Budget tips, please!

[atxcio]

Here is the info:

Sprouts Farmers Market coming to Rollingwood - Austin Business Journal:

Wow, we are really getting a ton of options in terms of healthy/organic/epicurean markets here in Austin. Whole Foods, Central Market, Sun Harvest, and recently Newflower farmers market and now Sprouts farmers market! Seems like they'd be wary of the WF and CM presence here, but no... they are coming in big time with 4 stores in Austin (Round Rock, Research Blvd, Rollingwood, and Sunset Valley) according to their site http://sprouts.com/home.php

[paul6835]

Austin/TX specific advice:

1. water is expensive here, water your grass twice a week only with a deep watering rather than every day or 3 times a week. its better for the grass, the environment, and your wallet.

2. dispute your home value assesment for property taxes. you may lose, but its probably the 3rd largest bill you pay every year (after federal taxes and mortgage) and worth your time

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

I cancelled my cell phone long ago and since moving to Austin, which supposedly has a lot of free wifi everywhere, I have been using wifi calling on my laptop or iPhone, using Skype. This is kind of hit or miss because it needs wifi. Sometimes places say they have wifi and it isn't working.. and of course wifi is only good when I'm not moving around.

For the past 3 mos or so this has worked OK though. It is a bit strange, like living back in the 1980's, because everyone assumes "i'll call your mobile"... yet this is not really true mobile calling, it is more like partially-available-when-away-from-home-mobile.

I think for anyone near UT, there is so much free wifi in the area, pretty much a cell phone plan is not necessary. go skype and twitter using wifi instead.

Austin is ranked pretty high on hotspot availability.. in the top 10 in the nation if I remember correctly..

Good point regarding Austin's high availability of free hot spots. I have been thinking of scratching the cell phone entirely and going with an Apple iPod Touch, after reading this article in the Statesman: How to use and iPod Touch as a low cost phone. No cell phone service plan is required and it is a great digital organizer as well, comes standard with calendar, to-do list, notes, address book, web browser, email applications, etc.

Two of the services I've tried, Truphone and Fring, also let you make free calls to Google Talk users and type instant messages to friends online. Both automatically queue up a list of buddies from different services you might have, including Gmail chat, AIM and MSN Messenger, when you log in.
But it's Truphone's pay feature that puts it ahead of the others. Truphone charges you to make calls to landlines or regular cell phones, but generally at better rates than most wireless carriers. And it's upfront about what you pay.

Your balance — which you can add to with a credit card, on the device or on your computer browser — pops up with the dial screen. Calls in the U.S. are 5 cents per minute (2 cents if you sign up to pay a $4 monthly fee).

Rates outside the U.S. vary wildly but you can check in the application before you dial. To call cell phones in China, for instance, is 5 cents per minute, while France is 25 cents. Antarctica? A whopping $2.25.

You can make regular calls with Fring using a Skype account, but that's another layer to deal with.

The calls on these services sound pretty good, a little tinny but clearer than my regular cell phone connection. IPod Touch users will need Apple's $29 ear buds, which have a microphone on the back of the volume control along the cord.

[xsloane]

We don't do cable or satellite TV. We don't do the monthly movie membership either. Instead we rent from the $1 boxes only and only when there is something worth watching.

[xsloane]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Here is the info:

Sprouts Farmers Market coming to Rollingwood - Austin Business Journal:

Wow, we are really getting a ton of options in terms of healthy/organic/epicurean markets here in Austin. Whole Foods, Central Market, Sun Harvest, and recently Newflower farmers market and now Sprouts farmers market! Seems like they'd be wary of the WF and CM presence here, but no... they are coming in big time with 4 stores in Austin (Round Rock, Research Blvd, Rollingwood, and Sunset Valley) according to their site Welcome to Sprouts Farmers Market

I think they'll do GREAT in Round Rock!!

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by xsloane

We don't do cable or satellite TV. We don't do the monthly movie membership either. Instead we rent from the $1 boxes only and only when there is something worth watching.

Along the same lines... for no-satellite or no-cable required programming: If you have an HDTV, you can get excellent (the best possible, actually) picture quality from the free HDTV over-the-air signals of the major networks. You can build an antenna out of a coathanger:
Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna: Better Than Store Bought! AMAZING! - Video (this actually works, I've seen it in action!)

Also, the over-the-air digital programming from each local channel includes some "sub channels" like news and weather... so, for example, if you have a digital antenna and tune into KEYE, you can get channel 42.1 which is regular CBS in HD, or 42.2 which is their "Retro TV Network" which broadcasts old shows... so you actually have a few more viewing options now from free TV.

[love roses]

Originally Posted by xsloane

I think they'll do GREAT in Round Rock!!

I know all the people in my gardening group meetup are really excited about it.