Posted by Matt
Check out Time magazine's amazing photo essay about what the world eats. I'm sure my mother would have loved to show me these photos when I was a bratty kid refusing to eat my rice.
The weekly spending ranges from $1.23 to over $500. It was interesting to go through this and see what kinds of things might be considered staples in various countries (the US families had comparatively few vegetables) and what might be driving up the bill (in Germany, maybe the beverages and/or meat.)
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Inexpensive ink
Posted by Matt
I read this in our company newsletter today:
this, don't forget to factor in the value of your time.
For this article, I chose to use our HP OfficeJet V40
printer as an example. (Yes, it is painfully old and I will replace it as soon as it stops working.)
I first went directly to the HP website. The price for a replacement HP15 cartridge there is $29.99. This is where the printer companies make all their money these days and it's why printers are so inexpensive.
Next, I looked on Amazon and found remanufactured cartridges
from Printworks for $19.99. That's only 33% off so far, but if you don't want to get your hands dirty, this is not a bad deal. I decided to keep looking.
Next I found http://www.cheap-printer-refills.com/. They had some really good prices:
That led me to discover that the company that makes the video is (no surprise) an ink manufacturer. Their OfficeJet page lists the best deals yet.
If you don't want to get your hands messy, at least consider the remanufactured cartridges. These are almost exactly like what you are getting from HP, Epson and Canon, but much cheaper!
I read this in our company newsletter today:
Next time you buy an ink cartridge, go with a refilled one. Recycled cartridges cost up to 75% less than new ones.Sounds good to me; what do I have to do? I looked around and it turns out that, as usual, the more effort you are willing to put in yourself, the more cash you can save. When reading through
this, don't forget to factor in the value of your time.For this article, I chose to use our HP OfficeJet V40
printer as an example. (Yes, it is painfully old and I will replace it as soon as it stops working.)I first went directly to the HP website. The price for a replacement HP15 cartridge there is $29.99. This is where the printer companies make all their money these days and it's why printers are so inexpensive.
Next, I looked on Amazon and found remanufactured cartridges
from Printworks for $19.99. That's only 33% off so far, but if you don't want to get your hands dirty, this is not a bad deal. I decided to keep looking.Next I found http://www.cheap-printer-refills.com/. They had some really good prices:
- Remanufactured cartridge: $12.95 (about 57% off of the new cartridge price from HP)
- Refill kit with refill tools and enough ink for one refill : $10.95 (63% off)
- Ink only for one refill: $5.99
That led me to discover that the company that makes the video is (no surprise) an ink manufacturer. Their OfficeJet page lists the best deals yet.- Remanufactured cartridge: $12.95
- Refill kit with TWO refills: $9.95
- Ink only: $2.95
If you don't want to get your hands messy, at least consider the remanufactured cartridges. These are almost exactly like what you are getting from HP, Epson and Canon, but much cheaper!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Going Cell Phone Only
Posted By Paul
This seems to be a trend you hear more and more about. People dropping their land lines in favor of going cell phone only.
My wife and I decided to give this a try since we noticed that:
1) A lot of the phone calls we got on the conventional line were solicitors or surveys.
2) Most of our friends would call us on our cell phones anyway since it was the most dependable way to reach us.
With cellular plans getting pretty affordable, with hundreds of minutes including long distance, voice mail, and caller id it seemed silly to have three phone files for two people.
So we decided to drop our land line and figured that if we found it annoying that we could always reactivate the line later.
We decided to go cell only for at least six months.
After about 3 months both my wife and I decided to leave the land line down permanently. We are saving money by not having to pay for the rarely used land line, and we don't miss it at all.
If you can completely remove a monthly bill from your expenses, it's a great addition to your monthly bottom line (see the article Beware Of Subscriptions).
Of course I know people who can't do this because cell phone reception at their home is really poor, but since the reception at our house is great, we've really found it to be a great decision.
I'd be eager to hear if other folks out there tried going cell phone only and if it has worked for them.
This seems to be a trend you hear more and more about. People dropping their land lines in favor of going cell phone only.
My wife and I decided to give this a try since we noticed that:
1) A lot of the phone calls we got on the conventional line were solicitors or surveys.
2) Most of our friends would call us on our cell phones anyway since it was the most dependable way to reach us.
With cellular plans getting pretty affordable, with hundreds of minutes including long distance, voice mail, and caller id it seemed silly to have three phone files for two people.
So we decided to drop our land line and figured that if we found it annoying that we could always reactivate the line later.
We decided to go cell only for at least six months.
After about 3 months both my wife and I decided to leave the land line down permanently. We are saving money by not having to pay for the rarely used land line, and we don't miss it at all.
If you can completely remove a monthly bill from your expenses, it's a great addition to your monthly bottom line (see the article Beware Of Subscriptions).
Of course I know people who can't do this because cell phone reception at their home is really poor, but since the reception at our house is great, we've really found it to be a great decision.
I'd be eager to hear if other folks out there tried going cell phone only and if it has worked for them.
Follow up: Return to minimalism
Posted by Matt
To recap, about a month ago I posted about trying to maintain a minimal number of possessions, and I thought I'd give you a progress update. I hate to admit it, but I didn't get rid of nearly as many shoes as I had hoped. The good news is that it is because I'm wearing some of them again! When I was going through the piles, I found one pair that made me stop and think, "These are really a nice pair of shoes." I decided to give them another week at the office and have decided that I really like them. They're brown, unfortunately, but that just means I won't replace them when they wear out.
I've got a black pair of oxfords that I haven't been able to bring myself to wear again, though, so I'll probably take those down to my donation pile right after this post. The only other thing I bought was a pair of new khakis for work (one in) to replace a pair that don't fit me anymore (one out). The pants are comfortable, versatile, won't go out of style before they wear out and I bought them on a gift card!
