Category: Saving Money (Page 1 of 2)

The Print Friendly Browser Extension

print friendly browser extension

I love the Print Friendly browser extension. This freebie allows me to manipulate websites before I print them, helping me save on ink and paper. Check this out:

The Print Friendly browser extension is available to download and use in almost any browser. Once installed, all you have to do is click its icon to activate it for the website you are about to print. Print Friendly will open a new copy of the website for you to manipulate:

An example that I might print from TheMountainCourier.com

At the top of this overlay, you can adjust the size of the text and graphics, to prepare your print job to fit fewer pages. But even better, you can scroll down through the page and click on any element to delete it. Nix those ads, remove any unwanted graphics, you should have complete control over what is going to print. Use the Print button to the upper-left and appreciate the barebones page you just created!

If you don’t want to install the extension, that’s OK, you can still use this tool. Simply copy the URL of what you wish to print, and paste it in at the Print Friendly website. The Preview button will give you the same thing as the extension would.

Finding the Best Prices on Video Games

Back as the pandemic began, I blogged about CheapShark, a great site for finding your best prices on video games. But since then, other similar sites have been launched. If you’re a frequent gamer, there are a lot of ways for you to save money on your hobby/habit!

GGDeals is the first I should mention, because it may match what CheapShark does. And GGDeals covers a different range of game vendors, so you may want to review both in turn to find your best deals.

PsPrices is more for console game players. Here you can find game pricing tools for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft game systems, as well as the Epic Store and Apple App Store.

DekuDeals is for Nintendo Switch games only. But you may find it more pleasant to find your deals here than by combing through the Nintendo Store.

And there are plenty more niche sites that will help you save money on hard-to-find games or bundle purchases, as well as review pricing history for the games you want. Some runner-up mentions are:

GOG

Fanatical

IsThereAnyDEAL

DLCompare

FreeAirPump.com

FreeAirPump.com

FreeAirPump.com helps you find places that don’t charge to use their automobile air pump. FreeAirPump.com gives you a map of locations near you (or a specific address or zip code) where you can fill your tires for free.

This site is powered by user-submitted info. If you know of a store offering free use of an air pump, but it doesn’t show on the FreeAirPump map, make sure to send it in!

Finding the Best Gas Prices

Here are various ways to use technology to find your best price on gasoline:

Dedicated Gas Search Tools

GasBuddy may be the best-known fuel-savings company, and boy howdy have they added lots of options and gimmicks to their site. You can skip all the hoopla, and just use their search tool or app, if you like.

Gas Guru is another search tool, only available as an app. The Yellow Pages is behind this tool and you can download the Android app here and the iOS app here.

GetUpside is a modified search app, that also grants you gas rebates (money back!) at select stations. So if you’re willing to go where GetUpside recommends to fill up, you can get some cash credited back to you.

GPS & Mapping Services

Mapquest is surprisingly convenient for eyeballing gas prices. Use it to view any map, and use the Gas button in the upper-left corner. Gas stations and gas prices will jump up off the page!

The Waze app (Android, iOS) is very quick to use to see local gas prices. Tap the Where To? field, and then tap Gas Stations. You now have a list of all the gas prices local to you.

Other Websites

Autoblog offers a no-nonsense gas price search tool.

Geico Insurance has a handy and uncluttered page for searching out gas prices.


If you have any other amazing ways to suss out the best fuel prices, please leave a comment or shoot me an email with your suggestions, thank you!

Naked DSL

In past decades, Internet Service Providers would sell DSL service with the requirement that you also purchase phone service. One service was linked to the other, and you were required to buy phone service if you wanted DSL.

Nowadays, ISPs usually do not have that requirement. You may now buy “Naked DSL” from your ISP and abstain from paying for traditional phone service.

Specifically, I can mention that a local ISP (Shentel) started offering Naked DSL in October 2015. They sent out a letter about it, but it was worded in a confusing and discouraging format. So this is your heads-up: Shentel customers do not need telephone service in order to have DSL internet service. You may discontinue your landline number, save some $$$ and still keep your DSL!

If you have DSL internet service with another provider, you can always contact their customer service folks to ask if they, too, allow for Naked DSL. Although, not everybody is comfy with that term, so you might instead call it Standalone DSL or “DSL without landline phone service.”

Amazon Prime Membership Fees

Amazon offers its Prime membership program to anyone for $12.99/mo or $119/yr. Besides offering free shipping on most purchases, it also includes video streaming, free music and more — you can explore all the benefits at this page.

