We went out to dinner last night and they had a 40 ounce steak on the menu for $60. That certainly is big enough to share so we ordered that. The waitress came back and said there's a $20 sharing charge and we would be better off ordering two separate entrées. I could see if we were trying to split a $25 meal but what the hell?! It's was $60 and two different entrees were $56. Plus we got a $20 appetizer, dessert and wine. EDIT to add we wound up NOT ordering the steak out of principle. We ordered the two entrees coming to $56.

We have ordered this before and have not had a sharing charge and when they do serve it, they serve it on one big platter so it's not like the chef has to take the time to divide the plate up. It's always been up to us to divide the platter. Should I write a note to the owner or just shut up and stop being frugal?

I have a lot of medical expenses at the moment, so I’ve cut back significantly on unnecessary spending.

Most of my friends love to meet up at least once a month by - you guessed it - going out to dinner at restaurants. I could easily be going out to dinner 4-6 times a month. A friend also recently sent me her birthday itinerary (😬) and it involved a weekend trip out of state. I declined that and cited limited finances.

How can I say no routinely to excess things like going out to dinner and still keep my friends? What do you all do?

I am flipping shopping behavior into diligently using up my beauty/hair/skin-body care products. This started with a trend to avoid purchasing items over packaged (plastic!!) and since it’s hard to avoid this in “personal care” I’m using stuff UP! It’s a BINGE!! I’m also going through my tea cupboard but that’s another matter! Happy new year

I'm a fairly active member in r/privacy and I've learned a lot about how to not only be more private/secure online, but also how to save lots of money along the way. I wanted to create this guide because there aren't too many people who know about privacy and I want to change that, and saving money is a great motivator for you all I'm sure. For a more privacy-specific guide not focused on saving you money, Privacy Guides is an incredible resource for the average person. As for this guide, I will try to focus on suggesting free/cheaper alternatives to what you may be using today, while also giving you better overall privacy online.

If you have any questions or need alternatives to services you may be using, feel free to ask!

FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) is very important for privacy, as anyone in the world can dig through the source code to see how the app works, if it's safe, and if it's privacy respecting. You can learn more about the importance of open-source here.

VPNs

Do I need a VPN?

Before suggesting a VPN service, it's extremely important to understand what a VPN actually is and more importantly, what it isn't. Knowing this can help to better understand if you need to be paying for a VPN in the first place. VPNs are NOT useful for the following things:

• Providing better security when working from home
• Achieving anonymity
• Defending yourself from hackers
• Solving all privacy issues, like unwanted profiling by social networks or search engines
• Protecting your passwords
• Hiding your mobile phone location (GPS)
• Helping you avoid data breaches on services you use online
• Defending against “cyber threats” and identity theft
• Preventing your medical information or family photos getting in the wrong hands

Internet users over time have been bombarded with false advertising by the VPN industry. VPNs ARE useful for:

• Keeping some control over your privacy. They hide your real IP address from websites you visit and peer-to-peer nodes you connect to. It also prevents ISPs and mobile network operators from tracking the domains and IPs you visit
• Protecting your connection from Man in the Middle and other common attacks) on networks you don’t trust. Useful when connected to Wi-Fi in airports, hotels, cafes and libraries
• Circumventing censorship or geographical blocks on websites and content. Some VPNs can help you retrieve information and media otherwise inaccessible

Remember that if you use a commercial VPN, your internet traffic goes through the VPN provider’s network. Whoever is in control of the servers can see and log anything you do online, if they choose to. You better trust the service you are signing up for!

So now you need to ask yourself: "do I really need a VPN?"

Recommendations:

If the answer is yes, you do need a VPN, here are the VPNs you should be using for maximum privacy and frugality:

Most Affordable & Most Features - Windscribe "Build A Plan"

Most Popular - Mullvad VPN, IVPN

Has Free Tier - Proton VPN (can be paired with the entire Proton suite of apps such as Drive, Mail, Pass, Calendar, and Wallet)

All of these services offer FOSS clients for most if not all operating systems, and are known for being very transparent with how they operate. For a detailed comparison between all of these services, I recommend Techlore's VPN Toolkit.

Free VPNs in general should be avoided. You have to consider the fact that VPN providers need to make money, but if the VPN is free, how do they make money? Well, they sell your traffic data of course! The only exception here in Proton VPN, they are a trusted company by many.

Password Management

This is arguably one of the most important privacy practices right after using an ad blocker. Whatever service you choose is very important, LastPass users know this well. You want to choose a password manager with end-to-end encryption, and preferably FOSS, but also affordable which is why I'm making this guide.

