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My family recently purchased a new refrigerator which is smaller in cubic feet than our previous one which was small (it died). This isn't ideal, but there weren't a lot of options due to the space it goes into. We talked about purchasing a second even smaller refrigerator to make up for what we're losing in cubic feet with the new one. We've complained for years about the old one being too small, so I'm sure we'll complain even more about the new one being too small.
I ordered a second small fridge that's due to arrive in a few days. However, now I'm rethinking this decision. In the interest of being frugal it makes no sense to order a second new fridge. We'll be paying an extra $30 a year for it based on the energy guides (calculating the cost of the old fridge vs. the new ones). It might cost more than that since it will be placed outside on our back porch and we have 75 degree or higher days from April/May-September/October. I don't think I'll save money on trips to the store because the car already gets good gas mileage and I can't see where I'm going to save $30+ on gas or grocery sales in a year. We haven't had the new fridge for that long, so I don't even know how much of an annoyance the smaller space will be yet. So far, there's barely anything in it. I don't even know what I would put in a second fridge at this time.
My thinking is that I should cancel the order and wait to see how things will work out. If it's truly an annoyance not having that second fridge, then I can just buy a second one. But I can't justify spending $30+ a year extra if it's not needed. Money is already dwindling due to my sick pets (they showed up as strays many years ago). Over a span of two years, I've paid out at least $3000 on four of them (two have since died of disease) plus the feral cat who needed to be spayed ASAP (because more cats just drain more money). The one pet is diabetic and that's super expensive. I spend around $12 every 50 days on insulin syringes, $40-$45 every two-three months for insulin, and $36 every 50 days for test strips for the glucose meter. So I'm already losing a lot of money on pet food and medicine. I don't see a reason to add to the household expenses. As it is, I'm sitting here with freakin' $10 a month dialup internet because $80+ a month for mobile internet is too much (cable, fios, and satellite aren't options in my exact location). If I'm going to pay $30 extra a year on something, I'd rather it be internet than a refrigerator. You can't imagine how painfully slow dialup is when the average webpage is 5 MB in size compared to less than 1 MB 20 years ago.
Everyone is already ticked off at me for this situation. They want the new fridge, probably to fill with more junk food we don't need. I know the one family member is looking forward to filling the bottom shelf of the freezer with ice cream, as if they need to eat that much (they eat one carton in a sitting).
Thoughts or opinions? Perhaps there's an aspect that I haven't looked at yet. BTW, as the grocery shopper and cook, I'm the one that complains the most about the lack of space in the refrigerator.
$30/year for extra fridge space sounds good. You'll spend more than that on impulse purchases at the grocery store if you have to go to the store more often.
If all you need is extra freezer space, a chest freezer is a good option. Then you can stock up on meat when it's marked down.
You won't find cable or fiber internet for an extra $30/year so there's no point in thinking about spending the $30 on that instead.
$30/year for extra fridge space sounds good. You'll spend more than that on impulse purchases at the grocery store if you have to go to the store more often.
If all you need is extra freezer space, a chest freezer is a good option. Then you can stock up on meat when it's marked down.
I do not really care for the chest freezers. It seems like you are always loading and unloading the thing trying to find something that you know you have. Last year, I purchased a small upright freezer from a neighbor for $25 and that is working really nice. We tend to stock it up in the winter months when meat is fairly inexpensive and then empty it out and turn it off during the summer months when we are traveling more.
They don't cost that much to run. I have measured the consumption of our refrigerators and freezer and it isn't that much. It is really convenient to have a second fridge particularly if you are not near a grocery store. If you have a bunch of overweight people in your family and they are eating a box of ice cream a night, you may not want to get one though. Maybe you can put the new fridge in a shed about 50 yards from the house and they will not be as inclined to walk out there.
Can you use your phone as a mobile hot spot an link you pc to it? Would need to determine how much data is used though. When our rural internet is down, I use my phone as a hot spot and it does not seem to use much data time. It does work faster than dial up. I would get rid of the land line and go mobile and use my phone as a hot spot. A land line probably cost $400 a year. I would probably get the fridge.
$30/year for extra fridge space sounds good. You'll spend more than that on impulse purchases at the grocery store if you have to go to the store more often.
If all you need is extra freezer space, a chest freezer is a good option. Then you can stock up on meat when it's marked down.
You won't find cable or fiber internet for an extra $30/year so there's no point in thinking about spending the $30 on that instead.
But there is internet foro $300 a year with VOIP services by the minute
Do you need more refrigerator space or more freezer space? ( you mention ice cream) you can buy a little tiny chest freezer for about $150. They barely cost anything to run for a year and they do a good job.
