Going for Not Broke

Late yesterday evening, our modem died. It had been coming for a while, because on more than one occasion, our Internet would stop and we'd have to restart the modem. I had hoped to limp it along for a little bit longer. I needed an Internet connection to complete a freelance project I was working on, so I ran out to the only store open at the time, Wal-Mart, which had only one option in DSL modems. Because it was late and I was tired, I bought it, shelling out $100 for a modem/wireless router combo unit. Had I waited until this morning, I could've bought a modem by itself at either Target or Best Buy for less. I know Target has them for less than $50 because just a few hours before our old one died, I had priced one there. I don't know why I didn't just wait. I chalk it up to being very tired. On the plus side, though, our Internet seems a lot faster than it had been. I didn't realize it would make such a difference.

We were able to get quite a bit of work done on our house last week, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped. We spent very little out of pocket, shelling out about $50 for paint and painting supplies. Everything else we were able to get with a gift card for less than $25.

I've been fighting the urge to buy for the past few days. I've found myself searching online for the following: A dishwasher. We have one, but it's old, noisy and unreliable, so I've been doing them by hand ever since we moved in. Until my daughter was born, that worked fine. Now, though, I feel like I just finish them, and within hours it needs to be done again. As I stood in the kitchen this morning looking at the dishes that have accumulated, I found myself thinking, "Boy, it sure would be nice if the dishwasher worked." A free-standing pantry. My kitchen is small and my cupboards are full. Therefore, I have a few appliances, such as a bread maker, that are stored on the countertop. I don't know that we have enough items to put in an extra pantry to justify the expense, but it sure would be nice to have some more counter space. Birthday and Christmas gifts. Five or six years ago, I would be out with other last-minute shoppers on Dec. 24. Over the p...

I just noticed this is post number 100. Whoo hooo! I found an even cheaper solution to my home Internet. Currently, we pay $110 a month to the phone company for our home phone and Internet service and $28 a month to the cable company for basic cable. My plan was to switch our Internet to the cable company, which would cost about $65 a month for the level of Internet speed I'd like to get, then cut out TV cable service and the home phone. That would eliminate the $110 phone bill all together, but what we pay to the cable company would a little more than double. To get TV service, I bought this: I love the Roku, which streams TV shows and movies to the TV. It doesn't require a subscription to a service to stream -- there are quite a few free options -- but to increase variety and to have access to new TV shows, I sprang for subscriptions to Netflix and HuluPlus. (Until my membership to Amazon Prime expires this coming December, I also have a whole additional set of shows ...

A quick recap : I bought a lightweight TV because articles I have read about older, heavier sets falling over onto young children had me worried about my daughter's safety. However, my husband and I worried the new TV would be even easier to knock over because it is so lightweight. Therefore, I had been shopping around for a new stand to which the TV can be mounted. Well, after shelling out more than I had planned on the TV, I was further dismayed to see that the stands that appealed to me all cost more than $100. I could find a cheaper one, but I wanted one similar to what we have because it has cabinet doors. So, I took a stroll through the electronics department at Target to see if I could find something that would allow us to install a mount on the cabinet we have for less money. I didn't see anything that would work like that, but I did find this strap, which costs less than $20: It screws into our current cabinet and the wall behind it, holding the whole setup sec...

As I mentioned in yesterday's post , I finally bought a lightweight, flat-panel TV. I forgot to add that I bought it at Best Buy . The TV wasn't available at Walmart, Sam's Club or Target, otherwise I probably would've purchased it one of those places, because in my experience, they're usually cheaper. This is probably the first time ever that I've found Best Buy to have the best price when I comparison shopped. Other places I checked included NewEgg.com, Tiger Direct and Amazon. I know there was more than that, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Amazon had it for the same price, but we could buy it at our local store if we went through Best Buy. Tiger Direct had one, but it was refurbished. I feel more comfortable buying a new TV. We haven't put the TV up yet, though. We're wanting to get a different TV stand, so it's sitting in limbo, aka, our garage. Speaking of expenses: We're also having big-time trouble with our washer an...

To quickly recap: I mentioned in a previous post that due to the possible danger to my soon-to-be toddler daughter, I wanted to get rid of my TV setup. I had seen quite a few articles in the news lately about analog sets toppling over on small children, so I wanted a lighter TV. The setup we had is shown in the photo at the left. In my hunt for a new TV, I didn't want to get just the cheapest I could find. I wanted to shop smart, but I have to say, all of the info out there about today's TVs made my brain hurt. I am neither a gamer nor someone who uses their TV as a huge computer monitor. I'm just a TV watcher. I need a decent picture and sound. That's it. That said, I decided to focus on just a handful of things: I wanted a 32-inch LED. LED, according to what I've read, works best in a variety of lighting, which is what we have in our living room throughout the day. I wanted 1080p. I didn't start out with this requirement. I don't really care that ...

