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Great idea for a thread. I'm hoping someone can teach me something (or confirm I'm right) about something I've been thinking about on and off. Why should I care about credit card fraud? Every time I read an article like this one that states consumers are too cavalier about credit card fraud, and they should do things to protect themselves against it, I wonder: "Why?" I feel the same way about Europeans laughing at the US for not implementing chip and pin. As far as I can see, only the banks lose money on credit card fraud, and if they don't care enough about it to implement chip and pin, why should I care? If they think just eating the cost of fraud is less than the cost of implementing a more advanced system, who am I to argue? I use a credit card for most things, pay it off, and go on with my life. If I have to get a card replaced because of a breach/fraud, I have a backup card. I guess you could make some argument about fees/interest would go down if banks didn't have to absorb the costs of fraud. I guess I just don't see fraud going away. Any lower fraud costs seem like they'd be offset by more anti-fraud technology costs. That and, when's the last time a large bank chose giving money back to consumers over giving money to stockholders? Anyway, I know I sound convinced I'm right, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
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Mar 14, 2014 21:42
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pancaek posted:I don't want to sound like a huge jerk (maybe just a little jerk), but aside from taking up space, what's the issue with books? Unless you're reading pulp or trashy romance, certainly there are worse vices that you could combat. As someone who has more space (and very possibly money) taken up by books than anything else I own, there's nothing wrong with books, but a serious reading habit can get pricy after a while. It's minor compared to eating out every day, or buying new luxury cars every 2 years, or whatever, and there are certainly benefits as well. But since this is being posted in BFC, I guess the assumption is that people have already cut out the really financially stupid stuff. When you're paying off debt or saving for early retirement, the library is a good next frugality step. I still buy some books, but I've cut way back since getting a library card, and don't regret it. Veskit posted:gently caress having a car and trying to repay debt. As someone in a similar situation (no car, but SO has one), if cars/maintenance you at all, learning how to do minor stuff like brake rotors ends up saving a bunch of money. For minor stuff, you don't even need many tools. I started out knowing nothing, and now I'm pretty confident doing most maintenance. That being said, I certainly sympathize about the cost/hassle of cars and car repairs. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Mar 16, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 21:34
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I'll go! I'm very seriously considering building a fairly nice HTPC (~$1k), despite only owning a crappy 32" TV, and being totally happy watching stuff on my monitor anyway. I'm justifying it by saying I don't have cable TV, and haven't had it for years, but it's still eating up a substantial amount of the amount I've saved by not. It just seems like a fun project! I'd be able to stream Amazon/Netflix/Hulu, and use it as a NAS/subsonic server so I could turn my main (much more power consuming) PC off when I wasn't using it.
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Mar 18, 2014 12:32
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Your Dead Gay Son posted:Don't do this. I accomplish everything you mentioned using my slim ps3 and an application called ps3 server. My roommate connected a subsonic server to it as well. A PS3 is something I hadn't thought of, and I'm going to research its capabilities now. One of the goals of this project is to have a low power device so I can turn off my very high power consuming desktop. I'm not sure a PS3 can do the more advanced home server things I'm thinking of offloading from my main computer, but I'll be the first to admit I haven't looked into it. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm using a Chromecast now, and it's good for what it is. It streams Netflix/Hulu very well, and I can even play audio/video from subsonic using chrome tab mirroring (there have been report of audio desync using tab mirroring, but I've found as long as network latency is low, it works well). When playing local media though, it's very limited.
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Mar 18, 2014 16:26
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Juanito posted:I took a PC that my office was going to throw out, didn't even reinstall XP, and I've had that hooked up to my TV, and it works completely fine for streaming whatever I want. You really don't have to go expensive to get something that works well. This is also a good point. I also have an old computer that would do the trick. 2 downsides to doing that are noise and power consumption. Noise is really key to enjoying an HTPC, and as currently constructed, my recycled parts would fail this miserably. Still, buying quieter case fans, or even a quiet case is a lot less expensive than buying an entire PC. From talking this over, if I do this, I'm going to revise my price point down a lot, through some amount of recycling and lower speced components (or a PS3). Thanks guys! No Wave posted:I wish you guys would eat better, you're making frugality look unhealthy This too. Despite talking about dropping $1000 on a computer, normally I live quite frugally. Healthy food is extremely important, and doesn't have to be expensive. Cooking is fun, BudgetBytes is a great place to start.
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Mar 18, 2014 17:34
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Maybe this is out of scope for this thread, but has anyone used a Chromebox to pull HTPC duties? You'd have to boot Linux, obviously, but I was planning on doing that anyway. Seems like a cheap way to get Haswell's power savings at a very low price.
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Mar 18, 2014 19:00
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EugeneJ posted:It used to be Pop Tarts and Sweet Tea. Can I channel Shine for a moment here and say cook yourself some real food instead of pop tarts?
