Savings Tips

[Mr._johngalt]

Thanks.

I'm surprised with a $400 truck and time outdoors like fishing, you don't invest something like $50 a year or maybe less, just in case.

Mine mostly gets used to keep in touch with girlfriend when we're not at the same place, or not there yet.
Or, no kidding, a couple times when at super wal mart together and can't find each other. Like getting split apart at an airport or disneyland. Now I won't go in there together unless we both carry cell phone inside. 

I bought DW a TRACphone. She was properly grateful. I usually don't miss it much, although I will sometimes borrow her phone. I found that once I had ERed, it was a nuisance about as often as it was an advantage. When I was working I spent hours in the car, on the phone. Now, I usually prefer
to be out of touch until I want to be "found".

JG

 

[deserat]

TromboneAl is right on with the monthly recurring expense----lifestyle enablers - hah!

Still have rabbit ears for the TV (10 year old TVs, too), cell phone is only for work and paid for by them, no maid service, no lawn service (will be changing to low maintenance yard very soon), wish I could rid of some of the other services, but no go.

Save the rest (both tax-deferred and after tax for retire early plans and vacations ) or spend it on what I value--looking for bargain, of course!

Bridget aka Deserat

 

[uncledrz]

Eh, if Johns truck dies he'll simply use superior brainpower and willpower to wait for his wife to notice he's late and go pick him up.

or he'll (heavens no!) walk.

 

[uncledrz]

no lawn service (will be changing to low maintenance yard very soon),
Bridget aka Deserat

help me out with this one, sounds almost too good to be true. It seems that in our neighborhood we're in a lawn/garden/flowers competition. Need to break out of this mold. If only I could convince dw.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My old mcmansion neighborhood was like that.

My neighbor across the street blasted the whole yard with roundup, covered it with staked down landscaping cloth, had a bunch of different size gravel (crushed to walnut size) laid in rippled/waved patterns. A few small low maintenance shrubs, couple of japanese maples, and brought in a couple of small tasteful concrete lawn decorations (a little bridge over a 'river' of white gravel with gray banks, a little 'pagoda', etc). Looked really nice...classy and tasteful. Once a month or so he went out there with a beer and spent an hour or so sizing up which branch or sprig he was going to trim back. Small drip watering system to put a little h2o on the plants that needed it.

If you go to www.highcountrygardens.com and request their catalog, they have a lot of low maintenance, low water plants and the catalog includes little numbered layouts for garden plots. They have a number of ornamental grasses and groundcoverings that require no mowing, limited trimming, and dont need to be watered more than 1-2 times a month even in desert conditions. With a few of them you can kill your existing lawn with roundup and then plant plugs right through the existing dead lawn

 

[TK]

My suggestion for a young person to save and get a financial leg up would be to pickup a copy of the book "The Automatic Millionaire".

Good plain common sense advise.

think there is a web site too....

 

[Nords]

... cell phone is only for work and paid for by them...

Every time the military gave me a "free" cell phone I realized that they might be paying the bills, but I was paying the price!

 

[TromboneAl]

Based on the advice from this forum, I picked two cell phones at a garage sale for $1 each. The law says they should be able to call 911. I've been able to call 611 on one of them. I'm going to go into the police station to test 911.

It won't help with run-out-of-gas type emergencies, but life and death, yes.

 

[lazyday]

I'm going to go into the police station to test 911.

That's a great idea! Before I got a cheap prepaid deal, I used to carry an old cell phone and car adapter in my trunk, but never tested 611 or 911.
Let us know how it goes. If it were me, I'd expect them to turn me away and make some threats about never testing 911.
(hopefully, i'll remember to check this thread again sometime.)

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

It appears that the legality of testing a 911 call varies from state to state and county to county. Many areas have a law that more or less says 'repeatedly calling 911 without an emergency consitutes a class b misdemeanor'. I guess a single call doesnt constitute repeated. Look up the non-emergency number in your phone book and call that, ask them if you can do a test call from your cell phone. Keep the name of the person you talk to. Every article/post I just looked at said the non-emergency person gave them a good time range to do their test call when the 911 service isnt as busy. Be quick, courteous, and let them know you're just doing a quick test call to make sure it goes through.

And besides, you bought it at a garage sale. Theres nothing tying it to you. If the cops show up at your house, flush the phone down the toilet. Just dont wrap it in the koran first.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Maybe you can get one of these guys to help you get rid of the phone if it comes to that...
http://www.expatica.com/source/site...me=Germany+holds+mobile-throwing+championship