I’m not sure how much faith one should put in an Internet search for “National ___ Month,” but I recently did just that and was surprised to discover that April is all of the following:
International Guitar Month (Rocktober is 6 months away and you need to study up!)
Keep America Beautiful Month (because, normally, we want to keep America filthy and roach-infested?)
National Poetry Month (check out Poets.org for ideas on how to celebrate this one)
National Garden Month (mmm, farm-fresh veggies)
National Anxiety Month (OMG, is there something on my face?!)
National Humor Month (is this to make up for the anxiety, or to further encourage it?)
National Welding Month (no jokes, because welding is serious business), and
Uh-Huh Month (no, seriously… wtf?)
That’s a mighty full basket to choose from, but personally I’m most interested in National Garden Month.
It’s spring in Austin, which means it’s allergy season and everyone is sneezing, coughing, snorting and hacking like they’re about to keel over and die. (BTW: Here’s a great article with tips on how to fight allergies with food at AchooAllergy.com, and if the store-bought drugs aren’t working, you may want to give the homeopathic methods suggested at Republic of Austina whirl.) It may not be pretty, but I guess this is the price we pay for having roughly 300 days of sunshine a year and only 2 weeks of winter, while the rest of the nation is buried under 3 feet of snow, right?
Anyhoo, being that it’s spring, the wildflowers are popping up in vast fields across the state, and ordinary Texans are pulling over on the side of the highway to snap pix.
Like these:
"Wildflowers in Austin" (photo by Flickr user The 4/30 Murders)
"Wildflowers" (photo by Flickr user spyderella)
Dubbing April National Garden Month, then, just makes sense. Anybody with a bit of yard space can plant some sweet veggies (along with the wildflowers that will inevitably sneak in), and even if you’re an apartment dweller like me, if you get a bit of sun you can whip up a mini herb garden or sprout some tomatoes to enjoy throughout the growing season.
The National Gardening Association has tips and tricks on how to get started with their article 101 Ways to CelebrateNational Garden Month, as well as suggestions for their project of the month, building a terrarium. Be sure to check out their article on starting seeds indoors and get ready for spring with some awesome edible or decorative plants!
iPhone schmiPhone! Sure, it’d be nice to have this little gizmo in our bags for easy access to, well, EVERYTHING at the tap of a touch-screen, but who can afford the evil crazy data plan? Not this little Shoestringer, that’s for sure.
So Celebrity Intern and I, glamorous as we may appear, each have a different Pay As You Go cell phone plan, because while we love technology, thriftiness wins out over pointless expenditures. (Seriously, Apple. You couldn’t include free wifi like the nice folks at the Kindle did?)
If you’ve been trying to find ways to save money on expenses, we highly recommend trying a Pay As You Go phone option. Sure, they’re not as cool as the latest and greatest, but they get the job done. We use our phones for crazy, old-fashioned junk like PHONE CALLS, not downloading ringtones and games and hitting up the Internet every time we can’t figure out where we are on a good old-fashioned paper map. We also text peeps on occasion, though you get dinged if you don’t have a texting plan (depending on your provider).
Here’s how our two Pay As You Go companies stack up.
TRACFONE
Motorola W376g
The most popular PAYG phone in the U.S. is the Tracfone, for its easy-to-determine rates, no-nonsense approach, and no-frills phones. I bought a Motorola W376g flip phone with Bluetooth, a VGS camera and double minutes for life for $29.99 at Target, and it works great for my purposes.
Minutes start at $19.99 for 60 (with 90 days for possible usage) or $9.99 for 30 minutes if you don’t mind having to use them up in 30 days. Adding minutes is easy, as you can purchase them online, from your phone, or through a card purchased at lots of vendors (including Target and various convenience and grocery stores across the U.S.).
Texting is a bit annoying because it shaves off 1/3 of a minute every time you text someone OR receive a message, giving you odd amounts of time left, but overall I can’t complain. This phone does exactly what I need it to do, with no extra bells and whistles, and every time I flip it open I can see how many minutes I’ve got left and the date my phone will “expire” if I don’t add more minutes. Easy as pie, though not a great option if you tear through minutes like a wild boar on a rampage.