I've got one of the tiny freezers full of homemade heat and eat meals.... and a huge chest freezer full of home made dog food. The humans need less space for their food than the dogs do, but I couldnt function with just the freezer in my indoor refrigerator.
Lose the cats, money problem solved. If they are/were feral, they got along fine before you decided to take care of their every need. Keep the fridge, $30 a year is less than 10 cents a day. If 10 cents a day is a budget killer.....well then you can't really afford pets can you ?
Lose the cats, money problem solved. If they are/were feral, they got along fine before you decided to take care of their every need. Keep the fridge, $30 a year is less than 10 cents a day. If 10 cents a day is a budget killer.....well then you can't really afford pets can you ?
Regards
Gemstone1
Agree, "like", upvote
Seriously. $30/yr to store your food or thousands a year on pets? Talk about stepping over a dollar to save a dime.
This is however how many people think. It's pretty crazy. There is a reason so many are in financial distress and it's not entirely due to lack of income.
We've got 3 refrigerators and an upright freezer. (There's 2 of us.) One refrigerator was for my darkroom. That's photography darkroom -- as in, chemicals and paper. It's still running, still has paper, film and chemicals in it, even though I haven't used the darkroom nor film for nearly 20 years! Yikes! (I really need to unplug that refrigerator!)
We keep our second refrigerator in the garage, next to the freezer. It's usually been filled with soft drinks, beer and juice, although we've recently quit drinking beer. It does get the occasional leftover, mostly around the holidays.
I don't know if you need a second refrigerator or not, but I'll bet you'll spend more for the purchase of one than for the electricity to run it. I bought a cheap second-hand one for the garage ($100) and an even cheaper one for the darkroom ($15 iirc). It's an old turquoise one, probably from the early 50s. I spotted it on the neighbor's driveway 25 years ago when he was having a yard sale, so the price included him helping me get it into my basement! (If you want it, $15 will include paper and film but no help in getting it up the stairs.)
My family recently purchased a new refrigerator which is smaller in cubic feet than our previous one which was small (it died). This isn't ideal, but there weren't a lot of options due to the space it goes into. We talked about purchasing a second even smaller refrigerator to make up for what we're losing in cubic feet with the new one. We've complained for years about the old one being too small, so I'm sure we'll complain even more about the new one being too small.
I ordered a second small fridge that's due to arrive in a few days. However, now I'm rethinking this decision. In the interest of being frugal it makes no sense to order a second new fridge. We'll be paying an extra $30 a year for it based on the energy guides (calculating the cost of the old fridge vs. the new ones). It might cost more than that since it will be placed outside on our back porch and we have 75 degree or higher days from April/May-September/October. I don't think I'll save money on trips to the store because the car already gets good gas mileage and I can't see where I'm going to save $30+ on gas or grocery sales in a year. We haven't had the new fridge for that long, so I don't even know how much of an annoyance the smaller space will be yet. So far, there's barely anything in it. I don't even know what I would put in a second fridge at this time.
My thinking is that I should cancel the order and wait to see how things will work out. If it's truly an annoyance not having that second fridge, then I can just buy a second one. But I can't justify spending $30+ a year extra if it's not needed. Money is already dwindling due to my sick pets (they showed up as strays many years ago). Over a span of two years, I've paid out at least $3000 on four of them (two have since died of disease) plus the feral cat who needed to be spayed ASAP (because more cats just drain more money). The one pet is diabetic and that's super expensive. I spend around $12 every 50 days on insulin syringes, $40-$45 every two-three months for insulin, and $36 every 50 days for test strips for the glucose meter. So I'm already losing a lot of money on pet food and medicine. I don't see a reason to add to the household expenses. As it is, I'm sitting here with freakin' $10 a month dialup internet because $80+ a month for mobile internet is too much (cable, fios, and satellite aren't options in my exact location). If I'm going to pay $30 extra a year on something, I'd rather it be internet than a refrigerator. You can't imagine how painfully slow dialup is when the average webpage is 5 MB in size compared to less than 1 MB 20 years ago.
Everyone is already ticked off at me for this situation. They want the new fridge, probably to fill with more junk food we don't need. I know the one family member is looking forward to filling the bottom shelf of the freezer with ice cream, as if they need to eat that much (they eat one carton in a sitting).
Thoughts or opinions? Perhaps there's an aspect that I haven't looked at yet. BTW, as the grocery shopper and cook, I'm the one that complains the most about the lack of space in the refrigerator.
$30 a year in electricity is nothing. It's less than $2.50 a month, you won't even notice it. You might be better off just buying a chest freezer. If you keep it full it works on it's own cold, you can even fill empty soda bottles, not all the way, but with water to keep it full. I would not put a fridge or freezer outside though.
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