She tracked construction expenses for a large business in her day job. So, keeping track of where money goes is natural to her.
In our case, it pays off. We *know* where we spend our money. It's not a mystery like it is to most folks ("Gee, I just don't know where the money goes...!")
It's also handy to be able to know how prices are changing: "I don't recall paying this much for roof paint LAST year..." "We didn't. Last year that same bucket cost us just $X!"
We purchased something yesterday. "Oh, the price has gone up! It was two dollars less, last time!" "Yeah, but that was a year ago!" "So, 10% in a year?" (oops! wanna bet anyone else buying the same product was clueless as to the 10% price increase?)
I don't see it as "bothering". She's providing a useful service -- one that I'd not be eager to take on. The insights from her record keeping often lead us to changing vendors for products/services -- because we KNOW what's been happening to prices (instead of just relying on hunches).
Do you KNOW what it costs you to operate your vehicles? Home upkeep? Feed your family? Maintain your health?
Or, do you just "have a feel" for those costs?
Would you know that *it* was the $37.23 purchase? And, not the $10 purchase? Should you *have* to be involved in all of his activities in order to vouch for same?
I find it is easier to use cash under $100 and not have to check charges on a CC or bank statement. I used to use my debit card a lot and have to go through the statement to be sure it balances. Far shorter now.
Not a damned clue. Less than our disposable income, certainly.
Especially "maintain your health". My husband has multiple prescriptions and frequent doctor visits. All of that is entirely his affair, and I don't even look at the bills, even though they're paid out of our joint account.
Shoot, I don't even keep a check register. I look at the monthly statement online, to see if anything looks suspicious. I assume their computer can do the arithmetic. It's what they're good at.
I don't *have* to be involved; I want to be involved. If I didn't see the $37.23 thingy in use, I'd never even think about the $37.23.
Multiple charges at Home Depot are how we know it's spring. ;)
Does he know when the prices of his meds are changing? Or, simply pay whatever the pharmacist tells him is "due"? How does he know when to start shopping for another pharmacy? Or, when to bring up alternative treatments with his MD?
Part of knowing is having data that you can consult. I no longer want to bother trying to REMEMBER what I paid for some item last week -- or last month/year.
Computers are best at *remembering*! Save me the hassle of adding up a column of 4 or 5 digit numbers, once a month? Pfah. Save me the trouble of REMEMBERING those numbers and you've earned your keep!
As I run a business, I am keen on where the money goes -- and being able to document that to the tax man, clients, etc. "Gee, I forgot to bill that client for these supplies that I purchased on his behalf. I guess I'll just have to treat them as a *gift* for said client as the contract is now closed "
We are very concerned with where our monies go. We never "buy on time" (finance), carry balances, etc. Because we KNOW that we will have what we need available when we need it.
"How will you be paying for this (car, washing machine, 2000 sq ft of tile, 20 tons of stone, medical bill, etc)?"
"Cash. (or check/charge -- same difference)"
We don't get surprised when a bank or credit card statement shows up weeks later. And, don't prematurely reinvest monies that we'll be needing for a big ticket purchase next month, etc.
When I was younger, I paid cash for everything -- even my tuition at school! But, I operated on a simpler money management scheme: "If I don't have the cash WITH me, IN MY POCKET, RIGHT NOW, then I don't *need* whatever it is!"
And, as my "needs" are modest (even moreso, now), it was relatively easy to decide that I'd have to go home to eat instead of picking up some fast food, etc. Most days I leave the house with a few singles in my wallet. The things that I am likely to NEED (that can't be deferred) are *gasoline*. I don't NEED a can of soda, a greasy burger, a new pair of shoes, etc. (If I WANT any of those things, then I'll plan for them!)
That's different when you're sharing accounts with another and have more monies tied up in investments than liquid assets (which is far more common than when younger). It's annoying to have to transfer ADDITIONAL funds simply because you failed to SHARE the fact taht you were planning on spending $500 for a CLASS this Spring while your counterpart was planning on spending a similar amount on SUPPLIES. I.e., if we're going to need $1000 for "extraordinary expenses", then lets arrange to have that $1000 available instead of just the $500 you (or I) planned on.