CRICKET
For those who chomp through minutes like crazy, Cricket is undoubtedly your best best for a PAYG device. Although Celebrity Intern hates their phone with a passion (it doesn’t flip, nor slide, nor do anything to protect the keypad from deploying the Internet—at extra cost to you—ALL. THE. TIME.), the plan itself is solid. Here’s how it breaks down:
Pay only on the days you use your phone
Choose from the über no-frills $1/day plan (with unlimited calling time throughout your area, unlimited INCOMING text messages, and 10-cents/message for outgoing texts) or bump it up a notch to $2/day to get unlimited talk + U.S. long distance + texting (including pix and international texts!). You can even go for the $3/day plan to get unlimited talk, texting and mobile web access nationwide, if you MUST have your precious Internets on the go.
Dial it up to the better plan when you’re flush with cash or need to call your mom in LA for a marathon chat-sesh, or scale it back to the cheapest plan when you’re broke-ass and counting pennies
Add any amount you like via your phone or PAYG cards purchased in convenience stores, dedicated Cricket stores, and Target or WalMart
Slightly more confusing set-up than the Tracfone, though ultimately cheaper if you like to talk a lot. Great if you can plan ahead which days you’ll NEED the phone, so you can literally only pay for certain days of the week. Granted, life is usually not like this, but if you wanted to use the phone, say, for business purposes, you could use it only 5 days a week, amounting to $20/month in phone bills vs. the usual $40+ bill you’ll get from even the cheapest of network plans.
Personally, I dig not having to watch the minutes drip down on the Cricket phone, although I absolutely HATE that it doesn’t display how much time/money is left on the phone the way the Tracfone does. Knowing you’re only spending $1 or $2, really and truly, per day you’re using the phone is comforting as well, since you can plan to do your long-distance chats and rapid-fire texting on the weekends, bumping up to the $2 plan for best effects, and then lower it back down to the $1 plan during the week if you’re making mainly local calls with fewer texts. Perfect for the penny-wise consumer!
Now, if only Cricket would offer a couple more flip phone options (they currently offer one—the CAPTR II at $39.99), they’d really be playing with fire.
RECAP
In short: if you’re a talk and text-hungry consumer, Cricket PAYgo is chirping your name. If you’re conservative with your minutes and like to have an “emergency” phone for talking and texting on the run, Tracfone is just your speed. If you want a nicer-looking phone with more up-to-date options, Tracfone is your friend, and if you don’t mind having your ass dial for you, then hit up Cricket. Both are easy to use and refill, both are cheaper than standard monthly plans, and neither requires contracts, credit checks, insane bills or hassles. Save your diñero; go Pay As You Go!
Since I am currently hankering for a nice cup of coffee after we ran out of cream this morning (ARGH!), I thought I’d share a quick how-to on the subject.
While I may not be a barista in a fancy apron, and I’ve never had the pleasure of owning a costly contraption that will create a handsome espresso at the push of a button, I can tell you that the stovetop espresso maker is a thing of equal parts beauty and brilliance.
Revel in its shining, low-cost IKEA glory:
RÅDIG espresso maker, $14.99 (via IKEA)
You’ll definitely want to get yourself a stainless steel espresso maker, and not an aluminum one—particularly if you have one of those schmancy ceramic-top stoves, which warn you that aluminum may actually MELT on them! This is mostly for reasons of taste. And if you’re concerned about Alzheimer’s. And if you like your stovetop items to last longer.
Anyway, the thing is pretty impossible to screw up, unless you:
Forget to put in the water;
Don’t screw it together tight enough, as the expanding metal might do something unpredictable, like spew out hot water and scald you; or
Keep it on the burner too long and scorch the bottom.
Okay, so it requires a bit of parental supervision, but you’re an adult and you like a challenge, right? Hey, man, I didn’t say this was going to be EASY; I said it was going to be GOOD.
Right, so the steps here are actually pretty simple, despite my previous dire warnings. All you have to do is:
Fill the bottom piece up with cold water. You should use filtered water for better tasting coffee, and only fill the thing up to just underneath the little release valve (i.e. that knobby thing).