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Mar 19, 2014 12:24
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Boiling eggs and peeling them has gotten real easy since I learned the "Russian" way to remove the shell. That's pretty much my go to snack (with some vegetables) now. I had no idea what you were talking about, so I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opK1Py1Zkt4 Definitely going to go boil some eggs soon.
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Mar 19, 2014 13:41
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Nail Rat posted:Fruit's really not that healthy. I mean it's more healthy than candy but it's basically candy with flintstones vitamins and fiber mixed in. Fruit is fine. Obviously, you want to avoid eating a colossal amount of it, because it's more calorie dense than you'd think. Fruit juices and dried fruit frequently have sugar added, and should be treated as such as well. Even Dr Robert Lustig, who is one of the leaders of the attempt to lower sugar consumption, is fine with fruit because of it's fiber and nutrient values (which is, I guess, sort of what you were implying with the flintstones comment, but I think you were underselling fruit somewhat). http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/making-the-case-for-eating-fruit/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 posted:Another nutrition expert, Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, who has called sugar “toxic” at high doses and fructose the most “actionable” problem in our diet, is still a fan of fruit. “As far as I’m concerned, fiber is the reason to eat fruit,” since it promotes satiety and the slow release of sugar. He adds a third benefit from fiber: it changes our “intestinal flora,” or microbiome, by helping different species of healthy bacteria thrive.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:08
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Nail Rat posted:It still takes a backseat to vegetables and nuts, though, is what I'm saying. Obviously it's better than candy and useful in moderation, but people who eat mountains of fruit(not necessarily the poster above) and talk about how healthy they're eating make me Sounds like we agree, I just misinterpreted your first post. I will stop white-knighting a food group now. I made this on Sunday to bring to work for lunches. I doubled the ground beef, and added an onion, but apart from that followed the recipe. It's like Hamburger Helper, but tastier and less processed.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:23
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antiga posted:Lustig is a quack, and it's terrible that he and guys like Taubes get exposure from a credible source like the NY Times. If you eat reasonably well most of the time, the rest doesn't matter nearly as much as you think. End YLLS rant. I wasn't endorsing him exactly, just saying that if even he doesn't have a problem with fruit, I don't know who would. Walked posted:Way too much food talk here. Seriously I have threads bookmarked in BFC and YLLS almost exclusively and for a minute I forgot which forum I was in. I agree that we're probably getting too far off topic debating the merits of fruits (and that's my fault, sorry), but food is probably my second largest monthly expense, so some food talk seems relevant.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:41
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Nail Rat posted:Quick question about phone plans, hopefully on-topic: I see that T-Mobile has unlimited talk, text, and "web" with 2GB data for $60(what the hell is the difference between web and data?). However, when I go to look at their phones, it seems they only have monthly costs. I don't see anything like with Verizon where a phone is $100/$200/whatever with a 2 year plan (my company allows $100 for a smartphone every two years so I like to get the best phone I can get for a hundred bucks). Are these monthly options the only way to buy a phone with T-Mobile? Web vs Data: I'm not looking at the site, but my guess is you get 2 GB of LTE data, then you'd get kicked back to their HSPA/HSPA+ network. It's slightly slower, with slightly higher latency, but it's not a huge deal. Those $0-$200 phones are called subsidized phones, because the carrier increases the cost of your plan to pay off the difference of the cost of your phone over the life of your contract. T-Mobile is just being more transparent about it, and removing that extra cost if you bring your own phone. That Sprint Framily plan does basically the same thing. Not sure if you're looking for Android or iOS. The android thread really likes the Nexus 5 and the Moto X, both of which you can buy for ~$350 unsubsidized direct from the manufacturer. Do the math yourself of the total cost over 2 years, but for a lot of people, it makes sense to bring your own phone to T-Mobile, and pay less for the plan.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:25
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Paid $1600 today to the dentist for my SO, with at least that amount again (and probably multiples of it) to come. Sigh.
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Mar 20, 2014 19:12
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Carpooling makes it hard to avoid eating out. The main thing that sucks is there isn't really any place my wife and I can go together to eat (except for a parking lot but that will suck in the summer/winter) without feeling obligated to buy something. That is rough. There's no park around? Green space attached to either of your offices? Break room?
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Apr 2, 2014 13:48
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:What would be the ultimate, healthy, goto on the clock office snack? Beef Jerky! I have 4 lbs of it in my desk drawer right now!
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Apr 10, 2014 18:38
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Inverse Icarus posted:I overslept and had to run out of the house to make it to work on time, and I think I'm going to have to eat out today. Will probably end up paying $8 for a lovely sandwich at the office cafeteria. This, and having a stock of non-perishable food at work has saved me many times. I keep a ceramic bowl and just regular cans of soup for emergencies. Put the soup in the bowl, microwave.
