Recent Money-Saving Acts

- Frustrated with my printer, I almost dumped it. A bit of tinkering and a phone call later, I solved the issue of the printer telling me it had a paper jam, when it clearly didn't. $400 saved (I have an awesome Brother MFC).

- Returned portable A/C to Home Depot. It flat-out didn't work 50% of the time. $520 back.

- I'm in the act of switching online brokers from TD Ameritrade to thinkorswim.com. This saves me $10 per round-trip transaction. I know what most of you are thinking-- despite me shouting for proper asset allocation from my pulpit, I'm a hypocrite for day-trading. And so I am-- but I'm only using a very limited amount of funds to do so.

- I didn't intend this to turn out the way I'm about to describe it, but my buddy invited me to stay over for a night in Vegas with his brother + his gf. I benefited from having one of the best views of the Strip-- across from my buddy's room was the full, complete view of the Bellagio facade and the water show. No little corner of the next hotel over cutting off, say, the leftmost part of the show or anything. An unblocked view of it all-- and of the Eiffel Tower replica, even. Dazzling! And he refused to accept any money from me to cover my share of the stay. I was fighting him as he tried to cover for my Bellagio buffet dinner the night I arrived, but I lost that fight. I sat in the window just staring out at the fountain like a cat would do for hours.

- I'm whittling down my closet even more, of trendy clothes. Less space = less clothes to dryclean, wash and dry, and to worry about in general. I'm going standard-issue and boring with clothes.

- I go out nowadays in bigger groups, more authentic entrees vs overpriced, chi-chi designer "where's-the-beef?!" trendiness. Weekend entertainment now consists of insanely low house games w/ $5 buy-ins, cooking together, hanging out, attending local community concerts, contributing to local community efforts, and just overall, good company, good fun. One weekend it'll be tennis all day followed by movie night at friend's, next will be dinner followed by a group broomball event, next will be a night of Bomber-man.

What amazes me is the quality of the company: an aspiring school-board politician having been a successful entrepreneur in his young life, a couple of nationwide commercial real-estate developers, Ivy League architects, lawyers, a shopper-turned-wholesale enterpreneur, even more Ph.D's, and then there's me, a lowly IT dude. I'm sure they bring home big bacon. And yet-- everyone's just so damn humble, modest, and easy to befriend. I mean, here we are, having a good time just hanging out, having a few brewski's, and playing Nintendo Wii.

All these elements promote a very easy and automatic way to save lots of money, despite having to pay rent in LA and a car note. Most importantly, these elements do help foster a generally increased sense of well-being and memorable good times-- without having to break the wallet too badly.