Comments on: Cheap Geek Tips

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:19:38 +0000

Hi! Why buy ? Join a computer club . They often have recycling events & people bring in some nice computers sometimes. I have a Dell laptop model C610 Latitude with 512 MB Ram, 1Ghz processor & 20 GIg harddrive. I plan on upgrading it through recycled parts, but it works fine just like it is & $0000. The same for appliances . People throw away things all the time that work just fine . I have gotten from curbside trash-2 air conditioners, 1 freezer 10 cubic feet,couches, tables, chairs-2 of which the lady had paid $800 each for 15 years ago like new still,a waterbed queen size, all kinds of things. I furnished our apt. in 2000 from all trash picking items & I have very nice things I got. I was even able to sell some things.You can often get things you need from FREECYCLE too. I have gave things away & gotten items too. Local ads for storage units that aren’t paid are another source of cheap items. They usually list the items in paper , sometimes get everything in whole storage shed, sometimes individual items. Your local college at Spring break & Christmas break can be a big source of new things. They often throw away even their fancy clothes so they don’t have to pack them. They throw away everything, of course lots don’t think a thing of it as Mom & Da d are paying for it. The local area isn’t so fun to do this anymore as the local churched starterd putting in huge dumpsters to gather the items now. The college had to pay too much extra to haul the trash away, so now people who need it can get it. Blessings,lisa

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:26:53 +0000

Knowledge (education) is also key. Since I know a little bit about computers, I can upgrade old or broken parts myself which allows me to have a relatively modern machine. At some point I might have to buy a new machine, but I should be able to make it last a little bit longer than the manufactures would like because of my knowledge.

I suppose the same can be said for cars, home cooking, appliances and so on. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way.

Case in point — I have no knowledge in appliance repairs so when my washing machine broke down, the initial quote for getting it professionally repaired was nearly $200. After a little bit of poking around on the internet, I was able to figure out how to fix the problem myself. The broken part was purchased for $10 but the labor was intensive. However, after learning what I needed to do, even the labor turned out to be “not so bad”.

By: Adam Jaskiewicz

Adam Jaskiewicz — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 21:45:10 +0000

“Buy the best quality you can afford”

I bought the best quality, highest end computer I could afford. Spent $2600 three years ago, and it is still WAY more computer than I need. I expect I will be using it for another three or four years before it begins to feel long in the tooth.

By: JT

JT — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:32:27 +0000

I would add that brand names have a higher resale value. That’s actually how I manage to maintain such a tech-savvy lifestyle: when I’m done with a product, I put it on sale on eBay (ALWAYS keep the original boxes and receits somewhere). The difference between the new toy and the not-so-new is always far more bearable than the face value.
The key is to feel when the 2d hand price is optimum: ideally, it’s right before the introduction of a new model.
It’s like buying a Mercedes: it’s the first one that hurts. In my case, the same rule applied succesfully to: computers (Apple), smartphones, LCD Monitors or camcorders…