I'm still looking for a lighter TV , but I hope to buy one within the next couple of weeks. I don't like that so many that I see come with only a yearlong warranty. I don't trust that. Odds are -- based on the reviews of the ones I've seen -- the TV will outlast the warranty, but I just dislike the idea of shelling out $300 or $400 for something that the manufacturer has only a year's worth of confidence in. Based on what I've found in researching TVs, though, I'm probably not going to get a better warranty than that, so I'll likely just have to suck it up.

Last month, I posted about the Apple iDisk going away. I had thought that if I could upgrade to Apple’s iCloud service, I could keep the iDisk, and the only thing standing in my way was the age of my current computer. Upon further research, though, I found that the iDisk function is going away regardless, which is good, because the pressure to upgrade my computer is off. I’ll need to upgrade at some point, but now I can take my time and may even be able to put it off for a few years. However, I do need to find a substitute for the iDisk. I’ve considered Google Drive and Microsoft’s Skydrive, but both options require anyone I share documents with to sign up for an account (if they don’t already have one) with Google or Microsoft, respectively. I’d rather not force my freelance clients to do so. One thing I’m considering is GoDaddy’s cloud storage service. I think it might work but I’d like to find reviews from other clients before I go that route, and I haven’t been able to find any th...

I haven't been up on the latest technology for a while. While researching TVs , I discovered smart TVs, which have Internet connectivity. If I understand the capabilities correctly, with a smart TV, we'd be able to watch the shows we like online, eliminating the cable bill. I found one smart TV that was the size I'm looking for, Energy Star rated and within budget, but each site I checked was sold out. I think maybe that model has been discontinued. Any other model I find is a good $300 more. Therefore, I don't think we'll be buying one of those. They do sound interesting, though.

As my husband was growing up, his family saved their plastic sandwich bags and reused them, a practice that has carried over into adulthood. The bags really aren't all that expensive, but why buy them more often than you have to? I don't take as many sandwiches for lunch as he does, but when I do, I try to remember to save my bag. Developing the habit is kind of tough, though. I've toyed with the idea of doing the same thing with freezer bags after I've used them for ground beef. To save time and money, I often buy a large pack of ground beef and divide it up according to what's on the menu for the upcoming week. For instance, if I'm planning to serve Hamburger Helper, I'll put a pound of ground beef in a bag. If burgers are on the menu, though -- this is where I get really wasteful -- I put a quarter pound of beef in a bag for each burger. So, to make three burgers, I use three bags. I do this to save time when I'm cooking. If the burgers are a...

On Friday, I posted about Energy Guide tags I’ve seen while TV shopping. They look like this: While I’m glad to be able to tell at a glance which TVs are likely to be more costly long-term, I’m puzzled. The estimated energy cost of this TV is only $19 annually, roughly $1.58 a month. Really? I have no doubt that the people who provide the estimate know their stuff, but I would’ve thought this -- or any other TV -- would drain a lot more juice annually than $19 worth. According to the tag, this estimate is based on five hours of viewing daily. At our house, the TV is on closer to seven hours a day. Maybe even eight, but let’s split it down the middle and say 7.5. Based on the above estimate and our TV usage, if we owned this TV, it would cost us about $28.50 a year, or $2.57 a month. Even if we have the TV on 10 hours a day, that would be only $38 a year and about $3.15 a month. In an effort to trim our energy usage, I recently pulled the plug -- permanently -- ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post , I’d like to purchase a lightweight, flat-panel TV to replace my heavy analog one before my daughter starts walking. All of the articles I’ve seen about TVs toppling over on small children have this new mom very nervous. I need to put aside money for the TV so that I don’t get tempted to charge. It’s possible that by the time I have the money saved, my little girl will likely already be walking. For now, as I wait for my savings account to grow, I’ve been researching TVs online so that when the time comes, I know what I’m buying and where I can get the best deal on it. Looking at TVs solely on a computer screen, however, doesn’t give me all the information I need to make a final decision. I’d like to get either a 32-inch and a 37-inch screen, but without an in-person view, I’m having trouble choosing between the two. I’m all for the smaller and likely less expensive TV, as long as it isn’t so small that I have to squint to see it from...