But you should also know that Amazon offers a couple of exceptions to that price-point. If you’re a student, consider Amazon Prime Student for half the cost. The benefits are pared down, but still considerable.

The regular Amazon Prime is also available at half-price if you have an EBT card or Medicaid card. Check out this page to see if you qualify.

LibreOffice: Free Office Software

There are plenty of reasons to pay for Microsoft Office, but if you don’t have any, don’t immediately buy it. Try LibreOffice first– it’s legitimately free and can do almost everything that Word, Excel and PowerPoint can. You might just save $150 (for Microsoft Office 2019) or $70/yr (for Microsoft 365).

LibreOffice has been around for years, and is maintained by a non-profit company and nice tech community members. You can install LibreOffice on Windows, MacOSX and Linux machines. If you want an app for your mobile device, it looks like The Document Foundation recommends a partner company, Collabora, for that.

But to be absolutely clear: LibreOffice is a full-featured program that can stand-in for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It can open your existing Office files without changing or harming them. LibreOffice will open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files that are sent to you, allow you to edit & save them, and send them off to other Microsoft Office users.

There is no risk here, and if for any reason you don’t want LibreOffice after using it, you haven’t burned any bridges! You may uninstall LibreOffice at any time and move to another Office suite, without consequence.

Changing the File Type Defaults

Once you install LibreOffice, though, you should tweak a few settings, so that it saves your new files in Microsoft formats. By default, Libre offers to save your files in Open Document formats, which aren’t widely used. Follow these next steps to make sure that all of your new work will be compatible with everyone else:

  • Open LibreOffice and go to the Tools menu, then to Options.
  • On the left, click the Plus Sign next to Load/Save, then click General.
  • To the right, change ‘Document Type’ to ‘Text Document’.
    Set the ‘Always Save As’ field to ‘Word 2007-365 (*.docx)’.
  • Next, change ‘Document Type’ to ‘Spreadsheet’.
    Set the ‘Always Save As’ field to ‘Excel 2007-365 (*.xlsx)’.
  • Lastly, change ‘Document Type’ to ‘Presentation’.
    Set the ‘Always Save As’ field to ‘PowerPoint 2007-365 (*.pptx)’.
  • Click OK at the bottom, and you are done.

PS: MacOS users cannot go to Tools -> Options in these programs. Instead, go to LibreOffice -> Preferences, and then the rest of these instructions should line up.

How Much Internet Do I Really Need?

How Much Internet Do I Really Need?

“How Much Internet Do I Really Need?” I help people with this question every day.

Most Internet Service Providers have different prices & speeds of broadband to sell you. When it’s time to choose the right speed for your household, your ISP is the last person you should ask for advice. Why? Almost every internet company will upsell you and convince you to overspend on your internet.

You’ll want to make this choice on your own, or with help from someone who doesn’t benefit from the sale. Please consider my commentary below. Talk with other people you know and trust before picking/changing your internet speed. Consider this perspective from the Wall Street Journal. And don’t fret! ISPs should allow you to change your speed package, if you opted for something a little too slow or fast.

You don’t need as much bandwidth as your ISP claims!

I just took a “quiz” on Xfinity’s website, answering honestly about what I would do if I bought their cable internet. Yes, I have multiple computers. My family streams video. I have a lot of smart home devices on my Wi-Fi. Everyone in my family games online. They recommended I buy their 1G (1000Mbps) service for my lifestyle.

This was a stunner to me. I currently have 300Mbps service in my home, and have never felt the need for higher speed. And I know that Xfinity offers 50, 100, 200, 300 and 600Mbps in my region. But their website is full of dark patterns and they aim to conceal or discourage those more-affordable options. And I don’t mean to single out Comcast for this sneaky business practice: Shentel, Verizon and many other ISPs are guilty of this type of salesmanship.

Each household’s internet needs are different. You’ll want to take stock of your household tech and how heavily it draws on the internet, to know what speed to choose. Basic internet and email is not very demanding. And many of your smart home devices, like thermostats and smart bulbs, need very little bandwidth. Don’t factor them too heavily in your considerations.

What Requires the Most Bandwidth?

