Category Archives: Ideas

random ideas that pop in my head…

Inventions That I’d Like to See – Solar Trains

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When thinking of solar power, I always try to think of large flat area for the solar panels to sit and make electricity.  I personally think my place of employment should have car port type structures out in the parking lot, with solar panels on top of them.  This way it would be a win-win, in that they get a structure to put the solar panels on.  And we would get protection from the snow.  Not to mention the excellent PR relationship.

Speaking of large areas, a space a train use is a perfect fit.  The chain of cars, that a train pulls is a perfect length for solar panel to ride on.   I figure, they would still have to be diesel for at least to get the train moving, but after the train reaches a certain speed, then the power from the solar panels may be enough to handled the steady drive speed.

I’ve seen designs where the trains would  go thru a carport like structure with the solar panels attached to the top of the roof.

Solar Trains

Solar Trains

If solar trains every become economical, the solar portion would be a painted coating that’s painted on the covering or a system like First Solar’s could be mounted.

Anyway, I think that’s would be a great use of solar electric systems.  Plus you may not wouldn’t need any battery storage element…  If fact, maybe the system could even be used as a source of power for an electrical company.  If you think about it, many possibilities exists. The solar panels of today are not like the Jimmy Carter era solar panels!  Today the panel are getting very close to competing with fossil fuels on a cost basis (in Carter’s era, the solar panel back then were not even close).  It should be an exciting time in the next few years, with wind and solar starting to be noticed more and more.

Spot Budgeting To Save Money For A Goal Fund

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First, let me say, that I’ve always admired people that create budgets and could follow them to the T.  I’ve actually tried to create a budget when I was in college, but it’s never worked out for me. There was always something that would pop up that I didn’t save the receipt for.

Surprisingly, while doing my Breakfast/Lunch experiment, I “out of the blue” realized that my experiment is really a form of budgeting.  I decided to call this type of budgeting “Spot Budgeting“.

Here’s how “Spot Budgeting” works for me:

  • First, every monday, I clip 5 sheets of paper I recycled together and use them as a log for things I do at work.
  • At the top, I add Breakfast and Lunch cost to these 5 sheets, 1 entry for breakfast and 1 for lunch on each sheet.
  • On Friday, I add up the total cost for breakfast and lunch, then I do the following calculation:
    • Is 60 – (weekly breakfasts + weekly lunches), greater than 40?
      • If 60 – (weekly breakfasts + weekly lunches) is greater that 40, then I pay myself the full $40 dollars for an allowance.
      • If 60 – (weekly breakfasts + weekly lunches) is less that 40, then I pay myself the amount that’s less than $40 dollars.
      • The following week I’ll make it up by not eating out for lunch as much.  Then I’ll pay myself the amount over $40 dollars that I didn’t spend.
  • Since I’m adjusting and tracking this weekly, I don’t do any monthly or yearly budgeting comparisons (this makes it simple).
  • Since it a weekly comparison, and it typically only involves 20 entries (only 2 a day) to log per week, it’s very simple and quick to do.
  • If I want to calculate my yearly savings, it’s just (40*52, which is $2080)
  • That’s it…  My budget is just for Breakfast/Lunch and during the typical workweek only.

Now my next stage is to take the money I save by budgeting and put it into a dividend yielding stock (etf, bond, mutual fund or whatever).  Then use the dividend paid by that investment to increase the amount of money I have for lunch.  See my attached spreadsheet table below:

So after 3 years of saving, I can afford to buy another cheap lunch per week, while I’m at lunch… so instead of 2 days out for lunch per week, I’ll added another lunch out with the guys after every 3 years of savings.

My view on the “Spot Budget” is that you are no longer paying for the lunch out of your earned money, but instead using the money from your investment dividends.  So after the 1st year of investing the money, this will effectively be my “Lunch Fund”.

To speed up the savings, I also add “Additional Savings” to my “Lunch Fund”.  The “Additional Savings” could come from bonuses, part of my tax refunds, etc.

