Tag Archives: money

Baggage fees

Posted on December 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

So I’m checking out flight prices for a trip, baggage fees are always interesting. The flights that I’m looking at allow me to take two 70 pound bags down for free, but only allow me to bring on 50 pounds back for free.

baggage-fees.png

That’s a different carrier on the way back, but it’s all booked through the same airline. Even if I pay $40 for the second bag, I can still only bring back 100 pounds in my two bags.

I would never need more than 100 pounds, I’m just saying. Maxing out a pound bag on the way down is pretty easy for me, so I might need two on the way back since I only get 50 pounds for the first bag. But booking it that way looks like it’ll save me just over $100 so paying for the second bag certainly works out.

The airlines I was looking at weren’t too bad for luggage costs, but when you look at some airlines (Spirit) they give you no bags, how can you possibly go to another country for two weeks and not take any bags?!?

International flights used to always give me two bags (at least on the airlines I flew) so if I happened to go over the weight of the first bag I’d take a second smaller bag that actually fit in the first bag. I’d separate them to fly, but then combine them at the destination and I’d only roll around one bag. These days I’m taking a lot less books on a trip since I just take my Kindle with me although I still take one paperback to read during takeoff since they don’t like you to have electronics on; I know that rule is changing, but if I don’t know in advance for sure, I still have to be prepared…

Later: The more I think about it, 70 pounds seems to be a lot. Maybe 50 pounds is what used to be normal and I’m actually getting just getting extra in both bags on the way down?

More later: It turns out the two 70 pound bags on the way down were due to those seats being first/business class. I was shopping with points and didn’t really notice that it was that much of point difference.

Leave a comment

Tagged ,

Electronic Arts games HUGE Thanksgiving sale! Scrabble, Monopoly, Boggle and more for the iPhone and iPad for only 99 cents

Posted on November 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Many Electronic Arts games are way on sale today. Their annual Thanksgiving sale seems to be the best year round, it may last throughout the weekend; no promises for how long it will last, so get them before it runs out. scrabble-badge-notification.png
I listed some of the most popular ones that are $0.99, these games go on sale occasionally but never cheaper than this. Scrabble for iPad is often between $4.99 and $9.99, so 99 cents is a great deal.

Personally, my favorite is Scrabble, which will connect to Facebook play against the computer or you can play multi-player and use other iPads, iPhones or iPod touches as tile racks, local network play and it supports GameCenter (but I’m not sure how that part works). I occasionally pull out Boggle too, which is way easier to play than in real life since it knows if the odd words are actually words. The classic game SimCity (the Sim before all others!) is pretty great too!

I see Scrabble for Kindle is 99 cents, they might be on sale for your Android devices too, so check out your on-line store.

I own many of them but the only ones that have gotten a real bit of play is: Scrabble, Boggle, Lemonade Tycoon and SimCity.

What Electronic Arts games do you play?

Leave a comment

Posted in App Store

Tagged , , , ,

Buying bulk food at CostCo for the lone shopper

Posted on July 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

I live alone, so buying in bulk at CostCo is tricky sometimes. If I eat it all, it’s generally a big value but what if I don’t eat it all? Costco_Logo.gifI see some people at the store saying “I won’t eat all 36 eggs before the expire” but I ask, but are you saving money even if you only eat 24 of them and throw the rest away. Personally, I hate to be wasteful but paying more for less eggs somewhere else is also wasteful.

In case you don’t know, CostCo is a bulk warehouse of food (and many other non-bulk items) similar to Sam’s Club or BJ’s warehouse.

Since you asked (you were going to ask, right?) these are my staples at CostCo.

Regular Food:
EXTRA LARGE EGGS, you have to buy 36 eggs at a time, I eat one egg a day, so sometimes the dates work out close for me, but generally I don’t get to eat them all. But even if I don’t eat all of them as long as I eat at least 24, I’m generally saving money. Since they have the date, I know how many I’ll have left near the end, so I can drop those off (in advance) at Mom’s when I visit.

WATER the 16 ounce bottles are the same price as the 8 ounce bottles (sometimes cheaper). Why would any one buy the 8 ounce bottles (water is actually good for you). Water lasts a long while and I drink a lot. The generic brand is almost always cheaper than anywhere else. To be clear: at home I drink water from the fridge, the bottled water is just to take with me on the go (I actually leave it in the garage); I know I should use reusable bottles, but that’s money and time so I think I’d end up drinking less water and more soda.

BANANAS they have a huge bag at a good price, I don’t always get through them all, but value-wise I think it works out. Regardless, I eat more of them because of that and fruit is good for me!

MICROWAVE BACON, I have two pieces a day and the date is generally months in advance. There is incredible savings in the larger packaging on this. Sometimes you can find good sales at regular grocery stores but these are really good prices (and large pieces of bacon).

