Choresumption

[Chuckanut]

People can't believe some things I still use. "Your phone is 5 years old? How do you survive?" Then I tell them I still use a 30 year old TV. Except for clearly-more-efficient devices, "use it until it breaks" is so much better for the environment and one's pocketbook.

Generally, I find that the choices that save me money are usually also good for the environment. Sometimes it means keeping things like my old TV unto it breaks, and other times tossing things like my incandescent light bulbs which still worked but were too expensive to operate compared to LED bulbs.

 

[Koolau]

They should see my Kyocera flip phone.

Hell, I grew up in a house with one party line phone, I have it made.

I only gave my flip phone up when the cell system no longer supported it. I think it was a 3G vs 4G thing, but I never totally understood it - just that it would no longer w*rk without a new phone (a cheap Android - I call it the "brick" since it weighs a LOT.)

 

[GenXguy]

I only gave my flip phone up when the cell system no longer supported it. I think it was a 3G vs 4G thing, but I never totally understood it - just that it would no longer w*rk without a new phone (a cheap Android - I call it the "brick" since it weighs a LOT.)

I've been forced off phones a couple times due to phone network changes:

First, when Nextel network went away and had to get a Sprint phone.

Second, when Sprint network went away and had to get a T-Mobile phone.

 

[rk911]

Still using incandescent bulbs in *some* fixtures...just bought a bunch of 3-ways off Amazon. My iPhone 7 finally rolled over and died. Replaced it with a new iPhone 13. Was glad to see all of my old IP7 chargers and cables still work.

 

[Bigdawg]

Gosh memories. My college door had 4 rooms to one line so 8 girls OMG.

You had a phone in college? We had to use the pay phone in the student union. The barracks in Okinawa had one rotary dial phone (1991).

Fast forward to my year in Sadr City (2007-2008). I carried a SAT phone, an Iraqna cell phone and an MCI cell phone.

Party line when I was a kid up until the late 70's.

 

[rk911]

My college dorm room had a phone....very expensive to use. So when I called my then girlfriend..now my wife...I went to the pay phones in the basement of the dorm.

I was a larcenous yute in those days...poor college student and all. No direct dial long distance from the pay phones so I'd dial the operator to place the call. My GF and I would talk for a while...ok for more than a while, I'd hang up and the operator would ring back and tell me to deposit a specific amount for the completed call.

There were a number of pay phones right next to each other...not a lot of privacy. The operator tallied the coins I would drop into the phone by the sound they made. For example, a nickle was a 'clunk', a dime was a 'ding' and a quarter was a 'dong'. So, if the phone next to me was unused i'd stretch the handset over to that phone, take the handset off the hook, drop the coins into that phone, the operator heard the coins drop, thanked me and disconnected. I'd push the coin return on the second phone and get my coins back.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

^^^ You were just a clever, crude phreak!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking

 

[Koolau]

My college dorm room had a phone....very expensive to use. So when I called my then girlfriend..now my wife...I went to the pay phones in the basement of the dorm.

I was a larcenous yute in those days...poor college student and all. No direct dial long distance from the pay phones so I'd dial the operator to place the call. My GF and I would talk for a while...ok for more than a while, I'd hang up and the operator would ring back and tell me to deposit a specific amount for the completed call.

There were a number of pay phones right next to each other...not a lot of privacy. The operator tallied the coins I would drop into the phone by the sound they made. For example, a nickle was a 'clunk', a dime was a 'ding' and a quarter was a 'dong'. So, if the phone next to me was unused i'd stretch the handset over to that phone, take the handset off the hook, drop the coins into that phone, the operator heard the coins drop, thanked me and disconnected. I'd push the coin return on the second phone and get my coins back.

Yeah, I'm sure we're all a bit ashamed of the stuff we pulled in our college years to get by. I can't tell you the number of times I "dry lab'd" an experiment. Many of them simply didn't w*rk, based on inexperienced folks trying something for the first time (not to mention badly written lab instructions and inattentive lab instructors.) I assuage my conscience, realizing I learned MUCH more by figuring out HOW the experiment was supposed to w*rk and what data was supposed to be generated. YMMV

 

[DrRoy]

Does no one read BTD?? We are disciplined about spending within our 2-3% WR, but still have remodelled the house, and like to find occasional pieces of art glass, pottery, and mineral specimens. That on top of higher than average rate of leisure travel. Still, none of it is more than we can comfortably afford.

 

[rk911]

^^^ You were just a clever, crude phreak!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking

Never thought of it that way.

 

[Music Lover]

As always there is a lot of grey area.

Overconsuming is bad. But it's also dumb to deprive yourself thinking that you're somehow doing good.

We've never really overconsumed, but I also have no interest in using a 30 year old TV or an old flip phone with a tiny screen and no features.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

t I also have no interest in using a 30 year old TV

Me neither. I haven't owned any TV in more than 30 years.

