What does "oomph" mean? It means several things, and I will tell you now. There are three important things to look at, CPU, GPU and RAM. An honorable mention is disk space, but this is not as important as the first three.
11.13.2024
What I Learned
What does "oomph" mean? It means several things, and I will tell you now. There are three important things to look at, CPU, GPU and RAM. An honorable mention is disk space, but this is not as important as the first three.
11.12.2024
This Ain't Slow Travel!
Slowed down. 2007. Hanging with grandma at Little Sandy Bottom Pond, MA. |
2004 vs. 2019: I look exactly the same! 👵 Right? |
Camping near Banff, Alberta |
Crowsnest Highway, Alberta |
The Toaster House, NM |
Bob likes colorful art. WI |
11.11.2024
Money Monday: Credit Card Hacking
Every Quarter Counts: Three Tips for Growing Your Wealth Early
Saving My Latte For a Rainy Day: Saving for Retirement
Make a Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents: What I Splurge and Save On
My Last To Do List: Trusts and Other Documents
The second thing that I think is important is to pay off all of your credit card debt. I did a review of a friend's finances once and the two things that really stood out to me were that (a) he had multiple charges for some subscriptions that he hadn't even realized because he was not looking at his statements and (b) he was not paying off his credit card in full every month! This can really add up!
For example, if you have a balance of $5,000 with 25% interest rate and you pay it down $100 a month ($1,200 total), by the end of the year, your balance will be unchanged, at about $5,056, and you would have paid about $1,256 in interest that year. If you pay it down $200 a month ($2,400 total), your balance would be about $3,700 and you would have paid about $1,100 in interest. You would have to pay $475 per month to get it down to $0 by the end of a year, and you would still pay about $700 in interest. That is a lot of money to pay to the credit card companies! Obviously there are emergencies, but I think putting money aside for them in advance is much more prudent.
So before I begin this post, I have to throw out the disclaimer that you should not do this if you can't pay off your card in full every month. Now let's talk about credit card hacking! If you are unfamiliar with this, it involves opening a credit card to get the welcome bonus, using the points for free stuff and possibly closing or downgrading the card later. Personally I like travel related cards, and Chase has one of the best values for that, so let's talk about that first. Side note: to my foreign friends, I am sorry, but these are US centric cards. However, please feel free to go to the bottom and let us know what card you use or any tricks you have to get the best value for your money!!
Travel card ($600 - $1,500 bonus value) / $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is currently offering $300 Chase Travel Credit + 60,000 bonus points (please verify by going to their site). What does this mean? Basically this can be worth anywhere from $600 - $1,500, depending on how you use it. Once you spend $4,000 in the first three months, you will get 60,000 points, and when you purchase any travel related items through their portal you will get up to a $300 credit. This includes the obvious things like flights, hotels and car rentals, but also has activities and cruises.
For the points, at the very least, they can either be used to get cash back or buy gift cards at around 0.01 per point (value of $600) or you can use them to purchase travel through the portal, which is usually about $0.015 (value of $900) or you can transfer them to airline or hotel partners, which is where you can get the best bang for your buck. For example, if you transfer these points to Hyatt and use them to book a hotel room with points, the value will be about 0.02 per point ($1,200). This card does have a $95 annual fee, but it also gives you a $50 annual statement credit for hotels booked through their travel portal, so if you use this, it is only $45/year. This card also gives higher points per dollar in categories like travel and dining out and has no foreign transaction fees.
In conclusion, if you travel at least once a year, this card may be a great fit for you! And if you don't love it after a year, you can cancel or downgrade to a no fee card. Basically with the current welcome bonus, you could stop using it after you get the bonus and still get value out of it for approximately six years (or more). If you travel a lot, you may want to go with the Chase Sapphire Reserve which gives you extra perks like lounge access and TSA Pre/Global Entry, but comes with a higher annual fee.
