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Most of our grandparents grew up during the depression and/or WWII. Because of that, they have a different ethic about how long things should last and how often things need to be replaced. My mother-in-law, for example, still has a dial phone in her kitchen – she sees no need to get a new phone because her old one works just fine. My husband feels that way about his clothes – which is why I have to shop for him and sneak things into the Goodwill bag when he’s not looking.

These days, making your major purchases last is becoming more important. From an environmental standpoint, the more we make things last, the less we’ll have to put into the landfill. From a monetary standpoint, it just makes sense to make your expensive items last as long as you can. Here’s a list of some of those items and steps you can take to help make them last.

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You know we love free stuff here at Rubbing Nickels so we’ve polled the web for top smartphone and superphone apps as rated by a number of geeky sites including appcraver.com, phandroid.com and androiddTapp.com. Here they are:

iPhone:

• Vocab Lab Lite Edition By Kooapps LLC – Want to ace standardized verbal exams like the SAT and GRE? Want to study on the car, bus, or in class? Want to make the best use of every minute you have? This app is for you!

• mBox Fax & Voice By mBox – mBox is a virtual fax machine and voice answering service. mBox will assign you a unique telephone number in any one of our locations which behaves just like a regular fax machine or message service. This is very handy technology for business travelers.

• Showtimes By Avantar LLC – MACWORLD: “The Best Movie App…When it comes to finding a movie, Showtimes is my favorite app of the bunch”. 4.5 of 5 rating, a full 1.5 higher mouse rating than our competitors. Top Ten Reviews: “5 of 5 Stars”. Worth a try!

• Step Trak Lite, by Award Technologies. If you like hiking or just long walks, you will enjoy StepTrak Lite, a free pedometer app for the iPhone.

• Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List by CondeNet has over 25,000 recipes from Gourmet, Bon Appetit and other professionals. If you like to cook, you’ll love this app.

Droid Phone:

• Shazam for Android is one of the most useful & coolest apps you can find. It delivers functionality better on mobile than on a desktop. I absolutely fell in love with the app when seeing it on the Apple iPhone TV Commercial; an app powerful enough to listen to music and tell you what song it is … uncanny!

• Pandora – The application incorporates your online account saving your stations and favorite songs. The Android version of this application allows you to do multiple things while the music plays, it truly is great.

• Sportstap – (Free) Sportstap allows you to be up to date with scores, stats and information with fast updates. Select your teams and this app will be dynamite!

• Taskiller – Taskiller is a task manager that allows you to see all of the running apps and processes on your phone. You can kill apps/processes individually or all at once. There is an “ignore” list that will prevent your favorite apps from being killed with the “kill all” button.

• The Weather Channel – It’s great to know what weather is coming your way. You can set it for different locations and also be able to know what the weather looks like for tomorrow.

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Dealer service departments are, on average, 25 percent more expensive than local shops, according to the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association. Their customer service may not be as good as the dealership (i.e. loaner cars, etc.) but the parts they use are comparable to that of the dealer. For a $200 auto maintenance bill, you can put $50 in your Wish Jar if you find a good local auto repair shop.

a friend

One of the best ways to save money that we know of at Rubbingnickels.com is to put yourself on a cash budget. On January 1st, I put myself on a cash budget to try to get control of the amount that I was spending on discretionary items (i.e. makeup, clothes, shoes, lunches with the ladies, etc.). I made it about 8 days and then I had a lapse of concentration and ordered a book at Amazon.com. Whoops! But in general, I think it’s a good idea to try a cash budget if you need to work on decreasing your credit card debt.

There are lots of advantages to spending cash. For one, having cash in my wallet keeps me away from places that I don’t belong anyway, namely, Neiman Marcus and the Kate Spade store. You may have $200 in your wallet for the week, but it won’t last long if you wander into one of those stores. Another reason that cash decreases my spending is that it keeps me from shopping online. I’m online off and on all day long (as many bloggers are), so limiting my online shopping is a great way for me to save money. Here are some other reasons that we think cash budgets are the bomb:

1. Paying with cash makes you pause and think about how much you NEED the thing you are buying.

2. Cash budgets stop your “extra” credit card spending and can help you decrease your credit card debt.

3. When that gorgeous, glossy catalog comes in the mail, you’ll choose frugal living and throw it in the recyle bin.

4. Paying with cash makes you search harder for “good deals” on items you want or need.

I promise that I’ll take another shot at my cash budget if you will.

Sincerely,

Darcy Ratner and Julie Arnheim
Founders, Rubbingnickels.com

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