Putting Things in Perspective after Halloween is Cancelled

I wish I could claim that my lack of posting were due the to widepsread power outages here in Connecticut but that’d be a half-truth.

Anyway, after four freezing nights without power or heat and a pseduo gas crisis (gas stations can’t pump gas without power…), I almost miss the expectation of spending another cold night with the entire family huddled into one dark (and cold) room now that the power is back on and I’m 12 inches from two flat screen monitors with iTunes blaring out some random rock hits from the early 1990′s.

There are a lot of irate local politicians here calling for the power company’s head. Earlier in the week, 87% of Connecticut was dark. Halloween was even cancelled.

We’re talking totally dark.

No traffic lights. None. Not even blinking yellow or red. They were off.

Just think about how crazy that’d make the roads? For nearly a week?

On top of it, the temperatures were dipping into the 20′s at night.

In my house, we could see our breathe. Yeah, it was cold.

So the politicians might have a point. Sorta.

But my PIAC persona was thinking about things differently.

Electricity is a bargain!!!

My average electric bill is around $150 per month. That’s five bucks per day.

Our utility provider is routinely criticized for having some of the highest rates in the country. I don’t know that this is a fact — perhaps just something that an angry politician is throwing out there just before election day next Tuesday — but I do know that I’d have gladly paid $5 for just one working outlet for a few hours as my family froze each night.

Yeah, electricity for my entire house is just $5 per day.

I’m not going to bash Connecticut Light & Power for offering such a great deal.

It’s a miracle that electricity is so cheap.

Posted on November 3rd, 2011 at 2:43 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Current Events | 2 Comments »

Additional Automotive Maintenance Expenditures

So I’ve kept everyone pretty up-to-date on my auto-repair expenses for the Land Rover.

We’re fortunate (or foolish?) enough to have 4 cars in the household so when one goes down, we’ve got plenty of back-up.

Or so you’d think…

My BMW Z3 hasn’t been out of the garage for over a year. Over the past two years, it’s driven maybe 30 miles. I couldn’t get it started months ago and didn’t even consider it as my back-up vehicle while the Rover was in the shop.

So, instead, I hoped in my wife’s Toyota Tacoma, turned the key, and heard the fabled “click-click-click-click” noise.

I’m no gear head but I do know that that means the battery is dead.

We hooked it up to the Scion (our only functioning vehicle) and it started right up.

Phew!

We let it run for an hour or so, you know, to charge the battery before shutting it down.

The next morning, I went out to take it for a spin, turned the key, and got nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Battery must *really* be dead.

And then a lightbulb went on!

Hey, maybe the only problem with the BMW is the battery?

Hmmm…

Needless to say, I went out to AutoZone and spent almost $300 on a couple of batteries and then spent an afternoon pretending to be a real auto mechanic.

For real, I looked like one of those guys who’s always working on his Trans-Am with the bird on the hood.

(I realize that changing the battery is a simple task — I have some great ideas on how this century old system should be modernized though…)

Three hours later, I had two more running vehicles.

How about that?

Posted on August 17th, 2011 at 7:58 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Success | 5 Comments »

Indepth Auto Purchase and Repayment Explanation

Okay, so it’s hardly news around here that I recently purchased a used car.

I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m on the side that thinks that having more cars than drivers in a household is utterly ridiculous — yet, we have four cars and only two drivers.

The main reason that we didn’t trade a vehicle in while purchasing the latest is because we feel that all of our cars are still worth more to us than we’d received in exchange for any one of them.

All of our cars are paid for so the only expense involved in keeping them all are the insurance costs and the registration renewals — relatively small stuff.

All four vehicles are also pretty unique and serve a unique purpose as well. I think I’ve said it before — it’s not like we have four Honda Accords in the driveway.

That would be truly ridiculous.

The 2-seat BMW convertible is a fun summertime weekend car. I bought it at a time when it was more practical. It’s not so practical now (with a family of four in a few weeks or so) but it’s worth more to me — and will always be worth more to me — than what I could sell it for.

The 2-seat Toyota pick-up truck came as part of the package when I married my wife. Same deal — a two seater isn’t really practical for a family but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thanked my lucky stars that we have a pick-up truck.

