I just cut the cord. In 1999. Get strange looks when I go to Sams from the reps selling package TV/phone deals.
Pros - cheap.
Cons - my popular culture knowledge ended with Seinfeld.
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Also been very happy with the Obihai, it’s an awesome replacement if your currently paying monthly for phone service and even if you’ve cut it already, I’m sure you could find value in having a dedicated home line if it’s only gonna be a one-off expense.
Obihai is a VOIP device that connects to Google Voice. It requires a Google account to be tied to it, I used a secondary google account that I had, created a google voice number and created a new account using this device.
With the exceptions of no emergency numbers, its working great as a dedicated landline. It also gets passed through Googles call filtering which at least for now seems very effective in curbing telemarketers. Paid rougly $40 for it and its quickly paid for itself in terms of value.
The only thing that concerns me is their billing model is one time, meaning they’ll eventually have the same issue as Ooma. Revenue from new hardware purchases are able to support the ongoing infastructure, but this requires a constant stream of new users which will dry up eventually. Still if you get a year or so out of it I consider it a win.
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Standard Cord Cutting Replacements
- Chromecast
- FireStick + Amazon Prime Sharing
- Netflixs Sharing
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Get your basic groceries from Aldi’s and Aldi’s Nord (Trader Joes) - The first time I went in one my mind was blown.
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Recently my strategy for most non-time sensative purchases has been
- List Item Type Somehwere (eg. Shopvac / Fridge)
- Research Item Specifics and Price History (Specific Product Identifier)
- Set An Alert Using CCC, eBay Search Alerts, slickdeals deal alerts, when the item is discounted.
- Review Monthly on items that haven’t triggered.
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Bought a Reel mower, no need for worrying about paying a monthly lawn care fee or seasonal maintenance of a gas powered mover. There is a bit of extra overhead in that I usually need to make two passes (once to pick up any branches and then once to mow it, but we have a small lawn so it’s not so bad) (It’s also more effective if your lawn is fairly flat)
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Seconding Prepaid MVNO’s. I’m almost always nearby some wifi, so I don’t even subscribe to a data plan which drops your costs substantially. I’m currently with PagePlus at what seems like $20~$40 a year with the amount of calling/texting I do. (Again no data) Stuck on a crappy device, but I would say 95% of the time, I’m surrounded by Wifi and another 2% of the time I’m in a dead zone anyways (subway/underground) If I ever was in a position where I needed data, I would probably swap out for Tracphone, but definitely would stay prepaid.
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Some things I have on my todo list, but haven’t had time to take up yet:
- Chest Freezer
- Weekly Meal Prep
- Change Fluoresecent Light Bulbs to LEDs (Still waiting for the first set to die out, first world early adopter problems)
- Steam link for gaming
Book Recommendation:
I recommend reading the Marie Kondo book @DaveHanson hinted at in the first post The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the audiobook is fantastic, although you just need to google the one section about folding clothes as you really do need a visual.
I found myself much happier after reclaiming my space. The only thing I found myself disagreeing with was the section about culling non-perishables, as they’ll usually be out of sight anyway and its not worth the mental effort and time on restocking something like toilet paper monthly.
Freeing up my space has translated to freeing up mental capacity for me. It’s worked so well I’ve started looking into delabeling everything I own to remove even more distractions.
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[quote=“DaveHanson, post:85, topic:29, full:true”]
We found it to be a good alternative.
First place I would go is http://tvfool.com and input your address to see what type (size) antenna you need and if you should get an amplifier and where to point the antenna for best reception. This site has good information for getting started; OVER-THE-AIR DIGITAL TELEVISION RECEPTION FAQ: New to OTA? Start here! | AVS Forum.
For the equipment; Assuming I’m allowed to post links, this is the dvr: Amazon.com or you can go directly to Tivo website to purchase. (would highly recommend upgrading the hard drive if you record a lot of shows). We purchased our antenna here http://dennysantennaservice.com/hd_stacker_tv_antenna-html.html. But there are many ota dvr options and you could pick up a different brand antenna locally.
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Getting rid of cable. For me, that’s ~$110/month (and climbing) in my pocket.
My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
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Deer season starts next month and i plan on putting enough meat in my freezer to last the year.
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Sodastream for cheap sparkling water. Of course, you have to feed it with a special hose attached to a cheap 20lb bar co2 tank, rather than pay up for the sodastream canisters. The hose is $100 one time, A 20 lb refill is $10-20 and lasts us 6 months or more, drinking a few liters daily.
