Save Time and Money With Good Old Fashioned Exercise

August 1, 2012 by / 12 Comments

H and I are off enjoying our honeymoon.  I wont be responding to comments, but I will be posting new article and I’ll read all my comments when I get back.  Thanks for reading!  This is a guest post from Nathan at Real Sustainable Habits.

Staying fit is an important priority, but it sure seems expensive nowadays. Home gyms run close to $500, can be costly to maintain, and don’t really include a way to get in a good cardio workout, which might incline you to fork over another $400 for a treadmill or some other complicated piece of motorized equipment designed to induce calorie-burning movement of your bodily appendages. Even a modestly priced membership from, say, Planet Fitness is likely to run $23.33 a month,1 plus travel, premium classes, and the fancy new active gear you might find yourself picking up in order to blend in with your fellow gym members. The upfront costs and small but steady stream of monthly financial hemorrhaging might seem just enough to drive the frugally-minded batty. The operative word, here, however, is seem. I’m going to illustrate that, despite appearances, one of these options provides a pretty darn rosy picture for the health-conscious penny-pincher. To put it in as few words as possible: Gym memberships are for suckers. All you really need to whip yourself into shape is a little bit of time and the resolve to follow a low-cost, good old fashioned workout routine that can be done pretty much anywhere.

Gym Memberships are for Suckers

 

Despite the higher initial price for the home gym equipment, taking this route to maintaining and improving your health ends up being far cheaper than paying for a gym membership in the long run. Let’s compare the cost of these two options, both in terms of money and time, over the period of a year. For sake of simplicity, we’ll assume the following scenario pertains to you:

  • You exercise 5 days each week after work,
  • your home, gym, and workplace are each 4 miles from one another, taking you approx. 7 minutes to get from one to the other while traveling an average of 35mph in a car,
  • gas runs $3.25 a gallon,
  • and your car gets 27 miles to the gallon.

Moreover, due to crowds, waiting for others to stop hogging the work out equipment, the time it takes to change in the locker room, and other miscellaneous nuisances, the exercise routine you follow at the gym takes an average of an hour and 15 minutes. A similar workout takes 45 minutes on your home gym & treadmill.

Lastly, there will inevitably be maintenance expenses for the home exercise equipment, and clothing/shoes will need to be replaced. Let’s say maintenance averages out to $20 per year over the lifetime of the equipment (a 20 year lifespan) and clothing costs $60 a year. The clothing costs will likely be much less if you’re exercising at home, seeing as you can wear whatever you want (or wear nothing at all!), but to be on the conservative side, let’s say the clothing costs for at-home exercise end up running $30 a year.

Given the information above, the annualized expense for the two scenarios works out as follows:

Gym Membership

Time (hours)

Money

Mon./Ann. Fees:

 – $280

Travel:

 30.33 $125

Clothing:

 2 $60

Exercise:

 325 –

TOTAL:

 357.33 $465

Home Gym

Time (hours)

Money

Prorated Cost:

 – $45

Repairs:

 – $20

Clothing:

 1 $30

Exercise:

 195 –

TOTAL:

 196 $95

 

Even with expensive equipment, working out at home saves $370 and just over 161 hours per year. That amounts to $4,654 and just over 67 days saved over the course of a decade!2 That’s pretty impressive, but the frugal-minded can do better still.

A Simple, Effective Home Exercise Routine

 

Exercising at home doesn’t require fancy gadgets and expensive bulky equipment that you probably don’t have enough room for, anyway. All you need to get a full workout with results as good as you’d get in a gym are a) some dumbbells (or resistance bands), b) a pull-up bar (or resistance bands), and c) your very own body. This will not only cut costs; done properly, it’ll significantly reduce your workout time even more.3

Here’s what brand new sets of the above-mentioned equipment are running for nowadays:

Even if you were to buy all of the above-mentioned equipment brand new (check craigslist, yard sales, and thrift stores first), your cost would still be $590 less than buying a home gym and a treadmill. What’s more, maintenance costs will be virtually $0 and, with the exception of the resistance bands, the equipment may never need to be replaced. But let’s just say for the sake of our analysis that the weight-set and pull-up bar last 40 years before they need replaced and the bands need replaced every 10 years. Given this, our “bars or bands” workout will run a whopping $9.75 a year, with a total annual cost of $39.75 after accounting for clothing replacement. This will save at least an additional $1,608 over the course of a decade, but probably much more.4

So we’ve got the cost part down; now it’s time to address how a “bars or bands” exercise routine can cut down your workout time, too. The key is to sneak cardio into your strength training by keeping the rest period between sets under ten seconds, just enough time to jot down the number of reps completed in a journal and get ready for the next set. Give yourself 20 minutes to complete a series of 5 to 6 sets, and do as many sets as you can in that period. The aim is not for speed, but to keep the body as active as possible during the 20 minute window. Do this for 4 days each week, and on a 5th day, spend at least 40 minutes or more engaging in intense cardio activity (e.g. running, biking, swimming, basketball, etc.) I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and it works like a charm (not to mention that I lost 39 pounds over the course of the first year following it). Here’s one variety of my own workout routine, to give you an idea of how it works (determine a weight that will provide enough resistance & adjust reps as needed):

Day 1: Arms & Shoulders

  • Bicep Curls: 25 reps
  • Straight Arm Shoulder Fly: 20 reps
  • Tricep Extensions: 25 reps
  • Shoulder Press: 25 reps
  • Concentration Curls: 25 reps
  • Repeat above until 20 minutes are up

Day 2: Back & Core

  • Sit-ups: 25 reps
  • Wide Grip Pull-ups: 15 reps
  • Pulse Ups: 25 reps
  • Pull-ups: 15 reps
  • Bicycle Crunch: 25 reps
  • Chin-ups:20 reps
  • Repeat above until 20 minutes are up

Day 3: Chest & Arms

  • Push-ups: 40 reps
  • Chair Dips: 40 reps
  • Military Push-ups: 25 reps
  • Static Dumbbell Curls: 20 reps
  • Plank: 90 seconds
  • Repeat above until 20 minutes are up

Day 4: Legs & Core

  • Lunge: 25 reps, each leg
  • Pendulum: 30 seconds each side
  • Squat: 30 reps
  • Mason Twist: 30 reps
  • Calf Raise: 75 reps
  • Repeat above until 20 minutes are up

Day 5: Cardio Day

  • 40 minutes or more of intense cardio activity5

Foregoing a gym membership and following this routine or a routine like it will preserve at least $5,349 of your riches and give back 105 1/2 days of your life,6 while keeping you in at least as good a shape all the while!

A Few Brief Tips on Staying Motivated

 

Given the numbers above, it’s hard to argue that one shouldn’t abandon the gym membership to adopt a home exercise routine. There may still be some leftover concerns, however. Gyms provide a community, and workouts take place in a semi-public atmosphere, all of which helps to keep one motivated to continue exercising. By foregoing the gym, you might worried you’ll sacrifice those motives and eventually sputter in your routine. This is a legitimate concern that I had when I switched exclusively to working out at home. Here’s some things I did that have kept me motivated:

  • Keep a “Journal:” That is, use something to track your progress (I use a LibreOffice spreadsheet), so that you can see where you’ve improved and what you need to work on. It’s a big boost of confidence to see over the course of a few weeks that you’re completing more sets in less time, doing more reps, or increasing your weight.
  • Make Your Goals Public: When you let others know that you’ve committed to a particular goal, this can help get you to follow through with it. Not only will others hold you accountable for your action/inaction, they will likely show encouragement and support, as well.
  • Find Partners and/or a Community: This can be done in either of two ways, local or online. The former is probably more difficult, but if you know of friends, acquaintances, or family members in the area who are health conscious or are looking to get in shape, you could find find times to collaborate workouts. But even if that isn’t an option, seek out an online community for assistance, encouragement, and to challenge one another to improve.