Not a problem for us, my wife carries no more that $20 on her and does not go anyplace on her own any more. She has me take her where she wants to go and has me pay for it. Easy to track expenses and she has no stress from it. Works for us.
Our daily activities are largely independent. We each "do our own thing" and meet back here later in the day. Sometimes, joint appearances are necessary (usually at some function/fundraiser that SWMBO is interested in).
She doesn't concern herself with my projects, home maintenance, the cars, etc. and I don't worry about what she's spending on her "hobbies" or lunch dates with her friends, etc. She's more likely to grill me about whether I have *any* money in my wallet -- esp if she knows I'm headed someplace where I will likely *need* it!
(some places that I frequent will only accept cash; others will NOT accept cash and insist on checks; still others will take anything)
So, we long ago learned to clue each other in on upcoming expenditures (beyond the piddling expenses). E.g., I'll soon be painting the roof so she should expect me to be shelling out a lot of money for paint. And, I want to put some siding on the back porch so that will be a kilobuck or so...
I try to migrate my old data to new technology just for that reason. I no longer need my old floppy drives, zip drives, SCSI tape drives, VHS players, Cassette players, DV camcorder, Super8 movie camera, or instamatic cameras. The data, photos, video, and music have all been moved to modern devices.
If some new storage medium becomes popular in the future, I'll migrate my data to that and get rid of my ancient blu-rays and USB drives.
The data is what's important, not the devices its stored on.
Nope, my back bends the other way, so I look like I'm doing a back bend while I walk. Head and butt to the back, big stomach hanging out the front. :)
Thankfully, I don't take any medications, so my drive would be empty. :)
Besides, any doctor or nurse in my HMO can pull up my full medical record, including any medications I might be taking. I can log in here at home and look it up myself as well.
The operative word there is "try" :> For me to do that (and to have DONE that) consistently, I'd probably spend all of my time "moving data" around.
When I started, moving files electronically (e.g., "on line") wasn't practical; you'd have to push a file over a phone line to some server someplace, then have the other party pull it from that server (or, one of you would have to MAINTAIN that server). At 19.2K -- even
50Kb/s -- that's just not practical for most things. Especially if you're in different time zones (long distance charges).
[And, having to deal with a client who has their modem misconfigured so the file arrives corrupted, etc.]
So, files typically got moved through the mail (overnight). And, on a medium that the client could support. As my tastes in equipment tended to be "upper shelf", I could either coerce clients into making those purchases "to be compatible with me" -- or, buy some schlock device that one of their guys convinced them to purchase so that
*I* could be compatible with *them*!
[Of course, this also meant using some bizarro piece of software that they'd selected -- or, that came with the device. So, not only did I have to support the hardware of their choice to transfer data, but, also, the software AND OS needed to put the data on/off that device!]
Of course, having "coerced" me into buying the one device, they then lost any influence on my chasing their future device experiments: "Hey, we already settled on THIS device and THAT software; lets not go changing things just because you've decided to try something new!"
But, that meant that I was now saddled with that device for the duration of that project.
When the project is complete, what do I do? Invest the time to move all of the data onto some better technology that I use? Then, have to worry about moving it *back* to that original medium if they need some followup work? (keep in mind, I support projects "indefinitely")
Easier to just archive the equipment, software, OS, etc. WITH the project!
And, hope that they "mature" before they want to start another project!
[I've got all sorts of bizarre tape media (DDS2, DDS3, DDS4, DLT, DLT III, DLT IV, SDLT, Ultrium, Ultrium2, DAT72, 8mm, 9T, etc.); an assortment of different "cartridge disks" (ZIP, ORB, 3" MO, 5" MO, MD, Syquest dogs, etc.); floppies (3", 5", 8"); CD's & DVD's; PCMCIA/CF/SD/MMC/ cards (and their smaller variants); along with "drives" to access each of them -- actually, I recycled my last 9T so those are now orphans]
Even migrating from hard disks to BIGGER hard disks takes a fair bit of time!
