Archives for October 2014

Amazon Promo: Buy $50 of Household Essentials, Get $15 Gift Card

Posted on October 14, 2014 // 3 Comments

charminAmazon is running a promotion where if you buy $50 of select Household & Beauty Essentials, you will get a $15 Amazon.com gift card (add it to your cart and it’ll show as free upon checkout). Eligible items include Bounty paper towels, Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper, Tide pods, Gillette Fusion blade refills, and other P&G products.

I did a quick price comparison for the Bounty and Charmin and got varying results. Before taking into account the promo, the Bounty paper towels listed are priced competitively at $2.81 per “huge” roll vs. $2.74 at Walmart.com and $2.75 at Target.com. If you say the $15 off $50 is 30% off, then after the promo each roll is $1.97 per huge roll. (Supposedly each huge roll is 2.5 regular rolls.)

But a similar comparison for the Charmin toilet paper has it at $0.72 per “double” roll vs. $0.50 at Walmart and $0.58 at Target. After 30% off the Charmin goes back to $0.50 a roll, which isn’t much of a deal. I haven’t done this for the other products, but it might be worth a quick comparison. If you like these brands, this promo will probably still save you some money.

Also, I didn’t factor in that you can currently get an additional 5% back at Amazon with both the Chase Freedom or Discover It cards.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Infographic Map: Cell Phone Taxes By State

Posted on October 13, 2014 // 10 Comments

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation has released a new report on Wireless Taxation in the United States 2014. The average US wireless consumer pays 17% in combined federal, state, and local taxes and fees. Folks in Chicago, Baltimore, Omaha, and New York City have combined tax rates over 25 percent! Here’s their state-by-state map breakdown:

celltaxmap720

They also point out that these effective tax rates are much higher than normal sales tax.

Actionable advice? If your area is subject to high cell phone taxes, it may be better to switch to a prepaid plan rather than the traditional postpaid. I’m not sure exactly how these work, but somehow the taxes are averaged out and baked into the flat price. Note that depending on your area, you may still be subject to a e911 fee and sales tax. You can often bring your own off-contract phone and save even more. Most discount providers now accept phones like the iPhone and Galaxy.

I’ve heard of some people fudging their billing addresses to stay in a low cell tax state, but that may be more expensive or trouble than it is worth.

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Taxes //

Truvia Natural Sweetener Class Action Settlement

Posted on October 13, 2014 // 1 Comment

truviaCargill has settled a lawsuit alleging their Truvia Natural sweeteners were not so “natural” because they contained ingredients that were highly processed and/or derived from genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”) and that the descriptions of the products, and of the ingredients of which these products were made, were inaccurate or misleading. Here are the details from TruviaSweetenerLawsuit.com.

  • The Settlement Class includes all persons who, from July 1, 2008 through July 24, 2014, resided in the US and purchased Truvia products for their personal consumption and not for resale. Includes Truvia Natural Sweetener in packet, spoonable jar, and baking blend forms, of any size or quantity.
  • Depending on how much Truvia you bought or paid for, you may receive up to $45 cash or $90 in Truvia product vouchers. Details on the breakdown here.
  • No proof of purchase is necessary to file a claim. However, the Claim Form must be signed under penalty of perjury affirming that the information provided is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge.

Even if everything goes smoothly the checks for this probably won’t be sent out for another year or more.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

More Research on Buying Experiences vs. Things

Posted on October 9, 2014 // 2 Comments

travelsignpostYou’ve probably heard the advice that you should buy experiences and not things. (Except maybe when things help you experience.) This Atlantic article explores new findings from behavioral research about the differences between experiences and material objects.

With experiences, people are less competitive and worry less about keeping up with the Jones’:

Gilovich’s prior work has shown that experiences tend to make people happier because they are less likely to measure the value of their experiences by comparing them to those of others. For example, Gilbert and company note in their new paper, many people are unsure if they would rather have a high salary that is lower than that of their peers, or a lower salary that is higher than that of their peers. With an experiential good like vacation, that dilemma doesn’t hold. Would you rather have two weeks of vacation when your peers only get one? Or four weeks when your peers get eight? People choose four weeks with little hesitation.

Experiences elicit positive feelings and promote social togetherness rather than creating impatience and worries about scarcity.