LUNCH MEAT, I get the Hillshire Farms brand but I have to get 3 pounds of it! The date is usually in the future aways and the 3 different flavors are in 3 different 1 lb. bags. In the summer months I usually eat it all (I always pack a sandwich to take biking, hiking, blading or reading) and it’s a huge savings. But other times, even if I only eat about 2 pounds, I think I at least break even.

BUTTER, I put in the freezer so it lasts forever.

ORANGE JUICE I drink (at least) one big glass a day so I have no problems. I buy the Tropicana (4 ½ gallons) so it’s about the price of an average sale (but way better than non-sale prices). If they’re way on sale at a local grocery, I stock up there.

BREADS and BUNS for the above sandwiches, I buy and put in the freezer then I pull out 3 or 4 at a time and put in a zip lock bag.

MILK, I only have to buy a gallon and it’s generally a great price (or an okay price), I usually get this here.

CEREAL, I get it every so often, but I’m generally disappointed, it seems more crushed than smaller boxes, I break even I think, but I’m disappointed so I don’t often get them.

The Costco Experience, Revised and Updated Edition Larry GerstonSnacks:
SUN CHIPS has 30 bags in a case and is usually good for 6-8 weeks (and will last much longer than that). Good value for me generally any time of year (but I eat more of them in the summer). It seems like they have these on sale (CostCo coupon) a few times a year.

TRAIL MIX (asst. nuts, M&Ms and raisins) has really good dates, but the price on these have really gone up. I thought they used to be in the 40-50 cent (each) range and a few months ago I noticed they were 55 cents and a few weeks ago they were 65 cents each! I passed last time, but I really miss them, I might cave on these next week. These would be a better value for me if there were 24 smaller bags in there instead of 18 larger ones…

WELCH’s CHEWY FRUIT SNACKS in the tiny bags, (I don’t know the actual name of these). These are hugely cheap and have a huge quantity and are way cheaper than at the grocery store. I like them a lot (sometimes I eat two or three), a few friends like them, but my mother thinks they’re awful!

RICE CRISPY TREATS is one I occasionally get. They last forever. A decent value. If they’re on special (CostCo coupon) it’s a great value.

Lunch:
While I’m there, I’ll get lunch. Usually a bottomless Coca-Cola and a hotdog (great value, but the hot dogs are a little boring there) or a large slice of pizza and a coke (grab some extra napkins to dab off the grease).

I get a variety of other things at CostCo, but these (and gasoline) are what pay for my membership.

This post started as a really long (slightly off topic) comment over at The Simple Dollar so I turned it into a longer post and posted it here instead.

Leave a comment

Posted in food + drink

Tagged , , , ,

Selling on eBay in 10 easy steps

Posted on May 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Selling on-line through eBay is easy and (at the same time) challenging. It’s slightly addicting and euphoric when people bid and you make a sale. I was at a comic convention and some stuff I had I couldn’t sell (my target audience is right there) no matter how low I made the price, but on eBay I’ve sold more than a few for more that the same price at the convention. Setting it on a table with a sticker is way easier than photographing it a posting it on-line and then wrapping it and shipping it (and collectables are harder to wrap).

eBay For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Marsha CollierI sold some used 5 Finger shoes for close to what I paid for them (originally on sale), they were in great shape (almost new) but I just didn’t like the way they felt compared to my four other pairs; I sold a well worn pair too, much more than I thought I’d get for them. Stuff I think should sell high, sells low (or not at all), stuff I think won’t sell get snatched up in ten minutes some times (wished I’d made that buy it now price higher). If possible I post extra pictures (if free) and tell why I’m selling it.

If you’ve never shopped on eBay, go buy something, anything; get a spare charging cable for your iDevice or cell phone. Then come back here. Why? Because you need to understand the buyers end of the transaction. Plus, to buy something you need an eBay account and a PayPal account and if you have those set up then I don’t need to explain that part…

It’s easy to sell:

  1. Take a picture, make the item take up most of the photo (or crop it if you know how). Some items let you post more than one picture for free (generally collectables?).
  2. Write a single line title (mot categories charge you for more than one line).
  3. Pick a starting price. Most people say start at a penny, and I understand the logic (more bids makes an object look more desirable) but if it’s an odd item and no one is looking for it…
  4. Pick a buy it now price. If they don’t want to bid they can buy it now for this price (FYI, you pay a slightly higher price if they chose buy it now).
  5. How long is the auction for? Pick 7 days (10 usually costs more).
  6. Write a short description. I say make it a bigger font and center it and use a few colors. Presentation is everything!
  7. Pick a price for shipping, for your first few: if it’s heavy (up to 6 pounds put $8-$10), if it’s light (less than a pound) put $4-6; you’re learning if you lose a few dollars on the first few, not a big deal, right?
  8. Pick where you’ll ship to. This is important, who knows what shipping costs to Timbuktu (yes, it’s a real place), narrow it to the continental 48 states for the few few.
  9. Make sure your additional charges are $0.00 then submit it (then submit again not he next page).
  10. Wait.