Do you exercise at home or at a gym? What is your experience with them? Do you have any further tips or effective exercises you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!

1. $20 service fee per month, plus $40 annual membership fee.

2. The ten year savings estimate assumes the yearly savings ($370) receives a conservative return of 5% on investment, compounded over the ten year period.

3. Or, alternately, you could spend the same amount of time and get more from your workout.

4. The ten year savings estimate assumes that the remainder of the home gym & treadmill expense minus the expenses for bars & bands ($590) and the yearly savings ($55.25), receive a conservative return of 5% on investment, compounded over the ten year period.

5. Every few weeks or so you’ll want to swap these exercises with others that work the same muscle group. This helps keep the muscles from acclimating to the repetition, which slows growth.

6. More time to read! Woohoo!

Filed Under: Finance, Health  / Tagged: , ,

Trade, Borrow or Steal?

February 15, 2012 by / 30 Comments

The other day I was chatting with a co-worker about the usual topics: work, college basketball and beer (you know, usual stuff).  When he was about to head back to his cube, one of our other co-workers came by and handed him a small cooler.  He told me that it was full of elk meat that our other co-worker had given him.  This isnt the first time that I’ve noticed a one co-worker (a different one) give this specific person game meat.  The last time I noticed it a similar thing happened, except the meat was deer and not elk.

Obviously after all the work I had put into my elk hunt over multiple days (and years!) I was slightly annoyed with what I thought of as his laziness, so I commented on it.  I said something along the lines of ‘wow it must be easy for you to eat around here, you can just bum meat off of all of the other people in the office, because you can just take a few pounds from everyone and end up with a enough to tide yourself over to the next fall’ (There’s at least 6 people who got elk in the office).  He replied that he didnt have to hunt and didnt really feel bad about it (though he does fish), and didnt ever expect to pick up hunting or give it a try because he had another skill: Brewing.

Thinking back, this wasnt the first time that I heard a conversation about bartering at the office.  A different co-worker makes jellys, jams, chutneys and other canned goods that she sells at the farmers market.  One day she walked in with a handful of jars and told me that she was headed over to so-and-so’s cube because the person in question liked her jalepeno jelly and wanted to trade her for some duck eggs.  (Clearly, this sort of thing goes on more than I thought, and I should get in on it)

It honestly was something that had never occured to me.  He was trading a few beers (he bottles in 22oz’s) for a few pounds of elk.  I have no idea why (probably because I have few friends and even fewer skills) I had never thought about it, but I hadn’t.  After I thought about it more, I think it’s a pretty sweet idea – he gets to brew some more than he would normally, increasing his skills and also having a place to dispose of beers that he may have grown tired of for whatever reason, and the people who are trading elk (or other game meat) are able to get rid of stuff they may not eat before next fall or before it goes bad.

The one of the best parts about this is that each person is giving something that they put a great deal of time into and throughly enjoyed – so it didnt really feel like work.  Everyone is able to get something in return for their hobby beyond the original intent, and will also get to share their hobby with coworkers.  I had never really thought much about the barter system beyond a few small things before this, but this conversation has really opened my eyes and let me know that there’s probably people there who will barter anything for anything and everything, which opens up a world of possibility in terms of sustainability and finances.

Readers: Have you ever traded food with someone else, if so, what did you trade and for what?  Have you ever thought about doing this?  I have a feeling that this could play a bigger role in H and I’s life this summer with our CSAs, but I’m not sure how, though I could offer to trade with co-workers who keep gardens.

ps. one funny thing about this is after I wrote this, frugal portland offered to trade me some homemade candy for elk meat.

Filed Under: Finance  / Tagged: , ,

Save money, come prepared

June 24, 2011 by / 3 Comments

A while ago, I was in St Louis hanging out with family and friends – The trip was great, but it didnt start out that way.  The first few hours in town were rather difficult, and part of it was caused by my assumptions and lack of preparation for the trip.  Here’s what happened.