The Scion xA, while compact, can actually fit two adults and two car seats. We can even squeeze a stroller into the trunk. Best of all, it gets over 40 miles per gallon for us.

The Land Rover, as it’s set up now, can fit three adults, two car seats, a stroller, and a whole host of other things. It’ll be our road trip vehicle — and ensure that if one person is home with the kids, well, we’ll have at least one vehicle in the driveway can fit them all at any given moment.

That’s the low down on our fleet.

Now, for why we (I) selected this Land Rover and not something else — well, price, mileage, size, and condition…

We wanted to be able to pay cash which, naturally, reduced the number of options available to us. At the high end, the price tag had to come in around $10k.

I wanted low mileage on a car that has a reputation for going well beyond the 100k mile mark. This narrowed the field even more.

It had to be able to fit all of us — and maybe end a third car seat in the future should the car last that long. So much for sedans…

And lastly, it couldn’t be a gross used car. Once you dip under a certain price level, well, things tend to get a little messy. I was looking for a diamond in the rough.

Initially I had it narrowed down, in descending order of price, to a 2006 Honda Odyssey with 80k miles, a 2004 Land Rover Discovery with 50k miles, and a 2006 BMW X5 with 70k miles.

At the end of the day, I settled on the Land Rover Discovery because it won out on mileage and size.

The price was in the middle — the Honda was actually the most expensive and the BMW was the least expensive.

The condition was in the middle as well — it’s exterior has a few dings here and there but it just looks “right” on this type of vehicle. The interior is immaculate — previous owner obviously didn’t have young children. Same couldn’t be said for the Honda.

The BMW, well, it was nice but it just wasn’t big enough. And I didn’t like the colour. Okay, yeah, I admit, colour mattered too.

The final pricetag was just shy of $11k — before tax, registration, and all of that other nickel-and-dime junk that gets added on the back end.

Now, I know what you’re thinking — Land Rovers are notorius for being in the shop all the time…

Perhaps, but there are still an awful lot more of them on the road pushing the 200k mile marker. I don’t think the same can be said for your run of the mill minivan.

I suppose that only time will tell — it could die a few months from now and end up in the shop and I’ll have made a poor decision…

If it does last even just 50k more miles, though, it’ll have been one of my better moves.

To pay for it, I took a bunch from savings, a bunch from checking, and essentially the entirety of our tax return refund to the point that we were able to pay cash for the car. No lienholder. No car payments.

In addition, though, since that pretty much tapped me out financially, I wrote one of those credit card checks to myself for $7000 just to cover this month’s expected expenses and any unexpected expenses as well.

It was a zero percent offer that’s valid through Decemeber — and there wasn’t a transaction fee! When was the last time you saw an offer without a fee attached? Woo-hoo!

To pay it back down, though I could technically just send the money right back, I’ve set up an autopayment of $175 per week.

On that schedule (which kicked in yesterday), it’ll be paid in full before any finance charges accrue and I won’t be backed unto a shoestring budget at any time.

Now I just have to cross my fingers that there aren’t any super costly repairs between now and then.

Posted on March 3rd, 2011 at 7:11 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Finance | 2 Comments »

Decision Decided & Purchase Made

A couple of weeks ago I let everyone in on a decision we were facing — we needed a bigger car but couldn’t really afford one.

In our fantasy land where money was no factor, we’d pretty much set our minds on a brand new Swagger wagon — ‘specially after Angie’s glowing review.

Then, when reality set in, we started to look at used alternatives like what Scud recommended.

Able to find plenty within our budget, I still struggled to find anything that I could imagine myself driving. I’m not anti-minivan — I think they’re cool, seriously, but in the price range that we were looking at, well, let’s just say that most of them left something to be desired if even I was only judging them based on pictures posted on the internet.

So I went back to the direction I was originally leaning…used but high end. Connecticut has consistently been among the richest states in the country so we’re overflowing with snob-tacular used car lots.

I aimed lower than originally planned, skipping the Rolls Royce and Bentley places, and instead looked at the places with Jaguars, BMWs and Mercedes on the lot.