Cash back card ($200 bonus value) / $0 annual fee. If you don't really travel a lot or you don't spend a lot on travel related items, you can get the Freedom Flex card, which currently has a welcome bonus of $200 after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months. It gives you 5% cash back for a quarterly rotating bonus category, which includes groceries, gas, Amazon and pet services, which if you max this out, could equate to $300 per year. It has no annual fee and a 0% introductory APR. There are tons of different cash back cards with different % for different categories, so a combo of best bonus + best % for what you spend on is the way to go!
Hotel card ($500 - $1,000 bonus value) / $99 annual fee. If you travel at least once a year and stay in at least one hotel/motel per year, I highly suggest getting a hotel credit card. I think the current best bang for your buck is either the IHG Premier or the Hyatt card. Let's talk about the IHG card. This is good for hotels like the Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Staybridge Suites (list here). The good thing about IHG is that they are literally everywhere, versus places like Hyatt and Marriott which are sometimes pretty few and far between (or very expensive).
It currently has a 140,000 point bonus (please verify by going to their site), which they state is up to 4 nights free, but I just booked a Holiday Inn Express in Strasbourg for ~24,000 points per night, plus with this card you get the fourth night free, so my four nights cost me 71,000 points, so this could possibly be more like eight hotel nights (or more in places like SE Asia or South America). If I would have paid for this room, it would have cost me about $500, which means that if I can book another at the same price, the welcome bonus would be worth about $1,000. In addition, you get an annual free night's certificate, which is good for up to 40,000 point hotel, which could equate to a value of about $200. This card does cost $99 per year, but if you use your certificate for a $200 hotel, it still "saves" you money! Last but not least, you get automatic Premier Elite status, which can give you perks like upgrades, early check in, late check out, and possibly a snack or a drink. Once again, if you decide this is not for you after a year or two, you can downgrade to a no fee card with no ding on your credit, or you can cancel if you choose.
One last thing I want to talk about is a card that does not currently offer a bonus so is not really one for "hacking," but could be a great option for people who pay rent and that is the Bilt Rewards card. Please note that I have not used this myself, so you will have to do your own research. However, my understanding is that you can use it to pay your rent with no credit card transaction fees, even if you normally pay by check (they will issue the check for you) and you will get one point per dollar spent on rent plus extra points for other categories on rent day (the first of the month). You also get points for travel and other categories and it has no annual fee. You can then use the points for free travel, to pay part of your rent or for gym memberships etc. FYI currently a RT flight to Europe in Feb would cost about 40,000 points.
Have you fallen asleep yet? No? Great, because one other thing I want to add is that if you do travel, many of these credit cards also come with added perks like rental car collision (LDW) insurance (normally $10 - $30 per day), travel trip delay or lost luggage protection, purchase protection, roadside assistance (~ $99/year value), TSA-Pre (~$100 value every four years), cell phone protection (~$75/year value) and more. These extras may cover the cost of your fee in some cases!
Have you ever done any credit card hacking? Do you already have any of these cards? What is your favorite credit card and why?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.
11.10.2024
Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part Two)
This is a continuation of yesterday's post about getting rid of all of my stuff! As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. I decided to do all the work myself and now am looking back to analyze whether or not it was worth it. After much research I ended up doing the following with the items listed below.
Kitchen stuff. I sold some of the larger items on FBMP, but mostly I donated it to a local rummage sale, or gave it to Salvation Army. I did have some success posting some things in groups, like all baking items. Also bigger ticket items like my Ninja or Magic Bullet seemed to do better or sell faster in the long run.
$10 each or you can have the whole set for $40!! |
Books. Unfortunately my local library is very picky about what they take and all of the Little Free Libraries were full, so most of my books went to Salvation Army. I also sold a few on eBay but they were not really hot ticket items.
Random. It is interesting what people will buy. I sold unused printer cartridges and photo paper. I sold random assortments of photo frames and crafting supplies. I sold an antique radio to a woman who was going to use it in a play. I sold plants! Also, when I put out the free stuff, people took storage containers, even the ones without lids (I had set them out in groups), a roll of fabric, and a roll of Reflectex. I also gave a ton of stuff to friends and family, which really was my favorite way to get rid of things. I am sure they groaned every time they got a text from me saying, "Hey, do you want XXX?" but I felt a lot better knowing that some of the things went to a good home.
