Actually, I just called the tech support for my new 18.4" laptop (bought as a desktop replacement, thus can be always plugged in) and they recommended I take out the battery to prolong its life, instead of constantly charging and/or recharging.
The particular battery I'm using would cost $130 to replace, so it may not be worth it to wear out the battery in order to save a few dollars on electricity.
I've started buying all my books from ebay after years of half.com and alibris.com. I generally buy Indian editions for a quarter of the listed price, if not less.
Several commenters expressed the ideas of empathy and helping those in need, but the sad fact is that a lot of renters have lost their jobs as well, and they are not being helped by this at all. Instead, they have to pay higher taxes, and higher housing costs. There are over 100 million renters in America, and I'm sure a good amount of them need help, too. Would you hand over your money to help these people for rent?
The worst part about accounting is that the books get updated every year (new laws). Any book I can snag for a deal is amazing. Thanks for looking out for us students!
I have a great idea... make it that any new buyer can buy up this soon to be foreclosed home at this new deal. I would buy a home THIS month if that was the deal. Right now I rent because there is nothing driving prices higher. Lets worry less about keeping the irresponsible in their homes and instead try to replace them with the responsible.
I am disappointed in the mortgage plan, as I understand it. We have a great loan and have never been delinquent. But, in the last two years, we have had some major money expenses. All of them were surprizes. A 0bout with cancer and all its bills, even with great insurance, and a situation with our daughter that required much moolah. So, we have scrimpt and worked hard to make the house payments, but have so many bill collectors for our medical bills and such, that we hardly answer any phone calls. This bill doesn't seem to consider any other types of hardships caused by mortgage payments. And, gives no credit to the people who made the mortgage payments.
We probably would have been better off not paying the mortgage in the long run, because we are still in the same bad way with our bills as we ever were. And yet we don't qualify for any help.
(I was/am such a strong Obama supporter - this makes me sad.)
"not to mention destroying your laptop’s battery life"
I don't think that's true. Laptop batteries have a finite number of charge cycles. If you constantly drain and recharge your battery, as suggested by this advice, your battery will die young.
Depending on your major and the relationship you have with your instructors, the best way to get a text it to borrow it from them. I borrowed tons of books for my upper-level English classes just by explaining to the teacher that I was broke and couldn't afford the text. Of course, this works less well in a giant survey class. Oh, and you can't write in the books directly, but that's what post-it notes are for.
Since I've been a good boy, didn't buy more house than I could afford, provided a substantial downpayment, didn't overpay, and have no desire to game the system to get government benefits I can hardly wait to have my taxes raised and my tax dollars help my anonymous neighbours anywhere across the fruited plain. Heck, forget the mortgage, I say let them eat wagyu steak! Throw a Stevie Wonder or Earth, Wind and Fire concert for them! Sorry charities, I have a greater calling now. Viva Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer!
Hi Victoria. I think I've seen those, but are you sure you don't mean Cool Whip? Miracle Whip is a mayonaise type of spread, where as Cool Whip is a whipped topping type of product. If it's the sweet treat I'm thinking of, I've also seen it with the chocolate graham crackers. It really does taste like mini ice cream sandwiches.
"wah wah wah, where's my share?" This is about rewarding bad behavior. Let me paint a picture using Carrie's example of kids complaining about fairness.
Sally and Sean are two teenagers at high school. Sally doesn't do her homework, choosing to go out every night, and her grades are failing. She blows her allowance on clothes every week, and runs up a huge cell phone bill she can't afford to pay. Sean works hard on his homework every night, he saves his money, he keeps his cell phone bill in check and is a good kid.
When Sally runs crying to her mom and dad that she's in a mess, mom and dad say "well, lets help you out." They pay off her cell phone bill, they talk to her principal and get her D grades changed to A grades, and they pay her $100 every week to do her homework. Sean, he gets nothing because he didn't get in trouble.
Two questions. How does this make Sean feel? And what example does this set?
This is great! Although I am no longer a student (it's my spouses turn) I stumbled upon second hand books a few years ago, and was shocked at the savings. One in particular was an 80pg text for a Hydrology course, and it was worth $165 Cdn, at our college book store, but I scored a mint condition one online for $16 (cdn, and included shipping). For a student on a limited budget this was HUGE savings! No one else in my class could be bothered, but I ended up making money on the deal when I sold the book back to the bookstore for $45!