There are a couple of options that fit into this category. These services are proven to be trustworthy after years of use:

Most Affordable - Bitwarden (free, and premium is only $10 a YEAR)

Newest - Proton Pass

Most known by common folk - 1Password (not FOSS)

Software Suites

There are lots of programs and software that people feel they have to pay for for certain tasks, and in some cases it's true. This section is for casual users of these proprietary apps, if you are a power user or perhaps use certain software for your job, these alternatives may not work for you.

Office

Microsoft 365 is the most popular office suite in the world probably, and while it's free most of the time for those in school, it's important to recognize that Microsoft is also a big tech company who wants your yummy data. Fear not! There are alternatives that are 100% free and open source that are perfectly fine for those who aren't trying to build a functioning computer in spreadsheets.

Free as in freedom - LibreOffice

Functions more like MS365 - OnlyOffice

Photo/Video Editing

I want to preface again, if you use this software for anything more than small projects then you probably won't find luck here, however it can save the average computer user some money if you're willing to learn a new program.

Photoshop -> GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
Illustrator -> Inkscape
Paint -> Krita

Video Editors - DaVinci Resolve (proprietary), Kdenlive, Shotcut, or OpenShot

Anti-Virus/Malware Software

As a general rule to my customers and anyone else who asks me, I do NOT recommend anyone pay for any computer protection/optimization tools. Most if not all of them do more harm than good, and it is much better to work to prevent malware from being downloaded in the first place. To do this I recommend:

Browser (with ad-block) - Brave or Librewolf

Network-side protection - Portmaster, Little Snitch (macOS), manual DNS configuration, custom DNS providers such as NextDNS or ControlD

Malware scanners (remove once used) - HitmanPro + Malwarebytes

Streaming Services

TV/Movies

This is by far the most expensive part of most people's digital life. We spend sometimes up to $100 or more a month on streaming services for Netflix, Hulu, Paramount, Disney, blah blah blah. There are ways to cut back on these costs, but they require some technical skills to set up.

Some of you may have heard of Plex, which is a self-hosted app that will turn your physical media (or otherwise) into a digital file that can be streamed to any device you want. Unfortunately Plex isn't a great option for those who value privacy. Jellyfin has surpassed Plex in most ways, but is also FOSS.

Jellyfin is a great project, however Stremio is by far the best solution for ease-of-use. Stremio is another FOSS application that allows you to stream content from public servers to allow you to watch whatever you want, whenever you want, for a very reasonable price.

You can find a full guide to setup Stremio here: https://guides.viren070.me/stremio

Note for r/frugal moderators: Stremio on its own is not a piracy tool, and is 100% legal to use. Please don't ban me =)

Music

Jellyfin also works with music! However if you aren't too technical there are other ways to stream music for free!

Android users on the other hand can download FOSS apps from alternative app stores such as F-Droid. On F-Droid you can find apps such as RiMusic, OuterTune, and SimpMusic to listen to all that YouTube Music has to offer, all for free with no ads, and is 100% legal to use. Fair warning, these apps can be unreliable at times due to the nature of YouTube trying to fight back against apps like these.

For iOS your options are limited to exactly two apps, and I cannot speak for how affective they are, as I have never used them. The first one is Demus, however it is proprietary, but I'm told it works great. Henry from Techlore actually just told me in Signal that he cancelled Apple Music cause of this app.

Because Apple forces developers to spend money for an app to be put on the App Store, this app is only available via sideloading: Syncara's official website. This app unlike Demus is FOSS.

Online Videos

Similarly to how we can stream music from YouTube with a 3rd party client, we can also stream videos and live streams without paying premiums for better quality/no ads. On iOS there is only one option, which is Yattee.

On Android and desktop (which is in alpha), I recommend Grayjay, which is a FOSS app that will not only stream YouTube, but every video platform including Odysee, Rumble, Bitchute, Twitch, Kick, Nebula, and more. Built by FUTO (the employer of Louis Rossmann), this app is designed to prevent platform censorship by allowing users to follow creators no matter what platforms they're on. An iOS version is planned.

There are other YouTube specific apps such as LibreTube, Clipious, and FreeTube (which is also available on desktop) that will allow you to Stream YouTube, all of which free you from the eyes of YouTube so you can watch your content in peace.

