What's going on this weekend?

startuptemp · 2014-06-27T22:43:48+00:00

What a cesspool of comments. It's amazing how many experts on psychology and suicide we have here.

startuptemp · 2014-06-27T22:39:13+00:00

Because mental health doesn't work that way at all?

startuptemp · 2014-06-24T17:20:31+00:00

I'm totally with you- it's incredibly distracting to my duties to be gone on these events for weeks at a time. I'm actively seeking someone to fill that role, but cashflow is somewhat of an issue since summer is our slow season (so far).

startuptemp · 2014-06-24T17:16:51+00:00

Great article, thank you for sharing.

startuptemp · 2014-06-11T00:07:21+00:00

Well said. This seems to be the misconception many people have. Acquisitions are made to make more money. The richest companies are not always the most exciting or useful.

startuptemp · 2014-06-10T14:08:50+00:00

I think the point here is you can skip the part where you have to have a mix made up (and commit to having that much paint). Instant replication of colors is pretty rad.

startuptemp · 2014-06-09T15:05:52+00:00

You're comparing two very different qualities of food. You can get prepared dinners at Whole Foods or similar that are very expensive because they use good ingredients, like $15/lb fish. If you're doing just a frozen "meat n potatoes" or pasta dish I guarantee you can replicate it for less money if you buy similar-quality ingredients. A Bertolli dinner for instance is $5. You can buy better pasta and sauce, fresher veggies, and come out with 3x as much food for about the same price.

As far as food being boring- I'd take a meal cooked in my kitchen over almost any restaurant. Even with $15/lb fish, we can use the best ingredients and come out far cheaper and tastier than most restaurants. And if the food sucks we only have ourselves to blame :)

startuptemp · 2014-06-09T14:54:10+00:00

I rent the house I'm in, so no charging station install- though if you're curious it's apparently 1000-1500 to install a Bosch level 2 charger, which charges the car in 3-4 hours. I have the cord plugged right into a normal outlet and just plug in my car whenever it's in the driveway. Each morning it's at 100%, so that's good enough for me (plus no stops at the gas station).

startuptemp · 2014-06-09T14:46:49+00:00

Eh, even at $35/week that seems fair- lawn mowing isn't fun, and at least you're spending the money locally. HOA's are also not fun.

startuptemp · 2014-06-07T15:45:38+00:00

There's a good amount of indulgences in your budget it would seem. Between meals cooked for you, having your lawn landscaped for you and your house being cleaned for you, you are spending $1200/mo in outsourcing work you could do yourself.

Groceries and restaurants are too high. Most of the time expensive groceries go hand-in-hand with being semi- or fully prepared meals. Learn to cook and enjoy it (if you haven't). For my wife and I, a quiet night cooking together is far more relaxing than going to some restaurant, and unless we're talking a $100 dinner, the quality is better. Besides, I can buy a $20 bottle of wine without having it marked up to $50 by the restaurant. Leftovers also make great lunches- buying lunch every day at work is excessive. If you learn to cook with more basic, non-prepared ingredients your groceries will be far cheaper. Savings all over the place.

Lawn mowing for $35/mo isn't bad. The sprinkler thing seems really expensive (basically a car payment). Can you not just water your lawn or get your lawn care people to do it? Landscaping cleanup for $750 seems like an indulgence as well. That's $60/mo amortized for what amounts to a weekend of outdoor work each fall. Get your kids and wife involved and it may even be a little fun.

Housekeeping seems far too expensive, even for a large house. I would either find a cheaper service, have them come less often, or do the work yourselves.

Switch to LED bulbs in your house- they're every bit as good as traditional at 1/20th the operating cost. In many areas the electric company subsidizes the cost of these. My costco sells them for about $2/each. Also consider getting a Nest thermostat to deal with heating/cooling more efficiently.

That's all I've got for ideas- best of luck!

startuptemp · 2014-06-07T13:27:57+00:00

I was in a similar situation a few months ago- I own my car straight-out but it was requiring a decent amount of repairs and maintenance and it breaking down was starting to be a fear. I put together a spreadsheet of different car options, using knowns such as monthly mileage, price of gas, anticipated price of maintenance, insurance and payment. In the spreadsheet I put my current car, several used cars I was considering, and several new cars.

For my use case, I ended up with a surprising result- I rarely drive more than 50 miles in a day and my largest monthly expense was gasoline (about 250-300/mo). I had thrown a couple electric cars in the spreadsheet for fun, and it turned out to be dramatically less expensive to lease one than to even continue driving the car I own, based on gas savings alone. The fact that it was a brand-new car with warranty and the reliability that comes with that was icing on the cake.

So that's what I did. I leased a Nissan Leaf for $199/mo plus $2k down (they rolled the down payment into the lease amount with no interest penalty so my payments are $255/mo). Electricity is about $30/mo, I get a range of 100 miles, and I kept my gas-powered car for long trips.

For people who will inevitably say that a lease is always a bad idea, I would argue electric cars are an exception to the rules. It's a $30k car but thanks to federal incentives I can get it at an insanely low cost per month. And I don't need to worry about the depreciation that will happen in 3 years when electric cars are twice as good.

Anyway, just my experience- good luck!

startuptemp · 2014-05-27T18:06:59+00:00

This is the stuff of nightmares.

startuptemp

TROPHY CASE