We disconnected a second (small) TV and cable box in one room. We ended up saving something like $15 a month on our electric bill--without doing anything else.
Unfortunately, we have a number of items (Cable box, cable modem, etc.) that cannot be shut down without having to either be restarted by cable company (long wait on hold on phone) and/or totally reconfigured.
So even though we've put what we can on power strips (a lot of things are unreachable as they are behind bookshelves that can't be moved for access--we've been here a long time in this apt., which we shut off, we're still getting billed for a lot of phantom power. (I dream about living somewhere with a master power switch for the whole place. But then we dream about modern fuses, too. It's a pre-war building.)
Even with energy efficient appliances (We saw a huge drop in our electric costs when we got a new fridge last summer), we're still paying a bloody fortune for a one-bedroom apartment thanks to increases from Con Ed. Our KWH usage is cut by a third and we're still being squeezed by Con Ed.
We'd all love to have solar panels and get off the grid. Sigh. The dreams of city dwellers.
That chart you linked to says a laser printer draws 131w when on, which is pretty scary.
When they say "on", do they mean when it's actively printing something, or just in standby mode waiting for jobs? (Which is comparable to a computer being in sleep mode.) Not very practical to have to turn your printer off and on, wait for it to start up, each time you need to print a page...
I agree with you on many of these, and I have three power-strip setups for just this sort of thing, but certain items (some of us still use VCRs, for instance) will reset themselves when the power is disconnected or turned off. Be careful when choosing which devices among your entertainment array to unplug, or you may lose your recurring programming.
whatever happened to empathy in this country? Why is always Me Me Me Me? I feel for people who are losing their homes, and I would disagree that the majority were irresponsible, and if this can help people stay in their homes then I'm willing to pay higher taxes to make it happen. Houses that have families living in them are better than empty ones that have been foreclosed on.
People can't seem to be able to look beyond the tip of their nose any more. It's sad to see just how self-serving we have become.
I've graduated from dumpster diving to Craigslisting and thus have slowly been acquiring a better quality of other people's old crap. But there is still not a single stick of new furniture in the house except a few pieces from IKEA. When the kids are gone I may move on up the junk ladder to genuine "antiquing," but major furniture is like cars to me--I can never envision myself buying something brand-spanking new from a showroom.
So in your case of your truly ugly stuff--just keep your eye open for a better class of junk. I've had 6 dining room tables in the past 20 years--some hand-me-downs, some curbside finds, and some $10 garage-sale items. Most rather small, and almost all of which needed to be covered up with a tablecloth. The most recent one, though, is a gorgeous birds-eye-maple veneer with carved detailing that seats 10, and 6 matching upholstered chairs. And I paid the princely sum of $78 for the set on eBay.
Well, it's a stretch, but you could deduct that. However, there's a lot more to it. Then you would have to do all the other things associated with having an employee... such as pay their unemployment and social security taxes. Also, if you claim your child as an employee, then you'd have to comply with child labor laws.
from what i have read, aluminum and alcohal react, even faster at high temps and high concentration. any reaction would put off other chemicals. even if it only leachs into the drink, its got to be bad. someone with chemical background could give actual details, but i would avoid it.
air in the keg, not an issue. aging the shine on oak, will make whiskey. but since you are making it from wine, you get brandy. dont stip it down to much, you want some flavour to go thru. you can even leave a little wine in the keg as it ages, nice touch
A.) Mac sauce costs now (they very from region as to how much)
B.) Double cheese burger is no longer on the dollar menu it is now replaced with the McDouble (one slice of cheese) Saving McDonalds .30 per double sold *rolls eyes* notice my dislike in this product
C.) Fries cost extra therefore they need to be left out of the equation
D.) Include taxes and it is over a dollar
E.) Slivered onions are not on the original Big Mac and yes I know this is the Ghetto Big Mac but I am doing this in terms of price not concept
Also look at "automatic" processes that waste energy - we turned our dishwasher's hot-air dry off and saved about $10 per month. We only use the dishwasher twice a week, so I was really impressed.
@Mark: Yes, it's only a tiny amount. But I'm not focusing on the dollars saved. Imagine if every home turned off their tv, laptop, dishwasher, ect. when it wasn't needed. It would save a tremendous amount of electricity and fossil fuels! Small changes, implimented by many, add up to a big difference.
I've been doing this for years. Not to save money or anything. I just LOVE water.
There's nothing like it.
Anything else you drink will leave you...thirsty!