H and I had a late flight out of our airport (because I need to save up vacation time for now) and were not scheduled to land until around midnight local time in St Louis.  Well, there was some terrible weather in the area during the flight, so we were just in a holding pattern about 30 minutes west of St Louis for a while.  The bad weather had knocked out power to the lights on the runway, so someone had to run out there with a gas can and mark the runway with fire (just kidding).  The landing was a bit bumpy, but turned out ok.  Once we were on the ground, there was a miscommunication between our friends that had offered to pick us up, so we took a taxi to where we were staying (Cost $40).

Lesson: Wait it out at the airport, and look for your ride harder.  We got in touch with them right after we checked in, and $40 in cab money later.

On to the second thing – once they met up with us, it turns out that no one had contact solution.  I need a special kind, and had hoped that what I had brought was going to be enough to hold me over until Saturday, when I could pick some more up – it wasn’t enough, and not even close.  So, at about 1:15am, two of us headed out to the store to fetch some more.  We managed to find the only wal-mart I’ve ever heard of that’s not open 24/7 (I’m still annoyed by this, actually).  Unfortunately, this mission couldn’t fail, so we had to find another one – at this point it was nearing 2am, and both of us were getting tired.  Of course, on the way to the other wal-mart we got caught in a rain storm that was by far the worst I’ve ever seen.  Typical with storms (That I noticed driving from 1 state to another when I had 2 jobs), once we crossed the state line back into Missouri, the storm was gone (We were about 2 miles from the border).  So we headed into the nearest walmart and picked up some contact solution for people.  Cost: $9.  Once we got back and parked the car, we headed for the bar for 2 quick beers before last call.

Lesson: Trust, but verify.  I should have gotten more contact solution before I left.

The worst part about this whole story is that none of it needed to happen.  Spending 1 hour in a car, driving through terrible storms and spending money could have all been prevented by proper planning.  Had I had contact solution, there would have been no problem, I would have happily shared.  Instead of spending this time with friends, 2 of us spent it in a rainstorm driving all over the greater St Louis area, while the other 2 spent it asleep.

The rest of the trip turned out to be a blast, though.

Readers: Do you have any times where proper planning could have prevented money spent and time wasted? Share them in the comments!

Filed Under: Finance  / Tagged:

How to Save Money Traveling

October 20, 2010 by / 5 Comments

A couple of exciting things for my regular readers.:  My member post is going live on Yakezie.com today (I’ll be in the finance vertical) and I’ve added some category buttons to the area below the header.

Quite a while ago, I went on a vacation.  All told, I spent around $700, and that was including almost $200 (!!!) for just 2 dinners!  Here’s how I made up for those splurges by cutting other areas of my travel budget.

