problem here, mine are all 8'x8' patio doors with
heavy armoured glass. That keeps the noise at bay
except when I have the doors open when the cooler is off.
The main problem with that config is that windy days
are a bit of a nuisance blowing the papers around etc.
>>> Not a difficult job to fit a split system A/C either and
>>> they can be had at a pretty reasonable price now.
>> Sure, but the problem is that the outside temps are so low when
>> I want it to provide heat that they dont work that well in my situation.
>> Makes more sense to get the quick boost of the air temp using
>> stored electrical heat and use the heated throw until the sun comes up.
> I can't help but think the belief about not working in cold temps may be a furphy.
Yeah, it certainly is for me, I dont get that effect at all.
I do with the stinking hot days, but thats days over 40C.
> You're more switched on than me in these techy things but
> in my mind providing the outside temp is higher than the
> boiling point of the refrigerating gas then it should work.
The problem is that the outside coils ice up.
Its possible to have them on the sunny north side, but that doesnt
help with my very early starts, the sun doenst come up for 3-4
hours and I dont need the R/C once the sun is up anyway.
It is possible to have the coils against a heavy concrete wall
under a deep eve where the sun has heated that concrete
wall the day before, but there isnt any heat left in it by 3am
the next day unless you have a movable thermal blanket over it.
Its just a lot easier to automate the storage
electrical heater and the heated throw.
The storage heater is still being charged until about 6am when
everyone else is getting out of bed an starting breakfast etc.
> Even at -10 with a big block of ice sitting on the evaporator
> coil (the outside one when in reverse) it should still function.
It still works, but the efficiency is fucked so its not that much better than a fan heater.
And the offpeak power for the storage heater is much
cheaper again, so its much better value than R/C.
> Where am I wrong? as they say they don't work near freezing point.
Its not so much wrong as the efficiency ends up worse than the offpeak power costs.
I really should just sleep in till the sun has come up, but I dont work like that at all.
Big change there. I used to think that 9:30 meetings at work
were a complete obscenity. I hardly ever sleep in till 5 now.
Rod Speed
And in some countrys where you pay for the phone call, DSL can
actually be cheaper than the phone call costs if you use the net much.
And there is the saving with voip as well. I can call anywhere for 8c
per call, total cost of the call, even on the other side of the world
with no monthly cost for the voip service at all, just 8c per call.
Rod Speed
> Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote
>> Telephones aren't a necessity, one could live with mail. That virtually everyone has a telephone is mostly the way
>> society has decided.
> I think that opinion is not correct. Telephones are a necessacity.
Thats very arguable. Particularly if you allow for cellphones and voip.
> For example, this week I had to file an insurance claim. I had to make this over the telephone, as there were no
> papers to download from their internet site that related to my claim.
Few are in that situation.
> When a winter storm hit this week and I was going to be two hours late picking my wife up from work I phoned her and
> told her.
Doesnt make a phone a necessity, you could have made the call on a neighbour's phone or voip.
> When Granma slipped and fell in her house, slashing her leg open, she use a telephone to call us for help.
That doesnt happen enough for it to be a necessity.
And a cellphone can call 911 without any service paid for.
>> The internet is probably that way, you can do a lot with it so most people aren't willing to abandon it.
>> But high speed? What you'll probably find is that most of what
>> people use high speed for doesn't rate as a necessity. If TV isn't
>> a necessity, then getting it over the internet sure isn't. Sure you
>> can download songs faster if you have high speed internet, but many
>> wouldn't consider buying music (or stealing music) a necessity. A
>> lot of things that make high speed internet "valuable" is a result
>> of things shifting to the end user. Great, some independent movie
>> maker can distribute their movie "for free" but it relies on the end
>> user paying for high speed internet.
> Yeah you've made some good points on the high speed issues and it describes some of the patterns in my home, but
> around my town basic high speed internet is lower in price than dial-up (although before I cement this claim, I should
> check-out the small independent).
Its often true in countrys that charge for phone calls too
particularly when you use voip over the DSL as well.
> At least with the utility and telecom companies dial-up is about 22.95 a
> month, unlimited usage and basic high speed about 10.99 a month
> (with 10 gb data cap). My town is full of fibre optic and high
> quality copper wires, plus there are all kinds of hills with towers
> that offer wireless. Competition and availability has made high
> speed very value priced.
> Another argument with high speed internet is it's replaced my car in
> many ways: All my banking and finances are done online (so no bank
> line-up), all my bills are paid online, taxes filed online, some
> clothing and books etc purchase online, at lower prices.
Yep.
> Online shopping has replaced catalogue shopping I believe.
Not for most.
> Another example: all my retirement planning has been done online
> (research, purchases, sales, investment accounts). I guess I can go
> to a "guy" but I do all my own research and keep the fees to myself. With high speed, the public library is in my
> house 24 hours a day. High speed allows us to free more time, use the car less, plan more
> efficiently, save a few dollars.
And it was so much more convenient than the library when
I got back into vegy growing after not doing it for 50 years.
m...@privacy.net
>t a lot easier to automate the storage
>electrical heater and the heated throw.
