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DEL.ICIO.USSave everything - except squirrels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I blame my recent poverty on squirrels.
You never want to find out how much it costs to squirrel-proof a house. Unfortunately I did. The bill, combined with general worries about the economy, has had me nervously glancing at my main savings account - stored in a popcorn tin with a picture of a cowboy on the front.
Maybe you’re in the same boat. And maybe you’re also a tech enthusiast like me. So today I’ll offer some ways we can save money - and ease our economic anxieties - by trimming tech expenses.
Television
Until recently I paid about $83 a month for cable television service. That included a premium channel and a wide selection of programming. I downsized to a package that costs about $50 a month. For that money, I still get HDTV service and a digital video recorder built into the cable box.
It was a painless switch. I don’t miss the premium channel (I can use video on demand or rent a DVD and watch what I want, rather than what happens to be offered). If I needed to save even more, there are even cheaper cable packages. For the real bottom dollar, I could drop cable, use an antenna and still get over-the-air HDTV.
I’m not going to get into specific cable packages that may or may not be available to you, but the bottom line is: Take a hard look at your current package and explore cheaper alternatives.
Savings: In my case, anywhere from an easy $33 a month, to a more painful $83 a month if I dropped it altogether.
Internet service
I use a DSL service that costs $38 a month. That’s for the extra fast connection I need for my job. There are other two options from the same provider, offering slower speeds for $33 and $20.
Most people could get by fine with the $33 package, or even the slowest DSL connection at $20. And some people, like my mom, could check e-mail just fine with a $10 a month dial-up connection.
Savings: $5 to $28 a month.
Computers
It’s been my habit to replace my main machine every year and a half or so, again with excuse that I write about computing.
This year I’ll drop that habit - at least until my budget balances. I need to follow some of my own advice: Only replace your computer when it can no longer do what you need it to do in a satisfactory manner.
Savings: If the average user could postpone a computer purchase for just one year, that’s anywhere from an expense of $600 to $2,000 postponed. That’s an expense postponed, not avoided, so I won’t include it in my final savings total. But it will reduce your expenses.
Telephones
We have two land lines and two cell phones. For various reasons, including my job and my wife’s work-from-home job, we’ll stick with that.
But many families have a second line that isn’t needed anymore. Maybe the kids have grown and no longer use the second line. Or that line may have been installed in the days of dial-up Internet service.
Take a hard look at your own situation. The money saving choices range from simply dropping an unneeded second line to doing as my stepdaughter does - using a cell phone and no land line at all.
When it comes to long distance service, we use our cellular phones when we can. But some of our friends use Voice over Internet Service such as that from Speak Easy (http://www.speakeasy.net/) and Skype (http://www.skype.com). That comes in especially handy for people who make frequent overseas calls.
It’s hard to put a hard dollar amount on it, but most folks could save $5 to $30 tightening phone expenses.
Energy consumption
Your technology pulls some watts. One plasma TV I’ve seen draws nearly 600. Most I checked were in the 150 to 250 watt range. But, when you consider that some small electric heaters draw 500 watts, that’s still quite a load.
Add in another 187 watts for an xBox360, 100 to 250 watts for a desktop computer and you get the idea.
The fix here is simple: Turn off your gadgets when you aren’t using them. You’ll be lucky if the savings here tote up to much more than $5 a month, but you’re also helping the environment.
The savings here if you follow all my tips - even if you take the easy savings and avoid major sacrifices - amount to about $50 a month. That’s not enough to rent a villa in the south of France, but it will start a nice fund to prepare you for the horrible day when squirrels invade your attic.