Soda (ick!) is extremely sticky, so I end up having to wash it down with water afterwards anyway, and it doesn't quench my thirst to begin with. (I personally find absolutely NO reason for soda to even exsist!)
Now, I do drink other drinks, don't get me wrong.
It's just that 95% of what I drink, is water.
I also love milk, so that's pretty much the other 5%.
In the summer, I'll have some lemonade sometimes, but usually, that's the best time for water. When it's cold, and everyone is having their coffee (which I have no problem with...I just never learned to like it!) I'll have some hot chocolate.(what's better than chocolate water!!??)
And on the weekends with friends, I'll have a couple of my girly beers. (Smirnoff, Mike's, etc...)
Strange thing though, in between drinks, I'll always reach for my water bottle for a quick refreshing sip! (and no, I'm not diabetic!)
My body just likes water. And milk. And lemonade. All drinks that don't have "effects", basically. People think I'm so boring, as they drink their stomach rotting sodas...
My husband has always been thrilled that I'm a "cheap date". When we're at a restaurant, I always order water. It's soooo less expensive!
I have always tried to fill my kid's sippy cups with water.
Sometimes I'd give them juice, and of course milk, but the main thing was always water. It's natural. It's what all live things were MEANT TO DRINK!!! So there can't be anything wrong with it. (well, except what humans have done to the water!)
Water rocks.
Water rules.
Nothing quenches your thirst like water.
Why do people carry a soda around all day?
Because their thirst is not getting quenched! Sure, they're getting liquid, but it's leaving a sugary, sticky residue, that you're subconsiously trying to wash away with every sip, and every next bottle or can!
Just drink some water, and you won't be one of those people who is never seen without their bottle of coke or pepsi or whatever.
Just make sure the water is really really cold, so it tastes good. (I like it so much, I can drink it warm.) I do notice it doesn't taste so good sometimes. So if you're trying this out, definately make sure it's cold. Or put stuff in it to flavor it, like some people have mentioned above. I personally just like plain old water, but hey...go for it!
Actually, I just called the tech support for my new 18.4" laptop (bought as a desktop replacement, thus can be always plugged in) and they recommended I take out the battery to prolong its life, instead of constantly charging and/or recharging.
The particular battery I'm using would cost $130 to replace, so it may not be worth it to wear out the battery in order to save a few dollars on electricity.
I've started buying all my books from ebay after years of half.com and alibris.com. I generally buy Indian editions for a quarter of the listed price, if not less.
Several commenters expressed the ideas of empathy and helping those in need, but the sad fact is that a lot of renters have lost their jobs as well, and they are not being helped by this at all. Instead, they have to pay higher taxes, and higher housing costs. There are over 100 million renters in America, and I'm sure a good amount of them need help, too. Would you hand over your money to help these people for rent?
Thank. You.
The worst part about accounting is that the books get updated every year (new laws). Any book I can snag for a deal is amazing. Thanks for looking out for us students!
I have a great idea... make it that any new buyer can buy up this soon to be foreclosed home at this new deal. I would buy a home THIS month if that was the deal. Right now I rent because there is nothing driving prices higher. Lets worry less about keeping the irresponsible in their homes and instead try to replace them with the responsible.
I am disappointed in the mortgage plan, as I understand it. We have a great loan and have never been delinquent. But, in the last two years, we have had some major money expenses. All of them were surprizes. A 0bout with cancer and all its bills, even with great insurance, and a situation with our daughter that required much moolah. So, we have scrimpt and worked hard to make the house payments, but have so many bill collectors for our medical bills and such, that we hardly answer any phone calls. This bill doesn't seem to consider any other types of hardships caused by mortgage payments. And, gives no credit to the people who made the mortgage payments.
We probably would have been better off not paying the mortgage in the long run, because we are still in the same bad way with our bills as we ever were. And yet we don't qualify for any help.
(I was/am such a strong Obama supporter - this makes me sad.)
What's the source for this:
"not to mention destroying your laptop’s battery life"
I don't think that's true. Laptop batteries have a finite number of charge cycles. If you constantly drain and recharge your battery, as suggested by this advice, your battery will die young.
The rest of the advice is good, thanks!
Depending on your major and the relationship you have with your instructors, the best way to get a text it to borrow it from them. I borrowed tons of books for my upper-level English classes just by explaining to the teacher that I was broke and couldn't afford the text. Of course, this works less well in a giant survey class. Oh, and you can't write in the books directly, but that's what post-it notes are for.