You’d be surprised at how quickly luxury cars lose their value, I mean, I was just talking to my mom the other day and my BMW is worth less than my Dad‘s Mazda Miata.

We bought them within a year or two of one another and one cost over twice as much as the other — it’s hard to fathom. I’m not knocking either car — I think they’re both great even when they’re over a decade old but still.

Anyway, so on Wednesday I locked a vehicle in my sights. Thursday, I took it for a test drive. Friday, I moved a bunch of money around. And Saturday, we officially became one of those Connecticut families with four cars.

Two drivers and four cars. I know, it’s ridiculous. The driveway looks like a parking lot.

Anyway, from the financial aspect, we paid cash for the car — no lien holder and no car payments — and I “borrowed” $7k (at 0%) from a credit card just to give us some wiggle room in case sudden expenses come up over the next month.

Here’s what we bought:

Not the actual vehicle or color — we got a few inches of snow last night so it’s currently buried in the driveway.

I’ll take a picture eventually and probably further explain the thought process that landed this in our fleet of vehicles…

Posted on February 27th, 2011 at 10:24 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Finance | 2 Comments »

WWYD : Disposable, New, or Used?

Looking for a few suggestions on what we should do — we’re in need of a new vehicle.

Here’s some background info… In roughly three fortnights, our family will be personally incremented by one — literally.

Together, that’ll make four of us.

If you’ve been a recent reader — or noticed that uterus bubble on the right — that’s hardly news.

Even still, back to the topic today: We need a bigger car.

Right now the largest vehicle in the garage is a Scion xA.

If you’re unfamilair with that model (or brand), imagine one of those Penny Racer toys from the 1980′s, you know, those little pull-back cars where you could jam a penny into the back bumber to make them do wheelies…

According to my registration, it’s categorized as a wagon (probably because it has 4 doors and a hatchback) but in reality it’s a sub-compact.

Sure, two adults and two car seats can fit — but nothing else can and that’s our dilemma…

We need something bigger.

NEW:
In a perfect scenario, we’d go out this week and buy a brand new Toyota Sienna (the swagger-wagon) or a Honda Odyssey. Both are minivans and would certainly get the job done.

But did you know that both of those cost in excess of $40k!?

I didn’t. Ouch.

I mean, I guess I knew that a minivan would cost over $30k these days but $40k? You used to be able to get a Porsche for that kind of money…

The Swagger-Wagon has, well, swagger but it ain’t no Porsche… you know, it’s not gonna get the hot moms to check me out in the day care parking lot…

And price (or pride maybe?) isn’t the only reason, though.

Well, maybe it is.

We’re still not finished paying for last year’s home renovation yet so we’re not exactly in the position to go out and spend even more than that entire project cost.

The other aspect that has me leaning against buying new is the fact that babies are messy. The back seat of my Scion has absorbed more, um, bodily fluid than I’m sure that I’m even aware of.

This might not help the re-sale value of my Scion but the air freshners wedged under the front seats are there to hide the acrid smell of vomit that coated the interior side of the rear passenger side door just a few short weeks ago.

That’s okay in a car that I’ve been driving for 5+ years. But if Duncan I or the forthcoming Duncan II projectiled all over a recent $40k purchase, well, I’m not sure a couple of Little Trees air freshners (yeah, they spell it that way) would be enough for me to “get over it.”

So a new minivan is out of the question.

USED:
Okay, so we can’t justify buying a new minivan only to coat the interior in puke. Here’s another idea — let’s buy one that’s already been coated in puke!

We spent a couple of hours last week looking at CarMax and AutoTrader for the puke flavored, err, used minivan of our dreams.

Well, it’s sticker shock all over again…

A late model minivan still costs in excess of $20k!?

These things have more miles on them than my Scion does right now but cost more than mine did when it had just 7 miles on it — and they probably have secret stank absorbers (known only to the used car industry) hidden somewhere to make them seem new.

Do we want to spend that much on a car with somebody else’s kids’ boogers all over it?

I’m not so sure. It kind of skeeves me out…

DISPOSABLE:
The internet is pretty neat. Having grown discouraged on my quest to find a suitable vehicle, I went astray and started to browse far less suitable vehicles…

I showed my wife, “Hey look — we can get a Bentley Mulsanne for far less than a used minivan…”

Less suitable?

