Sense to Save

New gadgets — a printer and a GPS

Our GPS, Betty, had been senile for awhile. She started to give us bizarre directions — once sending me through a parking lot and back out onto the main road where I started. Maybe to see if I’d actually do it? And then she started having trouble finding streets, finding the satellite signal and other things.

We had the option of purchasing updated maps, but it’s kind of pricey and didn’t seem worth it.

Then one day recently, Betty died. Just wouldn’t turn on anymore. Not sure what happened. She was old in gadget years and I guess it was her time.

We drove around for awhile without GPS help and instead relied on our own knowledge and a few maps. Went on a simple trip this weekend up north to some Amish areas and when we realized we were on a road that turned into a toll road (and had no money to pay the toll), we got a bit lost.

Ended up in Ohio for a minute, unintentionally. AND we had a map. It just wasn’t a very detailed one.

If you’ve ever driven in Pittsburgh then you know that this city doesn’t make a darn bit of sense. Roads go all over the place. Downtown, Forbes is one-way eastbound at a certain point, and then it’s one-way westbound at another. Who thought that was a good idea?

Some “roads” are actually just steep sidewalks or stairs that no car could ever go on. I am not kidding.

You can’t necessarily make a series of right turns to reverse your direction. Sometimes a series of right turns will make you end up on another side of a river, or on the highway, or who-knows-where.

So there are absolutely times when you need a GPS around here.

I chose a refurbished Garmin* on Amazon based on positive reviews and the price (it was listed at $89). The refurbished models are quite a bit cheaper than the brand-new models ($119) and are just as good.

I used a few Amazon gift cards I earned via Swagbucks* to lower my cost.

Hopefully we’ll get a lot of use out of this GPS. It’s interesting (though not surprising) that it’s probably half the cost of what we paid for our first one. I love how technology gets cheaper as time goes on!

Our printer/scanner/copier also decided it was time to be junked. I bought it before my freshman year in college back in 2003, so I think it had a pretty long life.

It was an HP and an ink hog. I bought cartridges on eBay for much cheaper than they would be at a retail store, but it still went through ink a lot faster than I thought it should.

So with this new printer, I wanted a different brand in the hopes that I could find a more efficient machine.

Because really, when you pay less than $100 for a printer, the company is going to make their profits in the ink.

I posted a question on Facebook asking my friends to give me some suggestions. Jessie told me about her Brother printer that uses really cheap ink available on Amazon. There’s some other bulk options that make the cost even better.

Those ink prices were really appealing so I thought I’d give Brother a shot. I ended up choosing this model from Best Buy. At $69 on sale, it was a good price for a printer/scanner/copier/fax (I won’t use the fax — don’t have a phone line!). And it’s also about half the price I paid for my HP back in the day.

I chose it because the reviews were quite positive. I picked it up in-store and set it up last night and I think it will fit our needs.

Sometimes it’s worth it to try and repair a gadget before replacing it, but it’s not always practical to do so. It was best for us to just replace these items and I like to think I got reasonable deals for both. Hope they last!

*Affiliate link

How much would you have to save to line-dry your clothes?

Ever since we moved to this apartment last summer, our electric bill has been much higher than at our old place. At the old apartment, we were on the third floor and had lots of sunshine. We also had no washer/dryer, so we were paying $1.25 per machine to do laundry. We stretched out our laundry-doing as much as we could and hung clothes to dry whenever it was reasonable (and sometimes when it wasn’t, but when I was out of quarters!).

In this terrace-level (ok, so halfway in the ground) apartment, we have minimal daylight. It’s sort of like a cave. We have a lamp on most of the time. The living room used to have CFL bulbs, but I switched them to the bright “daylight” bulbs to help with my sanity.

Our washing machine is a high-efficiency front-loader and I like to think it helps keep costs down, but I’m not sure. Our dryer seems pretty old and I don’t know how efficient it actually is.

I looked at my electric bill to determine the kwh rate, and it looks to be around 12 cents. Using this calculator, it appears that it costs roughly $0.50 per load to dry.

In the fall, our kwh rate will go to a discounted rate (I’m not exactly sure what it will be) because we are all-electric. So at that time, it will also cost less to run the dryer.

For one load, $0.50 doesn’t sound like much but when I think about how many loads I put through the machine in a week I can see how it would add up. It’s usually 8-12 loads per week, depending on what needs washed (and including diapers).

That’s $4-6 per week to use the dryer, or $208-$312 per year at the full rate.

I think that’s enough money that it would be reasonable to start line-drying some of our clothes once again. I have two free-standing drying racks that I can set up in my apartment. No outside locations are suitable for me.

I don’t like the crunchy feel that you can sometimes get when line-drying clothes, so I could put things in the dryer for just a few minutes to take much of the dampness off, and then hang them from there.

Further, I usually add the “extra spin” to my washing machine cycle to hopefully spin out as much moisture as I can.

I hope we can start to enjoy a lower electric bill because really, there are better things we can do with our money.

How much would you have to save to line-dry a load of clothes? Is the inconvenience of it worth it to you?

Creating a savings account for baby’s needs

As I did with my son Jonathan, I’m setting up a separate savings account to put money toward the things we’ll want to buy for our daughter. December is only 4 months away — how’d that sneak up on me like that?

We’ll need to cover:

• $280 medical deductible (our FSA account is almost all used up. I didn’t put that much money in it this year. Didn’t think I’d get a 2010 baby!)
• Infant car seat. I think we’re going with this $65 Graco Snugride.
• A few more cloth diapers, since I’ll likely have 2 in cloth for awhile. I’ve got my newborn and size small stash already, but I think I want a few more one-size diapers. Let’s say $75.
• Some additional storage containers/shelves, maybe. Once I get rid of a bunch of stuff in a yard sale at the end of this month I might not need a whole lot, but let’s say $50 anyway.
• Baby clothes. A lot of our newborn stuff is gender-neutral and I already have a few things in the smaller sizes, but not enough for a complete wardrobe. I’m going to say $50.
• A swaddler. My husband was really good at doing a blanket swaddle, but I stink at it. $10
• A big purse. I don’t like diaper bags and I don’t normally carry one. I might throw a diaper and some wipes in my regular purse (which I don’t always carry, either). I usually have a regular diaper bag and just leave it in my trunk and it has a change of clothes, extra diapers, a blanket, whatever. But I don’t think I’ll be able to get away with that minimalist approach with two little ones. $20
• $100 for other things that I’ll want later, but can’t think of right now

Total: $659

So over the next few months, I’ll put a portion of that into that savings account until I’ve got the funds. And I’ll tap that account to buy some things.

I’ve already bought my Hypnobabies home study kit* (and I love the looks of it!) and a pink Baby K’Tan*, but I just used regular money for that.

I’m getting really excited for her arrival!

*Amazon affiliate link