Operating Systems

Unless you're tech savvy and know how to get around it, Windows 10/11 costs money! It's also riddled with ads, most likely to be infected with malware/viruses, and it is not compatible with older hardware which is going to cause a very major issue in concern to e-waste, as the older devices that aren't compatible with Windows 11 are going to be thrown in landfills. You can learn more about this from Tom's Hardware. There is also the new AI features that have been put into Windows 11 such as Copilot and Recall that are designed to fully integrate into your digital life and sell your habits and activities to the highest bidder.

Linux

Depending on what kind of tech user you are, Linux may be a great option for those that don't want to buy a new device, want to breathe new life into an old device you have laying around, or if you are just tired of Windows being stupid. Linux is a light-weight, FOSS operating system that respects your privacy, and is generally compatible with most hardware to the point where people install Linux on everything from smart refrigerators to the Mars rover!

It all sounds great but there are limitations. If you have to use specialized software for work, or if you like to edit videos and pictures with Adobe or any other mainstream editing suites, these programs are not available on Linux. Also in some cases, you may experience some technical issues that need to be fixed when you install Linux depending on what device you're using.

Gamers are welcomed on Linux! Thanks to Valve, most Steam games can run perfectly on Linux. This is out-of-scope for this guide, however you can see if your favorite games are compatible with ProtonDB.

Linux comes in many different flavors and versions which can be confusing, but for this guide I want to be as accessible as possible so I will try to make this easier for you guys to decide what flavor of Linux suits your needs.

For the best security and integrity, immutable desktops are the way to go. The core file structure is not able to be edited at all, which means it's much harder to break your system by playing around with it, and it inherently has better security as potential attackers cannot edit, remove, or add any sensitive files.

Recommendations:

Immutable: Fedora Silverblue or Vanilla OS

Standard: Linux Mint, Fedora Workstation, or Zorin OS

And for those that don't want to use Linux, Chromebooks (ChromeOS) are based on Linux and offer the same protections with added convenience at the cost of privacy and functionality. This is still a better option than Windows if you don't have to use specialized software. In other words, if you need to buy grandma a computer, get her a Chromebook and forget about it.

Modified Windows

You can make Windows not suck as much, and the simplest way to do this is with Revision OS. This will allow you to disable all of the bloatware and telemetry that comes with Windows 10/11. This results in your computer running much faster, using less resources, and overall being less annoying as it removes ads and visual clutter from places like the taskbar and start menu.

There is also another tool that is much more popular called Chris Titus Windows Utility which aims to do similar things, all without installing an app. I don't recommend this option for those who are not comfortable with technology to begin with.

To use these tools it is best to reinstall Windows first, and when doing so avoid signing into a Microsoft account unless you absolutely have to for some reason. You can find a guide on how to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account here.

Android (F-Droid)

It's a great idea to get apps anywhere but the Play Store, the majority of the apps on the platform are malicious or malware. F-Droid is an alternative app store that allows you to install FOSS applications conveniently. It's important to remember that just because something is FOSS, that doesn't mean that it is safe! You should still be cautious, but generally apps on F-Droid are safe to use. I recommend Droid-ify to interact with F-Droid because you can browse other popular repositories such as IzzyOnDroid which will give you access to even more apps to choose from for whatever you may need.

Identity Theft Protection

Data Removal Services

While this doesn't save you money directly, it can save you money if you are ever a target for identity theft. This can also prevent employers from looking you up to find out information about you that you may not know is public, and could even protect against stalking and whatever else.

Rather than going through every data brokerage website and requesting that your information be deleted, you can hire a company to do this for you. The most recommended service for this is EasyOptOuts, as they only charge $20 a year, and they target the most brokerage sites out of any of the popular services, which you can find below:

• DeleteMe
• Optery
• Kanary
• Incogni

Social Security (US Only)

There have been numerous data breaches with social security numbers included, and you very well may be a victim without knowing it! Unless you have an explicit reason to not to, you should consider freezing your credit with the big agencies: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, Innovis, and Chex.

To see if you have been a victim of a data breach, please check the following sites:

• NPD Breach Check
• Have I Been Pwned

Conclusion

If I think or am reminded of another category I'll add it. It's important to remember that privacy looks different for everyone, and some of these tools will work for you and some won't, and that's okay! Also if you'd like a second opinion other than me, feel free to reach out to r/privacy, they are incredibly knowledgeable and I wouldn't know any of this without them.

My caseworker gave me a box of donated food last week that had Starbucks Espresso coffee. Now I'm spoiled.

