Links: Comcast Outage and NFL Draft Edition |
2 Comments |
Yesterday, I woke up excited for the NFL draft. It had been heavily publicized for the last two months. I was disappointed to find that Comcast, my cable television and Internet provider, was experiencing an outage. Right before the draft, they got the television working, but the Internet was down all day. I finally called Comcast late last night to find that when they fixed the outage, the cable modem needed to be recycled. I lost a days worth of work with the Carnival of Personal Finance due out tomorrow because they didn’t tell me to unplug the modem and plug it back in. This solidifies the hate portion of my love-hate relationship with Comcast.
As for the draft itself, it’s been relatively boring. In the past there’s been some drama with a player being stuck in the green room for an excessive amount of time. Yesterday it emptied out in the first hour. As for the Patriots, the team I follow, their draft has been solid, but not the barn-burner that I’ve come to expect the last couple of years. They didn’t trade for an extra first round pick or pick up a Randy Moss/Wes Welker-type star. That said, the Patriots picked up some quality at the positions they needed it. It’s the third round and they traded third round pick for a future 2nd round pick and a fifth round pick. I love when they do this - next year I’ll be very happy when they have two second round picks.
On to the links I liked this week:
- Brip Blap became the newest problogger on the block. It sounds to me like the timing is perfect for him to give a try with his contract expiring.
- Another Pro-blogger, The Digerati Life, gives tips to save 80% on groceries. I should start to use coupons, I still just buy generic foods - which is a Lazy Man’s way to save.
- I was prepared to laugh at Generation X’s Finance article saying that maybe higher food prices are really good for us as a society, but his logic is sound. I do see some good things that can come from higer food prices.
- The Sun’s Financial Diary gives says we could green a portfolio with Claymore Solar ETF. I might be interested in throwing a few dollars into this ETF.
- Money Smart Life writes about Blockbuster’s free trial. I’ve been happy with Netflix thus far - I haven’t used Blockbuster’s service.
- Million Dollar Journey is getting organized for tax season. I need to organize myself a bit, I’ve been especially Lazy there.
- My Dollar Plan tells you how to create your own dollar plan.
- Mighty Bargain Hunter found there’s a price to pay for stamp choice. I bought 100 stamps at Costco a month or two ago. I didn’t think much about it at the time. Why even sell non-forever stamps?
- Free Money Finance gives an example of turning a hobby into an income
- No Credit Needed writes about his $100-a-day-rule. It doesn’t mean you can spend $100-a-day like I thought it did.
- We were included in two carnivals the carnival of money stories and the carnival of personal finance.
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PropellerNext: Carnival of Personal Finance #150
April 27th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Get rid of cable and go with DirecTV or your satellite provider of choice. I switched over back 5-6 years ago and never looked back. Cheaper too. Internet is much tougher call, depending on where you live.
Interesting - a Solar ETF - I love those ETF thingies…
April 27th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
LM: RE: Comcast, I have that one too. We had a major email problem two days ago in Florida. The email would not go out, period. I called customer support 4 times and only late at night (Thank you, God!) someone finally told me to change settings in my Outlook! You see, the previous settings got overtaken by Spammers. Comcast just went ahead and switched to some other outgoing e-mail settings. But nobody at Comcast support would know that until the day was over!
RE COUPONS: I am a coupon addict. I am able to save as much as 50%-70% at any time I go to a store. I buy coupons in bulk (20-50) on eBay for items that we do purchase all the time. I combine coupons with sales. I have been buying for years at no cost or a few pennies per item such items as breakfast cereal, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, soap, bread, many other food items.. etc, etc…
But I often question my coupon efforts. Yes, it does take time and energy to monitor coupons, clip them and match them with sales.
In my case it might take me a 30 min of *coupon activities* to produce a $100 in savings and I am a pro.
But I know for sure that if I use that 30 min for relationship development instead, the return will be thousands of dollars and maybe hundred of thousands of dollars.
For example, I am an event entertainer. If I spend 30 min to send 10 e-mails to my past clients, I am sure I will get a least one booking as a result. It means at least $400-600 in my pocket which I didn’t have before. Plus, each new booking leads to others that I wouldn’t have before. It’s like a planting a money tree.
As with coupons, once you cash them, you are done and you need to look for a new opportunity.
I am trying to convince myself that I need to gradually drop the coupon game… but as with any addition it is hard….. LOL