So far, the plan is going well. The real challenges will come over the next few weeks as we move into our new house. Past experience has taught me that moving seems to always inspire shopping...I'll have to be careful.
To recap, about a month ago I posted about trying to maintain a minimal number of possessions, and I thought I'd give you a progress update. I hate to admit it, but I didn't get rid of nearly as many shoes as I had hoped. The good news is that it is because I'm wearing some of them again! When I was going through the piles, I found one pair that made me stop and think, "These are really a nice pair of shoes." I decided to give them another week at the office and have decided that I really like them. They're brown, unfortunately, but that just means I won't replace them when they wear out.
I've got a black pair of oxfords that I haven't been able to bring myself to wear again, though, so I'll probably take those down to my donation pile right after this post. The only other thing I bought was a pair of new khakis for work (one in) to replace a pair that don't fit me anymore (one out). The pants are comfortable, versatile, won't go out of style before they wear out and I bought them on a gift card!
So far, the plan is going well. The real challenges will come over the next few weeks as we move into our new house. Past experience has taught me that moving seems to always inspire shopping...I'll have to be careful.
Property tax discounts and refunds
Posted by Matt
I read an article in the Oregonian over the weekend suggesting that I take another look at my property tax statement(s). The author suggested that the county assessor's office does occasionally make a mistake, and it might be worth a little quick math. In our area, the assessed value of a home is not allowed to increase by more than 3% per year unless something has happened to obviously increase the value (like a remodel).
So, I hauled out the page full of numbers and got the calculator going. Here's how the numbers crunched:
Land value: +5%
Structure value: +29.7%
Total Real Market Value: 17.5%
Taxable Assessed Value: +9.2%
I almost let myself start getting excited about the possibility of an overpayment and refund, as was mentioned in the article. I called up the tax office for an explanation only to hear that the numbers were correct. The assessments actually take place in January, so our 2006 numbers were determined when our house was only 90% finished. (We moved in at the beginning of February.) Their other reminder was that property taxes increase for more than just assessed value (as was mentioned in the article). Most of the increase we saw this year came from extras like bond measures.
The article offered us one other bit of consolation:
I read an article in the Oregonian over the weekend suggesting that I take another look at my property tax statement(s). The author suggested that the county assessor's office does occasionally make a mistake, and it might be worth a little quick math. In our area, the assessed value of a home is not allowed to increase by more than 3% per year unless something has happened to obviously increase the value (like a remodel).
So, I hauled out the page full of numbers and got the calculator going. Here's how the numbers crunched:
Land value: +5%
Structure value: +29.7%
Total Real Market Value: 17.5%
Taxable Assessed Value: +9.2%
I almost let myself start getting excited about the possibility of an overpayment and refund, as was mentioned in the article. I called up the tax office for an explanation only to hear that the numbers were correct. The assessments actually take place in January, so our 2006 numbers were determined when our house was only 90% finished. (We moved in at the beginning of February.) Their other reminder was that property taxes increase for more than just assessed value (as was mentioned in the article). Most of the increase we saw this year came from extras like bond measures.
The article offered us one other bit of consolation:
The only sure-deal way to shave your property taxes is an easy one that's been around for years: Pay the whole bill by Nov. 15 and you'll get a 3 percent discount, guaranteed. If you pay in installments, you lose out.
Our property tax payment is made out of the escrow account for our mortgage, and the title company made the payment in plenty of time to save us the $132.22.
One other side note on property taxes: there are situations where it makes sense to pay your property taxes yourself instead of through escrow. If you hang onto the tax money until it becomes due and put it into a safe investment, you can earn a return on it all year long. However, most lenders require tax escrow until you reach a threshold level of equity or payment history. This is fine for most people anyway, as it helps to level out their budget and makes the tax payment (and discount) automatic.Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Another new entertainment option from Amazon
Update 11/07/07: Please IGNORE the post below. I just went to purchase several Office episodes from Amazon Unbox, but changed my mind because the DRM will prevent me from viewing the episodes on my iPod. FOR SHAME, Amazon! I won't be downloading anything until further notice!
Posted by Matt
You may remember a post from me recently about downloading mp3s from Amazon. I was excited to find it at the time, but not as excited as I was today to find out that I can buy episodes of The Office
on Amazon now, too.But, being the frugalizer that I am, I sat down to think, "Is this the most cost-effective way for me to watch this show?"
How much does it cost to watch each episode on broadcast television each week? To figure that out, I'd have to determine how much TV I watch each month, figure out what fraction of that is comprised of Office episodes and multiply by my monthly cable expense. But I'm going to skip the math because I've already watched the first three seasons on my iPod about a half dozen times and the amortized cost of each episode has got to be getting fairly competitive. Also, I'll probably be watching the episodes on TV regardless of whether I buy the episodes, so I think the more important decision is DVD vs. download.
It is only slightly more expensive to buy the entire season via subscription than to buy the DVD
, with the benefit that you don't have to wait for the DVD release and you don't have to spend a lot of time ripping from the DVD to put the files onto your media player
if that is where you want to store and watch them. And what dollar benefit can I assign to not having the DVDs taking up shelf space? Not sure, but it's a definite benefit for me.
To further rationalize it, my employer hands out recognition for good work in the form of Amazon gift certificates and I've got a few of those burning a hole in my digital "pocket". So, if you see me with my headphones on in the near future, chances are that my mind is on an inexpensive trip to Scranton, PA.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Article: 10 Things You Shouldn't Buy Used
The complementary article to '10 Things You Shouldn't Buy New':
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/10ThingsYouShouldNeverBuyUsed.aspx
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/10ThingsYouShouldNeverBuyUsed.aspx
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