Pennies are Useless - Let's Pinch 'em Anyway!!

John Green and Wheezy Waiter, and others I'm sure, have said that pennies are useless, and I would agree. Unless you have a personal vendetta against someone, or are trying to get the ultimate retribution for paying a fine of any kind, pennies are utterly useless. But that's not why I'm writing this blog entry, I could take another post and write my thoughts on the confusingly beloved Lincoln Cent Piece. But I'm using it as a clever segue for this:

I have recently looked at my US Cellular bill for this month, and was sticker shocked to discover what we are really paying. I'm not going to get into how I've had a cell phone with US Cellular for oh say 6 years, and only now am discovering how much it truly costs. Suffice it to say that is one good thing on the side of US Cellular, I would have had no phone quite frequently. Anyhoobastank, so my current cell phone bill cut today. Now I cannot look at the schematics of it yet but I can say we have not gone over on data, so this bill should have been a normal bill. Eyes got wide when I saw $152, let me tell you.

Now I've been mulling over the possibility of switching over to Cricket wireless. I've heard nothing but good things about them, and you can't really argue with the $35/month price tag. No I am not being sponsored to write this, but I'm a research oriented individual, and I've scoured the internet looking for reviews and comparisons between Cricket and US Cellular, and unless I haven't dug deep enough (my Google Search History might beg to differ), I haven't found much, if anything. So that is why I'm writing this. If you have US Cellular, and are thinking about switching...keep watch on this blog. Starting next week, I will be taking my line from US Cellular and switching it to Cricket, and leaving my wife's at US Cellular, as she just got a new phone recently and I cannot afford to buy out the $444 plan (I guess the new way to get you into a contract??)

One thing of experience to share, is I went into the US Cellular store and told them what I was thinking of doing, and trying to get an estimate of how much going down to one line was going to cost. Now the lady was super nice, and she did tell me to contact Customer Service, because they specialize in retention, and might be able to cut me a discount to retain me as a customer. My first thought to that is, if you have to have a department specializing in that...shouldn't you just offer lower prices to begin with? Maybe (okay definitely) I'm naive, but why should one have to threaten to leave a provider just because their bill is too high and they're finally able to see it for what it is, not just pay it and go "It is what it is"...I hate that phrase by the way.

SO, what I'm going to do with this is compare the services, with frequent (or as frequent as I can) updates regarding service and coverage between the two providers, because for the time being that's what I'm going to have to do. But I'll say this also: Two lines on a shared plan, with 6 GB of data, and insurance on one phone, runs you about $150-160 at US Cellular. Dropping down to one individual line, at 3 GB of data, it was estimated that my bill will only drop to about $88 (whether that's before or after taxes I don't know). Meanwhile, a similar plan from Cricket will run me just $35. Well, $40 but I will be using the auto-pay option to get a discounted rate. Still...combined with the US Cellular bill of (estimated) $88, that brings me to $123. I'm told that Cricket's taxes and what not are already built into the price of the plan so it's basically a flat $35 ($40). I'll update that as well.

On paper, it would seem that I'll be the one with the better coverage, as Cricket uses AT&T's network. US Cellular's network is primarily in the Midwest. The true test will be when the family and I venture to Alabama later this summer, and also when we go up north over 4th of July. But to have that side by side comparison...relieves some of the natural anxiety I'm feeling that "What if I make the wrong choice? Which do I choose?" But to save at first, about $30/month? Why not? And then after that to basically cut my cell bill in half...I mean it's a no-brainer. That's a box of Pull Ups for my 2 year old. It's a night out at a restaurant, or a pizza delivery, or $30 per month going into savings for upcoming trips.

I'm not saying I hate US Cellular, don't get me wrong. They've been really good to me over the last 6 years, and maybe that's where my hesitation, or at least part of it, comes in. But this way, if they suck...I can always come back because it's a no-contract kind of deal. Win-Win? We shall see....stay tuned.