It seems like until someone bids on it you can revise it. Sometimes (maybe if people are “watching” it) you can’t revise the title. Even if someone bids on it, you can revise it, but it appears appended at the end of your description.

An eBay item end time is set the instant you publish it (for the number of days you select). If it’s an auction, don’t end it at 3 AM, a lot of the bidding happens in the end few hours. I try to end my auctions during the work days (3 or 4 PM Eastern) or in the evenings on the weekend (Sunday evening seems to be a big time) or even on a week night (I seem to sell a lot of buy it now items on weeknights). But I like to make the ending time be when a good portion of the country is at home or still at work, not during that travel time. For 10 cents you can delay the publish time to be a time of your choosing (I use this occasionally, it’s 2 am and I’m ambitious, I’ll post these to not go up until the afternoon of the next day.

eBay 101: Selling on eBay For Part-time or Full-time Income Steve WeberIf after a few days no one is bidding, consider lowering the start bidding price and the buy it now price. Or look around and see what other people selling are charging or what they’re saying in the description.

What does it cost to sell on eBay? If it’s an auction, it’s 9%. If it’s a fixed price (or buy it now?) it depends on the category, they take 7%-13%. eBay motors is probably different, but you’re not going to sell a car as your first item are you? You also get charged around 3% for the credit card transaction via PayPal. So 10%-16%. If you sell more than 50 items in a month, there might be some small fees just to list an item with buy it now, but you haven’t sold anything yet, so don’t worry about that.

Every so often they have (1-3 day) specials for listing fixed price for free or adding buy it now to auctions for free. It seems like it’s towards the end of the month, but not always.

And I think there is a limit of 100 items per month to sell (or $5000) but what you do to expand that, I’m not sure. I haven’t had that “problem” yet.

Books, DVDs and CDs are a whole different animal, I’ve sold a few, but it’s barely worth it. There are a million people selling these exact items and there really isn’t much of a difference between them. I think the people who are making money on these have thousands of items for sale and make their money by quantity. I’ve made more money on a used pair of $50 shoes than on a half-dozen new (still shrink wrapped) DVDs. I’m not saying don’t try it, I’m just saying don’t make it your first item.

Leave a comment

Tagged , , ,

It’s time to get rid of the US penny, they are a waste of money and time…

Posted on April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

The penny costs to much to make and it uses too much time to spend them. Plus, what can you buy with a penny? I’m not even sure what you can buy for five pennies theses days, so occasionally I’ll take a jab at the nickel too (maybe).lincoln-penny.png

I’m going to mention this every so often, why? Because it’s interesting to me and hopefully you’ll think so too. According to this video, it’s 1.8 cents to make a penny (how counter-productive is that?) and I’ve heard numbers higher that that. I don’t think any machines even take pennies. Although, I did hear in a West Wing episode that toll booths in Illinois will take them.

old-penny.pngFYI, individual items wouldn’t be rounded to the nearest nickel, just your final total.

Watch the video, the theme is “Why Pennies are economically inefficient and should be abolished”, the guy who made it makes fun ones and he’s got some surprising points later on towards the end.


Watch the Death of a Penny video in YouTube.

Please note that at 52 seconds in, he says we make 4 million pennies a year, but in the text on the screen he corrects it and says billion.

He makes some interesting points. Personally, I don’t carry change on me. I keep it in the car and generally use it for parking meters and if I’m getting a 99 cent or $1 item at the drive through. They’ll get mostly dimes and nickels and 9 or 10 pennies to help me get rid of them.

Leave a comment

Posted in general

Tagged , , ,

Saving money on your AT&T cell phone bill when traveling internationally

Posted on November 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Having a phone that works internationally is great in case of an emergency. The problem is that when you’re in another country calls are $2.29 to and from the United States, even if you don’t answer the phone, you’re billed for as long as it rings. I found this out a few trips ago, I only avoided the charges when I could show my chat transcript that indicated I was trying to disable everything and not pay anything.

att-logo.jpgDisclaimer: The tips below are not for someone who wants to make a lot of calls and be reachable at all times, they’re for the person who can wait until later to return the calls. Also, I do not work for AT&T, this is how I do it and it appears to work for me, billing terms may change. You are responsible for verifying that everything works this way for your account! None of this requires any hacking or jail breaking to do these things, I have a free Google Voice account set up (it’s sort of like Skype) and it’s set to forward my phone calls to my cell number.