Here are a few other places you can take things (for free):
*these ones were especially difficult since none of them can be thrown in the trash.
Household cleaners, paint, batteries, light bulbs, propane containers, aerosol cans, e-waste etc.: If the paint is unused and unopened (which seems silly), you can take it to Habitat For Humanity (Restore). You may also be able to return it to the place you bought it. If it has been opened, it has to go to the Hazardous Waste drop off with the other items in the illustration below. *for my local county. Please check your local location for confirmation of what they will or will not take. The cool thing about this is that you put the items in your trunk and you pull up, they take everything out, and you drive off. You never have to get out of the car!
Take these* to Hazardous Waste drop off. |
Used motor oil: In my area, you actually can leave this on the curb for your regular pick up. Also many retailers who sell oil (like Walmart) or do oil changes (like Jiffy Lube) will take your used oil. Luckily I had graduated to paying someone to do this for me, so I did not have to worry about this. However, as a kid, my Dad used to make me change my oil, so I am familiar with the process!
Used printer cartridges: Staples or Office Depot will usually take these.
Used batteries: In my area, you could put them in a Ziploc and tape that to your recycling bin and Waste Management will take it on trash day. Otherwise you may be able to take them to Office Depot, or to the hazardous waste drop off.
Electronics - Goodwill, if the item is still working (they are sometimes picky about this), and they may refurbish it and sell it, but check your local one, as some do not take them, or local e-waste pickup company, or if it is dead, you can take it to the same place that you take hazardous waste.
Now the summary that you have been waiting for. What was my time really worth? Ha. In the end, I estimate that I "made" about $45/hour for eBay, $25/hour for ThredUp and $47/hour for FBMP (*these are very ballpark numbers). However, if you add in the hundreds (or thousands?) of items I gave away, and the time it took to research that and sort them and pile them up and move them from place to place, it would significantly lower my per hour rate (remember the saga of the suitcase? Well I ended up putting in my driveway for free, and I probably spent a few hours going back and forth with people on that) and am guessing it would be closer to the $15/hour range, or maybe even less!
Moral of the story? Some of the big ticket items may be worth selling, but the little guys may not be worth your time. Also FBMP takes more effort, but doesn't pay a whole lot more for the extra time. ThredUp was very little work and was things I would have given away for free anyway, so I feel like that was probably the least amount of brain power (which is a win for sure!) even though it consisted of the most items and paid nearly half as much. Also as an aside, if you are just sitting at home and have the time anyway, it's not a bad side gig! However, I think unless you want to have to be face to face with people and deal with a lot of flakes, I would pick eBay over FBMP for the ease of it.
Also, as a last side note, if you are ever buying on eBay or FBMP (or Poshmark etc.), even if it is a Buy Now item, it never hurts to offer a lower price! Unless you absolutely NEED it now. However, as a seller, I would happily take an offer, as I was motivated to sell!
Have you ever sold on eBay, FBMP or any other online retailer and if so, how did it go? What do you think your time is worth for these kinds of things (aka, would you pay someone just to not have the hassle)??
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging!
11.09.2024
Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part One)
As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. While doing this, two things took me a lot of time. First, it took a long time to figure out where everything should go. I know, I could have just called a company to come and take everything and get rid of it for me, but that is not my way. I wanted to try to get some money for some of my items, and I did not want to PAY money to have someone else do what I could easily (HA. HAHA. HA!) do myself.
Things to keep |
If you don't mind paying to have this done, you can call a junk removal company. My friend in the Bay Area used this local one, who actually promises to recycle, sell or donate at least 80% of the items, which I find important. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I was so particular about finding where to take things; I did not want it to all just go in a landfill! However, in the end, it took me much longer than I had hoped.
The second thing that took me forever was selling things. I had this entrepreneurial dream that I would sell all of my crap and make millions of dollars. This is why I am not an entrepreneur. The time it took to take photos, figure out prices, list and monitor (and sometimes haggle) probably netted me about $2.00 per hour. I will give a short summary about this at the end of this post.
