frugal underground

Ever seen those commercials for MagicJack?  You know, the ones where they’re offering you phone service for about $20.00 a year.  I see them a lot, and I keep thinking about getting one, but I always end up deciding against it.  However, seeing as they are so cheap, I thought it might be a good idea to explain why I’m writing on a site like this, and not taking advantage of something that seems so frugal.

I admit, these are my reasons, and they may not apply to everyone’s situation, but I think it’s worth going through my thought processes to see why sometimes what appears to be the most frugal alternative isn’t always the best one.

I should also mention that I haven’t actually used the product – but I don’t think that matters in this case because my reasons for not using it have nothing to do with the quality of service – and everything to do with the circumstances of our household.

Let’s start with a simple description of the device:

At base it looks like a fat USB key with a phone jack. In spirit it’s almost like a reverse modem.  You plug the device into a spare USB slot on your Windows (XP or Vista) or Mac computer, and use its internet connection to access the telephone network.  You can get a local number in many areas, and once it’s up and running you have a perfectly usable phone as long as you have an internet connection:

So, why didn’t we take advantage of it?

(Answers after the cut) Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

Sarah made a great post about using Netflix to replace your cable or satellite provider; and depending on your tv viewing habits that might be the best solution for many.  For the rest, well there’s still cable and satellite.

The important thing is not whether you choose Netflix, cable, satellite or any other entertainment provider, but whether your choice both meets your needs and makes good financial sense.  That’s the key, you need to do both.

We’ve all seen the deals:  Six months of service for this low introductory price, with three months of six movie channels for free and an automatic upgrade to a “free” DVR.  It sounds great.  Everyone wants free and everyone wants a good deal.   It all reminds me of a term from an old Robert A. Heinlein novel: TANSTAAFL.

• There
• Ain’t
• No
• Such
• Thing
• As
• A
• Free
• Lunch.

At this point you’re probably thinking of all the hotels that offer free continental breakfasts and all the other “free” things you’ve received from various companies.  None of it invalidates TANSTAAFL.   Companies give you free stuff for one reason and one reason only:  (answer after the cut).

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

On the off-chance you’re not familiar with Netflix, it’s a simple concept: pay a monthly fee and get access to a huge selection of DVDs via mail, and an only-slighly-less-huge selection of content that you can watch online, instantly.

I used to think that Netflix was a good idea, but not for me because I don’t watch many movies. I still don’t watch many movies, but there are a few things that won me over and keep me paying every month.

1. We use Netflix instead of TV. The selection on “Instant Watch” is continually growing, meaning we can just decide on a whim that we want to watch something, and don’t have to depend on the (terrible) odds of something good being on TV. There are tons of TV shows as well as movies on Netflix, and when you’re talking about suspenseful shows like MI-5/Spooks, the ability to watch “just one more episode” is exactly what you want (a time sink, yes, but I think that’s a given when watching TV).
2. We share our Netflix membership. My sister used to live with us, and when she saw how many options we had on Netflix, she agreed to pay a few bucks a month to upgrade to the next-highest plan. That meant that our membership allowed several DVDs, and Netflix makes it easy to maintain separate queues that are sent automatically when a movie is returned. She’s been going through the seemingly infinite backlist of Dukes of Hazzard.

To be clear, if it was just us on our membership, and if it was just full-length movies by mail, it would not be a good deal for my family. We just don’t watch enough of them. But the Instant Watch feature is totally worth the money to us. We use Netflix instead of cable, satellite, and even a DVR (we thought about buying one but have so far put it off since there’s little on TV we’d rather watch than what’s already available to us on Netflix).

All this to say: if you think Netflix would be a good deal for you, this is a good time to try it.

Netflix periodically gives existing customers special links to send to their friends and family that allow a one-month free trial (they normally offer a 2-week free trial), so here’s mine: Netflix one-month free trial (it expires October 31, 2009).

If you do use it, make sure you put a reminder on your calendar before the end of the trial to evaluate and consciously decide to keep it or cancel it. If you keep it, decide what other expenses you can eliminate (e.g. cable/satellite/rentals).

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you’re like most of us, you’re probably not in sole charge of all the spending in your household.  While it’s easy for singles to keep complete control of all their spending– it’s not quite as easy for the rest of us to keep control of spending when one has a spouse who needs to be consider.

I doubt I’m alone in being glad the days when one spouse made all the financial decisions for the household are behind us.  Now it’s a matter of give and take, and more importantly:  Communication.

Frugality is all about controlling your spending and not letting it control you.  That’s doubly true when there are multiple people with access to a single bank account.  The question is how do you do it when you don’t know whether someone else is going to come along and withdraw money you have earmarked for something right before you need it – or worse, just after you write the check but before it gets cashed.

That’s what we call a bad thing.

Read on after the cut, for more on avoiding that particular kind of bad thing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

Let me tell you a story.

We live in a place with mandatory annual car inspections – they cost $16 and ensure that car owners keep up with all the important maintenance on their vehicles.  I think it’s a good idea.

So our second car, a 99 Honda, was coming up on its inspection date.  It needed a new muffler, so we figured I could take it in, get the oil changed, the muffler replaced, and have it inspected all in one fell swoop.  We’d called around earlier and from what we understood a replacement muffler could be expected to run us $70 or so.   It all sounded pretty reasonable.

So, anyway, I take the car down to a local chain outlet that has usually done well by us in the past:

This time they didn’t treat us quite so well, as you’ll see after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]