So.
I’m a math teacher. When I was in High School, my mom recommended that I take Business Finance. I thought that was dumb, because I was already in Calculus, and Business Finance was going to be easier math. That part was true, but the real value in Business Finance was the financial application of the math to make my life and career a bit more successful. For instance, I didn’t really understand the miracle of compound interest before that class. After that, my summer job was all about saving enough to put in a Roth IRA. Which was a great idea, until the tech bust of 1999, where I lost more than half of what I put in. That was a hard lesson, but by the time I retire that investment will hopefully literally be worth millions. What I’m trying to say here is that without a parent who encouraged my financial literacy, I would have bought a computer and a car and been much happier in the moment, but not in the long run. I believe that in our society today we focus so much on abstract, liberal arts kind of concepts in education that we forget about the practical application. I don’t know a 30 year old who wouldn’t benefit from the kind of practical mathematical application I got from Business Finance. I love math, but I think for most people, stats and calc isn’t as important as basic Business Finance to their eventual well being and success in life. As I said, I love math and I use it every day. It’s what helps me to be frugal and what guarantees my financial future. But without the knowledge of how to apply compound interest, all my mathematical knowledge of the concept would be useless. Most math curriculum teaches it that way - in a dry, very academic and disassociated manner. Little wonder then, that students mostly hate math by the time they graduate high school, because they have no way to apply it to themselves. Good teachers try to make the argument that the abstraction has a purpose, and that there are ways to apply things like trigonometry to your life if you’re not an engineer, carpenter, or roller coaster designer, but the fact is that we shouldn’t have to. Textbooks should be written in such a way that students can see why the math is useful. Then they won’t have as much attitudinal issue, because they’ll at least grudgingly admit that the math might do something for them someday. We have demonized courses like Business Finance in many schools, in favor of classes that might give students a better shot on standardized tests. Likewise, Vocational Technical schools are frowned upon by many parents, even as electricians vastly outstrip college grads in terms of salary and job security. Not all practical education is bad - in fact, some of it is downright necessary for our economy and our culture. For instance, the idea of buying a car or a house that we can afford to pay for would save millions of Americans from being in underwater mortgages. The housing market couldn’t have inflated as it did if people didn’t think they could pay astronomical monthly payments. They would have had to settle for houses that were a little smaller, and they wouldn’t be bankrupt now and living in an apartment, they’d just live in a smaller house they actually could afford to own. What we need to do as a society is give students choices and let them make their own decisions. If they like fixing stuff, let them choose a Vo-Tech school, or engineering school. We have to stop forcing this, “every child goes to college” mentality, and give students choices that will make them successful with or without it. College is the new high school, and a high school diploma without any sort of specialized training means absolutely zilch.
Monday, August 27, 2012
SmartPhoneFrugal #2
SmartPhoneFrugal.com article #2
So. I found out recently that to be smart phone frugal, you must have a smart phone. I’ve always regarded cell phone insurance as one of those things that only a sucker would purchase. Then, I did an endo off the front of my road bike because my cell phone decided to act like a spoke decoration. I have always been careful with my technology. I figure that if I spend that much on something, I better make it last. Luckily, my last phone, the HTC incredible, was sitting on my counter begging to be reinstated. It would cost $640 to buy a new Droid Razr Maxx without a new 2 year contract (which, for me, as my Maxx was 2 weeks old, was a long time coming). As much as it hurt to have to downgrade, at least my HTC was functional and not bent around the spoke on my bike wheel.
Lessons learned: the $3 insurance from Verizon would have been smart. Even a $36 a year charge is a good guarantee that whatever new technology you buy will last until it’s outdated, not until you do something dumb.
Groupon: If you’re into extreme couponing and trying new things, this is the way to go. They constantly have restaurants that I haven’t tried (and probably wouldn’t if I didn’t have at least half off). You have to be careful that you don’t just go on a spending spree because they’re such good deals though. I sometimes buy a ton of coupons because they’re so cheap, but then have them expire on me because I’m too frugal to actually go to the restaurants. If you are good about buying them and then using them, and you order conservatively (or were going to go out to dinner anyway) it’s a good app for your phone. It will save you money while goading you to try new things out. Be careful, however, to read the fine print. Sometimes restaurants will not let you use the coupon on prime dining nights (i.e. Friday or Saturday) or restrict their menu. Others put a minimum order in so that you have to order the prime rib or 3 desserts in order to make it over their goal. The good: you get to try fancy dining which you might be too cheap to do otherwise. The bad: if you’re not careful, you might still spend a good amount on dinner. I also should mention that they don’t just do food. Groupon also offers goods and adventures - I’ve seen river tubing, snorkeling masks with video capability, and all sorts of wild and wacky things that I might not normally consider. Again, this is a danger sign - I almost bought the video snorkel mask, despite the fact that I haven’t been snorkeling in over a year. It just seemed cool. As long as you reign in your impulses (or your significant other has some sense!!!!) this can be used as a money saving, not spending, tool.