First let's talk about furniture. This is probably where I thought I could do the least amount of work to get the most amount of money. These things are large, I did not have too many of them and the price point is a lot higher than a pair of jeans or shoes. I had some good pieces, not in bad condition, no pet wear or chips or stains or cracks. I started by putting them on Facebook Marketplace. Ideally, I wanted to try to get a little bit back for this, but the work that is involved can be massive. Luckily, I was working from home two days a week at this point, as you really do have to have a certain amount of availability. However, I did leave quite a few items on my porch for people to pick up and I figured if they stiffed me, I didn't really care that much. P.S. None of them stiffed me. I ended up selling about 25% of my furniture.
But what to do with the other 75%??? The places in my local area where you can donate furniture are VERY PICKY! Also, I would prefer to have someone pick it up, so I don't have to load it twice into a car. However, that was easier said than done.
First, I scheduled a pick up with Restore (Habitat for Humanity). However, they basically rejected 75% of my things, even though when I filled out the form for the appointment, it said that they would take the items that I had. They will take new building supplies and like new household items, but "like new" means basically new. Also, I didn't have any of these, but if I did, I would have returned them to Home Depot for cash. They don't take anything that has patterns, has been painted, or has ANY tiny cracks or dirt spots (my couch had one tiny water stain on one arm). However, they did take my push mower (no motor, like the old fashioned kind) and my corded power tools (as long as they worked and were in a case etc.). They also would not take a kitchen table unless it had six matching chairs.
I ended up trying to get another company to pick up the rest but the wait times were horrible (pro tip: plan early, even if that means eating in camp chairs in the living room) and in the end I had to get Broski and his truck involved. We started by going to Salvation Army, but lo and behold, even though the website said that they took furniture, they would not take it, and so we ended up going to Out of The Closet, who is also picky, but not as picky as Habitat luckily! In the end, they took the rest of the large things, but Broski and I had to (a) make two trips (b) load and unload everything ourselves.
Broski helping me give away furniture |
Here is what I would do differently. I would start by taking what I could get for the furniture. I often would haggle and then the buyer would back out. I don't know what I was trying to prove, but I should have prioritized getting rid of it over making money. In the end, I gave it away for nothing so the $50 I was offered would have been better! Second, after I sold what I could sell, I would have put the rest on the curb with a "free" sign! I ended up doing this for a few left over items at the end and they went fast!! Even people driving by would stop and pick through stuff, which was surprising to me. I also don't really love having all of my goods out on display for the whole world to see, but believe you me, by the end, I could not give two flying trucks who saw my stuff; I just wanted it gone! I would definitely tell past me to get over myself and just put it on the curb. Then I would have donated (or trashed) what did not get taken, and saved myself the work.
Free stuff! Going, going, gone! |
Bulky trash. Speaking of trash, our garbage carrier (WM) let's you do one free bulky pickup a year, and they will take things like tires, mattresses, some electronics and furniture. I would have done this earlier, although I wanted to have everything sorted so I didn't end up with a bunch of trash at the end, so the timing was tricky. However, I think going through the garage and making a big pile early would have been better. Or if I wanted to do it at the end, I should have scheduled it sooner. I wanted to wait until the last minute, but only then did I learn that they schedule these a few weeks in advance, so I could not get it when I wanted it. I ended up going to the WM facility with a load in my car, which actually was not too bad. However, you do have to have a local address in order to do the disposal for free (you can dump for a fee otherwise), and I also had to schedule this (but could do that a couple of days in advance).
Taking a load to the dump in my huge car. |
Clothing and Shoes. Like the furniture, I did not want to just give it away, especially since I had some pretty high end pieces (I used to work in the fancy shoe department at Nordstrom, and some of my shoes were >$600 retail. I got them on sale though! I swear!). Why is it that if you spent a lot on it, you are more loathe to give it away? Or is that just me? Anyway, I put a bunch of them on eBay and FBMP, and same story as above, sold maybe 25% of them. We do not have a good consignment shop in my area (they want current styles, certain brands etc.) However, the good thing is that you can send a box to ThredUp, and they will try to sell your items and if they sell you will get a (measly) commission. I sent about six boxes to them in the end, and then gave the rest of the things to Salvation Army.
