Being Frugal

How to save and spend efficiently

Replace Rheem Electric Water Heater With Gas

Rheem gas water heater

The electric bill last year 2023 increased more than $1500 because we’ve changed to Electric Water Heater 4.5kWh in Dec 2022. The bill was $600 in January so we had to replace with a gas water heater to lower our bill. In NorCal, we can only use low nox water heater which costs more than

Light Fireplace With Pine Cones

pine cones

It’s winter and it’s cold out, when mornings don’t have spare the air alert, we light our fireplace. We used to buy fire starter but they don’t work as well as dry pine cones that fell off the trees. The pine cones are amazing fire starter, they lighted up quickly with great fires.

iBond 7.12% From TreasuryDirect

iBond Interest

   To keep up with inflation, we invest in TreasuryDirect iBond which yields 7.12% this period. Although it limits only $10,000 a year for any SS, we can still buy each year. The best is to buy with many different amounts instead of one lump-sum $10k because we can’t sell the bond in parts. This bond

Beware Of T-Mobile Sales Associates Promises and Actual Contracts

iPhone 13 payments

    Last year we bought an iPhone 13 from T-Mobile, it was the first time and the last time. Normally I’d buy from Apple but for some reasons they’re not available. We’re not sure if this is considered fraud since whatever promised wasn’t the same as in the contract that we signed online. May

Why Do I Drive EV (Electric Vehicles)?

my gas and evs

I started driving electric cars in 2015. The first car was e-Golf SEL, top of the line, it had Navigation because it didn’t have CarPlay at that time. I was driving an A8L to work and it costs $300-$400 a month for gas. I went to a dealer and got a lease for this car