BFC General/Daily discussion thread. Don't eat out today.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > BFC General/Daily discussion thread. Don't eat out today.

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Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Disadvantage of a mini-fridge, IMO, would be that you'd need more trips to the supermarket, so you might end up spending more money.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2014 18:33

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:35

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

spwrozek posted:

Doubtful. We go to the market on the way home every other day to get what we want to make for dinner. Before we would do the huge $100 runs for the week. We have cut our spending down by about $50 a month without changing what we buy. Less going to waste and not buying stuff we don't need.

I hadn't thought of that, that is kind of nice.. you'd have to be more careful since you have limited space.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2014 21:16

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Grumpwagon posted:

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.

The main reason that I care is because I don't like dealing with updating information where I might have auto billing setup, but it really isn't too complicated, I'm just lazy.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2014 22:05

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Sephiroth_IRA posted:

I'm not really concerned about credit card fraud, just identity theft. I remember someone in BFC told me that you can have your credit report frozen or something simply by contacting the rating agencies. So I'll probably do that once I get a new rewards card.

You'd freeze it, just because? Seems like that would be a hassle to freeze, and then another hassle when you wanted to unfreeze.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2014 00:22

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

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.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2014 16:27

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

How do you even eat 3300 calories worth of basil without throwing up?

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 15:39

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Any online resource you recommend for reading more about intermittent fasting? It interests me..

I feel like I have periods where I can go all day without eating.. but it doesn't seem healthy, since I've always been told that if you don't eat, then your body goes into starvation mode, and it becomes even harder to lose weight.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 16:12

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

DrAlexanderTobacco posted:

I've got to pay for an exam, a new passport, and customs charges for stuff I'm importing all on the same day! I now have nothing in my current account, having to dip into savings. Whoops.

What are you importing? :allears:

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 18:02

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

EugeneJ posted:

Is it bad that I'm considering moving into an apartment-share with someone for $180/month because I'll save like $3500/year instead of staying at my current apartment?

I know I'll give up my privacy, but...$3500!

Completely depends on the roommates. There are some people not worth living for, regardless of the savings, because it'll be a lovely situation, and then you'll be stressed out over stupid drama and never looking forward to going home.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 18:58

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I was roommates with my two cousins who I'm awesome friends with. One of them was going through some "drama" in his life, and ignored/ didn't speak to his younger brother for about 6 months, it was an incredibly lovely/stressful situation to be living in the middle of while I was trying to go to school.

They're mature grownups now, and all better.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 19:00

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Sounds like the kind of tenant that runs off with all the copper plumbing in the house, and dumps a bunch of cement down the drain..

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 00:06

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

tuyop posted:

Would there be an audience for personal finance/frugality challenge threads? Like, "Commute by bike for April" or "Buy nothing new May"?

I'd be up for some fun challenges. Only thing with commuting by bike is that a lot of people don't commute at all or couldn't bike..

# ¿ Mar 23, 2014 04:00

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Nether Postlude posted:

The "buy nothing new" for a month challenge would be fun.

There'd have to be exceptions for things that are necessities. And you'd have to be pretty honest with yourself what a necessity is.

I think we can all agree that the best part of the challenge will be arguing about the details.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2014 04:46

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

TouchyMcFeely posted:

I also have a question for the BFC daily chatters:

I have a company provided cell phone that they cover 100%. I'm allowed to use it for both company and personal business. It's great, except when I'm on vacation and coworkers/customers who have that number are able to call and if I'm not paying attention I'll answer.

So the question is: Do I get a cheap (read T-mobiles $30/month or $2/per day) plan specifically for personal use allowing myself to be unchained while I'm on vacation and off hours?

My financial situation stands at all debts paid off (minus fiancée's student loans), currently have saved $3,800 of our $20,000 emergency fund and $4,200 of our $10,000 wedding fund.

I've been mulling over the idea for a few years now but I'm warming up to the idea more and more now that we've lost one of our team members and the number of customers I'm servicing has increased significantly.

BFC Daily Chatters, what say you?

Get a free number from Google Voice, and forward calls to your phone. Only give this new phone # to people who you actually want to have reach you. And then only answer when you see that Google voice number calling on your phone.