Since I've been a good boy, didn't buy more house than I could afford, provided a substantial downpayment, didn't overpay, and have no desire to game the system to get government benefits I can hardly wait to have my taxes raised and my tax dollars help my anonymous neighbours anywhere across the fruited plain. Heck, forget the mortgage, I say let them eat wagyu steak! Throw a Stevie Wonder or Earth, Wind and Fire concert for them! Sorry charities, I have a greater calling now. Viva Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer!
Hi Victoria. I think I've seen those, but are you sure you don't mean Cool Whip? Miracle Whip is a mayonaise type of spread, where as Cool Whip is a whipped topping type of product. If it's the sweet treat I'm thinking of, I've also seen it with the chocolate graham crackers. It really does taste like mini ice cream sandwiches.
"wah wah wah, where's my share?" This is about rewarding bad behavior. Let me paint a picture using Carrie's example of kids complaining about fairness.
Sally and Sean are two teenagers at high school. Sally doesn't do her homework, choosing to go out every night, and her grades are failing. She blows her allowance on clothes every week, and runs up a huge cell phone bill she can't afford to pay. Sean works hard on his homework every night, he saves his money, he keeps his cell phone bill in check and is a good kid.
When Sally runs crying to her mom and dad that she's in a mess, mom and dad say "well, lets help you out." They pay off her cell phone bill, they talk to her principal and get her D grades changed to A grades, and they pay her $100 every week to do her homework. Sean, he gets nothing because he didn't get in trouble.
Two questions. How does this make Sean feel? And what example does this set?
Wow! What a blast!! Way to go!!!
This is great! Although I am no longer a student (it's my spouses turn) I stumbled upon second hand books a few years ago, and was shocked at the savings. One in particular was an 80pg text for a Hydrology course, and it was worth $165 Cdn, at our college book store, but I scored a mint condition one online for $16 (cdn, and included shipping). For a student on a limited budget this was HUGE savings! No one else in my class could be bothered, but I ended up making money on the deal when I sold the book back to the bookstore for $45!
We disconnected a second (small) TV and cable box in one room. We ended up saving something like $15 a month on our electric bill--without doing anything else.
Unfortunately, we have a number of items (Cable box, cable modem, etc.) that cannot be shut down without having to either be restarted by cable company (long wait on hold on phone) and/or totally reconfigured.
So even though we've put what we can on power strips (a lot of things are unreachable as they are behind bookshelves that can't be moved for access--we've been here a long time in this apt., which we shut off, we're still getting billed for a lot of phantom power. (I dream about living somewhere with a master power switch for the whole place. But then we dream about modern fuses, too. It's a pre-war building.)
Even with energy efficient appliances (We saw a huge drop in our electric costs when we got a new fridge last summer), we're still paying a bloody fortune for a one-bedroom apartment thanks to increases from Con Ed. Our KWH usage is cut by a third and we're still being squeezed by Con Ed.
We'd all love to have solar panels and get off the grid. Sigh. The dreams of city dwellers.
That chart you linked to says a laser printer draws 131w when on, which is pretty scary.
When they say "on", do they mean when it's actively printing something, or just in standby mode waiting for jobs? (Which is comparable to a computer being in sleep mode.) Not very practical to have to turn your printer off and on, wait for it to start up, each time you need to print a page...
I agree with you on many of these, and I have three power-strip setups for just this sort of thing, but certain items (some of us still use VCRs, for instance) will reset themselves when the power is disconnected or turned off. Be careful when choosing which devices among your entertainment array to unplug, or you may lose your recurring programming.
whatever happened to empathy in this country? Why is always Me Me Me Me? I feel for people who are losing their homes, and I would disagree that the majority were irresponsible, and if this can help people stay in their homes then I'm willing to pay higher taxes to make it happen. Houses that have families living in them are better than empty ones that have been foreclosed on.
People can't seem to be able to look beyond the tip of their nose any more. It's sad to see just how self-serving we have become.
I've graduated from dumpster diving to Craigslisting and thus have slowly been acquiring a better quality of other people's old crap. But there is still not a single stick of new furniture in the house except a few pieces from IKEA. When the kids are gone I may move on up the junk ladder to genuine "antiquing," but major furniture is like cars to me--I can never envision myself buying something brand-spanking new from a showroom.
