Comments on: 11 Things We All Buy, But Don’t Need

By: Festival of Frugality | Frugal Upstate

Festival of Frugality | Frugal Upstate — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:23:36 +0000

[...] presents 11 Things We All Buy, But Don’t Need posted at The Dough [...]

By: Save Money Hound

Save Money Hound — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:52:35 +0000

Good list of ways to save money on items we don’t really need to buy. I like the library for borrowing books, CDs and DVDs. Exchanging books with other friends is also another good way to save on buying books and also frequenting second hand libraries and discards from your local library.

By: Adam@RabbitFunds

Adam@RabbitFunds — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:17:09 +0000

This is a great list. I’m guilty of several of those…

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:52:24 +0000

Congratulations on the 21st anniversary!

Great list. Oddly, I’ve found that the programmable thermostat has resulted in higher power bills, not lower. This has been true two months out of three — last month by a large margin. Apparently I was doing better with the analog thermostat, leaving the air conditioner off until it was too hot to breathe and then turning it on at the warmest tolerable setting, than with relying on a computer chip to do the job.

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:39:33 +0000

As to #11 and Craig’s comments, I would suggest a more thorough look into the library. I do live in an urban area so our library system may be more advanced and offer more features than others, but in our library you can request books, CDs and DVDs (to buy) and have books from other libraries (including the big “central” one on the other side of town) put on hold for you for free. Our library also makes all back-issues of magazines available for checkout as the new months come in. If I read anything I want a copy of, etc. I can wait for the next month and check it out and make whatever photocopies I want (clearly I’m far too frugal to pay 10 cents for each copy!)

I have a friend who buys books because she wants to “build a library” and ostensibly likes seeing lots of books around her. I have the same thing and can visit it any time I want for free.

My library is an *amazing* resource. I’m willing to best most everyone else’s is at least pretty good.

By: DR

DR — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:06:47 +0000

Dee, I remember that article well. The question remains, however, whether it is worth buying insurance to cover those types of fees. If I can afford to pay for the fees should I get into an accident, I would not buy insurance to cover those fees. Just my two cents!

By: Dee

Dee — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:39:53 +0000

Re: rental car insurance

JD at Get Rich Slowly had a post a while back about getting into a car accident in a rental car. Some comments suggested that getting the rental insurance is important because there are some fees that are typically tacked on that your insurance probably won’t cover. And the “secondary” part of the credit card insurance may indicate that it only kicks in after yours, which leaves you with the deductible. If you just pay for the rental car insurance, you hand them the keys and walk away.

By: Zeke2040

Zeke2040 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:47:39 +0000

I agree with you on the extended warranties. Many years ago, I used to work for Sears and we were encouraged to sell warranties and sign people for credit cards more than actually selling products. In extremely rare cases where the warranties come with a service agreement that will do preventative maintenance or cover accidental damage they might be worth it for some people. However, most of the time the average person will forget to even take advantage of this benefit, and it is just a 100% profit for the company selling it.

Also, great mention with the magazine subscription. This is one I struggle with as well. I LOVE magazines and I pay full news stand price on all of them month after month. Time for a subscription.

Thanks!

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:49:49 +0000

Per discussion of not paying rental car insurance, I use to rent cars every weekend because I was trying to save up for a new car. Just remember your policy may cover an accident, but you still would have to pay a deductible just like it was your car. Then your insurance may go up on a car that wasn’t yours. Worse yet, your policy doesn’t cover an accident. Just a thought because most people decline insurance without fully thinking about it.

By: Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:08:00 +0000

#9 Rings all too well for me. I can recall a two week period where I racked up over 20 overdraft fees totaling over $600.

My multi-billion dollar bank was nice enough to refund me $32 that month. Ugh.