Uncommon Cents

Many Geeks, myself included, use mobile broadband–quite frankly, for me, it’s a bit of a necessity given how often I’m on the road. There are national providers of such services (the big telecoms–AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and TMobile) who typically charge about $60 for the bogus “unlimited up to five gigabytes” plans; I currently have a MobiPCS Hele which is truly unlimited (or so they claim) but not the best coverage–and restricted to the islands, but a lot cheaper at $30 a month plus tax.

Recently there’s a different option that’s become available here–Clear (formerly Clearwire) 4G, and they are pricing it aggressively. Currently, if I find a friend who is wanting to sign up as well, we can get two mobile connections for a fine price per month for life.

That might be worthwhile.

Clear is also available in other areas of the US, although not in nearly as many as the big players; for instance, I can get coverage in Philadelphia where I’ll be for the Livestrong Challenge, but not in California.

I’m thinking seriously about this one.

We haven’t done one of these for awhile, but I thought I would take the cobwebs off of this series since I have a Costco coupon book right in front of me. That said, this one doesn’t impress me all that much, but I figured I’d delve in and list for you what I thought were the best coupons from this month’s book:

Up to $2 off Diet or Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi

$3.50 off Quilted Northern Ultra Plush Bath Tissue

$2.50 off Kirkland Signature Liquid Laundry Detergent

$4 off OxiClean

$3 off Crest Glide Deep Clean Floss (I love this stuff but it’s expensive!)

The usual disclaimers on Costco apply: because the quantities are often large, non perishable goods are best; things that will last forever and you’ll need (toilet paper, anyone?) tend to be wise purchases, although we will compare Costco prices on this to a local cleaning supply store soon.

Have fun!

Price increases don’t thrill me, but honestly, GEICO has been great to me in the time I’ve had them. They’ve paid claims quickly and with no headaches and they’ve reduced my rate at least once, considerably.

I got my new policy and the price has gone up.

But less than two bucks over a six month period.

That’s the kind of increase I’m fine with paying. Insurance is a necessity, and I want great service when I need it, as well as a great price. It’s why I stick with them.

One of my coworkers, a divorcee with adult children who, like me, works multiple jobs, was asking about taking out a home equity loan to pay off some credit card debt. My response: it’s more important to reduce spending to live within your means than it is to pay this off in this manner, because all that’s happening is debt is being shifted from one pile to the other.

And that’s what it came down to. I could sit down with my coworker and go over every single bit of her budget to try to find areas to cut–piano lessons, gym memberships, cell phones for her adult kids–and none of it would matter if she didn’t have the discipline to actually do it.

A budget, after all, is just a plan; if she can’t follow through, it doesn’t matter how the math looks. What counts is the discipline to keep spending in check, and if she doesn’t have that, no amount of loans or plans will help.

I’m amazed at the report that cable television prices are increasing. How hooked are people on television? I haven’t watched television in years, my old set is in my mother’s room and I never replaced it–and never missed it. Quite frankly it’s the best thing I ever did, but apparently I’m in a serious minority.

At the same time, at least anecdotal evidence suggests that some people are trying to do television ala carte, buying shows off of iTunes, watching at network Web sites and Hulu, or checking out alternative entertainment–as well as possibly downloading the shows illegally. But if the huge companies that provide cable television are confident enough to raise prices when unemployment is a huge issue, my guess is they believe people want cable and are willing to pay for it–or rather, pay more for it.

I’m not the best person to make a determination about cable’s worthiness, since I gave up television watching so long ago. Still, I find it hard to believe I couldn’t put $100 or so to better use every month somehow.

While those of us in Hawaii who have issues with Furlough Fridays concentrate their attention on school children losing instructional days, there are many other state employees besides those in the schools. I work with several agencies–the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health primarily–that are also affected by Furlough Fridays.

This means that every few Fridays–which I’m never really sure is an actual Furlough Friday–I can’t reach anyone in those departments, save for the mandated 24 hour on call Child Welfare Services worker.

I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted trying to get in touch with workers in these departments when they really are off. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It doesn’t end there either. I can easily tell you when are great times to go to, for instance, the Kane’ohe Public Library–Monday and Wednesday nights or after 10 am on Sundays. But now I’m never sure if that’s quite correct anymore.

But for me, this is just inconvenience. It’s worse for the employees who are making less money than they used to, especially if they were just getting by already.

As I promised myself (as my backup pair of glasses used for driving falls apart even more), I went to the ophthalmologist on January 4 to get a new prescription for glasses. Since I now have access to a flexible spending account at work, it’s really a great time to get them.

Glasses are definitely expensive, even if the tax advantages of the flexible spending account nets me a cost about 30% lower than without such an account. So while I plan to buy at least one pair of glasses locally, I’m going to order another pair from one of several mail order prescription eyeglass providers on the Internet–which one I have not yet determined.

I need to do more research on these sites as I have just begun reading reviews, but some of these sites sell prescription glasses for $29–or less.