  1. Bought a City Pass – They dont have these for every city, and Atlanta was the first time that I’ve tried it, but it worked out great.  We were able to get a behind the scenes tour of the georgia aquarium, entrance into the Coca-Cola museum, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, a tour of CNN and enterance to a museum that we did not take advantage of.  Without the pass, this would have cost $88.  The pass cost $74, and we didn’t even take advantage of all we could have.  Although the savings is only $14, we didn’t have to wait in ticket lines either.
  2. Used Public Transit – When this is available, I’ll always prefer this + walking to taking a taxi or renting a car.  It’s always cheaper, and you can see a part of the area you’re visiting that you may not have seen in a taxi or while cruising around in a rental car.
  3. Go to off the beaten path places – I enjoy this one throughly.  While in Atlanta, we went to the state capitol building.   There is usually interesting exhibits in the capitol about the state and history (which I enjoy) and if you go at the right time, you can see the legislators working.  While we were in the house, I think the Secretary of State was filming a tv advertisement for re-election.  Always interesting stuff going on there, and they are always free to enter (though you may have to pass through a metal detector.
  4. Check out the local happenings – While this wasn’t planned, we happened to be in Atlanta during restaurant week.  They had great 3 course meals at restaurants for $35 and $25 depending on the restaurant, but this allowed us to eat at 2 amazing restaurants for much less than they normally would have cost.  In fact, one of the restaurants does not even print prices on their website – which is usually a good sign that I wouldn’t be able to afford it.  Note: if you’re ever in this situation, I came up with some valuable advice a while back I’d like to share: If you have to ask what it costs, you can’t afford it.
  5. Pack meals for the airport – We prepared sandwiches and some snacks to eat at the airport on the way out.  It was a good thing we did too, as our flight ended up getting delayed a few hours.  It made for our time at the airport rather cheap.  However, you need to be careful with this.  If you plan on taking your food past security, please be aware of the TSA rules.  No one who is in line behind you wants to hear you arguing with an agent over whether or not you can take your ranch dressing through while holding up the line.  You wont make many friends that way.   For those frugal boozehounds out there, I have seen and heard about (but never tried) the following:  You can bring in the “shooters” of your favorite Bourbon alcohol, and as long as they are sealed in your 1 quart bag, you can take as many as will fit.  Mix them with the soda the airline gives you and viola, free mixed drink(s)!
  6. Watch the dining out – When you’re traveling, you’re most likely not near a kitchen that you are familiar with, or even one at all.  Eating out can add up quick, and it adds up even faster if you’ve got a family.  Try going to a nearby grocery store for some meals or snacks.  Peanut butter & Jelly sandwiches still taste good even though you’re no longer 11 years old.  Take it from me, I know.  Also if you do this, you shouldn’t feel as guilty if you spend a bit more on dinner than normal.
  7. Use Bing Travel – Usually I don’t use Microsoft products, but I have been using this website since long before Microsoft bought them.  They take historical fare data and statistical models to guess the fare price for the areas you want to fly to.

Remember, your vacation does not start when your plane touches down  or your vehicle arrives at its destination.  Your vacation starts the minute you start planning for it.  Get someone to drop you off and pick you up from the airport (or take transit) so you wont have to pay to park.  Book your tickets during a lull in prices and you could save big as well.  Jet Blue airlines has the All You Can Jet Promotion in September because flying drops off heavily in September and they are looking to generate revenue.

How do you save money on vacation?

Filed Under: Finance  / Tagged: ,

Saving Money Tip: Change your own Oil

June 30, 2010 by / 11 Comments

Oil Change Equipment

There are a lot of ways to save money floating around the interwebs, some common (like using coupons) and some not so common (like buying cloth rags to use instead of toilet paper).  Today I am going to tell you about one of my personal favorite saving money tips, which is changing my own motor oil.  One of the reasons that I do it is I just like to go out side and get a bit dirty, do some work that I can get positive, semi-immediate results from, and there’s something at least a tiny bit manly about being able to work on your own car.  I didn’t always know how to change my oil though so there are a few things that I have learned on the way.   (Materials Pictured Above from left to right: Socket wrench, socket wrench extension, oil drip pan, oil, oil filer, filter wrench, funnel)

Changing your own motor oil saves some money.  The amount saved depends on how much you drive your car.  If you’re like me and drive a lot, you can save quite a bit of coin over the course of a year.  If you don’t drive as much, the savings will be slightly less (~$120/yr).

  1. Make sure to use the proper tools.  You can’t get something done right if you don’t have the right equipment
  2. Make sure you have a spot for the waste oil.  Here at sustainable life blog, we don’t like to waste anything.  Depending on where you live, you can probably call the city or county, and they will tell you how you can dispose of it.  My county (and most of them around here) will collect the used oil.  Some recycle it, and some burn it for heat, but it’s always used.
  3. Check and Double Check Yourself.