Those waiting for experiences were in better moods than those waiting for material goods. “You read these stories about people rioting, pepper-spraying, treating each other badly when they have to wait,” he said. It turns out, those sorts of stories are much more likely to occur when people are waiting to acquire a possession than an experience. When people are waiting to get concert tickets or in line at a new food truck, their moods tend to be much more positive. […]

Research has also found that people tend to be more generous to others when they’ve just thought about an experiential purchase as opposed to a material purchase. They’re also more likely to pursue social activities.

Filed Under: Behavioral Economics, Frugal Living //

Investment Robo-Advisor Comparison Chart

Posted on October 8, 2014 // 4 Comments

Automated portfolio management is the new hotness. In the coming years, I see a continued expansion of players followed by a lot of mergers and acquisitions. ETF.com analyst Elisabeth Kashner has finished her series on robo-advisors with a final comparison of the current field – The Best Robo Advisor … For You . The entire series is interesting for those that care about such things, but here is the final summary chart:

robochart

You may (or may not) be surprised by what she actually picks for her son’s starter portfolio.

Filed Under: Investing //

Baby Gear Reviews: Diaper Pails (Part 4)

Posted on October 7, 2014 // 19 Comments

diaperpailsHere is Part 4 of my series on baby gear, organized in the order of Amazon’s Baby Registry. The entire multi-part series can be found with the Baby Gear tag here. This time I’ll talk about our experiences with diaper pails.

Gotta put the poop somewhere, right? I’ll focus on diaper pails for disposable diapers. Most of them have some sort of mechanism to help prevent stinky odors from escaping the poop bucket. We got a Diaper Genie Elite from our baby registry, which was one of the two recommended by the Baby Bargains book. (The other was the Dekor.)

It works more or less, but like with razors and printers, the bag refills are where they make their profits. Each refill canister is really only 3-4 bags of diapers and they cost $6-$8 each. So essentially you’re paying upwards of $2 for a plastic bag! Compare this with under 10 cents for a kitchen trash bag from Costco. Also, the advertised “count” refers to an imaginary pile of newborn diapers that are vacuum sealed or something because I’ve never fit that many.

Parents have come up a number of ways to frugalize the diaper pail:

  • Wrap up your diapers as tightly as possible.
  • Throw the pee diapers in the regular trash and only the poops in the diaper pail.
  • Don’t waste too much bag when cutting and tying. Make sure you squeeze all the excess air out. Some use scissors instead of the provided cutter. I used to use those wire twist ties from other bags.
  • Use a plain kitchen trash bag wrapped around an empty refill canister. Note that it won’t fit perfectly and we got mixed results.
  • Buy generic refills. Note that Diaper Genie changed their design so they might not fit right anymore on new models. Check it out. Rather lame attempt at keeping their monopoly, in my opinion.
  • When your Diaper Genie bag is full, place a regular trash bag underneath and cut only the bottom knot. Let the diapers all fall into your 10 cent kitchen trash bag and throw that away. If you keep your wrapped diapers clean your refill liners can last 5 times longer or more.

We experimented all these things (with my prodding). In the end, my wife didn’t want to deal with any added hassles and we just buy the overpriced refills at Sam’s Club. I personally throw all the non-stinky diapers that I change straight in the regular the garbage.

  • Verdict: Considering you only fit around 50 diapers max at $2 a bag, that’s 4 cents a diaper which is an additional 20% of the cost of the diaper itself. In the end, you either think the reduced odor and convenience is worth the extra cost (my wife) or think you should just throw your diapers in a regular trash pail and wrap up the stinky poops in an extra plastic bag (me). For what you’ll be paying in refills you could buy a really nice trash can that will last for a long time.
Filed Under: Family, Frugal Living // Tagged: ,

Red Bull Class Action Settlement

Posted on October 7, 2014 // 7 Comments

Red Bull has settled a lawsuit alleging that their marketing and labeling misrepresents both the functionality and safety of Red Bull beverages. The Settlement Class includes all persons who made at least one purchase of Red Bull products in the United States between January 1, 2002 and October 3, 2014. If you are a qualified Settlement Class Member and submit a Claim Form, you may choose one of the following:

  • A cash reimbursement (in the form of a check) of $10.00; or
  • Free Red Bull products (either Red Bull ® Energy Drink or Red Bull ® Sugarfree, as selected on the Claim Form) with a retail value of approximately $15.00 (the “Product Option”). They will mail it to you at their cost.

