Lazy Man and Money

Festival of Frugality #62

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hitter.gifWelcome to the Festival of Frugality #62. I’m a huge fan of baseball and for years 62 was one of the game’s biggest numbers. For years, the single season home run record belonged to Roger Maris with 61 home runs in 1961. The record stood for 37 years until Mark McGwire (and Sammy Sosa) broke it in the magical 1998 season. Steroid controversies have since taken that magic away for many fans. In tribute to that quest for #62, we’ll group articles into some of the baseball’s best home run hitters. We’ll concentrate on those that played before 1970 – just to avoid some of today’s controversy.

Babe Ruth

The Babe was widely considered the best hitter ever in baseball. Here are the best of the submissions:

  • Golbguru of Money, Matter, and More Musings asks It’s Easier To Be Frugal When You Are Single; True Or False?. I love the frugality table and have experienced this myself. The flip side is that there are savings to being a couple as well.
  • Andrea Dickson of Wise Bread has found free pancakes for today (Feb. 20th) only. I urge people to actually pay for the pancakes if they can as the money goes to charity.
  • With the passing of Presidents’ Weekend, some of the best car deals could be unavailable. Or maybe there are even better deals of the left overs. Better yet, it’s getting towards the end of the month. Ask Mr. Credit Card has some great advice on how to save when buying a car.
  • Were in Debt gives some ideas on how to save money on vacations. Having moved to San Francisco, I long for the days where I can go from Boston to New York on the $20 Fung Wah bus.

Ted Williams

An argument could be made that he was every bit as good as Babe Ruth. His career numbers were not nearly as great as he lost 5 of his prime playing years to be a Marine fighter pilot in WWII and in the Korean War. Here are some Splendid ways to live on the cheap:

  • Elizabeth from Money For the Rest of Us says that now is the best time to buy chocolate. She may be right, but I’m still partial to the days following Halloween.
  • Sharon Rosenberg found a quick way to save money with a AAA card.
  • Jenn at Frugal Upstate shows us how to mend a seam.
  • My Financial Journey writes about frugal landscaping. I like the idea of a blueberry bush performing double duty.

Willie Mays
He was a great hitter, but not up there with Williams in Ruth in pure hitting ability. He was a more complete player with great defense and was always a threat to steal bases. Here are some great all-around ways to save some money:

  • Grad Money realizes that Costco is a good value, but not frugal. Scott on the Money agrees and suggests not to overbuy.
  • Silicon Valley Blogger has a great frugality quiz. I had to respectively disagree on a couple of points, but it’s good to compare purchases before buying.
  • David from Money Under 30 writes about a group of who don’t buy anything for a year. They call themselves the compact, and having lived in the San Francisco area for 6 months now, I’m only surprised it didn’t happen before now.
  • A Silver Lining realizes that it’s possible to reuse old calendars. I wonder how Energi Gal (my fiancée) would react if I reuse my old Cindy Crawford calendar every few years.

Mickey Mantle

The Mick, as he was known, was on his way to being one of the best players ever when injuries slowed him down.

  • Andy of Money Walk gives us 9 ways to save money. I always keep some Ramen noodles on hand as well
  • Making Our Way has somegrocery shopping tips. Tight Fisted Miser adds a few ideas of his own. I would recommend adding some tuna to each of the lists. It’s frugal and very healthy.
  • Stephanie at Stop the Ride talks about some tough choices she’s making to save money. I know it’s off-topic, but I’ve never heard of home that’s completely underground – it seems a little depressing to me.
  • One Big Mortar Board shows us a deal on 5 Oscar nominees for $30. My mom keeps raving about The Departed and everyone I know loves Little Miss Sunshine. The other movies I could take a pass on. I love movies and popcorn, but I’m not sure I could see 5 in one day.
  • My Two Dollars discusses why he saves money. I don’t know about you, but I would love a 103 inch plasma.
  • The Frugal Law Student writes on onion peels. While it’s a cool trick, I always have my hand available and rarely have an onion peel available.

Herb Washington

Herb Washington played in 102 games and never stepped to the plate. He was use exclusively as a pinch runner (from what I can tell). Here’s to some of the articles that only briefly touched on a frugal lifestyle or played smaller parts in contributing to the team.

Cutting the Cable TV

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Cutting the Cable
There used to be time when all of America connected a pair of rabbit ears to their television sets and blissfully watched. Three to thirteen channels was all anyone needed. Then cable and satellite television came along. With the new options came more channels, all of them crystal clear. Today my brother gets his television over a high speed fiber optic cable from Verizon – a phone company. The problem I have with these three new options is that they cost money, each and every month. Many have forgotten what it’s like to not have to pay for television. Sadly, I’m one of them.

Confession time: I’m addicted to television. On an average night, I’d say that I watch it for 4-5 hours. Often times, it’s just background noise, but there are some core shows that I catch week in and week out. Surely, I’ll be writing that check to the cable company for life, right? Maybe not.