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By Steve
February 22, 2008 7:39 PM | Link to this
I can one up you on this, Bill. I dropped the satellite, years ago, 50 or 150 channels to watch the 2 or 3 I wanted, did not make sense. 50 bucks, then saved. ATT intro DSL for 10 bucks a year, (see the GA PSC website for conditions) then 20 bucks thereafter. Netflix at 19 per month gets me any movie I care to watch, when I want to. HDTV with rabbit ears, priceless. Only using light in the room you are in, saves, I live in an old crackerbox 2BR1BA. I only replaced my PC when WIN98ME got to where it was no longer allowing to use the PC for the internet. Vista should last awhile, I got used to it. And, having bought that shortwave book and planning a purchase to listen, then who need, TV ? Not to mention I use the Library. Life can be good and cheap. Steve
By Steve
February 22, 2008 7:42 PM | Link to this
Sorry, 10 bucks per month for DSL. Corrected. Steve
By Bill
February 22, 2008 9:13 PM | Link to this
Sounds right Steve, I’m still learning when it comes to saving money. But - given the economy - believe me, I’m trying to learn. My stepson loves Netflix btw, I am not sure that I watch a movie often enough to even justify the $20.
I end up too busy to watch more than one movie a month - although I need to change that too. I need to get a little less busy.
By Mack
February 24, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
Well, I dont understand all that fancy hitech budget squeezing, Bill Husted, but I do know what you’re saying about squirrel-proofing your home.
I live in a split-level cedar. I live peaceable-like and try to respects other folks no matter how late and loud their dogs bark or even if their only landscaping project in the last twenty years was when they leaned their xmas tree up against their mailbox till february waitin’ for someone to take it, (the lazy….).
About four year ago…no wait, it was last week, (stephen wright), I heards squirrels in the attic or the walls or underneath the stairs. It turned out to be possums. Big possums, little possums. Rich possums, poor possums. I took an ax to two of them, but I felt so guilty I wont ever do that again. (Besides, the forensix still stain my garage floor. Home Depot CSI.) So I waited them out, and they left on their own, I reckon, cause I donts hear no scratchin no mo. (I cant smells them no mo neither).
Just goes to show you good folks that you can starts out peaceful, buts somewhere along the ways you gots to grabs an ax and do some fixins’.
What’s this cheap email you keeps talkin’ bout?
By Bill
February 24, 2008 11:03 AM | Link to this
Yeap, I’m now a sworn enemy of the squirrel population in my neighborhood, Mack.
The squirrel-proofing part hasn’t even started - apparently the squirrel experts spend weeks and weeks trying to trap the little rodents first in my attic. That’s been going on for a while at my house.
I’ve - meantime - been trying to discourage the population outside the house with my pellet rifle. So, before long, I may go back to my boyhood in Arkansas and fix some squirrel stew.
By Mack
February 24, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this
I wonder how many atlantans have taken pot shot with BB guns at squirrels? I always feel guilty, but it is fun. There are gigantic crows too, that are so very much smarter and more-aware than me. I can get off only a hail mary at them, no matter how lucky my ambush opportunity is, or how handy the BB gun is, they just have this radar. I cant explain it, but we need to recognize any atlantan as a pest god who can get himself a crow with a bb gun.
I never knew crows grew so large. I think these are crows. What do you think they are? Are they ravens? I dont know, I just shoot at them.
Then there’s the noisy pesky geese in the fall going south for the winter. I have nothing with that kind of range. I’ve tried modifying bottle rockets, or using giant magnifying glasses with mirrors to focus sunlight and try to burn them like ants, but it’s just no good, somebody always stops me.
But I pledge to get any pesky varmit what annoys me and I hope to someday be that pest god the atlanta public needs so badly.
By Steve
February 24, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this
I would try this Bill, as I once had squirrels in the attic. Check the gable ends where the vents are and ensure you have screening securely stapled over it. Not the cheap nylon stuff modern builders use, heavy grade steel mesh screen. Check the rooftop vents from the inside. Staple heavy duty mesh screening over that. Check the eaves. Check the insulation in the attic to look for a nest. Squirrels tend to come in attics in the winter,during the night, especially if you have an attic furnace, look around that.
I did not fool with traps, I used rat poison. And, keep in mind, they can make a little hole bigger as they chew anything, so an over an 1.2 inch hole or so they can get into. I have close in trees, and overhead lines they travel, keep this in mind, as you may not. Can’t do anything about that, so they do get on the roof. But I got rid of them in the attic. What’s the recipe for squirrel stew ? Steve
By Bill
February 24, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this
Hey, Steve, the real secret to cooking squirrel stew (or even when you’re gonna fry them like we did when I was a kid) is to soak them overnight in buttermilk. You refrigerate the whole - uh - mess obviously. That soaking makes the meat a lot less gamey tasting.
