Saving money

So maybe CFLs burning out a little early isn’t entirely bad?

Dave Farquhar Saving money ,

I was out buying toilet parts today (more on that in a minute–I’m sure you’re thrilled), and while I was there, I looked at light bulbs. I needed a few. And I noticed something. The 40W equivalent CFLs use 9 watts today. The same as LEDs. So I bought a package of (4) CFLs for $1.85. The local utility subsidizes CFLs, since it’s cheaper to buy all its customers CFLs than it is to build new power plants.

I got home and checked one of my 40W equivalents that I’ve had for a while. 13 watts.

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CFL bulbs and longevity

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , ,

Today the Consumerist linked to a report that CFLs burn out faster than expected.

That’s probably right. But not all CFLs are created equal, so if you have a bad string of luck with one brand, try changing brands.

I also think that CFLs are more sensitive to bad power than conventional bulbs are. Or maybe we just care more when a CFL burns out.
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Thrift-store PCs

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the comments of a recent post I did, reader Glaurung Quena brought up a good topic: secondhand PCs, acquired cheaply, strictly as rebuild fodder.

I like the idea, of course, because I’ve been doing it for years. In the 1990s I built a lot of 486s and Pentiums into former IBM PC/ATs, basically until all the board makers relocated the memory slots into a position that wasn’t clear on the original PC/AT due to a beam that supported its drive bays. And of course the adoption of ATX and MicroATX killed that, at least for a while.

But now ATX has been around as long as the old AT architecture had been when ATX came along, and efforts to replace ATX haven’t been successful. So that trick makes more sense again. Buy a secondhand machine cheaply, intending to re-use the case, and regard anything else inside that happens to be reusable strictly as a bonus. Read more

Bubble wrap as cheap window insulation

Dave Farquhar Saving money

Need a cheap way to keep your house warmer?

I’ve been using shrink film on my windows for years. It’s effective. It’s a little expensive and it takes a while to do, but it works. But today I read something that should work nearly as well and be cheaper: Use bubble wrap. Read more

Secret weapon of the day: music wire

Dave Farquhar General, Saving money ,

The secret weapon of the day is music wire, also sometimes called piano wire. It is a super stiff, hardened steel wire, available in diameters ranging from .006 inches to .192 inches, a range that starts out smaller than a #80 drill, and ends at the approximate size of a #10 drill.
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How to fix modern plastic toys

Dave Farquhar Saving money
How to fix modern plastic toys

Yesterday my son handed me a piece of broken toy train track. Last night I fixed it. At first I figured it would be easy–wood’s just a matter of gluing and clamping. But this one had a funky plastic connector. I got a lesson in how to fix modern plastic toys, and the best glue for plastic.

The plastics used in today’s toys are less brittle and arguably stronger than the polystyrene they used when I was a kid. The downside is that when they do break, it’s a lot harder to glue them. Normal super glues won’t work well, and the plastic cements for gluing model kits together–my old secret weapon–won’t work at all.
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Are Black Friday computers a good deal?

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money , , , , ,

Black Friday is going to be here before we know it. And historically, that’s been a good day to snag a deal on consumer electronics. But does that hold for computers?

I’ve studied many Black Friday computers–I have two Black Friday specials from years’ past sitting in the basement as I write–and I have to say that when it comes to those, you’re getting what you pay for. Yes, they cost less than computers from September and October. But there’s a good reason for it. Read more

Unfinished thoughts from yesterday

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , ,

I talked yesterday about what I did about my debt and why I have the attitude I have, but I didn’t talk about how to get started. Read more

Just because you can afford it now…

Dave Farquhar Christianity, Saving money , ,

Today, the sermon at church was based mostly on Nehemiah 5. Nehemiah 5 talks about the ruinous financial situation of the children of Israel at the time the book was written. Check out Nehemiah 5:4-5.

“We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

In other words, in order to pay their bills, some had resorted to selling their children into slavery. Sadly, some Americans find themselves in that situation today. Or close to it. At least it’s uncommon enough that we’re offended when we hear about it. Read more

LED night lights

Dave Farquhar Saving money , ,

With two young kids, we find ourselves fumbling around in the kitchen at night more than just occasionally. At some point, we turned to flipping the microwave’s night light on.Which was fine, except I found that one of its settings uses 30 watts, the other 60, and more often than not, that light stays lit 24/7. That’s more power than I want to leave on full time. LED night lights solve that problem neatly. Read more