Rod.... what is storage electrical heater?
Just a big thermal mass heated by resistance electric
heat for use later?
Have link?
Rod Speed
>> a lot easier to automate the storage
>> electrical heater and the heated throw.
> Rod.... what is storage electrical heater?
Its a system where off peak electrical power is used to heat
a stack of metal bricks contained in a very high tech silica
insulation stack. The bricks are heated to red hot using
off peak power which costs a third of the cost of peak
power and the heat is extracted with a long cylindrical
fan in the base of the heater. The charging is done
auto using a thermostat cutoff.
We get off peak power right thru the evening, from about
10pm till about 6am and there is another charge in the
afternoon, from about 2pm till about 4pm roughly.
> Just a big thermal mass heated by resistance electric heat for use later?
Yes.
> Have link?
http://www.derbyheatbanks.com.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_heater
m...@privacy.net
>> Just a big thermal mass heated by resistance electric heat for use later?
>
>Yes.
>
>> Have link?
>http://www.derbyheatbanks.com.au/
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_heater
>
Excellent strategy!!
Have not heard of them in USA
Is this widespread in Au?
Rick
i CALL IT a "hot water heater" :=)
Rod Speed
> Rod Speed <rod.sp...@gmail.com> wrote
>>> Just a big thermal mass heated by resistance electric heat for use later?
>> Yes.
>>> Have link?
>> http://www.derbyheatbanks.com.au/
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_heater
> Excellent strategy!!
Yeah, its also got the advantage that the appliances are
very simple indeed and completely trivial to replace a heating
element or thermostat or fusible link when one dies etc.
> Have not heard of them in USA
> Is this widespread in Au?
Nar, not that commonly used now. I did come across one just the
other day on a yard sale run, but thats the only other one I have
ever seen, tho that doesnt prove much, you dont actually go inside
the house that often at most yard sales, usually just in the yard or
the garage etc.
Mate of mine who used to be an electrician said
that he didnt get all that many of them in his work.
You can also do it with electrically heated floors which are much
more common in the US, using the concrete floor as the thermal
mass, but that doesnt work as well because you dont have any
control over the release of the energy and you cant have the
extreme range from high to low temp either.
Rod Speed
>>> Yes.
>> Excellent strategy!!
Yeah, you can do it that way but you need a lot more
space when water is the thermal mass, because you
dont have anything like the same temperature range.
The ones that use metal bricks have a temp range from ambient
to quite literally red hot and they have that fancy silica insulation
that was developed for space reentry heat shields.
No risk of leaks either.
Rod Speed
>>>>>> X10
> You also need screens to keep bugs out.
Yeah, given that its an irrigation area here, the mosquitos have 4 engines.
> The only papers we have any more are the householder
> mail which serves as reading material in the lavatory
> before being tossed for the next week's batch.
I only bother with the local paper now, just to keep up
with whats happening locally and the garage sales etc.
Quite a bit of other stuff lying around tho like the junk mail.
> Fair point, makes sense. It would cost to much to
> make them with excess capacity for fringe conditions.
Yeah, I could use reverse cycle with underground as the heat source,
but thats even more expensive and it wouldnt get used that much.
The heated throw is a minor nuisance when cooking dinner, getting up
a few times when its cooking etc, but thats the only real downside with it.
Ohioguy
>data cap).
Wow, I'd switch to high speed right away if I could find that deal.
I'm sticking with the $5 a month dialup right now only because high
speed here in SW Ohio seems to be $20 a month.
Of course, my $5 a month deal has limited hours - about 6 hours a
day, but that has been plenty.
Zee
> Last year I asked folks here what was one way that you became more
> frugal lately. We got lots of great answers, with people making big and
> small changes to their lives to be more frugal. (mine was saving plastic
> bags from cereal boxes, and plastic bread wrappers to use for lunches,
> etc., so I don't have to buy sandwich bags as often)
>
> This time around, I'm wondering what your guilty pleasure is? You
> know, something that sort of bothers you because it certainly ISN'T
> frugal, like most of your life, but you still want it enough to do it
> anyway.
>
> I have two:
>
> A) comic books. I didn't subscribe to any of these as a kid, but I did
> get to read yard sale copies a lot at an aunt's house. These days,
> cover prices have gone up to about $3 a copy, and I subscribe to about
> 30 different titles. Of course, I've figured out a way to get them for
> about 85 cents each. Never pay full price! Still, we're talking about
> a hobby that costs me over $300 a year.
>
> B) restaurant food. Yes, I realize that you end up paying 3-8x as much
> eating out. However, I'm a stay at home Dad, and I fix a lot of the
> meals, so this gives me a break. Once or twice a week, I eat out,
> probably wasting about $100 a month that I could be saving for hard
> times. On the plus side, I did turn it into a sort of hobby, by
> starting a restaurant review blog, (www.DaytonDining.com) which also
> lets me have some fun writing about my experiences.
>
> How about you?
Well...maybe buying die cast models (I have like almost a hundred by
now) every now and then. It's not expensive but I can use the money to
something more useful.