Dirt Chic

You Don't Even Have to Pay Full Price For an Apple

Num, num.

Want a deal on a Macbook Air?

Do it.

I can personally attest to the quality of refurbished Apples.  (But know, I also buy the extended warranty, just in case.)

Cheap, Ink.

I hate running out of printer ink.  I even have my $30 HP's defaults set to economical - a big savings - and I still get crabby when I run out of ink.  I wish I were like my in-laws, who keep a stash.  

Well, since we moved we are no longer all that close to Target (15 miles) and I don't shop at Wal-Mart.  That leaves me with office supply stores - and while I love going to them, they aren't going to be be offering me discounts on ink.  Target is pretty competitive.

But you see, I write plays... and sell things online, and print shipping labels... and am poor... so $18.99 for a refill on black ink is unacceptable.  

Enter

!

I was feeling desperate about the money situation last week and I had seen a Cartridge World on my street, so I looked them up and looked into them and I'm sooooo glad that I did.  

I'm sure there's some research going both ways, but CW does have some good press, and I've been very happy with my printing on the CW refurbished cartridge.  And the cost?  $10.99.  SCORE!!!  Find a CW near you. :)

Frugal Gadgetry

I was assessing my household's gadgetry quotient the other day, spurred by my husband's necessary purchase of a Macbook for school, complete with free video Nano.  The results:

-2 working printers, 1 broken

-3 laptops, all working

-1 stand-alone scanner (not including the all-in-one printer)

-3 digital cameras

-4 iPods of varying size, plus another MP3 player.

Uhhhh... yeah.  What's crazy is that we use all of these things regularly, except the lone non-Apple MP3 player and, of course, the broken printer.  

But why so many?

Well, we both have Macbooks.  

His n' Hers

We both are in school, and it's basically a requirement to have a fast, efficient, portable machine (esp. one that is low-maintenance - yay Apple!).  This development displaced my Dell Inspiron 8200, which weighs in at at least 10 pounds.

Husband upgraded it recently in hopes of making it usable until the new Apple operating system came out.  The total for a wireless card, more memory, and 2 new batters: $250.  Unfortunately, it just didn't hack it for heavy-duty medical school needs, so it's now happily ensconced in my workspace, where I use it with my old-skool scanner, a very important DIRT CHIC gadget.  (It probably would hook up to my Macbook, but then I would have to find the software.  Eh.  Scanners take up a lot of vital deskspace.)

If I ever have to get rid of any of these items, I will definitely recycle.  Here are some starting points if you are interested in doing the same - there are many charitable organizations that accept donations.  If you don't HAVE to throw it away, don't!

However, even though we've bought choice new gadgetry (I am very gratified to learn that the black Macbook is no longer a status symbol, but now has an appropriately large memory offering), I remain, as with my scanner, loyal to what still works.  My HP printer was $20, and I've had it for 3 years.  My favorite long-haul gadget, though, is my Nikon Coolpix 2500.

Purchased in 2002 for something like $150, I've been using it regularly ever since.  Granted, with 2.0 megapixels it isn't the most precise picture-taking machine, but I've found that it takes pictures just the right size for Etsy, blogging, etc.  (Sheesh, my new cell phone has 2.0 megapixels.)

This last year I got a little fed up with the battery life on it, though.  I remembered that back in the day, I would have to buy a new battery from Nikon, easily $30 or more.  So I went on eBay, typed in the model, and found that you can only really buy aftermarket batteries anymore.  So for a whipping $6 (including shipping), I got a new battery.  It works like a dream.  And at that price, I can buy a bunch of them, if I needed to!  So here's to gadget longevity.