Alright, after we’ve got that out-of-the-way, let’s get dirty!  First, you’ll need to figure out what kind of motor oil and filter your car has.  To do this, you’ll need to look in the owner’s manual that (hopefully) came with your car.  Once you do this, you need to take the car that you’re going to change the oil in and head over to your local auto parts store and get some new oil, a new filter, a drip pan (if you don’t have one), and an oil filter wrench.  The first time you pick all this up, it will probably run you about 30 (which is what jiffy lube charges).  Simple cheap stuff, and once you buy it all, you’ll only need a new filter and oil, which will run you about $10/trip.

Get Ready to get Dirty

Once you’ve got all your stuff back home, it’s time to get down and dirty.  Get out your owner’s manual and look for an engine diagram (or there could be a how to change oil guide in there) and find the Oil drain plug.  Get a torque or crescent wrench,  and slowly loosen the bolt. (Dont forget to keep the bolt out of the oil when you remove it completely) Oil will start to leak on you a bit, and it should be warm (unless your trip to the parts store took a while, then give it some cooling time).  Just make sure you have your drip pan ready to try to catch it when you remove the screw completely.  While the oil is draining, you can grab your oil filter wrench and locate your oil filter.  It will be round, and sticking off of the engine somewhere.  If you can’t locate it right away, go back to your owner’s manual and find an engine schematic that will tell you where it is.  Once you find it, take your filter wrench and loosen the oil filter slowly.  Some oil will start leaking out of here as well, don’t worry about it.  Once you get it off, you can set it aside.

Replace what you took out

Now, it’s time to replace what you’ve taken off.  Get the bolt, and screw it back into where you took it out of.  Then get your new oil filter and rub a bit of oil around the rubber seal.  This will make it much easier to get off the next time, and I can tell you that there’s nothing worse than a stuck oil filter.  Then screw it back where the old one came from.  There is no reason to tighten these things down as hard as you possibly can get them, either.  Remember, you’re going to be the one taking them off next time.  So get the snug and give them a bit more and call it good.

Now, you’re almost done, but you need to grab your oil, pop open the hood, and put back the required amount of oil!  Fire up the car, make sure everything works and you’re good to go!

Now, that wasnt so hard, was it?

Here’s a cost breakdown.  This will probably take about an hour of your time, and assuming you drive as much as the normal american (12,000 miles/year) you’ll save about $60 during the first year (due to costs of oil drip pan and wrench), and about $80  every year after that.  Of course, the better you get at it, the less time it will take you.  I change my oil about once every 6 weeks, so I can stand to save a bit more than that.  I wouldn’t trade less driving

But I can guarantee you’ll feel good after having changed your own oil, because there’s nothing like the feeling of a job well done.

Filed Under: Environment, Finance  / Tagged: ,

Saving Money with Alternative Fuels

June 9, 2010 by / 2 Comments

Last week, I talked about how to save some money on fuel costs and do better by the environment by making slight modifications to your driving habits.  This article is sort of related to the first.  If you’re interested, you can find the first article here

Oil Fueled Lamp

Credit: G.D. Abir, Flickr

At this writing, it’s difficult to get away from energy, more specifically, oil.  As of late, there has been the unforgettable and despicable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the suspicious absence of what I call the “summer spike” in gas prices.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see that gas prices stayed down during memorial day, but despite the popularity of gas, there are other fuels out there.  These “alternative fuels” are monitored by the EPA just like gasoline, and in most cases are more sustainable, cheaper and better for the environment.  Today I’ll go over the more popular ones and how you can begin using them.

Ethanol

Ethanol is made from starch, sugar or cellulose, and is made similar to alcohol.  It is first fermented, then processed through a still (just like grain alcohol).  It is typically higher octane than gas, and it also burns cleaner.  Ethanol does contain less energy per unit than gasoline does, so you will most likely see a decrease in your fuel economy.  The EPA estimates this decrease to be about 20-30%.   The best part about ethanol is that it’s already used in many cars.  ”Gasahol” is sold in places (not where I’m from) but is a mixture of 10% ethanol, 90% gasoline, and is sometimes known as E-10.  Along with E-10, you can purchase E-85 and Vehicles at gas stations nation-wide, although there are reports that it’s easier to find E-85 and E-85 vehicles (sometimes called “flex-fuel”) in the midwest than other parts of the country.