I started to ponder…

Rolling into daycare in a Bentley would definitely turn some hot mom heads, I thought…

I should persue this…

And I did.

You can get a Rolls-Royce, if that’s your fancy, at a bargain basement price too — often for less than those late model minivans with similar mileage… Who knew?

Sure, some of them were manufactured in the 1980′s but you have to figure that anyone who could afford a vehicle of that nature new while managing to keep the total mileage low (relatively speaking) took care of it.

And for well under $10k, we could pay for it lickety-split.

It wouldn’t have to last very long — anything over two years would just be a bonus.

Best of all, the idea of boogers and vomit all over someone else’s old beater doesn’t seem to phase me much…

But, really, how many car seats have you seen in the back of a Bentley? It’d be more likely to find traces of cocaine in the glove compartment… For some reason, that doesn’t bother me too much either…

Anyway, more realistically speaking, I’ve been looking at older but more exclusive vehicles that will suit our short term needs — mainly a bigger car that we can afford right now and one that we won’t feel bad for essentially destroying…

Keepin’ it real, y’all…

What would you do?

(No, I’m not even considering a Chrysler 200…)

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

PIAC Post Extension:
Hang on, Brainy, don’t you already have three cars?

Sheesh — are you a stalker or something?

I last mentioned that on May 7th, 2008…

Yes, we have 3 cars. And here’s the crazy part — we’re not planning on trading one of them in for this next purchase.

Yep — family of four with four cars. Perfect example of American excess — except we’re Canadian.

Well, three of us are…

Anyway, it’s true that we have 3 cars — and we’re looking to add a fourth — but they all serve a unique purpose. It’s not like we have three Accords and a Jetta (all basically the same vehicle) in the driveway. That would be ridiculous.

We’ve got the two seater BMW that someday will, again, resume it’s role as the fun weekend vehicle.

We’ve got a two-seater Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck that’s come in handy more times than I can count.

And then we’ve got the Scion that can actually fit all of us.

They’re all paid for so they’re not costing us anything.

At the same time, they’re all relatively worthless regarding trade-in values so there isn’t really much reason to eliminate one.

Besides, the car on the chopping block is the Tacoma and it’s the most useful of the vehicles in our fleet…

It’s not going anywhere…

Posted on February 12th, 2011 at 6:04 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Life | 5 Comments »

We’re going to the Zoo. For FREE!

Tomorrow is Duncan‘s first birthday. Yep, an entire year has gone by since that sweaty palm countdown finally ended.

Since he’s become pretty aware of things around him, like birds, bumble bees, and the neighborhood cats, we thought it’d be a good idea to take him to the zoo for his birthday.

Specifically, the Bronx Zoo.

So, while researching how much this excursion would set us back (since we’re a wee bit tight on cash right now), we noticed that the Bronx Zoo has a “pay-what-you-like” promotion on Wednesdays!

How about that? Perfect timing for a birthday!

Now, I’m not going to say that we’re going to walk in without paying a dime (I’m sure they guilt you into some sort of donation, you know, to save the rainforest or something) but it will certainly save us a few bucks.

Even better — the weather is supposed to be nice and sunny!

Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 6:35 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Smurfling | 2 Comments »

Sometimes Saving Money feels Crooked

The whole story begins way back in in October of last year when I went to the mall and picked up three new pairs of jeans.

Though I settled on Levi’s on that specific trip, the Gap has historically manufactured my favorite and best fitting jeans.

The Gap discontinued my “style” years ago but I still pop in everytime I visit the mall just to check and see if they’ve made a comeback. So far, no luck on that front.

But I did notice a jacket that I liked. I picked it up. I looked at it. I walked away. I walked back. I picked it up again. Basically, I did everything but try it on.

The price was $129.50.

Too much, I told myself.

I didn’t like it *that* much…

Then, a few weeks ago, I happened to open one of those “junk” emails that I get every so often from the Gap. It was advertising something that I had no interest in but it succeeded in getting my to visit their website.

That’s a win for them…

So, anyway, I see the jacket that I liked months earlier in the “Sale” section for only $69.99 (apparently down from $98).