“No proof of purchase is necessary to obtain settlement benefits. However, the Claim Form must be signed by you under penalty of perjury (either by hand or, if you submit it online, electronically), affirming that you are a qualified member of the Settlement Class and that the information provided therein is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge.”

This is all taken from the official site EnergyDrinkSettlement.com. Checks probably won’t be mailed out until late 2015 at the earliest.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Eat Anything You Want, Just Cook It Yourself

Posted on October 7, 2014 // 9 Comments

Want to learn how to eat well without the need for fad diets or deprivation? This short video narrated by Michael Pollan does a nice job of explaining his simple “just cook” rule:

Found via Farnam Street. Also see my book review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Some other thought-provoking videos on the same RSA channel as well.

It’s now been nearly a month of cooking mostly at home from scratch. With proper planning, the cooking hasn’t been too overwhelming and we are definitely spending less money on food. But I must admit I haven’t lost much weight. The food is so good and new and interesting… I’m eating too much! Hopefully I’ll adapt and perhaps I’m getting healthier in other ways (less salt, preservatives, binders, fillers, etc).

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Recipes //

Money Magazine Best Credit Card Rankings 2014

Posted on October 6, 2014 // 12 Comments

money1410The October 2014 issue of Money Magazine features their annual rankings of the “Best Credit Cards”. Here’s a condensed list of their top picks for various categories. I’ve written about most of them, and in those cases I’m linking to that post which provides more details. Otherwise, I’m linking directly to the card page and including a few highlights about the card.

Best for Balance Transfers (Low, long introductory APR)

  • Chase Slate Card. 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months. No balance transfer fee if you transfer within the first 2 months. No annual fee.

Best for Regular Balance Carriers (Low ongoing APR)

  • Lake Michigan Credit Union Prime Platinum Visa. 6% to 14% APR on balance transfers, starting at Prime + 3% for those with excellent credit. No balance transfer fee. No annual fee.

Best Flat-Rate Cash Back Rewards (Tie)

  • Citi® Double Cash Card. 1% flat back when you swipe, 1% flat when you pay your bill. No limits or tiers. If you redeem rewards via check that is 2% flat cash back, if you redeem via statement credit then it is actually technically 1.99% cash back. Spend $2,000 a month on this Mastercard and get back $480 a year without changing your spending patterns. No annual fee.
  • Fidelity American Express. 2% back with no limit or tiers. Rewards must be deposited into a Fidelity account.

Best For Cash Back on Essentials

Best 5% Cash Back Cards (Tie)

  • US Bank Cash Plus. 5% back on two categories from 12 possible choices, on $2,000 in purchases per quarter. No annual fee. Must apply in physical branch, application is not available online.
  • Chase Freedom. 5% in categories that rotate quarterly, on up to $1,500 in purchases per quarter. $100 sign-up bonus. No annual fee.

Best For Travel Rewards / Traveling Abroad.

Best For Miles Hounds / Best Sign-Up Bonus.

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred. Big upfront sign-up bonus, 2x points on Dining and Travel, Ultimate Rewards points offer flexible transfers to miles, cash, or travel credit.  $0 annual fee first year, then $95.

Best For Hotel Perks.

Best For Small Business Rewards.

  • Chase Ink Cash. Decent sign-up bonus, 5% cash back on up to $25,000 in combined purchases at office supply stores and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services. No annual fee.

Best For Small Business Borrowing.

  • US Bank Business Edge Platinum. 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months, 10% to 18% after that. This is the lowest APR among no annual fee small biz cards. No annual fee.

Best First Card For a College Kid

  • Northwest Federal Credit Union FirstCard. No annual fee. Reports to credit bureaus. Must be a credit union member to apply (can be done for $10).

Best Card For Online Shopping

  • Discover It Card. The ShopDiscover portal offers cash back bonuses of 5% to 20% at select online retailers, which can be redeemed as statement credit. Also has 5% rotating categories. No annual fee.
Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

Backup Hard Drives: Expect Failure and Plan Accordingly

Posted on October 6, 2014 // 14 Comments

In the past month, both of my Western Digital 1 TB external backup hard drives have failed on me. This was pretty disconcerting considering I bought two of them specifically so they could be redundant backups. I was a bit lazy and barely had enough time to transfer my data while the last drive was limping along.

I turns out there isn’t that much data on real-world hard drive failure rates. When searching, many reference this post by online backup site BackBlaze which has owned over 25,000 hard drives (also see their recent update). In both posts, Seagate drives had much higher failure rates than Hitachi or Western Digital. However, other tech experts point out the flaws in drawing that conclusion. Brands don’t matter as much when they keep merging with each other anyway.