I was at a friend’s home a couple of weeks ago. He had just gotten a new LCD flat panel HDTV. It wasn’t just 1024 x 768 resolution HDTV, but the full 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution. We started to talk how HDTV wasn’t broadcast in 1080p – his television couldn’t take advantage of it. As the conversation when on, he noted that his antenna actually gets a better picture than his cable television. It turns out that cable HDTV is far more compressed than over the air. Instantly a light bulb went off in my head. If I could reduce my television watching to channels available over the air, I could finally cut the cable. Looking over my television habits, it wouldn’t be that hard. I’d say that 95% of what I watch is on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, or CW. So it’s time to call up the cable company right? Not quite yet, it’s a little more complicated.

I said before that I’m addicted to television. To fill that addiction I have a dual tuner digital video recorder (DVR) from Comcast. After all, I have to be able to watch 24 and Heroes and not just in standard definition, but in high definition. Solution: Build my own. That sounds difficult, but there are examples here, here, and here. I have to do a little investigation to see if they support the dual-tuner HDTV, but I know I can at least get HDTV or dual-tuner standard definition.

There’s one stumbling block that most cable subscribers just can’t get past. It seems there’s always one channel that stops them. Perhaps it’s The Discovery Channel or ESPN. I happen to like FX quite a bit. Could I give up those shows cold turkey, or is there a free, legal solution for watching these shows as they are being broadcast? There is a solution, but I have to stretch the rules a bit. Buy a Slingbox and set it up at a friend’s house. You’ll be able to watch his cable over the Internet. Your friend may ask for a little money each month, because you’ll be tapping into his/her bandwidth, but at least you are splitting the cost. You’ll also be using your bandwidth, so you can’t cut the Internet connection. I would never have thought of this solution if I didn’t use it myself to watch my beloved Red Sox and Patriots games. As a bonus, you’ll be able to watch your television from Windows Mobile 5.0, Symbian, and Palm OS (in beta testing now) cell phones as well as Windows and Macintosh computers.

Am I going to try to cut the cable? This solution requires three things:

  1. Polished DVRs with no subscriptions. I can’t have the OS crashing on me. I need an interface that everyone can use. Perhaps this is not a problem. I’ll need to research this. There is likely going to be a one time cost. Perhap I can get something pre-built on Ebay.
  2. Slingbox and good bandwidth. The original Slingbox’s picture is okay for most television viewing, but it’s tough on sports with small details such as a baseball or football.
  3. I need to get one of those HDTV antennas. They are cheap and easy to get on the Internet. I’ll probably pick one up this weekend.
[Photo Credit: George V. Reilly]

Potluck Dinners – Tacky or Frugal?

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Energi Gal here with another post for Lazy Man…

The holidays have come and gone. During the season the topic of potluck dinners came to discussion. If you host a potluck dinner, are you tacky or financially smart? Growing up, my mother always told me that potluck dinners were tacky. If you invite people over you are responsible for all the food, appetizers, wine, beer, soda, dinner, and dessert. My mom would spend up to $500.00 to have people over! I think that is a lot of work and an awful lot of money. When I was in high school, I wanted to have some friends over and asked everyone to bring something. My mother screamed at me to high heaven! I was in high school with minimal college savings due to my parents spending. Why can’t everyone contribute to a good time? Now that I am working and trying to save for a wedding and for a house in a high cost of living area, I think again, “Why can’t everyone contribute?” None of our friends are broke, and even if they were, they could afford a 99 cents bag of chips. I see so many positives about a potluck dinner: people bring what they like, people bring their special recipe, and LESS WORK for the hostess (Lazy Man likes less work).

What does everyone else think?

Ground Beef Savings

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Tricia from Blogging Away Debt alerted me to this article on how to save money buying ground beef. It’s very well written and greatly illustrated.

The basic idea is that you can buy cheaper, more fatty, ground beef and by draining the fat. It’s a great idea and I’ve been doing it for some time. Instead of simply draining the beef though, I put in a little water and boil it at the end for just a couple of minutes. Draining that water out seems to get all the last fat out.

I still buy the leanest beef to start with just to ensure that I’m getting the lowest fat I can. Often times, I’ll get ground turkey instead, as it’s a very lean and cheap alternative. Both work well together in many economical meals.

Big Savings on Laser Printer Ink

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I’ve been lucky enough to have the same Hewlett-Packard 4L printer for over 12 years now. Back then laser printers were very expensive so the $600 investment was really something to think about. However, I decided that it was a good investment in the future and it’s never let me down (knocking on wood). One of the big advantages of the printer is that you can get over 3000 pages printed on a toner cartridge. I’ve been through two toners thus far and I think I’ve gone through many more than 6000 pages.

When my latest toner started running low, I decided it’s time for a new one. Unfortunately they were $70 a few years ago when I last bought one. I don’t even know if I could go to a Staples and get one for any price. Once again it’s Ebay to the rescue. Like the razor blades I got cheaply, there were toner refills that were rated highly by many users for $15 – for two refills, including shipping. I should be all set for another 12 years – maybe 20 as I don’t print as much as I did in high school and college.

Of course if the printer dies, I’ll head over to Ebay and pick up another one. I can’t recommend them highly enough for a great printing solution. My friends still come by to print their resumes, the quality is that good.