Put the filter dohickey on top of the bottom piece, and fill it up with espresso. Not regular coffee, but actual espresso, ground for a stovetop device. (Or just grab a can of Lavazza at your grocery store for about $6.) The recommended dose is 1 T. of espresso per 3/4 c. of water. Don’t tamp it down, just layer it gently.
Screw the top part on pretty tight. No need to get all Hercules on it, but make sure you put some pressure to get it properly screwed on there.
Place the machine on one of your stove’s smaller burners and fire that puppy up! My espresso maker’s instruction booklet said to use a medium-high heat to slowly bring the thing to a boil, but I’m impatient and usually switch it on high, to no discernable ill effects.
You’ll know when it’s done because it’ll start making a sound kind of like an airplane taking off. In case you aren’t sure, and you’re the impatient type with your burner on high, there will probably be a lot of steam emanating from the lid as well. You can take the espresso maker off the stove now, preferably using a potholder of some kind as that little plastic handle can get pretty hot, and either let it sit for a minute to cool down a bit or pour it directly into your favorite mug, shot glass or latté bowl. Add a little cream and sugar and you get the following:
Why yes, I do like my sugar with coffee and cream! Thanks for noticing. You may prefer yours a bit more black, in which case I salute your manliness.
So there you have it, the world’s best coffee, at home. How do you like YOUR coffee?
Here at Shoestring Austin Labs we love cheap, but more than anything we also like quality—especially when it’s cheap! In light of our failure to win the lottery this week (damn you, Powerball!), we’ve found that spending 100 grand on a stereo system is temporarily unattainable.
So thank the gods of audio when I discovered these little numbers: the Tascam VL-M3 speakers (currently $99.99 at Guitar Center).
Brought you by Celebrity Intern, Man About the Universe and general go-to guy for audio questions, I now offer you the following reasons why these speakers kick ass. As an important footnote, I feel I should inform you that Celebrity Intern formerly worked for a snobby, fancy-pants audio manufacturer that shall not be named here (one unaffiliated with my recommendations, FYI), and having tested almost everything available in this price range, he asserts these are truly The Best That Your Money Can Buy. While twiddling his mustache like a cartoon villain.
Okay, so the beauty of these speakers is they’re capable of being computer or multimedia speakers when hooked up to your laptop to watch a movie, but they’re not “computer speakers” per se. In other words, they don’t sound all tinny or honky like most small speakers do, but they’re actually perfect for your desk because they don’t take up a lot of space.
They also cost under $100 at Guitar Center, and the even more KA-BLAMO part is the fact that they really sound great.
Think sub-$100 speakers will sound like crap? WRONG! These are very natural sounding and won’t artificially “color” the sound, offering accurate representations of what your tunes actually sound like. Great for listening to your iTunes, checking mixes on your latest jams in the home studio, or just watching a little Netflix. It’s the perfect balance of price and performance!
To get all technical and nerd-jargony on this hoo-ha, Celebrity Intern quoth:
They have a smooth, respectably flat frequency response across the entire spectrum and surprisingly tight, defined bass (but you’re not going to be able to crank sub-bass heavy hip hop or dance music all day without damaging them). The only drawback for these little wonders is they’re not EXTREMELY loud (although definitely loud enough to be heard while you’re cooking in the other room), and they’re not magnetically shielded. However, the drivers aren’t very big, so it’s not going to be a problem if you place them about a foot away from your computer, and the cable provided is long enough to separate them out in this way. Also, due to the fact that they have no grills, you should be sure to keep them away from your cats, sharp objects, and small children.
[Ed. note: If you put unshielded speakers right next to your computer, it may erase your hard drive, hence his to-do on this subject. Hard drive death = epic musical fail.]
Since Celebrity Intern originally got these speaks with the intention of checking mixes for his musical mutations, he is happy to report that they work really well for this application. They really don’t SOUND like computer speakers, which is what we both love about them. They sound more like studio monitors (according to Celebrity Intern) or stereo-quality speaks (in my experience with those cabinet-sized beasts of yesteryear).
The Next Dimension
Also available in black (except the iMac, which SHOULD be available in black, but ISN'T; damn you, Steve Jobs!)
