The Addison Cafe

How do you make a purchase? Do you shop at the store or site with the cheapest price? Best service? Most established brand? Renown quality?

Recently my wife bought shoes from Zappos. Usually, they do free shipping. However, on her order, just for the heck of it, they sent her an e-mail thanking her for her business and letting her know they upgraded the shipping to over night for free. Keep in mind, my wife isn’t a regular shopper there, her order wasn’t big, and she didn’t do anything special. Zappos just did it…because.

Even if they aren’t the cheapest, they will get our business again. (And note that the experience was good enough to share with others, and it wasn’t even mine).

How do you decide who to buy from?

I freaked out the other day when I got home and to my dismay, pushing the power button on my computer elicited…well, nothing. It would start up for about two seconds and then just turn off. Turns out we had a power outage earlier in the day and something got fried. Fearing that I had to buy a new computer, or that I potentially lost ALL of my files, I spent the next five hours troubleshooting, Googling, and calling friends that might have an idea what was wrong. In the end, it was only a bad power supply. In non-techie language, that means I didn’t lose any files and didn’t have to buy a new computer; I just needed to replace one part.

The whole fun-filled ordeal was actually my fault in part because when I bought the parts for my computer, I bought a low-quality cheapo power supply. Rather than spending an extra $20 bucks initially on a good power supply, I now had to spend an extra $80 to replace the dead one.

Sometimes the best way to save money is to spend money. Over and over lately I have been learning the age old lesson, “buy it right or buy it twice”. It can be so tempting to buy cheap when it comes to water heaters, mattresses, running shoes, appliances, cars, computers, etc, but in the end it almost always pays off to buy quality goods over the cheaper models. They are cheap for a reason…

I continually run into people who want to get a dog but don’t know the best place to look. They usually have no concept of how much it will cost either. Most people are shocked when they find out they can get a great pet for the price of an iPod Touch. Here’s the scoop:

1.  Check out http://www.puppyfinder.com for new and used dogs (ha).

2.  Adopting a pet usually saves a ton in medical bills since most of the time they come with shots and are fixed.

3.  Mutts are often times healthier than pure breeds, and thus cost less to purchase and keep.

4.  A dog usually lasts a lot longer than an iPod (hopefully).

5.  If you’re wondering about the cost of pet maintenance…how much do you spend on iTunes a month?

6.  iPods don’t greet you when you get home (maybe in a couple of years…)

Dogs (or any pet for that matter) are a lot of responsibility, something that is often overlooked in the excitement of trying to find one, but they sure make a great present and might not cost as much as you think… 

When I think of budget killers, two things come to mind: cars and food.  The one I want to focus on today is food. 

Everyone has their favorite food, whether it’s dirty take out (Nom Nom) or caviar and escargot.  Whatever your preference, eating out too much can really affect how much you save each month.  On one hand, restaurant food tastes great (usually) and can provide a fun experience. On the other, you don’t have anything to show afterwards; your money is gone and so is your meal.

So how much is enough?  Some avoid eating out at all costs, and if they do, they opt for the dollar menu and drink water. Others throw caution to the wind and pork out whenever they have the urge. I know it comes down to personal preference, but does anyone have any wisdom on the matter? What should the balance be?

My wife loves Christmas music. I love Christmas music. The difference is that she likes it about 3 months earlier than I do. Starting on Halloween, if not sooner, the sounds of Bing Crosby and Charlie Brown’s Christmas album fill my living room. For some reason, it feels like eating dinner for breakfast; as if there is some unspoken moral code that prohibits it. But we put that in our wedding vows so I can’t complain (just kidding).

My point is that for some of us, sometimes it is hard to think about Christmas early, especially when it comes to buying presents. Usually I wait until the last 2 weeks and frantically put everything together – it feels so natural.  However, that is usually the recipe that leads to people a) putting themselves in debt from big spending and lack of budgeting, or b) all of a sudden they find they don’t have the money to buy anyone else anything.

Technically, now is the best time to start shopping for Christmas; picking out a gift here and a gift there and being pleasantly surprised by how much you have left in the bank when the holidays actually roll around.

So will I change my habits? I don’t know, but it’s something to think about…

This week, I want to do something a little different. Instead of encouraging people to save money, I want to encourage people to spend money (only if you have the cash on hand and it makes sense of course).

There are several things that keep humans alive, which are at the top of our spending priority list: food, water, and shelter.  An iPhone won’t do much for you if you are starving to death and sleeping outside in the snow.

However, there are 2 other “necessities” that, in my opinion, should be labeled as purchase priorities: Shoes and a mattress.

You might be cheap in other areas of your life, or look for ways to cut costs with other purchases (which is great), but buying a nice mattress and a good set of shoes should be essential. When you breakdown your life, you realize that you will spend 1/3 of it lying in bed (8 hrs out of a 24 hr day). The other 2/3rds, if you are not sitting somewhere, you are walking.  Not to mention that good shoes can last up to a year and a mattress up to 10 or 20.

So treat yourself nice and spend the extra money when it comes to shoes and a quality mattress, your body will appreciate it. (Note: I am not referring to $200 high heels that actually hurt your body).

Life isn’t easy. There are bills to pay and mouths to feed. Especially at times like these, people need some solace…some sort of temporary escape; and I know just the thing. Behold, I give you the recliner.