In the past, I would (human nature) try to impose some order on the data. So, try to put projects on the same medium. Or, in a common directory. Then, sorted by client, etc. So, it was never a case of simply bulk copying from one medium to a DENSER medium.
[Consider how long it takes to rip hundreds of CD's -- and, unless you've got a big "changer", you're pretty much tethered to the "process" for the duration! For a REAL chore, consider how long it takes to scan 35mm slides!! :< Or,
*paper* records! Even with an ADF, you st there on pins and needles wondering if a sheet will scan "crooked" (and need to be reprocessed)]
And, its not the sort of task that you can easily/reliably farm out: "OK, I need you to take this 3480 tape cartridge and use Tommy's Super Terrific Tape Backup Program, running on a DOS 3.3 machine with this *particular* SCSI HBA (because ASPI didn't exist at that time) and copy the data into a portion of the file system from which you can later transfer it onto this new fangled DLT drive -- that isn't supported under DOS 3.3! So, you'll have to figure out how to transfer those files onto another machine that has a more modern SCSI HBA and suitable software to talk to the newer drive. And, I need some reassurance that you will do this CORRECTLY lest I LOSE this data in the process!"
Being able to electronically transfer files was a HUGE improvement for me! I only had to deal with "media" for "final deliverables".
And, my new approach to "archive organization" frees me from the natural tendency to want to organize things, hierarchically; I can just put things anywhere and let the database tell me where they are located! And, with a simple query, I can tell which files have NO "backups" and take steps to replicate them elsewhere!
I've not even tried to scan my old photos. A week scanning ~50 year old 35mm slides was grueling enough! ("Hmm... this slide is BACKWARDS! Uncle Fred was LEFT handed!!")
I have probably 100 LPs "new" that I've carefully preserved that are awaiting a few weeks of my time to transfer to digital media. The same is true of my cassette library.
SWMBO often buys "lesson tapes" that aren't available on DVD. So, I keep a VCR to copy those onto digital media. Of course, that also requires sitting down and manually sorting out where to insert chapter markers (cuz tapes don't have that concept!). And, of course, a nice, useful set of menus to make it easier for her to find what she wants.
My technical library (dead tree edition) is simply impractical to digitize. From time to time, I'll spend a day searching for electronic copies of titles that would let me trim them from my bookshelves. But, often the expense of re-buying the title is simply not worth the space I'll recover!
So, it becomes easier to just support the media that's already in place rather than chasing the latest technology in the hope that it "saves" something, in the end.
A friend has commented that data NEVER gets discarded. So, you have to assume it will always grow -- to consume all of the (storage) space available for it!
[Aside from client data, I really have no idea what I would WANT to discard! And, even among the client data, there are probably many things I'd like to retain just for reference: "How did I solve that similar problem for XYZ, Inc?"]
No, the *time* is important! The data may NEVER be needed! :-( That's the calculus I have to make each time I try to migrate some old data onto new media; how much time am I willing to put into this on the CHANCE that I'll need it in the future?
Historically, I rarely have to go back to client projects after delivery. I'm not the sort that gets drawn into endless "versions" of a product. So, unless I made a mistake/bug somewhere -- OR, the client "loses" the delivered copy -- I can usually just leave the project on a copy of the delivered media, indefinitely.
I have, however, taken to chasing down PDF copies of data sheets and databooks that I used for projects, burning these onto a CD and removing the dead tree versions of those documents from my files. This often lets me shrink a 6" thick folder down to 2" without any loss of information!
Hmmm... I can see that would make any sort of labor requiring bending (forwards) tedious!
Thankfully, I have a lot less data than you to move around. It's not a big deal to copy data from a smaller hard drive to a larger hard drive, other than the hour or three that it might take to transfer the data.
Agreed, it was a lot harder to transfer data from cassette tapes or floppy discs. You had to sit there and baby sit each transfer which usually took a very long time.
Thankfully, once it's in digital form it just gets faster and faster to migrate that data to new devices.
Yeah, but it's usually something you can start and walk away from.
It is definitely easier to scan papers as they come in than trying to go back and scan piles of paperwork. I did that recently when I went through our fire safe, took a couple of days to scan them all.