Typical week's worth of donations |
What I would have done differently. I was afraid to list things in multiple locations, but I should have tried to do that. I found that some things sold really well on FBMP and others were better to list on eBay so you can get a broader audience. Also eBay was way easier, as you just box it up and put it in the mail rather than having a person come over, or flake on you, or having a huge back and forth before they decide to buy. However, they do take a larger cut from you, but maybe it is worth it!
Electronics. This one hurt a lot. I used to be big into photography, and still am, but I no longer use my DSLR or the four different lenses I had for it (and lights and flashes and diffusers etc.) But they all cost a lot and once again, I did not want to give them away for a pittance. So I tried FBMP and did not have a lot of luck, and finally got desperate and put them on Ebay and did not get a lot for them but I did end up selling everything camera related. I also disposed of many an old cell phone and laptop by taking them to the Hazardous Waste drop off.
Sigh...tear...😢 |
...to be continued!!! In the interest of time (this got to be too long!), stay tuned for tomorrow, when I will go over a few more examples of where to take things and will also do the big reveal...what was my time worth??
Have you ever done serious decluttering at your house? What tricks did you use to get rid of stuff? What's the weirdest thing you have ever sold?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging!
11.08.2024
Take Only What You Need to Survive
11.07.2024
Sweet As! Let Me Have a Quick Squizz!
* Bugger. Dang it, usually preceded by "oh" or followed by "that" or sometimes by "that for a dollar," as in bugger that for a dollar.
11.06.2024
What I Learned
I am a very curious person, or so I have been told. Some people like that about me, but I am sure that I annoy the crap out of others by asking too many questions. I just want to get to the meat of things, and if I have a problem to solve, I do not quit until I find the answer. This can lead to some pretty grim rabbit holes, and some frustration on my part, but the maximizer in me will oftentimes not let go. Many times, these searches or questions come because something goes wrong. Other times, it is my need for perfection that drives the search. I will give you examples of both. The first one on my list is the latter, and the second one on the list is the former. The third is one I learned a long time ago, but one that I find useful for blogging or journaling. So read on for what I learned, the computer shortcuts and blogging edition.
Putting a hyperlink in a comment. I wanted to link a pair of shoes for Rick in Nance's blog about buying shoes for her husband, but I did not want that super long annoying link to show up; I just wanted a tidy hyperlink. I have done this before, but it is one of the things I promptly forgot afterwards. One thing that I am trying to do (#lifegoals) more is to keep track of things in an organized way so I can either find them later or use them again or not look up the same thing over and over (definition of insanity, right?) So now I (and you!) will have notes on how to do this right here:
In the area you want the hyperlink, type this: <a href="PUT WEBSITE ADDRESS HERE">PUT WORDS YOU WANT DISPLAYED HERE</a>
For example, you would type: why not hop over to <a href="https://www.travelspot06.blogspot.com">this excellent blog</a> for more information about coding? And what will show up will be --> Why not hop over to this excellent blog for more information about coding? FYI: This will work on both WP and Blogger blogs.
Copy + paste clipboard. Sometimes I am commenting on blogs and when I click submit, I get an error and then sometimes I cannot go back and resubmit, so I have to type out the entire comment again and that is frustrating! So I researched how to get my clipboard (aka previously copied information) and it is super easy on a PC (sorry Mac users, you have to figure out your own issues).
Just click the Windows Button + V, it will ask if you want to start saving your clipboard, say yes. Then what I do is right before I hit submit on the comment, I use CTRL-A, CTRL-C to copy the comment and then if I need to access it again later, I click Windows-V and there I have my list of saved items. To use it, just click on the one you want and voila! No repeating comments or other things. You can also pin ones you use a lot! This also works for clipped snippets (like the Excel clips pasted below!!)
