SmartPhoneFrugal.com article #1
Hi, I’m Mark and I have a spending problem - the opposite of what you might think. It’s the kind of frugality that causes my wife to cringe and my friends to make a little fun of me (ok, maybe a lot). I’m a math teacher, so everything comes back to numbers. I can’t really stop thinking about how to make or save money. This is a blessing and a curse. I end up spending much of my free time looking at the free section of Craigslist, and dragging my wife on impromptu road trips to pick up whatever free thing I’ve found before someone else can claim it. I am constantly finding things that are almost working to bring home and fix. Long known as the cheapest of my friends, I took forever to get a cell phone, choosing to IM with my friends instead or use voip. However, now that I’ve taken the plunge and own a smartphone, I’m determined to make it work for me to recoup the money I spend each month on a data plan and minutes.
The Phone: I currently have a Droid Razr Maxx, which is nice because it has super duper battery life - enough to use constantly for 2 days without a charge. It is fast enough and has enough storage to basically double as a laptop, and the swype and voice recognition means that I don’t miss my keyboard (much).
The Apps:
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner: My favorite, as I alluded to before, is the Craigslist App. Every morning, I look at the 3 areas closest to me, browsing the free section to see if there’s anything worth getting. In the past 3 weeks, I’ve gotten a free working Toro self propelled lawnmower, 2 sets of shaped downhill skis, and a weedwacker. It also bears saying here that I don’t just buy free things . . . I also look for inordinately cheap things in the other sections I care about. For instance, I got a riding lawnmower (a Cub Cadet, no less) for $200 instead of paying $1500 at Tractor Supply for a new one. Last year, I found a laptop for $100. Granted, none of these things are brand new, and sometimes they break (my wife and I spent 4 weeks this spring push mowing our acre of lawn because the Cub needed a part). However, as long as they still function, or I can fix them cheaply or for free, I think they’re worth it (and the extra $1300 in my bank account backs up my statement).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duduapps.craigslistfree&hl=en
Next Runner up:
GasBuddy: So, I’m the kind of person that will drive an extra 5 miles to save $0.10 on gas, if I calculate that the savings will be worth it (i.e., I need 10 gallons, not just 3). Again, this makes my wife groan. But every time I fill up, I save a buck (at least). Since I fill up at least once, sometimes twice a week, this saves at least $100 a year, probably more. The way GasBuddy works is that you let it find your location on your phone’s GPS, then it finds the cheapest gas near you and tells you how far away that is. You can choose to find the cheapest, closest, or some combination of the two. When my wife’s frustration is near its peak, I choose the closest that is kind of cheap. When I can, I sort by price, find the cheapest in a 10 mile range, and go there. It’s just a buck or two, but it adds up if you do it for every vehicle, and every time you fill up that 5 gallon gas can for your lawn and garden care armada (or motorcycle or watercraft, whatever blows your hair back or floats your boat).
http://gasbuddy.com/GasBuddyMobileApps.aspx
Bronze: Garage Sale Rover. This only works well on weekends, when people are having their garage sales. HOWEVER: if you have a couple hours to kill and you want to furnish your home on the cheap, this is the way to go. Instead of searching Craigslist using the Craigslist app for sales, or driving around trying to find one, you can use your GPS to point you to the closest ones. Before driving there and wasting that precious gas (see the runner up) you can make sure it’s worth your while by checking what they have and how long it will take you to drive there. Again, this puts my wife’s frustration level at an 8 or so, especially when she’d rather be home or shopping for NEW things. I however am a big fan of finding something for $2 that costs $30 in the store, because the folks who own it just want it out of their house.
With #1 and #3, here’s the rub: if someone doesn’t want something, there’s sometimes a reason. I have had my fair share of let downs, where I bring something home only to find that it’s irreparably broken, smelly, or otherwise unpalatable. The thing to do is to not let your pride get in the way. If it was free, nothing was ventured. So let it go - you don’t have to gain every time. Put it in the next trip to the dump. You haven’t lost anything, and you’ve avoided turning your yard into a scrap metal pile. Can you tell I’ve made this mistake? That’s all for now - thanks for reading, and I’ll keep you posted as I find new and better ways to waste my time and bring junk home on the cheap. Try to balance your frugality with the happiness of others in your life, and good hunting . . . just don’t take the free stuff I was going to take!
For more reading:
http://tr.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/a4svz/are_smartphones_frugal_whats_a_frugal_way_of/
http://www.milemarx.com/5-free-smartphone-apps-for-frugal-drivers.htm
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