Same here. I still have a box of 35mm negatives in our safe deposit box from our "pre-digital" days. Eventually I want to scan them all but I know that will be a huge undertaking that I never seem to have time for.
I transferred my old LP's to cassette tapes, or simply bought new tapes to replace them. When CD's came along, I transferred the cassettes to CD's, or bought new CD's to replace them again. I probably bought several of my albums two or three times over the years.
Thankfully, once the music was on CD's it was in digital form and I could finally start copying it losslessly.
Some of my older, less popular, music was sounding rather bad after multiple lossy transfers. I found digital versions of many of them on places like iTunes. The rest I just bid farewell to.
We got rid of our VHS tapes long ago, but I do have three VCR's still in storage. Every now and then I get a VHS tape I need to transfer, or a family member asks me to transfer old videos for them.
Actually, I do go through my data from time to time and delete out old files that are no longer needed.
I don't need bank statements for accounts we closed 20+ years ago.
I don't need receipts for stuff I threw away many years ago.
I don't need generic scenery photos from ten years ago if we can't even tell where they were taken.
And so on... I don't do it all at once, of course, but I'll weed old stuff out when I discover it. It doesn't make a huge dent in storage space, but it's easier to find the useful stuff when the useless stuff isn't cluttering everything up.
My favourite was some sort of 'backpack' - type tape drive that used the parallel or SCSI port and could hold a couple of Gb.
At that time, CD-ROM was becoming popular for distribution. Everyone had CD-ROM readers, but not everyone had CD-ROM writers.
My boss asked if I could make him a copy of the files on a CD which he needed to return to whoever lended it out. I said yeas, and backed-up his CD to a tape, and of course ran a verify afterwards to be adamantly certain that the tape had an exact representation of every byte on the CD.
During the next few weeks, I ordered a CD writer, and eventually he asks for a re-creation of the CD. I load up the tape, select all the files, and press 'restore'.
Up pops a box: The files you selected are read-only. Please select files to which you have proper access and try again.
Wait until you have to "fsck" a 3T disk. Or, "scandisk"! :<
I was referring to the effort of transferring a "project" to a client (located in another city/state). Nowadays, I can email huge attachments. Or, put a file on an HTTP/FTP server and let them grab it "directly"... at very high transfer rates! Years ago, it was impractical to move many megabytes using modems (and paying for phone calls). Most of the clients I dealt with would look at me blankly if I suggested they set up a UUCP node (so we could benefit from the transport of others)
In the past, the problem has always been one of "organizing" the data. Which drive has which files on it? (when the drives are sitting on a shelf). With my new database approach, I don't have to worry about that! Let *it* keep track of what's where so I can browse through the database instead of having to drag out one drive after another, hoping to stumble on what I'm looking for! Previously, I'd have to "ls -alR" each disk and keep those "lists" on a live machine to scan sequentially in the hope of a file/directory name ringing a bell.
I have *big* boxes of paper documents. E.g., my MULTICS collection is several cubic feet. I'd need a couple of spare scanners as I'm sure I'd "burn out" the ones I have! Esp the ADF's!
If they aren't "too old", *pay* someone to do it for you (a service bureau). In my case, they were really old and even the emulsions were in sad shape. So, a fair bit of TLC was required to get a useful image.
I did that for my "mainstream" LP's. It was easier just to buy them over again. These, however, don't exist in CD form. So, I either listen to them AS vinyl or take the time to do the transfer myself. With a fairly good turntable/cartridge and 24b digital, you can "read once" and do all the fixup and downsampling to 16b in post. But, its still many hours to make a usable "CD" from each LP.
But never with any greater precision than your original choice of digitizing.
I have one located adjacent to my multimedia workstation. I can digitize a tape and then handle the post-processing on that workstation to create the final "DVD", MP4, etc.
I need all supporting information for my business, "just in case". The amount of space I'll save in a file cabinet is nothing compared to the hassle I could face trying to document a KEOGH contribution or verify my adoption of specific new terms of the "plan". We dont need receipts for many of the household items as credit card statements, checks and/or the records of the folks who sold it to us are usually enough (for warranty repair/replace).