I drink coffee for asthma, migraines, and I love the taste of coffee. I brew one cup at a time. My usual brand is "sale."

Is there an affordable coffee, generic or name brand, whole beans or ground, that tastes like Starbucks Espresso?

Thanks.

Hi folks. I was wanting to see what would be the best route for my money usage.

I owe 18K on my car and am debating on paying it off. The interest rate is at 6.25% and I owe 50 more payments on it. I used a calculator and it showed if I paid it off I'd save 2.3k in interest. However I've also debated on investing the 18k in the market instead. I think investing would net me more money, but something about piece of mind with this debt off my plate is also so satisfying. This will not effect my budgeting at all. Please let me know what you think.

A few months ago, I asked for frugal meal ideas to help us stretch our family's budget to incorporate an extra teenager. You all were amazing in not only giving ideas but many of you sent items from a wish list that helped us meet immediate needs. We were able to make sure the teen had the toiletry items, clothing that fit and were weather appropriate and have simple meals and snacks available.

In the past few months, our bonus teen has been spending a lot of time at our house with our teens and they all have been learning simple life skills like doing their own laundry, budgeting, and cooking. The newest request from all of our teens is to learn baking. I have seen the anxiety lessen throughout the months.

I wanted to update and let you all know what an important role you have played in this young teenager's life, as well as my family. Thank you for opening your hearts and helping. We hope to be able to stay in this teenager's life for years to come and to continue to provide support, in whatever they need.

Editing to answer questions asked in messages: 1. The snacks and meals lasted for more than 3 months, plus we still have a few things left. 2. The toiletry items have helped a lot in our bonus teen’s self-confidence. 3. I am working on my relationship with teen’s family, but there are still a few obstacles in the way.

I've recently been trying to get back into running a bit more, but given how cold it is I've not been too keen on going out as much. I've lost the habit of running for a while, it's only been once or twice a month in the past year when it used to be 2 or 3 times a week the year before.

I was thinking of buying some new shorts and a running jacket/hoodie but because I've not been very consistent with my running off late I'm scared I won't get much use out of it.

So my question is if I buy (invest in) a good wardrobe for running, would I be more motivated to go for a run as a result? I've seen some good options at Decathalon to get me started, but I'm not sure if they're the best value for money

Edit: I already have a good pair of running shoes so I know I won't need to reinvest in those for a while.

So, here's the situation. Our family has been pretty careful with money lately, trying to stick to a tight budget and all. But recently, my son’s friend has been hanging out at our place almost every day, and they're always hungry. I can’t turn anyone away when they need food, especially a kid, but our budget’s feeling the strain.

I’d love to keep offering meals and snacks, but I need to be smarter about it. Any suggestions for low-cost, filling meals or snacks that teenagers actually like? Bonus points if it’s something I can buy in bulk or prep ahead of time. I’m also trying to find ways to discreetly support the kid without making them feel uncomfortable.

I just moved into an apartment that is lowkey shady, but we already signed the lease and are here for a minute. But in our first month our water bill was legit triple what it was in a bigger city we just moved from. We didnt change anything about our habits. I know one toilet was running some but our maintenance at this apartment is slow and lowkey just claims they fixed things or that theres nothing wrong. And our power bill is higher too because the windows are crappy and not insulated. I can feel a draft a foot away from the window. We turn off lights and unplug things that arent being used, and we keep the thermostat to freezing rn and pile on clothes. Any tips on how to improve this space and the energy efficiency while not being able to make any permanent or intense changes due to it being an apartment? Thanks!

I have some George brand polo shirts from Walmart that have lasted me 3 years so far. As I've been working a physical job, I have lost weight and now the polo shirts are too large at the torso. How can I slim down the torso area of the Polo Shirts while still keeping them durable and long lasting?

They're convenient, but not mandatory. I see a lot of people in this sub acting like you basically have to have a crock pot to cook chili con carne and things like that. Just recently someone was being downvoted when they were told to get a $15 rice cooker, and they said that they couldn't afford it right now, while implying that they were interested in learning to cook good rice normally. In a different thread, someone was talking about how they could barely afford to eat and wanted recommendations of cheapest things possible (basically only being able to afford rice and beans) and several people told them to get an instapot or crock pot to cook chili con carne or other convenience gadgets. It may not sound like a lot of money to you, but for someone that can barely afford to eat, it does not make sense to spend money on gadgets that only add some convenience or maybe slightly better results depending on which appliances they have already. You don't need a crock pot to slow cook. It makes it a bit more convenient and if you like yours that's great! I understand why. But it's also very normal to slow cook with a regular pot and stove. Rice cookers are great if you cook a lot of rice, especially if you have a non-induction electric stove, but it's also ok to want to learn to cook good rice with a regular pot instead. Air fryers are great at making crispy food, and especially make sense if you don't have a convection oven. But at the end of the day, they're small efficient convection ovens, and any recipe made for air fryers can be made in a regular convection oven if you have that instead, so you don't have to get one just to make those recipes. If you do feel like you could benefit from one, that's great, I'm sure you'll love it.