Texting – On AT&T I receive texts internationally for free, I can send back to the United States for 50 cents (I’ve never tried to send from another country to the country I’m in, I’ll check that next trip). If I want to reply to a text it’s 50 cents but if I want to send a photo with the text, I believe it starts to use data and you’ll be billed for it (probably the same applies if someone sends you a photo). If I need to text someone in the US, I pay the 50 cents or I find WiFi location and use Google Voice to send and receive texts (it’s like a chat at this point), I can use the iPhone App or the Google web site. If I miss a sent Google Voice text message, it forwards it to my e-mail (so I always tell people to initiate a chat via my actual cell phone number).

Phone calls – Before I even leave the US, I turn off my 3g data and forward my AT&T calls to Google Voice (I do this from the iPhone settings), so my calls never even get sent out of the country. Google Voice is smart enough to not forward it back to my cell if someone calls, it just dumps them into GV voice mail. This way I can carry a working phone with me and if I have an emergency I can make a call.

google-voice.jpgIf someone calls, GV will e-mail and text me the message (with text recognition transcription) so I know they called and if it’s a good transcription, I even know the topic. Then I can decide if I need to work my way to somewhere with WiFi or make a $2.29 a minute call on my phone. Otherwise, I just check the voicemail the next time I’m on the computer or have Wifi on my iPhone or computer (with Skype or GV). From outside the country to call the United States or Canada, GV charges 2 cents plus a penny a minute (I pay Skype $3 a month for unlimited calling to the US from anywhere).

Data – AT&T significantly dropped their international roaming data plan charges this past summer, I might give a small package a try on my next trip. Don’t forget Onavo can save you money on your data plan.

Leave a comment

Tagged , , , , , ,

1,000 free minutes for AT&T

Posted on August 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

1,000 FREE rollover minutesAT&T customers can get 1,000 FREE rollover minutes by texting YES to 11113020. It’s that simple!

As you can see I’ve already gotten my response. This is the same number they used for a similar promo earlier this year, I did it then and those minutes did show up in my account.

With my mobile-to-mobile and A-List plan, I’m actually still using those minutes…

I just saw this on another site:

Note: Readers report intermittent success redeeming this promotion. Some claim that you must have unlimited messaging to qualify. Also, it is unclear if people who previously redeemed this promotion can do so again.

But by this point hopefully you’ve just tried, it costs only a text message to try…

Leave a comment

Tagged , , , ,

HP Touchpads for 99 dollars!!

Posted on August 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yes, I know it’s not an iPad but it’s a Kindle, a video Skype Phone, a clock(!) or a variety of other things. Once they crack it and put android on it, I’ll probably wish I’d bought the bigger one. These were actually nice tablets at $500, but they weren’t an iPad, but for $99 it’ll do.

As you can see, I’ve redacted most of the information below because it changes so quickly. I expect all vendors will be dropping price, keep your eyes on SlickDeals.net, if you scroll down you can see they are even keeping a list of who has them at full price (because they’ll be dropping).

Their servers are getting nailed so be patient. Just click to order and wait until it times out, then try again…

Barnes and Nobel has 16 GB for $101.95 as of 6am Eastern (but they still want $600 for the 32 GB). I’d order one, but I haven’t gotten a rejection letter from my CostCentral order (that I’m guessing was sold out).

Cost Central has the 16 GB for $99 and the 32 GB for $149. hptouchpad.jpg

As of 10 PM eastern Cost Central had 10,000 of the 32 GB and 7,000 of the 16 GB (this is listed on the product pages). It was $9 for shipping (that may vary) and probably no sales tax for 49 out of 50 states.

These were on Amazon Sunday for the same pricing and I spent too much time researching it before purchased it and they sold out (I guess HP had them for that price earlier). So I had a little regret about it, but then I saw these. Even if I get a rejected order message, I’m sure the other places that have them still at $500+ will be dropping prices, so keep your eyes on that SlickDeals link above, they’ll keep it updated with who has it in stock.

You can get Touchpad specs and overview at the HP Site.

Supposedly PCmall and MacMall have them, but their sites are even hit worse, 32GB or 16 GB.

In case you are wondering why the price is so low: HP is spinning off it’s hardware business and discontinuing the mobile / tablet (hardware) business. I think these devices just came out in July 2011.

UPDATE: I actually ordered these from two places, the one canceled after a week, the other still says it’s expecting a shipment (but I’m not sure from where at this point). So it looks like I’m not getting one…

UPDATE 2: Early November, the second company sadly canceled my order. Looks like it’s time for a Kindle Fire!

Leave a comment

Tagged , , ,