How much would you pay to enter a raffle for a free used car? What would the odds have to be to get you to give it a shot? What if the entry fee was simply to give a loan to a friend that you were sure would be paid back and the odds that you’d win the raffle were 100%? Sounds like an insanely good deal that can’t be…
Today this article came up in my Facebook feed. It echoed a sentiment I’ve seen in many different places. Stop buying stuff, start buying experiences. This is good in that it helps people reduce their waste but bad in that it simply replaces one outlet for excess spending with another. Spending is a big issue with Americans awash in debt and often headed towards bankruptcy. Spending gobs of money on yourself…
It’s summertime and that means most of the United States is turning on our air conditioners. As of 2009 over 87% of all homes in the U.S. had some form of air conditioning, and that number is probably well over 90% now. Cooling accounts for 6% of an average home’s annual energy use. This might sound small, but when you consider that you’re only running your AC for about 25%…
Springtime is upon us. The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and our thoughts naturally turn towards light bulbs. Okay, maybe not naturally, but this is the best time of year to think about your lighting. By this point in time we probably all know that LED bulbs are the best, but many of us are still dragging our feet on installing them. Maybe you’re just waiting for your…
This past week saw thousands of people across the country converge on Washington D.C. and other cities to participate in a March for Science. The protest was billed as non-partisan, but the timing and circumstances around the march taking place on Earth Day hardly seems like a coincidence, and the march was rumored to have been inspired by a “throwaway line on reddit” by somebody who said: Q: The March for Science…
Disposable plastic shopping bags are in the news again. This time it’s because the governor and state legislature of New York have overridden a local bag fee law passed by New York City. The politics of this thing are dispiriting (state legislators overriding local laws, moneyed interests pretending to be grassroots groups, etc.), but I’m going to put that aside for now and focus on a scientific claim. Many of the opponents…
My favorite line in Raising Arizona is where H.I. walks into the Short Stop and says “I’ll be taking these Huggies and uh whatever cash you got“. It’s hilarious for a lot of reasons, but it also speaks to a real world truth: diapers are expensive! In my last post I went over how much easier reusable diapers are than disposables, but didn’t really cover the cost. Cost is hugely important though,…
I started thinking about diapers over a year ago when my wife was pregnant with our first child. The idea of sending a ton of disposable diapers to landfills had always disturbed me, but I was also afraid of the difficulty of cloth diapers. I was going to be the parent staying home so I’d be doing the majority of diaper changes. Did I really want to sign up for something as hard…
Keeping Your Thermostat The Same All Day Wastes Money No one likes to waste money, right? Unfortunately, there are still some pernicious myths out there slowly draining our bank accounts. One of these myths is that leaving your thermostat at the same temperature all day somehow saves money. This is untrue for the vast majority of homes, yet the myth won’t die. Many sites on the internet will tell you that…
To help out a podcast at my work that was doing a series on apps to help people be happier, healthier, wealthier and more productive, I volunteered to try out Pact for a month. And in honor of the New Year, I decided to write a review for Rampant Discourse. So here are my impressions after 4 weeks (and running) using Pact, the app that claims to let you “Earn…