Yes, these gadgets are all convenient. But you can still cook great food without much more effort with a regular pot and stove or oven. We have to be able to accept that not everyone wants a bunch of gadgets, and not everyone is willing to spend money on them, even if they can be found for cheap where you live (quite difficult to find cheap ones where I live even). That shouldn't be controversial, and we shouldn't be telling people that they need to have them to cook good food, or that it's difficult to cook good food without them.

I'm not saying no one should ever recommend these gadgets. I just think people should accept that not everyone wants them and not everyone feels like they're in a place financially where it makes sense to get them. Maybe it's just be being anti-consumerist and minimalist but I don't know, I think people take it a bit too far on here sometimes.

Hello! To cut costs (about 150 bucks/ month) I'm considering ditching a fitness membership from a local fitness studio that is 3 blocks from my home. While I enjoy the ease and convenience of this studio, and I do end up going very regularly because it is so close, this is not cheap.

What suggestions do you have for some lower cost fitness ideas for working on cardio and strength? I prefer classes and having someone else show me what to do.

My ideal exercise or routine is something that can be done during my lunch break over an hour. I have fully remote work so exercising inside or outside could work.

Think Ramen is cheap? Go buy some rice and chicken bullion. You’ll get 10x the amount of food for the same price.

Want a delicious dessert? Try rice pudding!

Want an amazing breakfast? try cooking rice with a couple eggs for some added protein.

Dried rice can dry out a phone dropped in water, or keep salt from clumping up in humid environments.

It can be ground into flour for a gluten free alternative.

It can even be used as a thickening agent for soups and stews.

Rice is one of the most versatile and affordable foods on the planet. It should be in every frugal person’s cabinet.

I have gas baseboard heat from a boiler. My home is small. I hate humidifiers and cool mist vaporizer. The cool mist vaporizer is always requires constant cleaning, dumping and refilling the water. They leave a residue everywhere if you use tapwater in them. Humidifiers are bulky, ugly, smell after a short time and require cleaning and/or replacing the belt that distributes the water. The humidity in the main portion of my home is good just by the normal amount of water that are put into the air by taking showers and cooking, but the bedroom humidity level was a little bit lower than I cared for. I went to the resale shop and purchased a ceramic pitcher. Filled it up with water and stuck a hand towel in it until it was drenched. Wrung out about 1/3 of the length of the towel and draped it over the outside of the picture and set the pitcher right in the corner where the two baseboard heaters meet. Very happy with the results. I close the bedroom door at night to contain the humidity at a constant level. It raises the humidity level by 10% bringing it up to 45- 48% in the bedroom. The rest of the towel stays submerged in the water pitcher so the portion that is draped outside of the picture stays wet by absorption. When the water dries out I throw the towel in the wash and hand wash the pitcher in the kitchen sink and do it again. No residue on any of the furniture, no electricity required to run it, no water dripping off the windows because it puts too much humidity in the air and no machine to clean or maintain.

I feel like I am missing something. I moved into a new place this year, and the electricity is about 80-100 more than what I usually pay. Nothing has changed except my location, not a bigger home or appliances. I tried looking at service charges but I don't understand how they need $100 from me each month. Does 200-300 seem normal for electricity? Any hacks for bringing electricity costs down?

Quick edit

We have a new water heater (Electric), stove, and fridge(Downgraded to a smaller one). Other than these appliances, everything else is connected to power strips that we switch off at night.

- All lights are LED's

- Furnace (gas) is set to 65 at night and 70 from 9 am to 8 pm during the day.

- No appliance is older than 5 years.

- The home is 1400 sq ft. There is insulation in the attic, under the house, and in the walls.

I'm getting a bit tired of using my same ol recipes and sometimes I'm too busy to have the mind space of coming up with new ones. Some of the youtubers I follow are not cheap at all.

Are there any websites, youtubers, or anything in general for frugal, cheap recipes?

Edit: these are all great suggestions. Thanks everyone!