Additional Main Adult Total Yearly Amount & Interest Monthly Weekly
Savings Savings Allowance Contributions Interest Interest Rate Earnings Earnings
2009 1000 2080 3080 3,080.00 $154 3,234.00 5.0% $12.83 $2.96
2010 2080 2080 5,160.00 $258 5,418.00 5.0% $21.50 $4.96
2011 2080 2080 7,240.00 $362 7,602.00 5.0% $30.17 $6.96
2012 2080 2080 9,320.00 $466 9,786.00 5.0% $38.83 $8.96
2013 2080 2080 11,400.00 $570 11,970.00 5.0% $47.50 $10.96
2014 2080 2080 13,480.00 $674 14,154.00 5.0% $56.17 $12.96
2015 2080 2080 15,560.00 $778 16,338.00 5.0% $64.83 $14.96
2016 2080 2080 17,640.00 $882 18,522.00 5.0% $73.50 $16.96
2017 2080 2080 19,720.00 $986 20,706.00 5.0% $82.17 $18.96
2018 2080 2080 21,800.00 $1,090 22,890.00 5.0% $90.83 $20.96
2019 2080 2080 23,880.00 $1,194 25,074.00 5.0% $99.50 $22.96
2020 2080 2080 25,960.00 $1,298 27,258.00 5.0% $108.17 $24.96
2021 2080 2080 28,040.00 $1,402 29,442.00 5.0% $116.83 $26.96
* The idea here is to pack food, which saves money and to pay my allowance out of that money

This is my first “Goal Fund”, eventually I plan on have other “Goal Funds” that will pay dividend for other goals, perhaps vacations, taxes, etc.

Well, this is my evolution of my lunch experiment into a Lunch “Goal Fund”.  I’m kind of excited to see this come to fruition!!

Goal Fund for lunch

Goal Fund for lunch

– D

Saving Money Using Google

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Google is great for searching for your favorite topic of interest, but did you know you could use it to save money too?

Last Feburary, my dryer started making a horrible metal grinding sound (I tried turning up the TV to drown out the sound, but it got louder). I didn’t want to buy a new dryer (these are hard time afterall…), so I decided to try to figure out how to repair it myself via google.  So for the search criteria, I entered “whirlpool dryer squeak” and I was able to find some good site on what the problem and how to fix it.  I like to put just the key words in the search windows.

I tried to type things like “whirlpool dryer is making a squeak sound“, but that wouldn’t give me as good of results as “whirlpool dryer squeak“.

I didn’t even know how to get the dryer apart to figure out the problem… until I googled it. It turned out to be the felt gasket, that the drum twists around over. It cost me $20.00 in total to fix the dryer.  I ordered the part (off of ebay), and install it. Normally, to get a repairman out, it would probably cost me at least $150 to $200 and they would do exactly the same thing that I did myself.

I’ve been able to do this with my car brakes and with other car repairs too.

During one of the coldest days of last winter (-10F), my heat pump decided to stop working.

Using google, I was able to quickly figure what the problems was, but I didn’t have time to order the part. From a few websites, I was able to determine what to do, and I was also able to determine that the part would cost me only $26. Unfortunately, I didn’t want my pipes to freeze, so I called a repairman so they could get it fixed that day.

The repairman did exactly what the websites stated to do, but instead of costing me $26 by doing it myself, the repairman’s fee cost me $234.

The moral of the story, the internet (using google to find a fix-it guide) is a great resource for saving money by diy (doing it yourself).

Google rules!

-MR

Good Cheap Lunches

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When going out for lunch, I use to eat whatever I wanted without regard to the price.  This was good, but usually once I found something I stuck to it, and whenever going to that restaurant, I would buy that menu item over and over.

Unfortunately, what the food that I liked was also typically one of the more expensive items on the menu, with the exception of steak meals.  Lately, I’ve discovered that I can make my dollar stretch farther, if I buy soups at the more expensive restaurants.  The good news is that the soup at better restaurants also taste better.  For instance, when I go to Macaroni Grill, I now buy 1 of their soup menu items.  They are extremely taste and very reasonably priced ($3.49 for a cup of Macaroni Grill’s tasty soups) plus, their free bread that comes with the meals is superb.  I have to admit, I’m not sure that I would get the bread if I went alone and ordered just soup, but since I always go with my buddies, and they still eat large, I reap the rewards… 🙂

So in an earlier Post, I mentioned that I’m doing an experiment where I only spend $12 a week on eating lunch out.  If I buy soup meals instead of the more expense meals, I can eat out 2 times a week for lunch! Booyah!

I win multiple ways with the above approach:

  • I still get to save the same $40 a week for the allowance experiment.
  • I get to enjoy the socialization aspect of lunch with my buddies at work.
  • If I only eat out once that week, I get to save an additional $6 that week.
  • I get to escape from work for an hour!
  • restaurant food taste even better, after being on a diet of noodles, peanuts, and eggs.

Buying soup when going out for lunch should be considered!  Try it you might be surprised…