Several years ago it was getting increasingly difficult to work from home (which I typically do 1-2 days per week) using dial-up internet access, and I was considering broadband service. It was much more expensive, so I was reluctant to spend money on it. But I asked my manager if my employer would reimburse broadband service — and he immediately agreed to partial reimbursement since I use it so much. As a result, we now pay less out of pocket for home broadband service than we did for dial-up.

Similarly, on three separate occasions I have indicated to my manager that the speed and memory capacity of my work-issue laptop were growing inadequate for work. Twice it was replaced on the same day with a newer model, and more recently the turnaround was a month or so.

In every case I was pleasantly surprised at the readiness, even eagerness, to make sure I had adequate tools to get my job done well. Several friends have had similar experiences, from getting their work-issue cell phones upgraded, to getting their work-issue computers upgraded or replaced.

If you have aging technology tools that you use at least in part for work purposes, consider asking your employer for an upgrade. If you are able to justify how this will help your work, you might just be surprised at how quick your employer is to respond!

Tags: broadband, budget, cell-phone, computer, dial-up, employee, employer, internet, laptop, manager, memory, money, Penny pinching, personal-finance, repair, replace, saving-money, technology, tool, upgrade, work

When it comes to saving and to giving, there is no substitute for just doing it. If you are not saving, find some way to begin right now, even if it is a very small amount. I am a Christian, and have the same conviction on giving to my local church — if you are not giving to your local church, find some way to start now. You will find that disciplining yourself in this way is very helpful — not only are you starting to work on one of your financial goals, but you are building healthy habits that will continue to serve you over the long haul.

But once you have started, I have found that the best way to continue saving and giving is to practice incremental improvements. Every time my income changes (either from a raise or due to additional withholding exemptions) I strive to increase my rates of saving and giving by an incremental amount. For example, if I am saving 6% and giving 11% of my income, when I get a raise I might adjust my saving to 7% and my giving to 12%. This means that I’m regularly growing my rates of saving and giving, but I’m doing it in a way that is relatively painless.

Of course, if you’re able to discipline yourself carefully and make more room in your budget, you should grow your rates of saving and giving at that time too. But when you earn a raise is a very natural and important time to increase your saving and giving.

Tags: budget, discipline, finance, giving, income, investment, Penny pinching, personal-finance, raise, salary, Saving, saving-money, wealth

Tags: budget, Debt, finance, Humor, Penny pinching, personal-finance, saving-money, skit, SNL

A year and a half ago we were paying roughly $40 per month to our local phone provider for local phone service and voice mail. On top of that, we were using prepaid calling cards for long distance service. I had long been curious about the new voice-over-IP services that provide phone service through your internet connection (see how it works). I was reluctant to switch for a long time, primarily because I doubted that the call quality would be very good (we weren’t worried about having phone service in an emergency since we had an inexpensive cell phone plan).

We decided to make the switch. We wanted to use Vonage, but at the time they were unable to “port” our phone number to their service. So we tried Earthlink trueVoice instead (very bad idea!). But by the end of our bad experience with trueVoice, Vonage was able to port our number, so we switched to them.

I’m very pleased with the results. Once we adjusted the call quality settings, we had very few problems; there are only occasional temporary glitches. We were able to keep our existing phone number, and when we travel to visit family we can even bring our phone along and set up using their internet connection. And additional services like caller ID are included for free (with our local provider we didn’t think it was worth paying extra for these services so we didn’t). Most importantly, our monthly costs including long distance have gone from $50+ to roughly $19 (we found the 500-minute plan quite sufficient for our usage). You can also save money by referring your friends to Vonage; if they sign up using your referral, you get two months of free service!

If you have a reliable high-speed internet connection, I highly recommend you try one of the voice-over-IP providers. We have had a good experience with Vonage and recommend them.

Tags: finance, Penny pinching, personal-finance, saving-money, trueVoice, voice-over-IP, Vonage