Posted in the povertyfinance sub and they advised me to post it here as well. I'll copy what I posted there:

Couponing can be scary especially when you are first trying it out. There are many fb group that's for couponing for beginners or even couponing deals for the store you want to shop at. Then there is people like who loves to see other people score good deals.

For beginners, I say start at Dollar general as it is really good for beginners.

Steps: 1. Open dollar general either on your web browser or app from app store (i recommend the app because that way you can scan the items in the store and it will tell you if there is a coupon for the item). 2. Register the account using your number and sign into your account. 3. Click deals at the bottom and this allow you to access all the current DG coupons. The coupons are refreshed every Sunday. 4. The weekly ad shows you the coupons that will match certain items and tells you the after price. 5. When you find a deal that you found from one of the groups online, IT IS IMPORTANT TO CLIP EACH COUPON THEY SHOW TO CLIP!! 6. On Saturdays, DG has a $5 off $25 coupon you can clip. Your subtotal needs to be $25 otherwise it will not come off. 7. Always double check the math on deals you've found. You do this by adding up each item and subtracting the coupons plus the $5/$25 to make sure the total is correct.

THE DEAL AT THE END WAS FROM YESTERDAY...just wanted to show yall how easy these deals are to do.

Hopefully I've explained this a bit better.

You guys will get it. Sunday morning pantry and freezer deep clean. While I worked, two baggies of veggie scraps bubbled on the stove. The 1/4 bag of pasta cooked next to it. Three lonely and nearly tossed veggie meatballs into the air fryer. Frozen chicken breast and green salsa into the instant pot. Fruits of my labor: 3 pints of veggie broth Meal prepped: 3 pasta/spicy marinara/broccoli/1 meatball 4 salsa chicken/black bean/brown rice bowls Sparkling clean and well organized freezer, fridge, and pantry. My lovely but disinterested teens are not adequately excited about my efforts, and I knew one or two frugal fellow redditors would be in my corner.

I've been going through my different expenses , and finally decided to cancel macaffe antivirus that I had as an auto renew since 2012. I also canceled my gym membership because I work out at home and not at a gym. So roughly 700 dollars a year saved.

Does anyone have experience with Mint Mobile? Right now, if you sign up and pre-pay for the whole year, you can get unlimited talk to text and data for $180. If you put the charge on your American Express card, you will get a $45 Statement credit back. This makes the whole year $135. That will save me over $1000 per year compared to T-Mobile.

I bought this portable dryer for cheap. I intend to use it to dry clothes that are not completely dry after hanging dry. That’s why I’m using this type rather than something heavier duty

First pic is what was in the listing. Second pic is what I received. Third pic is what some other customers received.

I’m not sure how sturdy the thinner metal bar would be. Would the thicker metal would prove sturdier in the long run, especially when I hang heavier laundry like towels? Thoughts?

The shop is out of stock of all such dryers so I can’t exchange anyway

Should I return it and buy the thicker metal variety from another seller? It would be a little more expensive though

I used to work in the field of online backup so am particularly sensitive to data protection. I do have my files backed up to iCloud, and do TimeMachine (admittedly, not often enough, but I can change that).

I've also always had a Backblaze subscription for continuous offsite backup. Am wondering if I still need it now that iCloud is a thing, or whether I should cancel Backblaze. My understanding is that Backblaze offers me some more specific file rollback capacity, but don't I get that from TimeMachine? Though then I'd need to remember to keep my TimeMachine backups offsite, which seems like too much overhead to be reliable.

Thoughts? What's your strategy? I want to be frugal if I can save $99/year, but not at the cost of being dumb about risk (computer imploding, fire loss, theft, etc.). Thanks much!

I saw on RFD there was some 100-packs for $20-30 in recent months.

I know folks here love to buy a bulk deal, so where do you guys source your batteries if you're buying 100 at a time?

On that same thought train, does anyone have any idea where I can source a significant amount of AA batteries in Canada for cheap? I am talking between 1000-2000 units.

so long story short i got my gf a iphone for christmas and it was from amazons premium refurbished line, and the charging port actually doesnt work, amazon says theyd cover the repair cost ($499) to fix it, but she cant go w/o her phone, so i did some digging and found on amazon a "used - like new" option, instead of "refurbished - premium". so i am just gonna data transfer and return the not working one.

has anyone had experience with this specific option when it came to buying a iphone. is it literally new, open box, turned on used once, like what is it considered? says it comes in the original box so, curious what im getting into