Frugal Tip: Saving Money on Electricity using Time Metered Service
Here in our home, we have “Residential Time Metered” electric service. Rather than paying the same rate regardless of the hour of the day, we pay less during “off-peak” and “intermediate-peak” hours than we do “peak” hours. If you’re not sure whether you pay metered or flat rate service, check your bill or call your electric company to find out.
Generally, peak hours are from 8am-9pm, intermediate hours are Saturdays (8am-9pm) and off-peak hours are all other hours, but your power company rules may vary.
Is Time Metered Electricity for You?
You would think that the opportunity to pay less for power on weekends, nights or early mornings is great, but consider this: peak hours cost more on time metered plans than on flat rate plans. It’s just that the other two levels cost less than flat rate plans, and that’s where the savings are.
So, if you tend to use most of your electricity during the normal working day, and are unable to move your activities (such as washing clothes, running the dishwasher, etc.) to off-peak times or weekends, then perhaps you should consider sticking with a flat rate plan. Otherwise, ask your power company about time metered service
Carnival of Personal Finance: Fairy Tale Edition
A carnival is a collection of submitted links presented in a format decided by the host. In this edition, the host (me) decided to write a fairy tale. If you like my writing, think about subscribing to my RSS feed or email updates!
ONCE UPON A TIME,
in a fictional land called Washington D.C., a fare maiden named Anastasia rescued the handsome, muscular Prince Mike (who has a full head of hair) from the clutches of evil creditors through wise financial advice and frugal habits. She proclaimed the wonders of living a debt-free life and helped him devise ways to become debt-free.
Since they had both just graduated from the Warlock and Witch University, they needed some good post-graduate money tips, while also realizing that there are other ways to save money than the common financial advice. They organized their finances, simplified their finances and made some good (and easy) resolutions for the new year.
Carnival of Clever Dude 2008
Ahh, it’s that time of the year again where I reminisce about my blog and highlight my best articles from each month and my top referrers of the year (check out 2007 Carnival of Clever Dude). Let’s get right to it!
2008 Traffic Numbers
I officially doubled my traffic since 2007. In 2008, I acquired over 300,000 new unique visitors and over 500,000 unique page views. I just missed my goals of 500,000 visitors (by about 3,000) and 1 million pageviews (by about 170k), but I expect to hit both targets very soon!
In 2007, 63% of my traffic was from referring sites while 21% came from search engines. My goal was to flip those numbers. That didn’t quite work, but I did average 38% from referrals and 44% from search engines, with the year-end search traffic percentage over 50%.
As far as subscribers, I lost the history from prior to Oct 2008, so I don’t know how many I had in Dec 2007, but I’ve consistently had over 2,100 subscribers in December 2008.
1999: Almost a decade ago
Just to put some perspective around things, the Y2K drama was almost a decade ago. Today’s high school freshmen have no clue what the fuss was all about (you only start really remembering stuff around 4 years old).
Wow, I never thought 30 was old until now. Man, I feel bad for you 40 year olds 
Happy New Year!
Get your ING Direct $25 New Account Bonus Here!
I just loaded up on some more $25 ING Direct new account referral links, so if you don’t have an Orange Savings account yet, click through and get your $25 bonus with a minimum $250 initial deposit! The linked page gives more information about the deal.
I’m hosting the next Carnival of Personal Finance (Monday Jan 5)!
The newest Carnival of Personal Finance schedule just came out and it looks like I’m on the hook to host January 5th, which is issue #186. A blog carnival is an online event where blog authors submit their best article of the week and a single site posts those links in whatever format they choose.
So please, submit your single best article from the past week using this form and these rules. You have until 5pm EST Sunday to submit, but I will say that I give preference to early submissions (unless your article is super good).
If you recall, the last Carnival I hosted was issue #103, The 24 Edition. I made up a whole story around each of the submissions, and even edited a few photos of Jack Bauer, toilets and puppies (check it out). It was A LOT of work (at least 2 full work days), but everyone loved it.
Spend your remaining FSA Dollars!
You have until December 31st to spend your elections to your Flexible Spending Plan (FSA).You have until March 31st to submit receipts for reimbursements though. If you’re unfamiliar with an FSA, it’s a pretax spending plan for medical expenses like doctor visits, medicines, eyecare and other items. If your employer offers the program, I suggest looking into it, especially if you have kids!
We elected $1000 for this year, and while we weren’t sure we would use it all, I’m glad we did. Between two herniated disks for me (and the rehab/chiropractor visits) and a recently broken finger for Stacie (2 days before Christmas), plus contacts for Stacie and regular doctor visits for both of us, we’ve used up all but $25.33 as of today. I’ll be heading to the local Rite Aid or CVS to stock up on items like:
- Band-aids - not just for injuries. As a guy, they’re good for protecting certain parts of my chest anatomy while running longer distances (you guy runners know what I mean). And I plan on running more in the new year.
What is Frugality?
Unsurprisingly, to many people, “frugality” is synonymous with “cheap” or “stingy“. You hear about your frugal grandparents when they lived through the Great Depression, pinching every penny just to make ends meet and stay alive. But what about when it’s not about life or death? What about just saving money, getting a better deal when you do spend money, or basically just living within your means because it’s a wise way to live?
A Formal Definition of Frugality
Wikipedia defines Frugality as:
Frugality (also known as thrift or thriftiness), often confused with cheapness or miserliness, is a traditional value, life style, or belief system, in which individuals practice both restraint in the acquiring of and resourceful use of economic goods and services in order to achieve lasting and more fulfilling goals. In a money-based economy, frugality emphasizes economical use of money in meeting long term personal, familial, and communal desires.
Clever Dude’s Definition of Frugality
Throwing all those words aside, let’s get down to the core fundamentals of frugality:
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