A quick warning though: The Windows clipboard history is available until you restart your computer, except for any items you've pinned. The clipboard history only stores the last 25 items you've copied, and when you copy a new item, the oldest item is deleted.
Excel formula of the week. I love Excel; I use it for travel and packing lists and organization, collecting information, keeping track of things and obviously for adding up costs and doing budgets and things like that. The IF function is one that I use in various forms! You all may know how to use these already, and if so, yay! If not, here they are. And if these seem exciting, just wait until we get to nested IFs! Prepare to be wowed!
SUMIF --> Used to sum by category when you have a list of numbers or costs etc. In the below example, I want to sum up costs by category. I am telling it to sum the list in column C if the category in column B matches the word in cell E3.
COUNTIF --> in the same example, I now want to count how many of each category there are. So basically count how many in column B match cell E3.
IFERROR --> Now that I have my counts, I want to calculate a per day cost. This all well and good but if I remove the word Motel, now I have an error (#DIV/0) for Motel because the count is zero. To fix that, I put the words IFERROR before the formula and then tell it what phrase or number I want it to return if there is an error. In this case I am being silly, but usually I just put 0, or "", which will return a blank.
Once that formula is done, here is the result. Isn't that fun!
Oh you want one more you say? Fine! I also love the shortcut ALT = (ALT and equal key) which is used to sum up a column instead of typing out =SUM(H3:H9). Just put it where you would normally put the formula and you are good to go! Okay, admit it; did your eyes glaze over? Or are you excited to share your favorite Excel tip with me?
Do you use any of these tricks? Or do you have any other shortcuts you use while blogging or commenting? Do you have any fun Excel tricks you want to share? If you are a Mac (or cell phone) user, do you know where to find your clipboard?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.
11.05.2024
Travel Planning: Getting The Most Out of Google Flights
11.04.2024
Money Monday: Easy Ways to Save or Make Money
You know I like a good bargain just like the rest of you, and I am frugal to a fault in some people's eyes. However, I don't think that I give up quality in many cases, and I do prioritize quality in others. For example, I don't need to pay an extra $50 for a hotel with free breakfast when I would rather hit the streets and buy breakfast along the way or have a snack of peanut butter and a bagel in my room. Or, I don't need to eat three meals out when traveling, when I can just as easily eat a bagel and peanut butter in my room and then splurge on lunch. I guess the key is that you have to be willing to eat a bagel and peanut butter! Here are a few other ways to save without sacrificing happiness.
Be aware. This is the number one thing in my opinion. This kind of goes along with culling your subscriptions, which I talk about below, but I think that you should take a look at what you are spending each month or quarter or year and then change what needs to be changed. Even if you think that nothing needs to be changed, I think it is important to know what you are spending your money on instead of just letting it all go out the door without thinking. This is easy enough as a lot of our banks will let us add external accounts so we can track our spending, but I use Fidelity's Full View. This is free for customers, and if you are not already a customer, you can open a cash management account, which is what I did.
Open a high interest savings account. The reason I opened a cash management account at Fidelity is twofold. First, they reimburse all ATM fees, so when you are traveling abroad or are going to be in small towns where you may not find your regular bank, you can withdraw money with ease. I rarely withdraw cash, but when I do, it is nice to just be able to get out a little bit and not worry about the $9+ fees that my brick and mortar bank sometimes charges me each time. I was often getting out more (too much) cash because I did not want to go back again for another withdrawal.
The second reason I did this is also due to their high interest rate. You can either leave your funds in cash, which will get you about 2.44% as of the time of this writing, or you can buy a money market fund, which is currently yielding about 4.50%. If you have money sitting in a checking or regular savings account, I highly suggest you move some of it to a higher yielding account. If you don't like Fidelity, there are also high yield savings accounts online like Marcus or Citizens which also will give you a better rate (FYI: currently my main brick and mortar bank checking account has 0% and my savings has about 0.03%, vs. the high yield accounts, which are around 4.0% - 4.5%.) It literally takes two minutes to open and maybe one or two days to transfer the funds over to a new account.