In other penny-pinching news, so I have returned the antenna that I had purchased in the last entry. Sad to see it go, but happy to get my $50 back instead of have a stylishly-curvy paperweight sitting right next to my TV or up on a bookshelf or in a window. I have taken the first step of cable freedom and signed up for Netflix. For my family, it seems like a logical choice, as we are not major TV watchers. My oldest already knows how to do Netflix so if I'm too old to figure it out, he can show me I'm sure. I'm debating now between Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. I do like the Amazon Prime option (also not a sponsor, and neither is Netflix or anything else I mention in this blog...if I was being sponsored, I wouldn't have to write a blog about penny pinching now would I?) because for $8,25/month, I can get the video option plus the free 2 day shipping on orders...which interests me, because in the last month I've probably spend $30 in shipping costs alone. But in return I've gotten a manual coffee grinder, a Wisconsin State Flag, and 3 books. So yeah I'd probably make use of free shipping...further research is required but all of that, since it's involving Penny Pinching...will be discussed here.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Stay tuned for further updates!

Little Townhouse on the Prairie Part 2 - Sprouts and Signals, Ahoy Ahoy

In which we awake to discover sprouts!!! At the time of this writing 10 days have passed since I planted my seeds in the hopes of starting an urban farming adventure. I now have little sprouts of everything. Inch high sunflowers complete with two leaves, two inch high pea sprouts all in a haphazard row, and 3 inch high bean sprouts that seemed to just pop up overnight. I'm told by a very knowledgeable source that peas like the cooler weather which we have had lately, and abundant rain the last week to foster the growth.

How much rain you might ask? Well the truth is I don't know, because I don't have a rain gauge. Something Aaron says is important to have for a garden to know how much rain your crops are getting. Avoid over or under watering and all that. It's on my list along with shepherd's hooks to hang garden goodies on. 

In other news, we are doing the adult thing and sending out change of address cards, complete with our new phone number. Our home phone number. That's right we have opted to get a home phone line through Basic Talk, a Walmart-esque offering of Vonage. So if the power goes out I'm still screwed. But you can't argue with $10 a month. Not to mention I was afforded a numberphile's dream of basically picking my phone number out of all the possible area codes (except of course for new ones including but not limited to Wisconsin's new 534 area code). So I dated to be different and I have a 262 area code. And the best part - the exchange adds up to 15, and the last 4 also add up to 15. It's a cribbage playing numberphile's dream! You can laugh now.

In other other news, yesterday I bought an indoor HD antenna in an effort to keep from having to worship the copper wire cable gods by offering them the oh so low free will gift of $1500 a year. Excitedly I hooked it up to my TV, which first disappointed me by the remote not working and yes. Yes I did put fresh batteries in. Anyhoobastank, so I hooked up the antenna and did a search for channels. Three times. And each of those times got nothing. Irritated, I moved the position of the antenna to a high point in the room between two windows. Did several channel scans and received now anywhere from 1 to a dozen channels. So okay, I thought. Better than nothing. I look to see what channels are afforded me. The result was a frozen WFRV CBS 5 out of Green Bay. A pixelated WBAY TV2 ABC out of Green Bay. Followed by three different PBS's from Green Bay, and a handful of Spanish speaking channels. Now I'm no Donald Trump supporter here with a vendetta against my Hispanic friends, and I can speak Spanish mind you, but not that fast. And I certainly can't comprehend what is being said with as fast as fluent speakers speak it. The last time I watched Spanish TV was in 2004 when I watched Telemundo's telenovela "Gitanas" (who if translates to Gypsies) I will admit that I did enjoy the theatrics of the show but 12 years of being removed from that one time viewing, I mean whatever happened to the characters? So now, it's going to be a combination of Netflix and Hulu plus or Amazon Prime for this household. I don't need super premium yum yum TV from cable with 900 channels of I will never watch this. It's like putting me in front of a football field size dessert table. I'll never eat it all even though there's a bunch of fun things to eat. And I definitely don't want to pay upwards of $150 a month to be afforded access to said desserts. It's just too much on all accounts. Plus I have a Roku box which gives me access to among other things, Netflix. Yes I'll take the card table sized dessert table access for $25 a month. Considering I already have the hardware, why not? Alas, it's back to Target to return the antenna. Thank God for the 29 day return policy. Why 29 days though? What kind of arbitrary number is that? Overthinking is one of my strong suits.

So I was going to include pictures in this entry but I think what I will do is make a separate entry just for them. That way I can publish this now, and let you all read it.