Benefits of Ethanol: Grown (typically from corn) in the United States, so there is no geo-political concerns with the fuel, lower air pollution, resistant to engine  knocking, little or no cost difference.

Drawbacks of Ethanol: Only for flex-fuel vehicles, lower miles per gallon.

In my area, E-85 is about 20-30 cents cheaper per gallon than gas.  This could potentially save you $3,600 per year if you drive the average of 12,000 miles.   To find out if your vehicle can use E-85, consult your manual or your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or contact your dealer.

List of E-85 Vehicles for 2010

Biodiesel

Biodiesel is a type of diesel made from vegetable oil, animal fats or used fryer grease.  Currently, there is a lot of research being done with this fuel, as some have gotten usable oils from algae.  It is biodegradable, perfectly safe, and produces less emissions than a diesel engine using conventional diesel fuel.  Biodiesel is nice because it can be used pure (B-100) or in any blend.  Most common blends are B-2 (2% biodeisel), B-5, and B-20.   Along with being able to blend with conventional diesel, biodiesel requires few modifications to a diesel engine to use.  Many auto manufactures will still extend the warranty of the car with biodeisel blends up to B-5 as well.

Advantages of Biodiesel: Domestically produced (sometimes from things that would be thrown out), easily used in most diesel engines, non toxic, biodegradable, safe to handle.

Disadvantage of Biodiesel: Slightly lower power output (2% when using B-20), warranties invalidated with blends above B-5, can gel at low temperatures, slightly higher NOx (Nitrous Oxide) emissions.

Natural Gas

Natural gas is one of the cleanest burning fuels on the market, and is almost all 87% domestically produced.  Natural gas was typically used for large fleets of vehicles, although is not relatively available for consumers, with the exception of the Honda Civic GX.  Along with difficulty finding a Natural gas car, fueling is also difficult, leading some manufacturers to put dual fuel systems in the vehicles, allowing for a user to get a gas or diesel engine that can run on natural gas if it is available.

Advantages of Natural Gas: Less Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, less smog inducing particulates, typically cheaper than gasoline.

Disadvantages of Natural Gas: Difficult to purchase a vehicle for, difficult to find fuel, less miles on a tank (due to size constraints)

Propane

Propane is similar to natural gas.  It is stored in tanks and can be used in vehicles along side gas or diesel.  Unfortunately, no vehicles have been produced to run on Propane since the 2004 model year, but an engine conversion from diesel or gasoline is possible.

Hydrogen

There has been many discussions on the future of vehicle fuel, and it seems like hydrogen is emerging as the front runner.  Hydrogen is clean burning, and if the fuel is used in a fuel cell, there are no emissions, but if it is used in an internal combustion engine, there are NOx emissions.  Hydrogen is also produced domestically, removing energy fears from the process.  Unfortunately, Hydrogen powered vehicles are too expensive for most consumers to afford, and there are very few fueling stations in the United States (Of the few that do exist, most are in California).  This seems to me like a future technology.

What about electric cars, you ask?  Good question.  I’m currently researching, and will post an article on them when finished (I left them out of here because there are a few coming to market, such as the chevy volt and the nissan leaf)

So, if you were an average consumer who is looking for a fuel other than your current one, what are your best options? In my opinion, you’d be best served with ethanol or biodiesel, depending on your current vehicle.  Biodiesel is easy to set up and get going, and you can even produce it yourself if you like.  That being said, I’m betting few of you have diesel vehicles, as there are not many diesel vehicles available (other than trucks) in the US.  So, your best choice would probably be ethanol fuel for your current vehicle, or if you are considering upgrading soon, look into ethanol or a gas hybrid.   Me? I’ve currently got a gas powered vehicle, but am hoping to get a diesel vehicle in the future and fuel it with biodiesel.