Really, the only conclusions I would confidently draw are (1) don’t buy specific “low power consumption” models of Seagate hard drives and (2) expect hard drives to fail on you. Imagine how little can go wrong in order to fit 4 terabytes of information on a little spinning disk. This Backblaze post is the one you should actually read. It cites other studies that say hard drives fail much more often than the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) statistics put out by manufacturers, and it is hard to predict impending failures even with regular hard drive checks. Here is a chart showing that hard drives tend to fail either within the first year, or after 3 years.

hdfail_bb2

Here is a chart of survival rates over time.

hdfail_bb

That’s roughly 1 in 5 drives failing within 4 years, and maybe half will fail within 6 years. That starts to make a service like Crashplan at $60 a year more palatable.

In the end, Backblaze still buys Seagate drives because their cheaper price more than offsets any expected unreliability. Perhaps that is what consumers should do as well. Forget brands, buy whatever is cheapest, keep redundant backups in expectation of failure, and save your receipts. Of course, hard drive warranties keep getting shorter and are now usually only a year long (perhaps an admission of their unreliability?). Here’s my plan:

  • Purchase with an American Express that offers their Extended Warranty which will double the manufacturer’s warranty, up to one year.
  • Purchase from Costco whatever is on sale, due to their generous return policy. While even 90 days is relatively good, but I also do not see hard drives included explicitly in their 90-day electronics return policy – “We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell with a full refund. The following must be returned within 90 days of purchase for a refund: televisions, projectors, computers, cameras, camcorders, touchscreen tablets, MP3 players and cellular phones.” Do accessories count?
  • Keep my important documents and family pictures on multiple formats (cloud, flash drives, multiple hard drives).
Filed Under: Frugal Living //

Everyone’s So Busy. Where Does All The Time Go?

Posted on October 2, 2014 // 10 Comments

stopwatch2In the provocatively-titled article How Everything We Tell Ourselves About How Busy We Are Is A Lie, the writer interviews the director of the Americans’ Use of Time Project and takes data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Here is my condensed version:

  • The average American works an average of 7.55 hours per day.
  • When comparing detailed time diaries with just asking people for a number, people tended to overestimate their work hours by 5% to 10%.
  • The average American sleeps an average of 8.75 hours per day.
  • On an average day, women spend 2 hours and 10 minutes doing housework, while men spend 1 hour and 17 minutes. That’s roughly a 60/40 ratio.
  • Most people have over 40 hours of free time per week.
  • Watching television takes up 50% of that free time.

Basically, we may feel more busy, but actually have more free time than folks from 40 years ago. Half that free time is used to watch TV.

I suppose the takeaway here is that our perceptions may differ from reality. If we tracked our activities in a time diary, we’d might discover some new things about our own schedules and habits. Perhaps we should all try to carve out an hour each day to work for ourselves.

Alternatively, I’d like to figure out how to really enjoy my free time without half my mind worrying about other stuff. So far, playing sports and swimming with my babies has been the most effective.

Filed Under: Time Management //

Feel Like You’re Always Eating Out? You’re Not Alone.

Posted on October 2, 2014 // 6 Comments

Here are some charts illustrating a couple of interesting food trends in the US.

Americans are spending a smaller percentage of their income on food than ever. From America’s Shrinking Grocery Bill:

In 1984, the average U.S. household spent 16.8 percent of its annual post-tax income on food. By 2011, Americans spent only 11.2 percent. The U.S. devotes less of its income to food than any other country—half as much as households in France and one-fourth of those in India.

shrinking700

But you see that big orange slice of the chart?

We are also spending a larger percentage of our food budget on food prepared away from home than ever. From Cheap Eats: How America Spends Money on Food:

foodathome

Looking at the chart, it seems like only a matter of time before we eat out more often than we eat in.

Our peak period of eating out was after the birth of our first child. It felt like we were whipping out the binder of take-out menus nearly every day. More recently, we completed the Dinner Boot Camp which contained a week-long plan for easy home dinners, and since then we’re on our 4th consecutive week of cooking dinner (and the following day’s lunch) at home at least 5 times a week. It’ll be hard to keep up, but doing a bit of planning before every week really does go a long way.

Filed Under: Budgeting, Frugal Living //
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