Dedicated to the WWWA

I am a man on what I call a "Never-ending Quest for Knowledge"...and I do mean never-ending. Any kind of knowledge, useless or otherwise; I am what some people might so eloquently call, a "knowledge whore". Secession Talk in Scotland? I want to know about it...and then on top of that I want to know of other secession movements, past or present, especially in the United States; this evolves into wanting to know how the states got their shapes, which, by they way there's a few interesting books and a TV show about...But I Digress... (see how i did that, even after 2 years? [c.f. my blog entry "But I Digress"])

The Beauty of an ADD/OCD/Aspy brain is that one gets to obsess about a different thing each day...or week...or more...depends on what the topic is and how hard one's attention span is focused on it. Usually though, at least a few times a year I will come back to that particular topic; Family History is a big perennial topic of mine, for example. Dig my use of the semi-colon with this post, huh!?

**[insert subtle segue here]**

The self-proclaimed Wicked Witch of West Allis found her dancing shoes 5 days after my birthday this year, and is dancing with Jesus as we speak. The whole thing is somewhat of a blur to me, everything happened so fast. At Midnight, I was told that she was being put on comfort measures, and that she did not have long. By 1:30, she was at the Ball meeting her dance partner. I got the call, and suddenly there was no one left standing in the hall. I never realized until just recently how pertinent Stevie Nick's words were to my life at that moment in time, and thus her song has an entirely new meaning for me. In fact I'm listening to the song as I type.

Since the inception of this blog, along with my "never-ending quest for knowledge", I have also discovered a lot about myself--overlooked facts, character traits (both good and not so good), pieces of my very essence that I'd never realized before. I've also learned to recognize my quirks, and to love them. The Idiom Idiocy, the Numbers Mysticism, The Even-Numbered Pattern Program and the like...I've learned to use them for my advantage, to become the "force of nature" it has become my mission to be.

At the Homily for my grandmother, Father Augustine had said that Grandma had a "magic knife", in that there was always enough food for everyone--and they had a family of 8 to feed at one point in time--and no one was ever in want of a need. That struck a chord with me. Since Grandma left for the dance, I've tried to emulate her, and thus I say I have a "Magic Spoon", in honor of her. I cook a lot of One-Pot meals that always leave enough for others, or for leftovers. I've definitely learned how to make just $60 of groceries stretch over two weeks, $100 stretch over four, and none of us have gone hungry, or are in want of a need. I've also learned to go back to basics...why spend $4 for a box of crackers when you can spend a fraction of that and make your own? They'll undoubtedly have less preservatives and GMOs and what have you, and really it's not that hard.

Most Moms and Grandmas, even some Dads and Grandpas, are famous for one thing. "Grandma makes the best Peanut Butter cookies, no one makes them like her..." I have recently discovered what I will most undoubtedly become "famous" for. Crackers. My children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (if my wish of living to at least the ripe old age of 117 holds up), will know me best for my cracker making. Truly it all started with less than $2 in our checking account, and our pantry in need of some sort of snack type thing. I've become an advocate for buying local, making it myself, and with the crackers, there are so many possibilities...I knew we had flour, I figured crackers couldn't be hard to make...why pay $4 a box when you don't have to (or can't, for that matter)? Same holds true for coffee creamer and butter (although the latter almost killed my food processor).

Self-sufficiency isn't hard, and if you're hell-bent on doing it, you'll find a way to make it work. You don't have to go to all the specialty stores and buy only organic flour that was pressed and ground by an elephant's hoof and picked by 47 children in the Garden of Eden (if you go there you're bound to get wet). I may start a separate blog with my new-found Self Sufficient recipes, as well as recipes I'm dreaming up that are still in their beta stages..though with the rate I've been posting blogs, don't expect it till early 2016...I exaggerate, of course.

Love your quirks. Don't ever let anyone make you feel any less of a person for them. I am not quite to the point about not giving a flying fart what people think of me, but I'm pretty close. You have your family, and those who love you for you, really who else are you out there to impress, a bunch of fake people that are secretly judging you? Those who look down their noses at you for who you are or where you come from? You do you, and if that's not enough then there is just no pleasing them...don't ever think you need to live up to anyone else's expectations on this earth. There's only One whose example we should follow, and He happens to be my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I say again, love your quirks. Don't change a thing. Be You. Do You. Quirks and all. After all, you wouldn't BE you without them. Why be a carbon copy of every other Joe walking the streets where you live? Be You. Do You. Love the things that others will (undoubtedly) find "less than perfect"...after all, that's what we all are. Less Than Perfect. The One Perfect One died for all your real imperfections, so really what have you got to lose?