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Apr 23, 2014 18:51
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EugeneJ posted:I think I found a new option: Eugene: "Hey guys, the only problem with my finances is this small econobox I've leased. What should I do? Should I lease this worse car?" BFC: "Smart cars are bad. It's not that big of a deal, you have a decent car that you know the history of, you've already taken the depreciation hit, you should probably just keep it." Eugene: "Hey guys, I've found the solution to my problem. Here's another small econobox that's worse than my Civic I could lease!!" What's wrong with the Civic? Why do you want to get rid of it so bad? You're only 1 year out from the end of the lease. Maybe it would be helpful to think of it like this: In a year, you'll have the option to buy a pretty decent 3 year old used car for $10,000 that you know the history of completely and that you've (presumably) maintained well. There is no cheaper car for TCO than a good ~$10k used car. You've already taken the major depreciation hit. Most major maintenance is still a long way off. Granted, the deal looks less good when you consider you've basically already paid an additional $9000 for it, but that's mostly sunk costs at this point. It has been said before, but sometimes the best move is not making a move. Why would you go lease another car and be in the exact same situation, except with 2 more years of guaranteed lease payments (and maybe a slightly better negotiated lease)? I feel like I must be missing something you've said here, because otherwise this makes no sense. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 12:11 on May 5, 2014 |
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May 5, 2014 12:01
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Veskit posted:Speaking of basil I should show you where mine is at. My work herb box is going strong. Though I had to go in after hours and spray pesticides cause of the dirt i used being littered with bugs. I believe you're referring to BASIL
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May 6, 2014 12:01
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Veskit posted:I thought it was basil when it's basil and BASIL when it's pot. I mean, that's the great mystery of Tuyop's thread. I believe that he was never referring to pot, so when he says BASIL he means the spice, and when he says basil, he means pot, but you can certainly find people who will argue the other point of view. I think he's on the record agreeing with me.
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May 6, 2014 16:54
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Oh no. Now I'm really confused.
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May 6, 2014 17:23
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Donald Kimball posted:About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me. As someone who is paying off a ton of student loans, please don't spend more than you have to in school. Also, wtf, your laptop is 2 years old.
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Jun 12, 2014 20:50
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moana posted:Spending news: bought a couple packs of cards for wedding invites yesterday from Michaels, $20. So far I'm at $743 for wedding venue (273), dress (450) and now invites. Going to spend more on a screen to do the screenprinting on them, then watercolor them in by hand. I'm actually really excited about the invitations because I get to make a pretty thing Please keep posting this stuff! Very interested in hearing about wedding costs in a BFC mindset.
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Jun 18, 2014 18:34
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Looking around for reception places now for a lunch reception, I'm guessing that will be the main expense.
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Thanks guys! Useful data points. If you don't mind sharing, I'm definitely interested in number of guests too. We both have huge and engaged extended families, so a small wedding is pretty much off the table (unless she takes my suggestion to elope...).
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Jun 18, 2014 21:16
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tuyop posted:Yeah we had lots of people we were supposed to invite but we just said no to aunts and uncles we hadn't seen in like five years. If you actually have a close relationship with like 200 of your relatives then I can understand, otherwise the whole family politics of your mom being angry because her sister's step-daughter's boyfriend is not going to be in the family photos, balanced by a perfect counterpart from the in-laws is totally Yeah, fortunately for my life, unfortunately for wedding planning, we really do have close relationships with a huge group of family and friends. It's not family politics I'm worried about.
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Jun 18, 2014 22:43
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to me.
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moana posted:So I'm a doof and didn't change the payment settings on my Amazon affiliate account. Now I have like $1200 in amazon credit. Given that I don't really buy things off Amazon, is there an easy way to cash it out that I don't know about? (Amazon won't just send it to my bank acct, I've asked SA mart buys Amazon gift cards at very close to face value. Might try that.
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Jul 11, 2014 17:37
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moana posted:getting a cheapo laptop or tablet just for the "typing words in a coffeeshop" part of what I do. Not sure what program you use for writing, but consider a chromebook for the mobile part if it's compatible.
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Jul 15, 2014 13:27
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Zhentar posted:Not any more. The 'Credit CARD Act of 2009' (for the most part) requires them to apply payments to the highest interest bearing amount first. Payments above the minimum payment. IIRC the minimum payment amount doesn't follow those rules (I believe it is applied proportionally).
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Aug 4, 2014 23:12
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Bugamol posted:I made BFC proud today I think. I ordered a window regulator + motor for my 2003 ford focus off ebay for $25 rather than taking it into a shop. My Dad says he's replaced them in the past on various cars so we'll do it ourselves. I've done that repair on a 2003 focus twice (both back windows). Let me know if you have questions, but it should be easy. Before I could fix it, I duct taped it, and the only tape I could find was camo tape. It looked very silly.
