Fluorescent light bulbs have been around for a long time, but there are still a lot of households that don’t use them. They should.
Let’s do a back-of-the-envelope calculation about how much one of these bulbs is worth.
Assume that we replace a traditional 100-watt traditional incandescent bulb with a 23-watt fluorescent bulb. The traditional bulb costs $0.50 and lasts for 2,000 hours of light, whereas the fluorescent bulb costs $X and gives 10,000 hours of light. Electricity in Applied-Genius land costs $0.135 per kilowatt-hour these days (twice the 1999 rate!) Finally, assume for the sake of argument that you’re flat broke and would have to buy the bulbs on your credit card, paying 20% APR for the privilege. Solving for the price $X that exactly equalizes the cost of doing it the old incandescent-bulb way vs. the new fluorescent-bulb way gives us the Net Present Value of buying an incandescent bulb.
The Net Present Value of buying a fluorescent bulb under these assumptions is – ready? – a little over $72. For each bulb. If your money’s worth only 8%, the NPV rises to $90+. For each bulb.
At Amazon, these 100-watt replacements are $17 for a 4-pack. At these prices, your NPV exceeds your cost for an gain of $271 per 4-pack. In other words, buying a houseful (20 bulbs) is like winning $1355 in the lottery (and you don’t even need to pay taxes on it!) And that’s ASSUMING that you need to pay the outrageous 20% interest on your card.
[quote]yorik wrote:
chinadoll wrote:
Sorry, nosy again. Wouldn’t it feel like a condom, only in reverse? My thought about realdoll is that it’s like one of those blow up life preservers that kids use? Correct me if I’m wrong.
A condom in reverse? OK, try this. Put on a tight latex examination glove. Now pick up a raw, room temperature chicken breast (or something else soft, of your choosing) and caress it with the examination hand. You might even put some coconut oil on the chicken breast, for enhanced pleasure. Now take off the tight examination glove and wrap the chicken breast tightly in Saran wrap. Put some warm oil on the Saran wrap and fondle the chicken breast with your bare hands. Is there a difference?
And if you do try this, let us guys know what you think. Or send us a picture. (LOL!)[/quote]
OMG.
Is that what women feel like, raw chicken breast? Now, I’m intrigued.
Is that what women feel like, raw chicken breast? Now, I’m intrigued.[/quote]
Raw meat is raw meat, right? Besides, I would think an emergency nurse knows what everybody feels like by now. At least with a glove on. Outside the ER, well, who knows?
[quote]blooey wrote:
Habitual wrote:
Started this not long ago.
If you buy something that is, lets say, $10.01, dont dig for the penny. Pay 11.00 and take the change and throw it in a big bowl or jug when you get home. Do this with each purchace and at the end of the week I guarantee you, you will be suprised at how much money you have. My wife and I started 6 mos ago, we have filled up 3 water cooler jugs " the ones you turn upside down and place in water cooler" with change I am sure there is a shizz load of money. Simple, but it works. We are going to a local Coinstar and cash it in, can you imagine the looks on peoples faces when I roll up with some water coolers full of coins.
Interesting, but don’t services like Coinstar charge a certain percentage to convert the coins to bills? It seems it would be easier to just be a more disciplined saver (though I guess that if you have problems saving money in the first place, this is not a bad idea).[/quote]
The change thing works nicely for people that don’t save. It also helps add a little extra for those that can and do save. But avoid Coinstar and other machines like that, especially if you are converting a significant amount of money. I believe they charge around 9 cents per dollar. Two hundred dollars in change will end up costing you close to $20. Instead, get some coin rolls, then go home and roll the change yourself. Then you can cash it at any bank.
Is that what women feel like, raw chicken breast? Now, I’m intrigued.
Raw meat is raw meat, right? Besides, I would think an emergency nurse knows what everybody feels like by now. At least with a glove on. Outside the ER, well, who knows?
[/quote]
Realdoll has never visited the ER, SURPRISINGLY. And if Realdoll is ever involved in an emergent situation, I will paint my nekkid body silver and streak down Waikiki during rush hour.
And some of the best ER nurses/docs are extremely innocent (NOT me, by a longshot)…
[quote]chinadoll wrote:
And if Realdoll is ever involved in an emergent situation, I will paint my nekkid body silver and streak down Waikiki during rush hour. [/quote]
[quote]nephorm wrote:
chinadoll wrote:
And if Realdoll is ever involved in an emergent situation, I will paint my nekkid body silver and streak down Waikiki during rush hour.
[quote]PGJ wrote:
jedidiah wrote:
For the fellow college students that are buying textbooks: e-mail your profs, find out the texts and half.com that shit. Serously, the campus bookstoresa are taking you for a ride.
I’ve probably saved 600-800 dollars in two semesters by buying textbooks online.
NEVER, NEVER buy new books for college. Then sell them back to Amazon.com
[/quote]
I actually got all my textbooks from Amazon\eBay and sold them back to the on-campus bookstore for profit.
God bless America.
I really don’t have any easy ways to save money that haven’t already been mentioned.
One way to save money would be to stop spending it. That’s 100% fool proof right there.
Since making money is as important as saving money–IMO traditional savings accounts have gone the way of the dinosaur–don’t let your money just sit there at 2% or whatever!! Make it work! Put your savings directly into an online brokerage (Etrade,etc.)where you can decide what to do with it later–open up a Roth IRA, put it in a mutual fund, bond fund, whatever.
Only down side is they usually charge an inactivity fee if you don’t make at least one transaction every quarter. But if you invest a little bit regularly you will be sittin’ pretty in 30 years(I think Scottrade doesn’t have these fees?). Any financial experts out there with more sage advice?
Don’t watch tv. It will make your life better. Instead do something active or read. Or if you have to, go watch at a friend’s place.
Buy a few books and read up on the internet on everything around home improvement, and/or follow a course in central heating and plumbing. You will save thousands of dollars when you can do it yourself.
Be sure to befriend self-employed people in every line of work. They can get you products without tax, because them being self-employed allows them direct access to the supplier. This will earn you a lot of money in the long(and short)run.
When you have enough friends, and you leech of them one by one, no one will ever see what kind of cheap punk you really are.
Get to know a lot people and find out what they can do. You’d be amazed how much people are dying just to give their help to someone they think deserves it. I have friends coming over and redecorating my place, another friend fixes my plumbing and central heating(when I can’t do it myself - or I need the products cheaper), another one repares my computer … these my all seem like really trivial things, but it adds up.
Get to know a teacher in car repairement(is there a correct word for this?)in a high school.
These kids HAVE TO work on cars all day, and you only have to pay for the material they use(and sometimes you don’t)and they repair your car for free.
Now, for some things you have to see the manufacturer, and this of course can’t be handled(usually)by those students, but dents, broken windschields or windows, scratches, or all other “minor” things can usually be fixed by them.
I had my paint redone and the door replaxed on the right side of my car and all it costs me was a few beers.
They had the door and the paint at hand, at said it wouldn’t cost me a thing, they’d make it their project.
[quote]andytipton wrote:
Any financial experts out there with more sage advice?[/quote]
I don’t know your investment horizon, your risk tolerance, or your goals but maybe adding Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) to your mix could be of help.
Yeah, after a while, it teaches suckers like me how to negotiate win-win or nothing. Greedy people are #1 to teach sellers never to sell themselves short, 'cause there’s always one greedy person who will take advantage of the situation (“Your price is not my problem.”). I have to thank greedy people and Mr. Market for teaching me a lesson that will save me thousands over the next years.