I’ll definitely let people know how things go.

This is a guest post from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), a non-profit dedicated to improving the financial literacy of all Americans. NEFE operates the site Smart About Money and have developed a series of articles filled with tips to help you make 2010 the year of financial freedom. You can also find Economic Survival Tips, worksheets and articles focused on financial education related to housing, spending, credit and job change. Please look at Smart About Money’s other articles to help to make 2010 a great financial year for yourself, and you can follow NEFE on Twitter at @nefe_org

1.      Control spending: If you spend less you’ll have more money available to pay down debt and save for the future. Write down your expenses for a month to see where your money is going. You might be surprised by how easy it is to find places to scale back.

2.      Create a debt repayment plan: If you carry credit card debt, write down everything you owe and make a plan to pay it off. Start with small items you can act on right away–it will make tackling the bigger debt easier. Also, try buying with cash only. It’s a sure-fire way to prevent increases in your credit card debt.

3.      Set up auto-savings plans: Arrange with your bank or another financial institution to have a set amount deducted from your checking account to a savings account each pay period. Of the Americans who have been able to contribute to emergency savings funds, automatic withdrawal is the most popular method, according to the Consumer Federation of America.

4.      Boost retirement savings: If your employer offers a 401(k) plan, increase your contributions. If you don’t have an employer plan, open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and arrange for contributions to be made automatically from your checking or savings account.

5.      Create a long-term plan: Write a list of your long-term goals, such as buying a home or saving for college or retirement. Visit the Life Events section of Smart About Money for concrete tips on accomplishing those goals.

6.      Protect Yourself: Be prepared for the unexpected by making sure you, your family, your assets and investments are insured and fully covered. If you do not have a will, make 2010 the year you establish a life plan.

7.      Find a financial buddy: Share your financial resolutions with a friend, colleague, or family member, and you’ll be more likely to keep them. Find someone else who wants to turn around their debt or cut their spending, and establish a mutual support system.

My current bicycle, the Bianchi I bought off of Craigslist after my Cannondale was stolen, is by no means state of the art. It’s had lots of miles put on it, at least a couple thousand by me and an unknown amount by its previous owner who said he got it new. It was made in 2002, by the terms of the bicycle industry that, while steeped in tradition, also moves along at the pace of technology, it’s ancient and due for replacement.

But why?

It still rides nicely. I’ve gotten used to it over the time I’ve had it and made a hundred small adjustments, fixed a few parts and replaced others to get it to be very close to an ideal partner for me. I rode it 100 miles in September and I’m hoping to do a couple of other 100 mile rides on it.

That said, would it be nice to get a new bike? Sure it would; I would love to have something newer. But just because this bike is a few years old doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work anymore–and even if it was broken, it would be more cost effective to replace some parts than the whole bike (admittedly, this doesn’t work for every case).

But for me, old doesn’t mean broken–it just means that it’s something I’ve grown accustomed to and have a lot of trust in. Me and this old bike are planning to ride Livestrong Philadelphia–and I challenge the rest of you to join me.

I’ve been contemplating going to Philadelphia in August to do the Livestrong Challenge, both the 10K run on Saturday and the century ride–in this case a bit over 95 miles, but let’s just call it 100, okay?–on Sunday. There’s entry fees, like any other event, which are not substantial, and there’s fundraising requirements, which are meaningful but probably not too difficult to reach. And of course, there’s the events themselves, which I’m training for (and I’ve done several centuries and runs longer than 10K before, so while I’m sure it’ll be tough, I also am sure I can finish them).

And then there’s the matter of getting myself and my Bianchi there, housed, and on the course of the event. And that’s where the big obstacle is: funding the trip.

I’m still running some numbers, but I’ve figured out there are a few things that are definitely going to have to be sacrificed in 2010 to hit Livestrong:

Mobile broadband: The $34 or so (including tax) I pay for my MobiPCS Hele makes it about as cheap as possible, but it’ll have to go, especially considering my phone can do much the same thing. I was hoping to possibly replace this with a data only Sprint smartphone (possibly one running Android) but that is out for this year too.

New digital SLR: I really want a Nikon D300s, but that was probably not going to happen. However, a Nikon D5000 was a possibility. Unfortunately, that is also going to have to wait until at least 2011.

New desktop: My hand built machine that’s down in my computer dungeon is cheap and runs okay but it pales in comparison to newer equipment. I was thinking I might treat myself to the same Core 2 Quad machine I got my niece for the holidays, but that’s definitely not going to happen either.

And probably more. I haven’t fully figured out the costs of this trip yet–transportation will be an issue, but so will housing. The hostel I stayed at during my one and only previous trip to Philadelphia is about 20 miles from the start of the event, but how much it’ll cost me to get to and from there I don’t know, and there are other options like hotels (although they don’t really appear substantially closer). Hopefully I can get some more information about what would be best from previous Livestrong participants.