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Aug 12, 2014 20:03
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Bugamol posted:Your daily dose of Reddit. A person who literally has no idea how a credit card works. I hope they aren't older than about 18 or someone did them a huge disservice. That has to be a troll.
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Aug 15, 2014 18:03
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Cross posting from the budget thread: YNAB is currently on steam sale 25% off until January 2nd. It has gone to 50% off in other Steam sales (and even once to $15), so I'm holding out for now. Please post if you notice it gets cheaper.
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Dec 20, 2014 04:05
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Cross posting from the budget thread: YNAB is on steam sale for $15 until 10pm PST today (1/31)
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Dec 31, 2014 14:23
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pig slut lisa posted:I was reading something about generating side-income and I thought "hmmmm I wonder what my local craigslist has in terms of part time jobs" and welp this is what I found So uh... how big are your balls?
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Jan 18, 2015 14:05
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Rick Rickshaw posted:But today my only options were a peanut butter sandwich, which I also had yesterday, or leftover pasta that I had last night. Congrats on your streak. The pasta/sandwich feels like an option that could have been taken, but that's just nitpicking, and I shouldn't talk. I don't eat out for lunch much, but an 8 month streak far outclasses my best. It's a good goal, I might start keeping track.
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Jan 29, 2015 15:59
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I'm going to be driving a significant amount of miles over 2 weeks in April. I have a car, but it's older, and I think I'd rather rent a car for those 2 weeks to save the wear and tear. The problem is, I've never rented a car. What's the best way to get a decent rate for 2 weeks? I feel like, with most travel purchases, there's always a way to get a deal, and I have plenty of time before I need this.
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Feb 14, 2015 14:27
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Does anyone know approximately when YNAB is likely to be on sale on Steam again? Or are those sales completely random? It's on sale for $45 (or $30, I can't remember) during the Steam Spring/Fall sales. It goes to $15 for 24 hours on New Years Day and for 24 hours during the Summer sale.
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Mar 3, 2015 13:21
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Bellagio Sampler posted:Is there a good way to electronically transfer money monthly to another person's bank account without fees? My bank offers "Popmoney" which I think charges a dollar per transaction, but I'm more interested in zero. I use Google wallet for this. Works great, free, integrated with gmail.
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May 19, 2015 19:17
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ufsteph posted:Hey BFC - I have a car issue, and am trying to figure out the best way to go. Spend the $800. Consider the difference between trying to sell a 2003 Accent with 200k miles with AC and without in ATL. You're not going to get a ton of money for it regardless, but if it is in running condition with AC, someone will buy it. $800 is only 2-3 months of a car payment. You could also try to do it yourself. I'm not familiar with the Accent's engine bay, but watch a YouTube video of someone doing it before deciding to pay someone. Replacing discrete components like that is often easier than you'd expect. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jun 16, 2015 |
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Jun 16, 2015 14:56
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Or if the downside of being wrong would be financial devastation.
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Jul 25, 2016 20:34
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Does anyone use personal capital? I use YNAB for budgeting, and have been using mint to consolidate all my accounts for easy YNAB reconciliation, but both Mint and YNAB's investment reporting leaves something to be desired. I've heard personal capital's is better than that, but it's hard to tell who is saying that for real, and who is shilling for what must be a very generous referral. If I were to use this, I would want to stop using mint. I only use mint as a way to pick up missed transactions to YNAB(4), so I don't use any of it's more advanced features. Can PC replace that? Is their account syncing more reliable than mint's? Do they cover the same range of bank's as mint does? Is PC's reporting good enough to be worth the hassle of changing? From what I can tell, their business model is trying to push people to their investment management services, which I wouldn't be doing. How annoying are they about trying to push that? Are there other ads?
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Jan 5, 2017 16:35
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dreesemonkey posted:If you're using mint for lost transactions, you should probably just reconcile in YNAB regularly and that will keep that sorted out. I typically reconcile almost every weekday since I'll do it at work and rarely do I have issues with balances being off / missing transactions. That's what I mean by using it for lost transactions. I YNAB reconcile, using the balance from mint, and can check for transactions on mint, rather than the bank's website (since I have a bunch of accounts with different banks). Would PC allow that? 100 HOGS AGREE posted:Financier is good. I found a major bug and Alex gave me a free year of service. I chose to pay off my >5% student loans before funding a roth. I'm not sure if that's mathematically optimal, but I knew I could pay them off pretty quickly, and I didn't like having them hanging over my head. I don't have a mortgage, but I'd be tempted to get rid of PMI if I was that close. That said, I don't think there's a bad decision there. I'd make the decision based on how quickly I could pay stuff down. My guess is the math would favor the roth contribution, but it depends on your situation and risk tolerance.
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Jan 5, 2017 23:23
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