Thankfully, I'm not big on photos! I only use them to "document things": this is a photo of the PCB for project X; here is a photo of the roof repair from 2001 (helpful if I notice a part of the roof developing a REPEAT problem); this is what water coming off the back of the house looks like in a Monsoon; etc.
I have a lot of research software/publications in my archive. In some cases, I have the "only" copy (that *I* know of -- google won't find anything; someone LIKE me may have a copy squirreled away) of many of these things. Usually, I have the entire RCS/SCCS/CVS repository on hand so I can actually recreate the project at any point in its existence to see *what* was done to effect a particular change recorded in the log.
Plus, the same with each of *my* projects (hardware and software).
And, of course, all of the tools I've purchased over the years.
If I was starting over, I'd build virtual machines for each "development environment" and just archive those in their entirety. And, "just say no" to oddball hardware that places constraints on WHERE those VM's can be run!
(Unfortunately, historically, this has never been possible; an ICE from vendor A might require a parallel port to communicate with my host while one from vendor B might use a serial port and vendor C a proprietaray "add in ISA card". Given that I'm *building* things, I can't just watch my code execute on a CRT and claim that it works. I need to watch the motor spin and the mechanism move -- and verify that it stops when it reaches the limit of its travel, etc. Or, verify the number of coins dispensed from a hopper are appropriate for the "payout". Or, determine the smallest volume of a blood sample that I can reliably detect. etc. So, hardware is ALWAYS involved in my projects...)
I can recall using VHS video recorders (with a proprietary "black box" that went to/from digital/analog format) as backup media. And, HOPING that the tape was "portable" to another VCR if yours died!
And, you can't use ANY OTHER TOOL (software) to access the files. Someone has invented their own special way of storing the data on their own special device (tape).
The same is true, today, of COTS NAS devices. It *probably* runs some FOSS OS. But, there's no guarantee that you can pull the disk out of the NAS (when it dies) and try to recover the contents using a desktop machine (e.g., with the drive installed in a USB carrier).
Or, if the "boot" drive in that NAS fails, you might discover that you can't simply replace it -- even if you have the files safely stored elsewhere -- as the software/firmware that makes the NAS operational resides in a "hidden" place on that FAILED drive. And, you don't have a way of copying it onto your new drive cuz the old drive is kaput! (ditto if you are trying to upgrade the disk before it fails)
Hence the reliance on having a backup of the *hardware* as well!
(some NAS's will complain if they encounter a "foreign" drive and promptly offer to reformat it for you -- wiping all that precious data in the process! :> )
[I had this in mind when I concocted my archive scheme; I can simply move a drive to another machine and access it as a "regular" drive (if the "appliance" that normally supports it dies). The NAS and redundancy functions are not tied to the drive or its actual location!]
He pays a small co-pay. The rest is paid by our insurance.
He recently went to a different pharmacy, not because of lower prices, but because Walgreens were stupid and jerked him around.
What I paid in the past is largely irrelevant. I'm not going to do without (for example) coffee because the price has gone up.
I don't run a business. We're both salaried, so our paychecks never vary.
Either do we, except we've got a year and a half left on our 15-year mortgage.
Either do we. We don't undertake to spend money that we do not have.
Charles Dickens put it best:
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."
Homes here are either pitched roofs or flat roofs.
Pitched are either ceramic tile, asphalt tile, "metal/tin", built up or torch-sealed felt.
Flat are either "built up" (gravel over felt), bitumen (felt), rubber membrane or a fiberglass membrane.
To increase heat reflectance, you typically paint the roof (white or aluminum). Most folks (incl roofers) think the paint is actually *sealing* the roof. And, use that to pitch more expensive paints (higher concentration of solids). Of course, if you're relying on paint to keep your roof water tight, you've got some serious problems! :>
As the paint is exposed to the sun (UV + heat) and scouring effects of windblown dust, it tends to degrade in 5-7 years, despite how thick it is (coverage is 60-100 sq ft per gallon).
