Gold standard

Microwaves. Air-conditioning. A computer. Must-haves, now, luxuries, then. An article in MSN Finance tells how to be a great-grandmother with your finances and save big with the flashback budget.

The only part of the article I found silly was the idea of cutting back to one car per family. Maybe that was OK back when women didn't work outside the home. These days, with the exception of a few major cities (San Francisco, New York, Chicago) and those few people who telecommute every day, each working adult in a family needs a vehicle to get to a job.

I found other parts of the article delightfully time-synchronous -- for example, smaller homes are certainly more possible now that we have flat-screen TVs and flat-screen computer monitors. Now if those high-tech items just cost smaller dollars....

Cell me about it

Do you have old cell phones sitting in drawers or cabinets? Maybe you mean to take them to the police station to use for that program for women who are victims of domestic violence or maybe you plan to take them to Best Buy or Office Depot for recycling, but forget each time to actually go to the store.

Here's a trio of great-grandmotherly motivators to do the right thing -- store credit, cash or a charity.

See, Flipswap (http://flipswap.com/) lets you trade in your old phone one of three ways:

• Credit from a nearby dealer (the Web site has a locator)
• Cash through an online trade-in (after entering information online, Flipswap sends you the box to send in your phone and then sends you a check)
• A charitable donation through an online trade-in (works the same as the cash to you, only the check goes to the charity)

The company then sells the phones to people who want them, usually in poorer countries. Reduce, reuse, recycle -- what a great call!

Waste Not

I'm a security-minded person and waste irritates me. So, those credit card soliciations that already have my name and other information printed on them make me nuts -- they are a waste of paper and ink, not to mention a drag on the mail system and potential for identity thieves.

While preparing to shred a half dozen of them today, I noticed an opt-out number to "no longer receive prescreened offers of credit." Whoo-hoo! I'd read an article a while ago about the number to call and that the number actually works, but I'd lost the article before writing it down.

I wasn't going to procrastinate this time, so I called: 1-888-567-8688.

There is only a computer voice and you have to input some pretty sensitive information -- name, address, date of birth, social security number. That last one gave me pause but, if the credit offers are based on my credit report, which is based on my social security number, it does makes sense they need the SSN to verify my identity.

Now that I've gone through the opt-out process, I'll hopefully stop getting those darned offers. The computer voice told me it could take a few weeks for the process to be complete. When it is, I think both I -- and my mailman -- will be grateful.

Mixing green with green

Like so many of us, I try to live green, but sometimes I'm afraid things touted as "green" are really no better than the energy-hogging alternatives. The recent kerfuffle over CFLs and mercury didn't help my jitters, even though CFLs were exonerated.

Thank goodness MSN is helping sort out the hype with its "Which Green Upgrades Are Worth the Extra Expense?" article. A little annoying to read since the article requires a click-through to get to each new topic, I still found the explanations ("assumptions," the article calls them) for how the reporter arrived at the money-savings to be quite, well, illuminating.

If you're pressed for time, the article's last page, a chart of potential money savings, is the quickest way to gain information.

Oh, and if you looking for me, I'll be out buying a low-flow showerhead.

Stories

In the last few days, I met two people in passing who confirmed the whole "great-grandmother's shopping list" concept.

The first was a gentleman at the garage, a big and tall man, maybe in his early 60s. He said when gas hit $3 a gallon, he began walking or biking to work. He said it was a 40-minute walk or a 20-minute bike ride each way. He said at first he was angry and missed driving his van. But, as time went by, he said he began enjoying the extra time between work and home and the interaction with nature. (It looked like most of his ride would be along busy streets, but he said there was nature to be found.)

This gentleman also said he has lost 12 pounds so far, has had his lowest blood pressure readings in years and his arthritis in his knees is vastly improved.

"The way things are going, now I'm gonna outlive my ex-wife," he said. "Serves her right."

The second person I met in passing was a clerk at a big-box store, probably about the same age as my garage gentleman. She admired by BYOBs and mentioned her mother came to this country from Germany.

