Money Matters

So T-Mobile, my cell phone provider, has changed the way they do their rates... For the better! I am so happy because they got rid of their normal contract system and are doing a reduced rate for the same services. The catch? There is no more discounted rates for phones.

Instead, you pay a portion down on the phone, then a monthly amount gets added to your bill each month. If you do it right when you upgrade your device, you can still save quite a bit of money though. You also don't have to wait the entire length of the term to pay off the device. If you have more money one month, you can put extra towards the device, and then make the remaining monthly lower!

So here is what I did: Currently I have a family plan on T-Mobile with three lines (Getting rid of one of them in another 8 days... current contracts are in effect for that duration at least, then poof!) for $160 per month. That was getting me 3 lines with Unlimited Talk and Text, and 2GB full speed Data. The new plan is as follows (In a few days) Unlimited Talk, Text and 2GB Data for 2 devices: $80 (Because of discounts already in place instead of $100). From there, add $10 for an additional 2GB data for one line, and expanding entire WiFi/USB tethering to 4.5GB (They include 500Mb in their plans by default now).

So Right now, $90/Month. $50 for one line, $40 for secondary line.  I just picked up the Samsung Note 2 on Wednesday for $200, and a bluetooth keyboard for it for $40.00. The phone adds $20 per month on the primary line. Now we are at $70 and $40 per month ($110). Overall savings per month: $40.

Granted, On the main line I only every average about 500 Mb on my phone because I live in an EDGE area (2G Antennas), so why pay an extra $10/mo for tethering? Because where I do programming. Where I do programming is a 4G area which should be getting LTE within the next year or so. As is I average about 8 Mbps with my phone. Currently I pay $50 per month for CLEAR wireless 4G, which I get capped at 6 Mbps and average about 4GB usage each month anyway.

I tested the Tethering capability and it was amazing! I was averaging about 6.5 Mbps tethering, and was able to do everything that I needed to for work, so there is no reason to keep CLEAR! Additional Savings: $50 per month.

So Now I save $90 per month. If I skip out on buying my humungo coffee every day to just one day a week, I can save an additional $75 a month. Do this for even 2 months and I will have completely offset the initial cost to get the good savings, so in 2 months that $90 is pure savings!

But wait! There’s More! I am already used to paying the increased amount per month. So if I don’t change my spending at all and instead put the $90 per month towards my new phone, then I would have the phone payed off fully in 6 months. At this point my T-Mobile bill will drop to $90 overall, and bring my monthly savings up to $110 per month, or $1320 per year! Well, $600 anyway after you take out the initial $240 that I payed for the phone and keyboard, then $1320 after that per year.

Technically I didn’t need to get a new phone, but my current one, the LG G2X did not get the best signal. I only got 3 Mbps max when I was working, and could not connect to my database connection easily. For $240 I am willing to get a better signal.

This is good, because I have a feeling that without roommates, I will need to get a gardner again since it is a bit hard to mow the lawn from the wheelchair. That usually runs $150 per month. Only from May through October though. So I am still in the black about $400 after the first year. The first year I am in the red by about $300 for this set of expenses. (I could always offset more by making my own coffee at the office, instead of my $6.00 lattes... I usually spend about $100 on coffee drinks and know I can get that down to about $15 if I make my own... stupid coffee vice.)

Well,  I haven't done anything major yet, but I have managed to get my electric bill down to $38 last month! Granted, I no longer have roomates, but I was very happy to see this. The same month, my natural gas bill was $87. So Overall $125! Not bad for a winter month at all! My usual natural gas bill had been averaging about $110-$120 by itself!

Been working on trying to be more efficient with how I use the power that I need.  Granted at $38/mo, I am not using a lot, but I know that there is more I could be doing! I don't have any solar yet, My fridge is 4x larger than I need when it is just me at my house, and there are other small things as well. Ideally, I would like to get electric down to $25/mo, and Natural Gas to about the same on average for the year.

I still don't have a rain barrel set up. Last year I played a little bit with the timer settings for my irrigation system, as well as fixed a leak in one of the sprinkler pipes that was basically throwing away $$. I am still averaging about $80/mo on water, but if I could impliment a rainwater solution for the lawn, I could get that monthly average down to $50 or so.

Last is garbage/recycling/yard debris. That is currently $25/mo on average because I have the larger bins (Even though I don't make use of them all the time). I have been playing with some alternate fuel sources like biomass bricks out of shredded paper to use in a rocket stove. That should help turn one recycled matter into something that is directly useful, especially during the summer, and would offset the natural gas cost even more when cooking! with all the shredded envelopes and papers I could literally use a rocket stove for a few months every day to keep water boiling! (Being paper matter and not knowing the ink source used on some papers, I wouldn't use it to cook food directly, but I would use it to heat up a cast iron pan or pot.)

Overall I have been happy with how much I have been able to reduce my at-home carbon footprint, but I know there is more I can do. I have even been looking at a hybrid car for my next vehicle (I genearlly need a van because of the wheelchair, but if I must I will get a car and just hoist the wheelchair in) and then use the van for family events or when a larger load-area is needed.

Well, that is mostly all for now. Things are calming down so I should be able to get more on here more often.

I love salsa! Homemade salsa with fresh ingredients is even better!

My salsa though, is not chunky... It is more smooth.

Simple Salsa Recipe:

1 Medium Tomato, 1 small white onion, 4 small cloves of garlic (NOT 4 WHOLE HEADS), 2-4 small peppers of your choice for flavor, dash of either a chili hot sauce or a dash of a mix of chili-powder and cyanne pepper.

To mix it all together, I am lucky enough to have a small handheld Cuisine Art Food Processor. You can use a blender, Magic Bullet, etc to blend yours together. Blend to desired consistency. As I mentioned, mine is usually pretty fine, which makes it great on top of things as a spread.

In particular: Baked Potato. Use the salsa and forgo the salt, pepper and butter. Delicious!

So yesterday I mentioned that I had made a couple burlap bags for produce. I made one more bag with some slight modifications to make it a handy grocery backpack for the wheelchair, but it is also a good produce drawstring bag. These ones take a little longer to make because I use yarn for the thread for incredible strength, but it is well worth it.

One bag takes me about 3 hrs to make just the main portion of the bag. The drawstring took about an hour because I wanted to hand-weave a cord, but I could just as easily use a shoelace.

The nice thing with this bag for shopping is that it rolls up very small so it is easy to store.

Last week, Portland OR passed the plastic bag ban for major companies in the area. While I love the ease of use of the plastic bags because of the wheelchair, I understand the impact that they have on equipment when they are not disposed of properly (And on the environment). I myself have been trying to use reusable bags more and more, but it is still difficult.

Primarily, all of the bags that I have gotten so far are not easy to store. Some of them are very sturdy, but in being very sturdy they are very rigid, and do not fold down well. I have found some free patterns online for reusable shopping bags and I am going to try to make some that work well specifically with my wheelchair so they are easy to carry around.

I think that while I am doing this, I need to also make a "Master Bag" that will hold the other bags. Kinda like the bag that hold a sleeping bag. I think they are also called "Bag cozies" or something like that.

Admittedly, I spent more than I needed for my initial supplies, but part of the goal is to build something that will last a long time, so I don't mind spending a little more up-front to get quality material.

I ended up getting a medium weight Poly thread, 100% Organic Cotton Canvas (1 Yrd), and 3 yrds of a heavy nylon webbing. All told the materials cost me $13.05 and I expect I will get 2-3 bags out of this.