I thought about it, oh, for maybe 45 seconds, and then I bought it.

Around a week later it arrived in the mail — I tried it on — and it was one of those fat guy in a little coat scenes.

I’d ordered size large.

Now, I know that pretty much none of you out there reading this know how big I am (three apples high — read the about section, will ya?) but in the grand scheme of things, I’d say that I’m a medium sized person.

I’m not small.

And I’m certainly not large either.

But a large-sized jacket from the Gap, well, let’s just say that they’re stuff isn’t exactly “true” to size. It never has been.

So we all piled into the car earlier this week to return it to our local Gap store.

When we entered the store, I saw that they too had the same jacket on a sale rack for — get this — $29.97.

Even better, they had an extra large available (which wasn’t available online).
Oh man…

I was like, uh-oh, what do we do?

I want to exchange this one for that one but I paid over twice as much for the one in the bag.

This would have to be a two step process — I was going to return this one, get the credit, then come back in later and buy the other one for less than half the price.

Yep, that was the plan.

My wife thought I was crazy — just make the return and buy the bigger one all in one shot, she said…

I wanted to play it cool, though, so I made it as if I hadn’t even noticed that they had the exact same jacket on sale for half the price and sauntered up to the counter to make the return.

After punching in a few buttons and scanning my receipt, Warren, if that was indeed his “real” name, lisped out that my account had been credited $74.19 (including the tax) and my wife, Duncan, and I made a hasty exit.

We walked around the mall for around a half hour and then my wife — now acting as a secret agent — went in to the purchase the jacket again in the larger size.

“Warren” was sharper than I’d expected. He was on to our scheme and made it *very* clear to my wife that this one was NOT returnable. He even used a highlighter (pink, of course) to make it overly clear on the receipt.

Doesn’t matter, though — this one fits.

Now I know we didn’t do anything wrong — it was all totally legit — but it still felt sneaky.

I mean, I went in to return a jacket and walked back out with the same jacket and nearly $45.

I dunno, it was very satisfying but felt wrong at the same time…know what I mean?

All told, though, by not buying the jacket back in October, I saved just short of $100…and that doesn’t happen very often…unless you’re a tiny size and gravitate towards ugly colours that you can regularly find on any clearance rack anyway…

Posted on April 29th, 2010 at 9:08 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Cutting Costs | 2 Comments »

Video Arcades and McDonald’s Hamburgers…

I’ve recently rediscovered my love for McDonald’s hamburgers.

At one point in high school I was convinced that I could eat two McDonald’s hamburgers for every meal indefinitely.

Not to date myself too much but back then a McDonald’s hamburger was 59 cents. Two of them came to exactly $1.25 including Connecticut sales tax.

That meant that the quarter that I pocketed each weekday from the lunch money my mother gave me was enough to buy a late night weekend meal with my friends after an evening spent at the video game arcade.

Okay, if that doesn’t date me, I’m not sure what will…

Seriously, how did video arcades survive into the 1990′s?

Anyway, for a few years there in my twenties, I was starting to think that maybe my father might have been correct in avoiding McDonald’s like the plague during my childhood while repeating something along the lines of “Someday you’ll stop wanting to go there…”

I still visited McDonald’s now and then — usually because their fries are the best around if you’re lucky enough to get a fresh batch (a rare occurrence) — but I really hadn’t ordered a hamburger in quite some time…

So a few weeks ago, I had a craving for a McDonald’s hamburger… Wow — I’d venture to guess that I had my very first hamburger there in the late 1970′s and today, in 2010, they taste exactly the same.

There’s just, well, I don’t know what to call it, but there’s something about the texture of those bland and flavorless little onion bits and the piping hot pickle and the less than fresh bun that looks like it’s been stepped on.

It’s like peculiar form of perfection.

They’re not 59 cents anymore but they’re still a pretty decent bargain.

So last weekend I introduced Duncan to McDonald’s:

Here’s to hoping he continues to enjoy their signature item for years to come…

…and avoids the cheeseburger.

That thing tastes like cardboard.