"Over there, they never used this plastic stuff," she said, pointing to the store-emblazoned bags on her side of the counter. "I'm glad people here are getting sensible."

It sure is "greener" on the "sensible" side of the fence these days!

Handy Craft

Maybe it's because I like thinking I'm more than a cog in America's retail machine, but I love having unique things - the scarf I crocheted myself, the necklace a friend made for me, even the long skirt I bought at a chain store but then got hemmed to be a knee-length skirt. (It's something!)

I also like to buy local. Why enrich some factory owner in China when I can enrich an individual craftsman in my community or, at least, my country?

Enter Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/.

I think my great-grandmothers would have adored this handmade item online marketplace (and not just because each of my great-grandmothers was, herself, excellent at needlework). Among the ways potential buyers Etsy can search or sort are by the type of craft, the area where the craftperson lives, the colors in the craft or traits of the intended recipient. Sometimes, to get inspired for my own projects, I hit "refresh" to see the updates (every 15 seconds!) to the "recently listed items" part of the site.

I don't know much about listing through the service but it looks like it is free to set up a virtual storefront, 20 cents an item to list and a 3.5 percent commission on sales. Even a frugal great-grandma could probably handle those prices!

Sound off

Ah, spring is upon us! Colorful flowers, frolicking bunnies, noisy leaf-blowers.

Arrrrrrgh.

Yes, I am a card-carrying leaf-blower hater. (Well, I would carry a card if someone issued them. I am considering founding a leaf blower-hating activist group. Perhaps WHALE? We Hate All Leaf-blower Elements.)

Our great-grandmothers (well, more likely our great-grandfathers, but that’s not the name of this blog) would have done this exact task – leaf gathering – via a method that is nearly silent, requires no gasoline and is more efficient. Namely, a rake for leaves in the yard or a broom for leaves in the street.

If quietness, lack of pollution and a better end result aren’t enough for you, there are even more reasons not to use the leaf-blower, courtesy of U.S. News and World Report:

Leaf blowers throw mold, allergens and dust particles into the air at high velocities, potentially worsening health problems like asthma and lung irritation.

Using the leaf blower for an hour uses about 140 calories. In the same amount of time, raking can burn about 325 calories.

The initial investment in a rake ($25) is one-twentieth of the cost of buying a leaf-blower ($500). Not to mention the leaf-blower’s later need for gasoline or electricity.

So, if you use a leaf-blower, please stop. If you know someone who uses a leaf-blower, please show that person this blog or the U.S. News and World Report article. Together, we can be a mighty WHALE.

Boo!

Is phantom energy haunting your electric bill?

Phantom energy - also called phantom load, standby power or vampire power – is the electricity consumed by a device when it is turned off.

That’s right – when it’s turned off. Our great-grandmothers may have used radios that took time to “warm up,” but that was because the radio wasn’t in constant “ready” mode. Today’s televisions and computer monitors pull power when plugged into the wall, as does anything with a digital clock display, such as the microwave, DVD player and coffee maker. Anything with a thicker-than-usual plug, such as a charger for a cellphone, laptop, power tool or hand-held vacuum, is among the worst offenders.

Luckily, this is a problem even great-grandma could have solved pretty intuitively – unplug the offending appliance when you’re not using it. It wasn’t hard for me to get used to unplugging my cellphone charger when I’m not actually charging my phone. It’s been a bit tougher to remember to plug and unplug the TV, but it’s worth the improvement to my electric bill. (Some people buy power strips they can switch off to disable the appliance’s power-draining capability but I’m too cheap to do that.)

A few other facts:

• By some estimates, cutting phantom energy can trim an annual electric bill by $200.


• There is a way to test your phantom energy without buying a fancy kit or meter some websites want to sell.


• According to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services: “A typical home has as many as 12 to 15 appliances on standby power that are consuming electricity 24 hours a day, or about 5 percent of the average total electric bill,” and: “The total phantom load of the United States could power the countries of Greece, Peru, and Vietnam combined.”

Phantom energy -- pretty scary stuff, eh?