I wouldn't get a new phone.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2014 22:34

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

It's pretty awesome but not really a reality for most people.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 05:02

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

My employer setup a 401k last year, no matching. Our budget is pretty tight, as it is, without putting money aside for the 401k. I do feel guilty about it though..

# ¿ Mar 31, 2014 17:00

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I've been doing intermittent fasting since it was mentioned in this thread, over a week ago. I'm doing a variation called alternate day fasting, where I eat during a 12 hour period, and then I do about 500 calories total over the course of 36 hours.

I would not have thought this was something that I could do. I've low-carbed a lot in the past, and I never had as much energy as I do now, even with 500 calories. You might get a little bit hungry, but it's not bad at all. And I feel much better, and more energetic then I ever felt when I'm doing the low-carb diet.

I'm down quite a bit in a short amount of time, although I know some of that is water weight. But my face is already a bit slimmer, and my pants are a little looser. I don't really want to share specific numbers because I don't want to argue about what's healthy, and water weight and yadda yadda. I'm staying hydrated, I take a multi-vitamin every day, and I'm getting some exercise as well, because I actually have some energy compared to when I was doing low carb.

This article has the top ten fasting myths debunked, and there is a lot of good information if anybody is interested:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html?m=1

I enjoy not worrying much about meals for an entire day, since what I eat is pretty minimal.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 01:08

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

If you get a loan, and then don't manage to contribute to the tanda the next month, they get to kill you.

Seriously though I've never heard of this. I grew up in Chile. It's probably because most Chileans would bail after they got a loan. I can really see this going wrong.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 14:51

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

What do you think of never buying trash bags? My wife and I never do. We just use plastic bags from the supermarket. We usually get our groceries double-bagged.

There are times when a giant bag would be preferable to 8 smaller ones.. but not enough to actually waste our money on them.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 03:54

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Sephiroth_IRA posted:

What would be the ultimate, healthy, goto on the clock office snack?

I used to use almonds but those get really old fast.

I would second what caberham mentioned about drinking lots of water. I'd mostly do that.

Or.. carrot sticks. With a little training, you can get that crunching really loud, and bug the rest of your coworkers. It's their fault they aren't wearing headphones. Unless you have your own office, in which case, drat, you should totally have a little fridge and microwave in there and eat hot pockets all day.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 16:36

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Bubbacub posted:

I have zero debt, a healthy retirement account, and a down payment for a house saved up. And I'm cringing because I just dropped $1400 on a custom built musical instrument.

Sounds like you're in a good situation for splurging on something you want.

In my head I imagine a "custom built musical instrument" as something like a ukulele helicopter.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 19:59

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

I'm a big retard who didn't know the definition of "Head of Household", so I took way too many exemptions on my W-4 and now I owe the IRS $3,000. Booooo

Ouch. That is painful.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 21:42

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

We're moving to FL later this year, and the apartment that we're looking at is really nice, but I can't decide if we'd rather be on the 3rd floor with vaulted ceilings and nobody above us, or on the 2nd floor, with someone above us.

Thinking about the energy bill.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 15:04

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Your Dead Gay Son posted:

Third floor man!! You'll get residual heat from floors 1 and 2, and the vaulted ceiling will keep you from roasting in the summer.

You don't want a dog with peg legs loving above you do you?

Do you think the cooling bill will be too much higher? That's one of my concerns, since there is more area to cool. If we don't turn on any ceiling fans, it will probably help keep the heat up high.

It is the fear of the unknown, or a dog with peg legs, that keeps me from the 2nd floor.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 15:14

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I appreciate the feedback. I'm happy to hear that your energy bill didn't change much.

Sorry that you don't like Florida, but I completely understand.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2014 18:10

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Spend a few bucks and wash yo car!

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 03:12

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

tuyop posted:

Oh man, I want a boat so bad.

I don't like having these five year plans of like: (a) teach on reserves in the North, (b) move back to rural NS to live in a yurt and teach, then (c) buy a boat and raise my future kid(s) sailing around the world teaching English in the darkest Orient if necessary.

I just want c!

It's a neat idea, until you watch a movie like All Is Lost. Have you seen that?

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 16:52

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Does the gilded cage have high speed internet?

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 17:16

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I've got 341 titles across 4 Steam accounts (many, many overlapping game titles).