  • Streaming Video: Let’s start with any video streaming service you enjoy. A single Netflix movie, played back in UHD, is going to require 15Mbps. Other streaming services require between 3-25 Mbps to run well. So count up the members in your household who might be streaming at any time and multiply that by 15Mbps (or 25Mbps, if you want to estimate high). That amount of bandwidth should have you covered, in case all of them decide to all watch a different movie at the same time.
  • Online Gaming. If you have some gamers in your house, their bandwidth needs could be high. The lowest speed a gamer can get by on is 3Mbps, but most will excel with bandwidth in the 10-25Mbps range. So if you have 4 people connecting in the evening to various online games, you may need 100Mbps to keep them all connected and happy.
  • Cameras & Other Live Video: Got internet-connected security cameras? Doorbells that transmit live video? You can usually look up their internet needs on the manufacturer website, but just as an example: A Ring camera needs 2Mbps. Nest cameras can vary, but need no more than 4Mbps per camera. Going to video chat with other people? Skype recommends having 1.5Mbps for basic HD video calling, but upwards of 8Mbps if you’re roping many others into the same video call.

Run the Numbers

With all these examples in mind, imagine The Perfect Internet Storm, in your home. Visualize a day where you have maximum internet usage on all your heavy-hitting internet devices. Your teenager is gaming, while you watch a Netflix video and the spouse is Skyping with people on the Left Coast. All of that easily can be done with a 50Mbps or 100Mbps connection.

Add it all up, and you’ll come up with a much more realistic speed number than your ISP would have you buy. If you find you’re already overbuying on internet, you can call your ISP and ask to downgrade your speed. Chances are good it’ll work well and save you a lot of money.

Too much to think about? Try out this handy speed calculator tool from Consumer Reports. It’s not a perfect tool, but it makes this ballparking exercise easier and gets you close enough to the truth.

Dark Patterns: Auto-Renewal Traps

ABCMouse was recently punished by the FTC, to the tune of $10 million. They were fined for a variety of deceptive practices, including recurring charges to customer credit cards for membership renewals that were either not disclosed or difficult to terminate.

Auto-renewal traps are nothing new. ABCMouse is certainly a big name, but many other companies do business this way. They store your payment info and charge you periodically, even after you’ve stopped using the product. They sign you up for automatic payments, and create a confusing or complicated process for defeating that feature.

These dark patterns are widespread on the web, and I encounter them most commonly with antivirus companies and other software services. But to focus solely on auto-renewal traps, here’s what I can recommend:

  • Review your credit card statements every month, to catch unexpected charges.
  • Track down and disable any renewal options you don’t want, by logging in to your account at the relevant company website. Don’t remember your account password? Use the Forgot Password tool at that website to get logged in.
  • If using the website proves difficult, instead chat or call the company and ask for auto-renewal to be turned off. Expect that they will try to dissuade you. Repeat your request as often as you need to, don’t let them sidetrack you, but also don’t mistreat the agent. They are programmed to act in their way, and you should persist as you would against a stubborn computer.
  • When all else fails, or if you simply run short on patience or time, disconnect and then call your credit card company. Explain that you tried and failed to work with the company. Ask to dispute the renewal charge and they should promptly help you get your money back.

And if you feel any company is breaking the law or hurting people with their tactics, report it to the FTC.

Please Don’t Buy That Laptop

Just don’t. It’s a trap. No good can come of it. It’ll all end in tears. Please don’t buy that laptop.

I’m talking about the Windows laptops that are out there for $200 (or less). I call them traptops. They look and sound awesome, from the marketing! Especially on Black Friday or Prime Day, but you can find them everyday, sold and promoted by Amazon, Wal*Mart and eBay.

If you want an exhaustive write-up on how bad these laptops are, check out this article over at Ars Technica:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/we-bought-walmarts-140-laptop-so-you-wouldnt-have-to/

But here are the problems more concisely: manufacturers can’t build a $200 laptop to run Windows 10 properly. For $200, a Chromebook would be great, but Windows 10 demands a lot more of the hardware.

In a $200 traptop, the 32GB of storage is too small for Windows 10. Yes, the manufacturer can cram Win10 in there, but the first updates from Microsoft will gobble the remaining free space on the drive. Within a few days of you unboxing the computer, you’ll be seeing messages about “Low Disk Space on Drive: C.” For a Windows computer, I would suggest 128GB or more for the main storage drive.

The RAM is the next shortcoming. 2GB is enough in a Chromebook, but not for Windows 10. 4GB is enough for very basic needs on Windows, but I personally recommend 8GB of RAM or more to run Windows.

There are more downsides to these laptops, but the final nail in the coffin is that they are usually non-upgradeable. I’ve torn into some of these laptops to find that the storage drive is soldered to the motherboard (not removable). Or the system cannot accept more RAM. This means that even a professional technician will be unable to improve the PC for you.

I see solidly-built Windows computers available for $400-600 these days. Plan on spending in that range. If your budget only allows for $200, then please consider a Chromebook.

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