Cash incentives for saving water

Posted by Matt

This post is targeted to my local readers; if you're not a customer of Tualatin Valley Water District, you can stop reading here or check with your own local water provider to see if they offer a similar program.

Tualatin Valley Water District has several rebate programs designed to provide additional incentives for their customers to reduce their water usage (assuming you haven't been swept up by the "green" wave already). I discovered that the lawn aeration that we were considering is encouraged by the water district because it allows you to use less water on your lawn. If you're not familiar with the process, aeration looks much like lawn mowing, except that the machine has a roller with cylindrical spikes on it to take plugs of soil out of the lawn. It is especially helpful for lawns with very hard-packed soil. This is something I did as a child with a pitchfork, and I'm glad to pay the $35 that our aerating service charges to do both the front and back lawns.

Of course, now I'll only end up paying $10 after the $25 rebate! We may also buy some hose bib timers to simplify watering; those have a rebate available also (as do rain sensors and pressure regulation service). If you don't have a lawn, you can also find rebates for efficient appliances and even toilets here. All any of the programs require are forms and receipts.

Link: How to figure out the value of donations

Posted By Paul

I recently donated some old furniture and other items to a charity organization and I thought I would look into the possibility of taking a tax deduction on the donation.

I was immediately perplexed by what amount I should use for the various items. I vaguely remember what we paid for the items originally but I'm not sure what their fair price is now.

I did a little searching and found this great guide for the value of donated items. It's provided by the Salvation Army:

Salvation Army Donation Value Guide

I am going to try to keep track of all the various items we donate to charity and see how it affects my taxes this year.

PGE wants to send us all a check

Posted by Matt

Portland General Electric's latest newsletter just informed me that I may be eligible for a refund of money that I paid for the Trojan nuclear power plant. I don't really remember buying a power plant in the October 2000 to the September 2001 timeframe, but I'll take their word for it.

If you were a PGE customer during that time, visit http://www.trojanrefund.com/ to apply for a refund. You HAVE to apply to be eligible. It only took me about two minutes, and residential customers are expected to receive about $23 each.

Article: 8 Things Parents Don't Need

Posted By Paul

As a new parent I was happy to run across this article listing things that you DON'T need as a new parent.

8 Things New Parents Don't Need

I especially liked the author listing the expensive burp cloths and how cloth diapers work just as well. In fact a friend of mine went to a baby shower where as a game they had each guest decorate a cloth diaper in permanent marker for the parents to use as a burp cloth. The parents use them for various baby related cleaning and it's cool to see the funny and creative designs that the guests put on them.

Also the fact that they mentioned the baby wipe warmer was excellent. I saw one listing for a baby wipe warmer that said something like:

"the baby wipe warmer saves you money by being able to use any type of wipe in it."

What saves you even more money is to not buy the warmer in the first place. I looked on Amazon and read customer reviews of warmers and several people swore that their baby didn't like cold wipes and that buying this device improved their life considerably. Our baby actually thinks the cold wipes are kind of ticklish and using the cold wipes will often turn his crying into laughing. I guess it goes to show that all babies are different.

Any other suggestions for things new parents SHOULDN'T buy, or at least shouldn't ASSUME they need?

Store Credit Cards: Know What You're Signing Up For

We have a guest post from Matt's wife Leah today. Enjoy!

-------------------------------------Posted by Leah

One of the major department stores (who shall remain nameless) recently hooked us with a “save 15% right now if you apply for a store credit card” offer. Normally we wouldn’t even consider it, but we were making a pretty large purchase and the savings totaled about $30, so my frugal nature won out and I convinced Matt to go for it.

There were several people waiting in line behind us, so I was feeling rushed during the application process. It was very quick, though, and only required a few taps on the buttons of the credit card swiper. Voila! We were approved in about one minute, and I walked out feeling pretty smug about my $30 in savings.

Fast forward to about a week later. We got a letter from the store thanking us for purchasing an additional plan that would help us pay off our balance should hard financial times strike. This plan would cost us $1.60 per $100 of our balance each month. That adds up to an extra 1.6%, added on to an already sky-high interest rate (Matt and I never carry a balance, so we don’t worry too much about interest rates on credit cards).

The letter stated that we could cancel this plan within the first 30 days and wouldn’t be assessed any charges. Of course I did this immediately, and filed a complaint with the company about this automatic enrollment. The representative informed me that I had agreed to this additional charge during my rushed application process, although I had no memory of doing so.

Ok, so it was my bad. I shouldn’t have applied for the card without reading all the small print, but what makes me mad is that the store knows that nobody is going to stand there, holding up the line, while they read through all the terms of use on that tiny screen. They also know that the majority of people, for various reasons, won’t get around to cancelling their membership in the plan within the first 30 days. I believe this is the store’s sneaky way of sticking it to the customer and squeezing that little bit extra out of us.

So what’s the moral of this story? Don’t apply for credit cards? No. Used wisely, credit cards have all sorts of benefits. Don’t apply for a store credit card while being rushed through a checkout line? Maybe…although most people don’t take the time to read the fine print even if they have the time. Be aware that this kind of stuff is happening, ask questions, and read your mail? Definitely!

E-cycling revisited

Posted by Matt

It's been nearly a year since my post about the costs of e-cycling, in which I complained about having to pay to recycle my computer monitor. For those of you in Oregon who decided to hold on to your monitors until now, I have good news!

I just read an announcement from my garbage service company that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality implemented the Oregon E-cycles program in January with the intent of providing free recycling of computers (desktop and laptop), monitors and televisions.

Visit http:/www.oregonecycles.org to learn more about the program or to find local drop-off facilities. I was pleased to learn that my previous recycler of choice (Free Geek) is participating in the program and that all participants are required to follow environmentally sound management practices.

Now, if you've made it this far, I'll give you the full disclosure about the costs here. The recycling isn't really free, right? Someone has to pay for it, right? Electronics manufacturers who sell their products in Oregon have been funding the E-Cycles program (whether they like it or not) since 2007, which probably means that those costs were been passed on to YOU the consumer when you purchased these types of products. But considering that we're all paying for the program anyway, let's at least use it to our full advantage.

0% return?!?! - Update on Series I Savings Bonds

Posted by Paul

(for more detailed info on savings bonds see previous posts on savings bonds: Savings Bonds 8/27/07 and Savings Bonds Revisited 8/22/08)

Those of us who have purchased or who have been following the Series I savings bond got to see some history as the interest rate for a new Series I bond went to 0% for the first time since the I Bond was created over 10 years ago.

What happened? Well the quick summary is that the I bond return is tied to the inflation rate, and for the first time since the bond was created the inflation rate (which is published twice a year in November and May) was negative (specifically -2.78%). If you do the math, this means that the return rate of your bond is negative (even if you bought I bonds when their rate was highest back in 2000 the calculation results in a negative number). Luckily it is made clear that when the rate of the bond goes below 0 it just gets set to 0.

So what does this all mean? Well there is a whole article talking about it here:

Yikes! Series I Savings Bonds paying 0.0%

To summarize some specific points from the article:
"That means your money is still safe from inflation, but you’re getting the same return you’d get by burying it in a coffee can in the back yard."

The article managed to find a small silver lining in all this:
"If you do decide to dump your Series I bonds, you’re in luck. Normally, if you sell a bond less than five years after you bought it, you have to pay a penalty equal to three months interest. Since you’re getting no interest, you’ll owe no penalty."(Hooray?)

For me, I'm just going to hold onto my bonds and see what happens when the rates reset again in six months.