 

[rk911]

Me neither. I haven't owned any TV in more than 30 years.

Well, we make up for that...we have seven throughout the house.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Well, we make up for that...we have seven throughout the house.

 

[GenXguy]

Me neither. I haven't owned any TV in more than 30 years.

I have a 36 year old 13" CRT television still at my house. I haven't turned it on in so many years, I'm not sure it will even work. It doesn't have a video input, only the RF antenna input. I would have to hook it up to an old VCR. Also have a 30 year old Magnavox 25" CRT TV and a 22 year old Panasonic rear projection HDTV. I don't use any of those. My main TV is a Sony 47" W4100 HDTV, which is 15 years old, so I don't upgrade too quickly.

 

[Koolau]

Well, we make up for that...we have seven throughout the house.

We only have two TVs.



We've been waiting a year to find a handyman to replace the old (dead one) on the wall with the "new" one on a table. Yeah, I know, it's supposed to be an easy task, but I just don't have it in me anymore. YMMV

 

[Amethyst]

You know, I just realized where all my shopping time went to. It's now being spent on daily word puzzles.

Like Athena, I still wear clothes from 40 years ago, if they have survived.

A switch has flipped in my head. I remember looking at the black Friday sales advertisements and the web pages devoted to the deals on everything.
Now I don't do any of it. I was that guy looking for the latest gadget or deal, and then it was over.
WHEW!

 

[rk911]

...We've been waiting a year to find a handyman to replace the old (dead one) on the wall with the "new" one on a table. Yeah, I know, it's supposed to be an easy task, but I just don't have it in me anymore.YMMV)

Try http://www.angi.com. Depending where you buy the TV they may be able to remove the old one and hook up the new one.

 

[Koolau]

Try http://www.angi.com. Depending where you buy the TV they may be able to remove the old one and hook up the new one.

We tried their service on the mainland last summer. Not too good a fit, though maybe it's worth a shot here. We're "spoiled" because we have an old friend that used to do our stuff like this for us but he's simply too busy. Oh, and if he ever came, we have two weeks or more of OTHER stuff for him to do. I think he knows better.

 

[RobLJ]

I helped my father get rid of my Depression adult granddad's house after he died, and now I'm looking at having to do the same for my mother AgedP, who is 90. It's sad.

We're cluttered but 1/3 of it is our adult son who will change jobs and move out (IT computer engineer) and my books. I've shedded 1/3 of my books when we repainted the upstairs. I could get rid of 5/6 of my clothes in the master closet tomorrow. Just toss them all.

We bigly decluttered when we moved from Houston to Reno to semi-retire.

Thoreau wrote in Walden about the Northeast Tribes who burned almost all their possessions every 5 or 6 years. I read it in high school but still remember it.

 

[John Galt III]

I only gave my flip phone up when the cell system no longer supported it. I think it was a 3G vs 4G thing, but I never totally understood it - just that it would no longer w*rk without a new phone (a cheap Android - I call it the "brick" since it weighs a LOT.)

I'm currently embroiled in this. I have 2 perfectly functioning 2G cell phones, but I have to 'brick' them both and spend money on a new 4G phone. Waste of money and time. Arghhh...

 

[John Galt III]

I have a 36 year old 13" CRT television still at my house. I haven't turned it on in so many years, I'm not sure it will even work. It doesn't have a video input, only the RF antenna input. I would have to hook it up to an old VCR. Also have a 30 year old Magnavox 25" CRT TV and a 22 year old Panasonic rear projection HDTV. I don't use any of those. My main TV is a Sony 47" W4100 HDTV, which is 15 years old, so I don't upgrade too quickly.

I have a Sears black and white tv from 1972 that I still watch sometimes. It has the rabbit ears antennas. I have it hooked up to a Zenith OTA converter box, and I get 15 channels over the air for free. Many of them actually interesting, lol. The only repair I had to do was replace a tube fuse once. Don't know why it blew. All my other TV's are ancient tube beasts also. I get crystal clear cable TV on the big one in the living room. Not free, however. There is something to be said about buying new stuff constantly to feed the economy and keep Capitalism going, but I think that's what China and India are for these days, lol.

 

[GenXguy]

I have a Sears black and white tv from 1972 that I still watch sometimes. It has the rabbit ears antennas. I have it hooked up to a Zenith OTA converter box, and I get 15 channels over the air for free. Many of them actually interesting, lol. The only repair I had to do was replace a tube fuse once. Don't know why it blew. All my other TV's are ancient tube beasts also. I get crystal clear cable TV on the big one in the living room. Not free, however. There is something to be said about buying new stuff constantly to feed the economy and keep Capitalism going, but I think that's what China and India are for these days, lol.

I figured there had to be someone out there still watching one of those old CRT black and white TVs. lol I used to have a 25" B&W one in my bedroom in the late 80's. I didn't use it much because we had a color TV in the house. I haven't laid my eyes on a B&W TV since the early 90's that I can recall.