Change your phone plan. People, we are past the era where we need to be paying $75 or $80 per month for a cell phone plan. There are so many plans out there now that are cheaper, and they are not worse quality! I personally have Google Fi (this is not a sponsored post, but if you click this link, you can get $60 off) and I have had it for years now and I do not miss my expensive AT&T plan! I was paying $80 per month, and now I pay about $80 for myself and two other people. Before I added the family members, my bill was about $30/month. Google Fi also triangulates between T-Mobile and US Cellular, so it will pick up the one that has the best service and use that. Also, it works internationally with little to no extra charge. When we traveled to Mexico, a friend of mine who had Verizon paid $10 a day to have international roaming, therefore adding about $100 to his bill that month. I paid NOTHING.
I don't know all about the other plans, but I think Mint Mobile has a deal for $15 a month with unlimited data. Also, the All The Hacks podcast did a more thorough review of all of them if you want to learn more. However, the bottom line is that you pay per GB if you don't use a lot of data, or you can get unlimited data if you need it. Most of us are at home or work most of the day, where we have WiFi, and when that is the case, you do not use any data. I use less than 1GB of data every month.
After reading this post by CCR, I am adding an addition to this in that if you are traveling internationally, even if you have the expensive Verizon plan, you do not need to pay the $10 per day international fee. Most newer phones now support e-SIM cards, which means that all you need to do is download an app (I use Airalo and if you use my referral code KYRIA0085, you will get $3 off your first purchase). From home you can load up some GB of data and then as soon as you step off the plane, your data will work. Easy-peasy. If you have an older phone, you can also get a real SIM card at most airports or city centers. You can then download things like maps, podcasts and audiobooks so that they can be used offline, use any streaming while in WiFi land and you will barely use any data on the road.
Speaking of referral codes. Before buying most things or signing up for anything, I check Reddit to see if there is anyone offering a voucher or a referral code for it. (I also use cash back apps, which I will discuss in a future MM post). A lot of the time, you will get a discount and probably the person referring you will get something too. Sometimes it can be as high as $60 off, like my Google Fi code, or sometimes it is a % off, or a discount on your first purchase, like Airalo. And I am sure you yourself have referral codes for things you use; you can post them on this site and if someone clicks on it, you may get a bonus too. I have received statement credits on my Google Fi account of $600 (the max allowed) by doing this! You can find my referral codes on my travel tips and hacks page if you are interested in getting a discount or giving me some extra points for something you were going to get anyway. :)
Cull your subscriptions, or alternate them. I know that it is easy to just set it and forget it, but do we really need to have four or five different streaming subscriptions at the same time? What if you make a list of which shows you like on each platform and then alternate one every two or three months? This does require a little organization, but it is worth it. Also, see above; maybe your library app has the show you like! Also, often the channel itself will show the show for free; for example, ABC has the option to watch past seasons of Grey's Anatomy right on the ABC website for free. And who doesn't love Grey's Anatomy?
Additionally, things like Amazon subscriptions can pile up (hello TP and cat food, I am looking at you!) and so it is worth reviewing them every quarter to see if you really need more of the items on your list. I make a point to review my credit card purchases every month to see if there is anything out of whack, but if you don't have time for that, I think at least once a quarter is a good idea. Even if it is something like a credit card fee on a card that you meant to cancel, you can call them and often get it removed retroactively. And...if even once a quarter is too much, there are apps like Rocket Money or Pocket Guard that will do the work for you, and will even suggest or negotiate better deals for things like your cable or phone bill. (disclaimer: I have not tried either of these apps myself)
During NoBloPoMo, this will be a once a week feature, so stay tuned for next time, when I talk about credit card hacking! Also, if there is something you want to learn about, or any questions you have, let me know!
Do you keep track of your spending? If so, what tips do you have? What phone plan do you have, how much data (non WiFi) do you use each month, and how much do you pay per month? Do you have a high yield savings account?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.