The more significant "home maintenance" aspect is NOT the painting but, rather, getting up there and having a look at the roof regularly. As it is flat, things tend to accumulate/sit up there (e.g., pine needles). They, in turn, trap moisture. Which eventually "rots" the paint.
[I probably pull 30 pounds of pine needles off the roof every couple of months -- and *we* don't have any pine trees in the yard!]
Also, as the roofing must roll *up* the sides of the house (think of the roof as having a wall around it), there is potential for the house to "move" and open cracks/tears in the edges which would allow water to seep into the structure (inside the walls).
Instead of tackling the roof every 5-7 years, I try to paint
1/5th of it every year. This gives me the opportunity to remove debris piled up there and inspect/patch. There are lots of things (intentionally) poking through the roof (vents, sewer stacks, water/electric services, etc.) and each is a place that can easily develop a small leak.
But, it also limits the effort required to clean the roof (TSP) in preparation for painting -- as I'm only tackling 1/5th of the roof at a time.
Most other homes in the neighborhood have replaced their roofs. Our vigilance has allowed this roof to remain intact for ~25 years, already.
Painting can easily approach 1000-1500 (depending on who you hire and how thorough they are; seldom do they invest much time patching -- just slather paint on anything that
*looks* like it may be a problem). A new roof is easily upwards of $5000 for a simple "felt" roof.
Thanks. That was interesting. I live in the snowy country where flat roofs are not very popular, and solar loading is not extreme. The vast majority of houses here are asphalt shingle, and I've noticed a trend toward lighter colors. A few years ago we replaced brown shingles with... mostly greyish-beige, I guess you could call it. It's a very common color here.
Be thankful everything appears to be "a small copay". I have friends who shell out hundreds of dollars per month, "out of pocket", despite insurance. They are clearly concerned when the price goes up as THEY bear the cost of that.
We aren't hostage to any of our purchases. One of the chocolates that SWMBO regularly consumed increased 50% in the past year. She switched to alternatives that were more affordable and just as tastey.
The same was true of the (canned) chili she was eating; we found another supplier (of the exact same product!) at a lower cost.
Instead of just wondering why we're (apparently) "spending more", we know what is driving those increases -- and take action to control them.
It's not what you MAKE but, rather, what you SPEND!
Income is only one side of the equation. Do you know where your money is *going*? Or, do you just feel pleased when your bank balance is ever increasing (regardless of whether or not it is increasing as fast as it COULD?)
We don't buy on time. INCLUDING the house, the car, etc. A large part of how we can do that is by knowing where our money is going. And, doing for ourselves.
It costs $75 to have a tree (5G) planted, here. Not counting the cost of the tree! I've planted 10 in the past few years. And that doesn't count the 60+ other shrubs, etc.
The neighbor had a trivial one-zone irrigation system installed for his small garden -- for $1200. I've buried 1500 ft of 1/2" line -- for the cost of the pipe (and the 19 valves to control it).
I've got dirty fingernails; neighbor "lost" his house.
It's not just having the money but, also, having the money accessible. We could run out tomorrow and buy ANOTHER (second) home. But, would take a big hit getting AT the money to do so!
So, we plan when we will need which amounts so the money is "available". If we *both* ASSUME there's liquid assets for some particular purchase without coordinating those, then we'll probably both be annoyed when we have to scurry to free up those funds WHEN THE STATEMENT ARRIVES (if we didn't TRACK the expenses as we incurred them).
I do feel pleased about the ever-increasing bank balance.
Of course it could increase faster. We could shut off the hot tub and not have the outrageous electric bills. We could cancel our cable service.
We're not going to do any of that, and no amount of data entry would change what we're doing. We buy what we want, when we want it, and we have enough money to cover our purchases and save for the future. Happily, "what we want" isn't very much or very big.
Your net worth is almost certainly higher than mine. I'm very happy for you.
If we didn't have a mortgage, we'd still be paying rent.
Sadly, my husband's joints are breaking down, so we're going to have to start hiring some things done for us. Up until now, we've pretty much done everything ourselves, too. Someplace we've got a picture of me pushing a wheelbarrow of concrete around.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.