I just bought accounts from people who needed money. I'm pretty sure that I spent less than $500 for the accounts.

The multiple accounts is nice also because it's easy to share with my brothers.

You know what's not nice about the accounts? Having a child. I haven't played any video games since before my daughter arrived.

:mad:

Still worth it.

edit-
here's someone selling an account with 288 games for $100 bucks.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3624350

Juanito fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Apr 24, 2014

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 03:12

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I think airbnb would be nice because it would you give more flexibility. You could block off dates that you wouldn't want to have people around, instead of having someone there long-term. It requires you to be a bit more of a host though, clean stuff up before a new guest, etc. But you could require 2+ day minimum stays.

You guys who know about strapping a canoe to a vehicle.. what about a kayak to a Toyota Corolla with no roof rack? Any experience with that.. it seems feasible from what I see online, but doesn't feel safe. I don't know if the kayak being lighter than a canoe is a positive or negative.

I'd be able to save a lot of money buying a kayak later on instead of doing hourly/daily rentals.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 17:09

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Sundae posted:

Yay for end of the month tallies.

Increased savings by $5,577 this month thanks to the powers of Magical Side Business! On one hand, awesome. On the other hand, it totally hosed up my budgets in Mint because the site treated my royalty checks as negative quantities of book shopping on Amazon. I shall have to fix that. GoodProblems.txt ?

Awesome, that is a good problem to have, I think. What's your magical side business, writing?

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 15:42

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

FrozenVent posted:

That's what I've been doing; it's a very frugal lifestyle but it makes it hard to meet women.

It's frugal as long as you don't have Amazon Prime.

# ¿ May 10, 2014 01:41

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

tuyop posted:

I worked at a gas station when I was younger and someone had topped up their massive truck with like 121.17 in gas. We used one of those scanners except I hammered through it kind of on autopilot.

When I was reconciling at the end of my shift, I found a charge for 1211.70. I had added an extra zero and the dude didn't notice! I spent hours with the manager scouring security footage to try to track down anything identifying about the customer and we could tell what he looked like but his plate wasn't facing the camera. We couldn't find him otherwise and he never came back to the station. I imagine he was on his way to the US or something and was too far away by the time he noticed. He didn't even call, though.

I didn't even get in trouble beyond some ribbing about how great my errors were for the owner, but I still feel bad about it.

So he paid with a credit card but you couldn't refund it?

# ¿ May 10, 2014 17:58

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

froglet posted:

I'm in Amsterdam for the week and the day after arriving I had to go to hospital. Had to pay about two thirds of the Euros I had on me in the land of glorious socialised medicine! This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact it will take a few days to transfer more money over to the prepaid card I brought with me.

At this point its looking like I might not have the cash to go see the sights, so now I'm looking up scenic walks and stuff I can do for when I'm better.

That sucks. Couldn't somebody wire you money? There are a lot of services that are pretty easy and convenient to use.

# ¿ May 14, 2014 05:27

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I think you made the right choice. I'd rather spend 30 minutes reading a book then 20 minutes watching traffic.

# ¿ May 14, 2014 17:57

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Say you do want the pass, and then just let people borrow it.

# ¿ May 14, 2014 23:50

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Indoor parking spot sounds perfect for mushrooms.

# ¿ May 15, 2014 00:12

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Sephiroth_IRA posted:

Damned unions.

Is it possible to overdraft a prepaid card? Are there prepaid debit cards or only credit cards?

I don't think you can overdraft a prepaid card, usually you're limited is whatever your balance is.

Aren't all debit cards "prepaid" in theory, since they're connected to your checking account and you're withdrawing your funds? There are prepaid credit cards if you don't have credit or bad credit, and need to build credit. Your limit is however much money you have on the card.

# ¿ May 15, 2014 14:13

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Do you have a toddler?

Have them crap their diaper big-time right when you start shopping. It really speeds up the process and you only have time to pick up the most important items.

# ¿ May 16, 2014 04:29

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:35

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

When I worked in an office, people would take turns bringing in donuts. If you didn't want to bring in donuts, you weren't supposed to partake.

# ¿ May 16, 2014 17:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > BFC General/Daily discussion thread. Don't eat out today.

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