Then saute the squirrel in an iron skillet the next morning, next - and this differs with the usual (check Google for more standard squirrel recipes) - add some liquid (water, beer or white wine) and cover the iron skillet while turning the heat as low as possible. Let the meat simmer for a couple of hours then remove it from the bone (however, don’t discard the liquid). Then, add the meat and liquid to a stew pot and - well, it’s pretty much like making any stew from that point on. If more liquid is needed, add some beef or chicken stock. Garlic and a bit of onion helps.
Now a quick story. My wife - California born, Berkeley grad, lived in Athens, Greece for a spell, in Cambridge in the UK for a time - truly does not believe me when I tell her that I ate squirrel as a kid. It’s that odd to her, and that repugnant.
But I did. However, I have to admit it was not a usual meal, maybe a once a year thing if that. It was more common - since we were a fishing and hunting family - to have duck or quail. But squirrel isn’t bad. Sometime remind me to tell you about my grandfather’s more unique squirrel cooking method.
And - as far as the squirrel eradicators - we’ve already inked the deal with the professionals. So I’ll leave it in their hands.
It’s sort of fun to watch - like a GhostBusters, but involving squirrels.
By ChinaGirl
February 24, 2008 4:31 PM | Link to this
My trigger finger’s getting awful itchy, Bill. Enough with the squirrel talk. If I’m reacting that way then thousands of folks are, and we just cant have people shooting pell mell at varmits in neighborhoods where there’s children.
It just aint right, somehow.
By Susan
February 25, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this
All I know is that - when people and squirrels go to war - the squirrels win.
By Carbon Footprint
February 25, 2008 12:21 PM | Link to this
lol susan
By Ssgreeno
February 25, 2008 1:34 PM | Link to this
I was Plagued with squirrels in the attic also - they pulled down insulation and made themselves nests, then they chewed on everything, when they weren’t running back and forth. After paying an arm & leg to get a Roofer to seal up any possible entries (they STILL found others). They are too smart to eat poison. A Fogger only discourged them for a while. We removed the trees closest to the house, which was their access route. They haven’t been back, but we cross our fingers…we’ve been outsmarted by them before…
By Bill
February 25, 2008 3:02 PM | Link to this
Well, Ssgreeno, I think Susan called it - it’s hard to win a battle against the squirrels.
I’ve actually seen one - as it happened - gnaw his way out of a sealed attic right through the planking. Thank goodness that wasn’t in the house I’m in now.
We’re still (well the exterminators are) in the trapping stage. Once that finishes they’ll seal things up.
By Aaron
February 27, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this
Bill - I have always been sceptical about conducting on-line banking from my laptop networked computer at home. I usually go to my desktop to do my on-line banking transactions. Is using my home networked computer any more riskier than using the desktop? I have a router and a good firewall program. Thanks.
By Bill
February 27, 2008 12:58 PM | Link to this
If I’m misunderstanding your question, please correct me Aaron - but if both your desktop and laptop are using the same network at home, and have the same security software installed, using the same operating systems, then there would be no difference in the risk.
The main factors in the risk would be: 1. Not having up-to-date security software (firewall, anti-virus, etc.).
Using an older operating system that isn’t as secure as newer versions.
Connecting wirelessly, rather than on a wired network.
By Margaret
February 27, 2008 11:07 PM | Link to this
I have the best squirrel solution - I bought a STROBE LIGHT at the mall and screwed it into the attic light fixture. It’s an LED so it doesn’t get hot, it was under $10.00 and the squirrels that had invaded my attic have fled. They avoided the traps, found poison tasty and didn’t pay any attention to the electronic pest noise-maker. But they cannot get used to that light.
By Bill
February 28, 2008 7:52 AM | Link to this
Margaret, it sounds like a disco for squirrels - and yes, I’ll bet it works.
One thing for sure, it’s a heck of a lot less expensive than hiring the squirrel busters like I did.
And you’re right, the squirrels have completely avoided the traps set up there (the eradicators first try to trap any animal in the attic before they do the structural work designed to exclude anymore getting in).