Now, if you want to go big or go home (in this price point), the next step up from the Tascams involves spending twice as much for a similar sounding system, i.e. very flat and clean, with no funky misrepresentation of frequencies. In this case, invest in the Audioengine 2 speakers for $199 a pair. Exceptionally well-made, with a 3-year warranty and free shipping when ordering directly from their site, you can’t go wrong. Throw in an Audioengine S8 subwoofer if you like kicking the phat bass ($349), and you’ve got a full 2.1 setup for under 600 clams.
Both of these speakers sound WAY better than most speakers costing twice as much, and if you’re already thinking of spending $50 on a cheap pair of speaks, you might as well bring the noise and bump up another $50 for the Tascams.
Bringing you, as always, champagne tastes on a beer budget, I humbly submit these recommendations to any of you who like to HEAR and ENJOY your music, and not poor misguided design chicks who like to have cool-looking yet useless statuary on their desks.
STAY TUNED: Check out Celebrity Intern’s top picks for inexpeez headphones! Sweet, sweet cans.
As you may know, we are suckers for some great wine deals here at Shoestring Austin. And we’ve found a lot of inexpensive wines that actually—gasp!—taste good, for about $5. But what about the ones that can trick you into thinking they’re a great deal?
Basically: how can a frugal foodie avoid getting hoodwinked by some cheaply-priced—and cheap-tasting—wine that isn’t worth its weight in pennies?
A few tips:
Judge the labels. This may sound like the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to be doing in life, making snap judgements based on how pretty or ugly a thing is, but hey, it’s not like we’re talking about someone you’re out on a date with. It’s just wine, and we’ve found that bottles with inordinately overdone graphics (or particularly underdone ones—think stick figure drawings or Comic Sans types of fonts) are usually trying to make up for the fact that the wine inside ain’t all that great. You don’t need to be a design snob to pick a winner but, in general, those with more “traditional” fonts (Times, Arial and the like) tend to taste better. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Sweetie!) and you’ll be able to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Priced to move? AVOID! Here’s how we got taken in at a recent trip to the H-E-B: Beaulieu Vineyard Coastal Estates 2008 Chardonnay was on sale for only $3 (down from an original price of $9), and there were 2 bottles left. It was a steal of a deal, and I believe I even commented to Celebrity Intern “How low can you go?” Now, please remember that we previously purchased both the delightful Gato Negro Malbec and Sea Ridge Chardonnay for only $3.99 a bottle, so we knew good prices could be had for decent wine. Taking a chance on this one, we snapped up the last 2 bottles. BIG MISTAKE! While this tip depends on the retailer, to some extent, if you’re at the grocery store pondering a bottle that costs less than $3.99, we’d advise jumping up just a buck or two in order to avoid this particular brand of heartache.
Bad wine--avoid! I think we were taken in by the respectable font. Watch out for the overuse of gold in your labels, as well as pointless pictures.
What’s hot? Who cares? Celebrity Intern and I were recently browsing the aisles at the “upscale” H-E-B in our neighborhood (y’know, the one that caters to the hipsters?), and there was a guy stocking the shelves who asked if we needed any assistance. We said we were just trying to decide, and he remarked that Zinfandels were on sale. Celebrity Intern rather cuttingly replied, “Yeah, we’re not old ladies,” to which the stocker replied, “Touché!” After we’d made our selections and moved on, I asked Celebrity Intern “Didn’t you read the Chronique this week? Apparently Zinfandels are all the rage!” To this, I believe he snorted, implying that the masses don’t know jack, and that the authors of the Chronicle’s food section are just pulling the wool over the herd’s eyes. While Food & Wine may know its shit, and you may want to start exploring wine guides if you’re serious about your vintages, it’s doubtful that the local paper has much to offer in the way of expertise. Follow your nose, your wallet and your eye for design no-no’s instead. After all, it’s what YOU like to drink, not what some “critic” thinks, that matters.
In the end, we did manage to snag an almost-as-cheap wine that was loads better than our Coastal Estates mistake. For $4, pick up a bottle of Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from New Zealand and consume with a nice pork loin. Your taste buds will thank you.
>> Got any tips to share, or favorite inexpensive wines? Tweet us @shoestringATX!