Posted on February 7th, 2010 at 6:55 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Food, Retro | 1 Comment »

Jeans at Macy’s

When your site’s name is “Pants in a can”, it’s only natural to talk about something relating to pants every now and then…

Last May, I talked about how I bought my pants on eBay.

Long story short, so you don’t need to click on the link, the GAP stopped offering the style of jeans that I’d been wearing for years and eBay came to the rescue — at a MAJOR discount. It was all good.

Now, though, it’s been nearly 3 years since the GAP offered my style… The result?

Slim pickens on eBay.

So, since I’m now in near desperate need of a few new pairs, I had to find something more practical — and because I’m not longer of the mind set that jeans need to cost big bucks to fit right (or perhaps I just don’t care any more), I went to Macy’s.

Yep, fifteen minutes and $89.97 later — I had 3 new pairs of Levi’s 569 jeans.

I used to pay more than that for one pair of jeans!?

Simply put, for under $100, my lower half is all set until at least 2011.

Posted on October 25th, 2009 at 10:10 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains | 4 Comments »

The Great Pumpkin: 59¢ per Pound

So this morning we headed out on a daytrip to go and pick our pumpkin for 2009. We do this every year but this was the first time we’ve made the trip as a trio.

First we took a hay ride…

Then we roamed the fields…

And then we found the great pumpkin!

Weighing in at just over 16 pounds, he was less than $10… Such a deal.

Posted on October 11th, 2009 at 4:19 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Current Events, Photo, Smurfling | No Comments »

Welcome Back!

Yep, that’s right, I’m welcoming myself back.

I feel like I’ve been on vacation except that I haven’t…

Anyway, I’m a few days late with this but remember how I mentioned that I’d tossed in $5 to be included in on of those March Madness bracket things?

While I may not have finished “in the money”, I’m quite proud of where I landed — out of 60 participants, I finished in 7th place — considering my chosen method of selecting who would win each game throughout the tournament.

For the early rounds, I picked teams that I had t-shirts for.

Yep, it’s true — it was as simple as that.

So that cheap ($7.50) Michigan State t-shirt that I bought on a whim at a Steve & Barry’s in, I’d guess, Michigan almost paid for itself 40 times over.

It’s actually too bad that I let my personal feelings towards the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team get in the way.

I have a UConn t-shirt in closet too. Had I chosen them to go further in the tournament (they reached the Final Four), I’d have won the whole darn pool…

Don’t worry Steve & Barry’s… I won’t hold it against you.

It was my fault.

I really miss that store.

Even the smell.

Posted on April 10th, 2009 at 8:01 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Current Events, Sports | No Comments »

Free Phish!

Perhaps it has much to do with growing up in New England, and even though they’re from Vermont (a state at which I like to poke fun), Phish is one of my favorite bands of all time — not far behind They Might Be Giants.

As different as the two bands are, it’s shocking how much their audience’s overlap.

Anyway, Phish unfortunately broke up a few years ago and for the last few years that they were still together, they were just releasing one live album after another.

Now, I know, some people are really into live recordings and bootlegs and trading them and all of that nonsense but no one will ever convince me that a live recording sounds better than a studio album.

Especially when you listen to it with big ol’headphones on like I do.

There is no comparison.

Seeing a band live is one thing… Listening to a ‘recording’ of a band live is a whole different animal.

A boring one.

Like a mallard duck, or a beagle, or something generic like a squirrel or something…

Give me a studio album any day.

So get this… The band is getting back together for a 3-night show this weekend down in Virginia and since they know that it isn’t possible to every fan to attend (and they’re cool like that), they’re offering mp3′s of all three shows on their website…for FREE!

Yep — FREE. (for a limited time, so… hurry!)

Now I know that I just poo-poo’ed recordings of live shows but when they’re free, hey, I’ll take it.

Here’s the link.

All you have to do is register — and no worries, they don’t spam the hell out of you like other places do and once you snag your free tunes you can always opt-out and be done with them.

You heard right — when you opt-out, they really stop sending you stuff.

For real.

Imagine that.

Now I just have to hope and pray that they don’t go into a bunch of beat-less 45-minute jam sessions… Yawn…

Posted on March 5th, 2009 at 5:25 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Music | 4 Comments »