Ever since I was a wee lad I have wanted one. I remember growing up and going over to my grandparents house and watching my grandpa sink into his oversized La-Z-Boy armchair, dog in lap and drink in hand. I could feel the inspiration radiating from it.

Well ladies and gentleman, my time has come. As a matter of fact, I am writing this post from my newly delivered chair this very moment.

Furniture is a tricky thing to purchase; there are so many brands and styles and prices. First, we went to Bob’s discount furniture warehouse (or something like that…which is just short for “junk”). I sat in one of the chairs and told the desperate salesman that the seat didn’t have the best sink factor. We left after he took off his shoes and started JUMPING up and down on the seat in his sweaty socks, telling us that you just need to “break it in”. I am not even kidding you.

Then came JCPenney’s. Great prices, good furniture, and no sweaty feet. I saved money and got the perfect chair. It was definitely worth the hunt.

What furniture piece is a must have to you? And how do you try and save on furniture?

Warning: Personal rant below.

Valentine’s Day drives me nuts. It should be called “Stress Obligation Day”. Why? Let’s look at some pros and cons of the day.

Pros:

1. It’s romantic.

Cons:

1. It’s expensive (especially from the holiday markup).

2. It’s crazy busy (every restaurant and flower shop is packed).

3. There are a lot of expectations (stereotypically).

Turns out I can be romantic and thoughtful any day of the year, and hopefully more than just once.  For instance, I took my wife out last night and not only was it more inexpensive, but there was no mad rush of crazed husbands looking for some place to go last minute.

So what are my plans for Valentine’s day? I will be out of town at something I already had planned while my wife hangs out with a friend and watches movies I wouldn’t want to see.  Am I in trouble for ditching her? No. Why? Because I show her appreciation and love for all year long, not just when Hallmark tells me to.

Note: I understand sometimes V-day is a great excuse to look forward to something special and go all out, and I don’t condemn people who celebrate. To each their own. What are your thoughts?

One common thread woven throughout history is mankind’s love for music. Every generation has favored different genres and the dance moves to go along with them (unfortunately), and people everywhere of all different backgrounds, cultures, and ages share this love. And then came the invention of the internet (thank you Al Gore), the mp3, and the iPod. And so the addiction began…

This week I wanted to take a minute and give a brief review of the top 3 ways to get and listen to the music you want (iTunes, Amazon mp3, and Pandora), and the cost associated with each of them.

iTunes:  King of the music jungle! Or so they want you to think. While iTunes does have the biggest selection of music to choose from and great navigation, they are also the most expensive of the 3 options. Their music is also protected and won’t play in mp3 players outside of the iPod or iPhone. Although they are slowly taking away the protection, they have a long way to go.

Amazon mp3:  The real only viable competition to iTunes. Their library is a little smaller, but if you listen to mainstream artists you will have nothing to worry about. Also, their navigation and store aren’t as clean as iTunes. However, on the plus side, none of their music is protected, which means you can play it anywhere. It is also better quality than iTunes’ protected songs (same quality as their unprotected ones though), it can download straight to iTunes if you still want to use that for your player, and it is often cheaper (with singles sometimes being offered at $0.89 instead of iTunes $0.99 and albums can be a couple bucks off as well).

Pandora:  Pandora is free internet radio with 3 great features. First, it‘s completely FREE. Second, there are no commercials or interruptions; just constant music.  Third, and best of all, it analyzes the types of songs you likes and plays similar songs. You can create different radio stations according to different styles of music. For instance, if you ask for “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, Pandora will figure out the tempo, beat, pitch, melody, style, instruments, vocals, etc, and cross reference that against a huge database of music to pull songs that sound similar to that one. That way, you will end up hearing the type of music you want from artists you love and maybe from some you haven’t heard of as well. It is hard to explain until you try it, but once you do, it will be love at first sound (Pandora.com). The only downside? It’s radio and you don’t own the music.

All of these methods are cheaper than the “old fashioned” CD, and each has their pros and cons. I personally use all three, depending on what I need. If you haven’t already, give them a shot. Just keep your dance moves to yourself. Enjoy! 

The other night I forfeited 2 hrs of my life by watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Awfulness.  It was over acted, over plotted, and over effected (IMO). Even though I regret watching it, fortunately I don’t have a guilty conscience about how much I spent on it.  I went to Blockbuster to see what they had in stock and noticed that Indiana Jones was available. However, Blockbuster was recently kind enough to jack up their new release prices to 5 bucks.  So I pulled out the new G1 phone (shameless plug, see below post) and quickly did a search of Redbox.com to see if they had the movie in stock, which they did. For those of you that don’t know, Redbox is a relatively new way of getting dvds. It has been around for a year or two now but a lot of people still haven’t heard of it. Essentially, it is like a vending machine full of dvds. Most of them sit outside of a McDonalds, Safeway, Albertsons, etc. The best way to describe what it looks like is…a red box. Fancy that.

Here’s how it works:  All the dvds in the machine are new or recent releases. They are all 1 night rentals. And best of all, they are all only 1 dollar. If you procrastinate returning your dvd, it will charge you 1 dollar a day until you return it or until it has been 25 days, at which point it stops charging you and you get to keep the dvd. So if you manage to return it the next day, you will be saving 4 bucks on every rental compared to Blockbuster (that’s 80% off!). No membership required, no paperwork, no nothin’. Just a new way to rent movies and save some money while you are at it. Enjoy!