I bought some philips cordless phones with the answering machine a while back. I think they're nice. 1.9Ghz so they dont bother wifi laptops was my initial main reason for buying. They use regular old standard AAA NiMH rechargable batteries which you can buy replacements in most any drugstore for resonable money.. when they do poop out someday. Standby time : 120 hours Talk time : 10 hours Only negative I see is they are tiny - but do work nifty for me, even on hands free speakerphone too. Here is a link that might be useful: Philips DECT Phone/Answering machine

Thanks all. Well, UE came through and the dog and I took a drive up the road about 3 miles (I drove) to get to the gas station with the better prices. This gas station was 6 cents cheaper a gallon than the closer station. Geez, I have not bought gas for quite a while. The prices are going back up. The price was like $2.73.9 a gallon for unleaded. Some days I have not even left the house except to water the plants, feed the birds and get the mail. What are you all paying in your part of the country? So if my body behaves tomorrow morning I will head on down the road. I am not sure if I should take the freeway since that might be jammed up. I will listen to the radio before I leave the house. They give the traffic report so you know what's stopped up. Oh, and the weather channel local on the 8's and its website show the road slowdowns too. Ok, if I make it there I will report to you all tomorrow and let you know how my 1st day went. Another thing to worry about - health insurance. I have to make sure I ask about that tomorrow. Oh, and I have to remember to stop at Ikea for an application.

There's a lot of things you can do to save money on a prepaid cell and still have functionality. But the most important thing is to consider your needs. In what areas will you use it? How many minutes per month will you use it? Are you OK with a phone that has roaming charges? Do you text/how much? etc, etc. Then compare companies. Also, be sure you don't get hung up on the "per minute" rates. Most frugal folks don't use 1000 min/mo so the per month cost is probably more important than the per minute. A low per minute rate doesn't mean much if you don't use the minutes before expiration. There's a total cost, including the cost of the phone that is an important consideration. Right now I have a lot of minutes built up because I don't use the cell too much. So the monthly cost to keep the minutes is my main consideration. Budgeting is on important way to save. With each provider there's different things you can do to save money. But you have to know which provider will suit your needs best, then look for the best price.

I'd disagree with: 1) Cars. We had two and I decided to go down to one. I've always made compromises on what we've bought, but I love cars. I SERIOUSLY love cars! I figured this is the last new car I will probably ever buy, so why should I compromise unnecessarily? I made my list of "must haves" and "nice but not a deal breaker". Then I spent over a year reading, researching, and test driving. Finally bought it in May 2017. Gifted the two old cars away, and have been driving with a grin on my face ever since. Love the advanced safety features and power. This car is a joy to drive on our travels. 2) Furniture. I agree, wouldn't buy a used mattress but no objection to used furniture. BUT, I have a small LR and needed some very specific, modular pieces that I could move around for flexible seating. So we bought a new loveseat and giant ottoman. All the used modulars I've seen are the huge '80's and '90's overstuffed monsters - that's what I was getting rid of! 3) Designer Jeans. Hate jeans, never wear them. 4) Tech gadgets. You must be kidding! I don't seek out "name" tech toys but it is false economy to buy most used tech. Our desktops are built by a local shop, top of the line. They last 15+ years as download devices. My current desktop works as our network server with a RAID array; not superfast any longer but fine for anything except HD graphic videos, which I don't care about. Our laptops and tablets are name brands. Especially for smaller/thinner devices, their batteries are usually sealed and don't have long life. You want good performance, you need to buy it new. Yes, you can get one of the old Kindles for almost nothing. But if you've ever read on a Paperwhite Kindle, you'll know why almost everyone who originally bought a Kindle, upgraded to the Paperwhite. It is Nirvana for readers. I have impaired vision; reading on a phone gives me a headache, LOL. 5) Swing sets. No kids, no issue. 6) Formal wear & wedding. Really? People still need these for anything except a prom? Weddings - well, maybe. One couple out of the last 15 weddings we've attended, did the formal thing. 7) Books & college textbooks. SOMETIMES this will save you money. These days of e-books - not always. 8) Kids bicycles. Again, no kids. 9) Musical instruments. I'm a listener, so streaming is the way to go. 10) Tools. No way. But my tools are just basic ones, used for light home maintenance. I am not going to buy somebody's used Black & Decker jigsaw. 11) Exercise equipment. Yes, you absolutely can save $$$ on Craigslist. Personally, I'm a believer in gardening and walking. 12) Homes. I'm 50-50 about this. Old or new, sooner or later you are going to have to spend on home maintenance. If new, you have (hopefully) a maintenance-free interim; but you have no real way of telling if or where your builder/contractor cut corners until something goes wrong. If old - in our area the number of older homes that are truly turnkey, fully remodeled, good-as-new-right-down-to-the-roofing-nails, is so infinitesimally small a proportion, as to be realistically non-existent. If you find one, be prepared for a bidding war. 30+ offers are common out here; many mid-priced homes needing moderate remodeling will often have pending offers before the agent can even get the listing onto the MLS. Much of the existing SFH stock where we live is aging and needs remodeling. We are not talking simple cosmetics here; this means sewer systems, wasteful gas space heaters or floor furnaces wrapped in asbestos, aluminum wiring, soggy basements, no insulation or bolted foundations. In a high-labor market, remodeling is a six-figure budget cost - and that amount, on top of an already high RE price, is out of reach for even prospective homeowners already making $150+K.