Andy Hough

Save Money by Living in a Middle Apartment

by

We just got our electric bill for the month of February and I was pleased to see that it was only $61.  Although February was pretty cold we rarely had to use our heat.  We turned off our heat in the middle of February and our inside temperature has rarely been below 70 degrees even though there have been plenty of below freezing days.  My guess is that we are getting a lot of free heat from the neighboring apartments.

We also benefit from fairly cheap electricity rates.  This bill was based on usage of 728 kWh.  According to the Department of Energy the average residential household used 920 kWh per month in 2008.  We aren’t that much below the national average by kWh but I’d guess we are farther below by amount paid.  I’m hoping we can get the energy usage down more this month.

Giving up Soda and TV for Lent

by

I’m not Catholic but I’m willing to use a religious practice for my own benefit.  My wife and I are giving up TV for Lent.  I am giving up soda as well.  I don’t think giving up TV will be a problem at all since football season is over.  There are current TV programs that I like but none of them are ones I can’t miss.  I’m hoping that giving up TV will lead to an increase in productivity although past experiences would indicate otherwise.  In the past when I didn’t watch TV I just spent more time surfing the internet and reading books.  I’m instituting some others to be less lazy so maybe this time will be different.

Giving up soda will be more difficult. This is not something I have had much success with in the past.  I did go without soda for six days last month without too much difficulty.  My main substitute for soda is sweet tea.  With all the sugar and caffeine in the tea I’m drinking there won’t be much benefit to it compared to drinking soda.   I do get tired of drinking tea quicker though so that should eventually lead to less consumption of sugary beverages and more consumption of water.  I’m hoping that giving up soda will lead to some weight loss and possibly better sleep.

Even if I don’t gain much from giving up these two items I still think this is a worthwhile endeavor.  It is good to see if I can practice some self-discipline on occasion.

Dropbox: Free Online Backup

by

I just discovered Dropbox a couple months ago.  I was looking for free backup for my computer and read someone’s blog that mentioned they were using Dropbox.  Since they give you 2GB of free online backup I decided to give it a try.  The service has been working great for me.  After installing Dropbox I just drug the files and folders I wanted to backup to the Dropbox folder.  This made them available both on my computer and online at the Dropbox website.  The feature I like even more is the ability to sync files between my two laptops.  Now it doesn’t matter if I am using my computer or my wife’s computer, since I have Dropbox installed on both I can access all my documents from either computer.  This is helpful when I am scanning documents for my wife.  I scan them on computer and then put them in the Dropbox and my wife has the files she needs on her computer.  Before I would have had to save them to a USB drive and then take that drive to the other computer and download the needed files off the  drive.  Dropbox is much easier.  Also, as long as I’m connected to the internet my files are automatically backed up when I save them to Dropbox or when I edit them in the Dropbox folder.

This is not a paid post and does not contain any affiliate links.  They do provide me some incentive for referring new people to Dropbox though.  Currently for everyone you refer who joins and installs Dropbox, they will give you both 250 MB of bonus space (up to a limit of 8 GB).  If you are interested in Dropbox please use my Dropbox referral link.

 

The Car Sleeping Experiment

by

The medical study I am currently participating in requires me to check in Monday through Thursday morning during study periods.  The study is in St. Louis which is about 3 1/2 hours from where I live.  This means that I need to get a motel room in St. Louis when I have an early morning check in the next day.  Driving from St. Louis to my home and back would cost more in gas than a motel room would.  The cost of a motel is reducing my profit from the study.  I thought a good way to reduce my motel expenses would be to just sleep in my car for one night.

I do have some experience in sleeping in cars.  In my old Toyota I took out the top part of the back seat.  This allowed me to put my legs in the trunk and my torso on the back seat which was a reasonably comfortable sleeping position.  I slept in the car several nights while a friend and I were doing some key swap hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

I figured if I could sleep in my small Corolla I ought to be able to sleep in my larger Camry.  The sleeping in my Camry experiment turned out to be a failure.  I couldn’t get into a comfortable sleeping position in my car.  Just laying on the back seat didn’t give me enough room to stretch out my legs.  Folding down the back seat so I could put my legs in the trunk gave me just enough leg room. The back seat doesn’t fold down all the way flat though leaving my upper torso at an angle that was not conducive to sleep.  If I could have gotten comfortable I think the car sleeping experiment could have worked.  I had a spot where I felt I would be safe and not bothered.  I was able to rig a sheet up from the back window to the front sheets so people couldn’t look in and see me.   I had security and privacy but I just wasn’t able to get comfortable enough to sleep.

I’ll have one more set of Monday-Thursday visits in a couple of weeks.  I have a different, less radical, experiment to save on motel costs that I will try that time.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

January Income – $1833.24

by

It is rather late since it is already March but here is a breakdown of my income for January.  I’ll get February’s figures up next week.

Online Income

$975.18

Interest

$23.09

Stock Dividends

$111.94

Mystery Shops

$354.17

Survey/Cashback

$17.79

Job

$351.07

Total

$1833.24

It was a pretty good month for income.  Online income would have been over $1000 but I had some expenses.  I did well on mystery shopping and I had some job income as well. Although it is nice to see most of the income is alternative income and passive income. Mystery shopping was down for February and I didn’t have a job so my February income will be lower but it should still be decent.