TouchPal keyboard: Though it doesn’t save money directly, it does make you more efficient, thereby (hopefully) saving you some long term time. As you all know, time (can be) turned into money. I mean, with all of those clicks you save, your extra time could now be spent browsing craigslist free instead of all that hunt and peck typing. This keypad is basically designed off of swype technology, but it improves a bit on the droid original. For instance, the autocorrect gives you more options. Instead of doing it word by word, it will try to make sense of a phrase. For instance, right after my bike accident (mentioned above) I invited a friend over and asked him to bring gauze. The TouchPal keyboard came up with nine different phrases for what it though I said, the funniest being, “you can come on over and bring girls for my room” (I said, “gauze for my wound,” for the record). However, the voice recognition is not what makes this app shine. I have big fingers, and trying to type on an android sized screen is cumbersome. However, if I slide my fingers close to where the right key is, most of the time the TouchPal app will select the right word after 2 or 3 letters. When it messes up, I have to type it the old fashioned way, but this is no worse than if I didn’t have TouchPal, and most of the time it doesn’t mess up.
So. I found out recently that to be smart phone frugal, you must have a smart phone. I’ve always regarded cell phone insurance as one of those things that only a sucker would purchase. Then, I did an endo off the front of my road bike because my cell phone decided to act like a spoke decoration. I have always been careful with my technology. I figure that if I spend that much on something, I better make it last. Luckily, my last phone, the HTC incredible, was sitting on my counter begging to be reinstated. It would cost $640 to buy a new Droid Razr Maxx without a new 2 year contract (which, for me, as my Maxx was 2 weeks old, was a long time coming). As much as it hurt to have to downgrade, at least my HTC was functional and not bent around the spoke on my bike wheel.
Lessons learned: the $3 insurance from Verizon would have been smart. Even a $36 a year charge is a good guarantee that whatever new technology you buy will last until it’s outdated, not until you do something dumb.
Groupon: If you’re into extreme couponing and trying new things, this is the way to go. They constantly have restaurants that I haven’t tried (and probably wouldn’t if I didn’t have at least half off). You have to be careful that you don’t just go on a spending spree because they’re such good deals though. I sometimes buy a ton of coupons because they’re so cheap, but then have them expire on me because I’m too frugal to actually go to the restaurants. If you are good about buying them and then using them, and you order conservatively (or were going to go out to dinner anyway) it’s a good app for your phone. It will save you money while goading you to try new things out. Be careful, however, to read the fine print. Sometimes restaurants will not let you use the coupon on prime dining nights (i.e. Friday or Saturday) or restrict their menu. Others put a minimum order in so that you have to order the prime rib or 3 desserts in order to make it over their goal. The good: you get to try fancy dining which you might be too cheap to do otherwise. The bad: if you’re not careful, you might still spend a good amount on dinner. I also should mention that they don’t just do food. Groupon also offers goods and adventures - I’ve seen river tubing, snorkeling masks with video capability, and all sorts of wild and wacky things that I might not normally consider. Again, this is a danger sign - I almost bought the video snorkel mask, despite the fact that I haven’t been snorkeling in over a year. It just seemed cool. As long as you reign in your impulses (or your significant other has some sense!!!!) this can be used as a money saving, not spending, tool.
TouchPal keyboard: Though it doesn’t save money directly, it does make you more efficient, thereby (hopefully) saving you some long term time. As you all know, time (can be) turned into money. I mean, with all of those clicks you save, your extra time could now be spent browsing craigslist free instead of all that hunt and peck typing. This keypad is basically designed off of swype technology, but it improves a bit on the droid original. For instance, the autocorrect gives you more options. Instead of doing it word by word, it will try to make sense of a phrase. For instance, right after my bike accident (mentioned above) I invited a friend over and asked him to bring gauze. The TouchPal keyboard came up with nine different phrases for what it though I said, the funniest being, “you can come on over and bring girls for my room” (I said, “gauze for my wound,” for the record). However, the voice recognition is not what makes this app shine. I have big fingers, and trying to type on an android sized screen is cumbersome. However, if I slide my fingers close to where the right key is, most of the time the TouchPal app will select the right word after 2 or 3 letters. When it messes up, I have to type it the old fashioned way, but this is no worse than if I didn’t have TouchPal, and most of the time it doesn’t mess up.
To be Frugal . . . using a Smartphone.
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
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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