Filed Under: Environment, Finance, sustainability  / Tagged: , , , , , ,

Saving Money Tip: Open Source Software

May 17, 2010 by / 17 Comments

Last week, I was having a twitter discussion with one of my favorite PF Bloggers, Matt Jabs of Debt Free Adventure.  Matt’s a great blogger, and offered to put my car situation on his website, and I got valuable feedback from him and his readers.  Anyway, Matt & I share slightly similar professions (Although he has recently gotten a new job, Congrats Matt) in that we are both IT Geeks by day.  (I should probably stop talking about Matt & get to my post.

Anyway, Matt got me thinking when we were talking about a computer purchase.  At work (and I work for a very by-the-book employer) we have even begun using open-source software because it is so cost effective, and I thought it would be a great way for non IT geeks to use to lower costs when purchasing a new machine.  There are many different programs that you have been working on computers with for years, and probably just purchase because the program is good (or OK) and don’t know what else can do a similar function for a better cost.  Microsoft Office comes to mind here.

So, here are some ways you can save money on software when purchasing a computer

Open Source Software

Word Processing/Spreadsheets/Presentations

Standard Program:

Microsoft Office - To Order a new Dell PC with Microsoft Office, it costs $119.00, and is not the “professional” edition, which includes an email client, Microsoft Outlook.  For that, You’ll need to cough up $279.00.

For Microsoft Office on an Apple Machine, it costs $149.95 for the regular edition, and $399.95 for the “professional” edition

Open Source Alternative:

Open Office – Open office is a great program, and as long as I’ve used it or talked about it with friends, I’ve never heard a bad thing spoken about it.  It has spreadsheets, wordprocessing, graphics and databases.  This is more functionality than you get with the standard version of Microsoft office, and it’s free.  It also has a simple save as “*.docx” or whatever microsoft format you need.  It also has a save as “*.pdf” option.  You can download open office for free at their website, www.openoffice.org

Email:

For Cost Option – Microsoft Outlook included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition.

Open Source Alternative:

Thunderbird is the email client designed by the people who created the Mozilla Firefox Browser.  It’s got many of the same features as outlook, such as email search, easy set up, and integration with their calendar program, called Lightning Calendar.  If you think these sources are unsafe, think again.  Use of Firefox (the browser) has been gaining steadily over the years, and is probably safer at this point than Internet Explorer, the Microsoft Web browser.

Photo Editing:

Many of the photo editing software comes standard (a perfect reason for you to use it and not think about it).  Some of it is OK for the amateur photographer, but there are programs that do a much better job and are also free.

Picasa: Picasa was purchased by internet giant Google quite some time ago, and then was (as is google’s motus operandi) made free, and features were added like crazy.  It has a much more intuitive way of finding your photos, and also adds support for red-eye removal and tagging pictures with places and people in them.  You can also upload some of your photos on the internet to share so that grandma can see pictures of your new baby (or puppy), for free!

USB Jump Drive

You probably bought one of these to store files, thinking man, this is handy.  Well, if you’ve lost yours and don’t want to replace it, try….

Dropbox – Creates a folder on each of your computers and syncs the items in the folder across the dropbox folders.  Along with moving your files to computers, you can use files on the dropbox website.  If you’re interested in more, check the homepage for a short video on how to get the most out of dropbox.

For most users, these options would save you lots of money in software when purchasing a new computer.  There’s more products that will allow you to cut the cost of Microsoft Windows out, but I didnt mention them for 2 reasons:

  • It’s usually included in the cost of the computer
  • Other Operating System software (Linux, Unix) is typically for IT geeks like myself.

So, I encourage you to take some of Bakers advice and Unautomate your software choices.  The old methods work ok, but there are newer, better and free-er (is that a word) software options.  Explore them, you’ll save money and be glad you did.

Filed Under: Finance  / Tagged: , , ,
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