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Isn’t that really bad for your teeth? I’ve read the carbonation makes the water/soda acidic and damages tooth enamel. Does it taste better than regular water?
We like it much better than regular water. I never heard about the tooth damage, I’ll ask the dentist.
It’s definitely less harmful than soda with sugar 
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Also available in a hoseless option I believe. Though I haven’t got one of these yet for my SodaStream
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Yes. The paintball tank is a good solution and ideal as a space saver for a small apartment, etc. We went with the bar tank because we already had one on hand. We drilled a hole in the countertop for the hose and the tank sits underneath.
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The sugar in soda is bad for your health in general so in that respect sparkling water is better. But teeth erosion comes from carbonic acid (CO2 dissolved in water) so it’ll lower the pH of sparkling water to cause erosion regardless of sugar content.
A lesser evil would be to carbonate mineral water that is softer (less acidic) because it contains a bunch of salts that will somewhat neutralize the carbonic acid. Commercial brands like Perrier have a pH of 6 which is close to that of tap water. But that adds to the cost compared to tap water. The best may be club soda which has added sodium and calcium salts enough to completely compensate for the carbonation. You can get somewhat of the same effect by just adding baking soda to tap water prior to carbonation.
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This is really true, yet never stops surprising me when it works. I can think of two recent times when I asked for a student discount; they said they don’t have one, but gave me a 10% / 20% discount just for asking.
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There is a local restaurant supply store near me that refills the sodastream bottles for cheap. You might try to find one in your neighborhood. Also, you might need to purchase an adapter, but the supply store might sell it.
It’s been mentioned a couple of times before, but it bears repeating. I got an Obihai that handles 2 lines. So, my wife and I each have a different ring tone at home. Also, when she dials out, she has to dial **1 or something like that so that the Obihai shows her number to the person answering. We have it hooked up to a Panasonic cordless phone system that has enough range for our place.
Also, I have set up a HTPC. Using a FW deal from 2009, I added a video card, a dual tuner, and a wireless keyboard with mousepad to the PC which is connected to an outdoor antenna. It’s on Windows 7 and runs great with Windows Media Center. It can record two shows at the same time while you watch a previously recorded show. I have also added a 2TB external to store programs. There is always something to watch and we skip all commercials. You can even watch programs at 1.5x speed. Also, we can surf the web, show pictures, and use Amazon Prime Video and Netflix (using friend’s login), and all the other things you can do on a PC. We have only 1 TV that we use, so this works great. I have tinkered with Plex to get our programs into another room, but I dropped that project because we never use that other TV.
We have 5 lines with Cricket for $100 per month and regularly get discounted codes from Target about twice a year.
I buy steak whenever it’s on sale and vacuum seal it and freeze it. It really stays fresh for at least a month when there will likely be another sale.
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Soft water tends to have a lower pH than hard water as you say. However, the soft/hard distinction is not a measure of pH but of mineral content. By definition, soft water has less salts/minerals and hard water has more salts/minerals.
So, did you mean you should use a harder water instead? That would have the minerals plus would likely be higher in pH.
Just because it makes some acid doesn’t mean it’s strong enough to matter. This journal article seemed to think it didn’t.
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Yes I meant water that contains more alkali and alkaline earth counter ions will balance the acidity added by the carbonation process.
That article did not completely decouple the effect of pH from the buffering effect of various counter ions. It correctly observes that mineral water does not cause much tooth decay (hydroxyapatite dissolution rate).
Another study from 1999 compared orange juice at pH 4 with orange juice added with calcium and found the same results. pH is one accelerator of erosion but it can be balanced by buffering effect from mineral ions in the drink.
The main conclusion is not really a surprise (especially if you think of the dissolution reaction equilibrium). A mineral water rich in calcium is basically not going to dissolve hydroxyapatite (a calcium phosphate) much due to the buffering effect of calcium. So it’s true that it’s a much better alternative as far as limiting tooth erosion goes. Same goes with orange juice with added calcium.
But I’m guessing as far as sodastream use goes, people are not starting from commercial mineral water in general (otherwise it may not be that much of a money saver lol). If you do, then I think you’re probably fine. But unless you have high calcium content in the water you’re going to carbonate, the carbonation is still gonna increase tooth erosion.
I’m in luck. Very hard water in New Orleans where I live.