So in your case of your truly ugly stuff--just keep your eye open for a better class of junk. I've had 6 dining room tables in the past 20 years--some hand-me-downs, some curbside finds, and some $10 garage-sale items. Most rather small, and almost all of which needed to be covered up with a tablecloth. The most recent one, though, is a gorgeous birds-eye-maple veneer with carved detailing that seats 10, and 6 matching upholstered chairs. And I paid the princely sum of $78 for the set on eBay.
Well, it's a stretch, but you could deduct that. However, there's a lot more to it. Then you would have to do all the other things associated with having an employee... such as pay their unemployment and social security taxes. Also, if you claim your child as an employee, then you'd have to comply with child labor laws.
What a way to take open mic night to the next level. Sounds like a blast, too.
from what i have read, aluminum and alcohal react, even faster at high temps and high concentration. any reaction would put off other chemicals. even if it only leachs into the drink, its got to be bad. someone with chemical background could give actual details, but i would avoid it.
air in the keg, not an issue. aging the shine on oak, will make whiskey. but since you are making it from wine, you get brandy. dont stip it down to much, you want some flavour to go thru. you can even leave a little wine in the keg as it ages, nice touch
This needs to be updated:
A.) Mac sauce costs now (they very from region as to how much)
B.) Double cheese burger is no longer on the dollar menu it is now replaced with the McDouble (one slice of cheese) Saving McDonalds .30 per double sold *rolls eyes* notice my dislike in this product
C.) Fries cost extra therefore they need to be left out of the equation
D.) Include taxes and it is over a dollar
E.) Slivered onions are not on the original Big Mac and yes I know this is the Ghetto Big Mac but I am doing this in terms of price not concept
Also look at "automatic" processes that waste energy - we turned our dishwasher's hot-air dry off and saved about $10 per month. We only use the dishwasher twice a week, so I was really impressed.
@Mark: Yes, it's only a tiny amount. But I'm not focusing on the dollars saved. Imagine if every home turned off their tv, laptop, dishwasher, ect. when it wasn't needed. It would save a tremendous amount of electricity and fossil fuels! Small changes, implimented by many, add up to a big difference.
Your story TOTALLY reminds me of the Stone Soup story from when I was a kid. Each person brought a little that turned out to be enough for everyone :)
Thanks for sharing.
I've been doing this for years. Not to save money or anything. I just LOVE water.
There's nothing like it.
Anything else you drink will leave you...thirsty!
Soda (ick!) is extremely sticky, so I end up having to wash it down with water afterwards anyway, and it doesn't quench my thirst to begin with. (I personally find absolutely NO reason for soda to even exsist!)
Now, I do drink other drinks, don't get me wrong.
It's just that 95% of what I drink, is water.
I also love milk, so that's pretty much the other 5%.
In the summer, I'll have some lemonade sometimes, but usually, that's the best time for water. When it's cold, and everyone is having their coffee (which I have no problem with...I just never learned to like it!) I'll have some hot chocolate.(what's better than chocolate water!!??)
And on the weekends with friends, I'll have a couple of my girly beers. (Smirnoff, Mike's, etc...)
Strange thing though, in between drinks, I'll always reach for my water bottle for a quick refreshing sip! (and no, I'm not diabetic!)
My body just likes water. And milk. And lemonade. All drinks that don't have "effects", basically. People think I'm so boring, as they drink their stomach rotting sodas...
My husband has always been thrilled that I'm a "cheap date". When we're at a restaurant, I always order water. It's soooo less expensive!
I have always tried to fill my kid's sippy cups with water.
Sometimes I'd give them juice, and of course milk, but the main thing was always water. It's natural. It's what all live things were MEANT TO DRINK!!! So there can't be anything wrong with it. (well, except what humans have done to the water!)
Water rocks.
Water rules.
Nothing quenches your thirst like water.
Why do people carry a soda around all day?
Because their thirst is not getting quenched! Sure, they're getting liquid, but it's leaving a sugary, sticky residue, that you're subconsiously trying to wash away with every sip, and every next bottle or can!
Just drink some water, and you won't be one of those people who is never seen without their bottle of coke or pepsi or whatever.
Just make sure the water is really really cold, so it tastes good. (I like it so much, I can drink it warm.) I do notice it doesn't taste so good sometimes. So if you're trying this out, definately make sure it's cold. Or put stuff in it to flavor it, like some people have mentioned above. I personally just like plain old water, but hey...go for it!