Heating

The heating guy’s going to come tomorrow to check my radiators and note whether I’ve used more or less than the expected amount for the entire year. He does this once a year in my entire apartment building. If I’ve used less than the estimated amount, I get money back, but if I’ve used more, I have to pay extra to make up for the difference.  I sure hope that I’m within the estimated amount. It’s been a damn cold winter though. Hmmm… I’ll know the final results next week. I’ll post the results here, and let you know how it went. I don’t think I did too well this year, though.

Saving Challenge Day # 8

Saving Tip # 8: Where were you when the lights went out?

A bulb in my kitchen met it’s end last night. And after it fizzed out and I was tempted to change it, having a spare in my cabinet, I realized that I didn’t really need 2 lamps in my kitchen right now.

It’s really handy when I have guests over and I want to brighten the place up.

But right now, in the spirit of saving money and living frugally, I’ll manage with the one tiny lamp.

Ha ha, what we college students won’t do to save a buck here and there :)

So that’s what I’ve been up to today.

Saving Challenge Day # 7

Saving Tip # 7: Save On Paper & Ink

Today as I was printing my exam paper out it struck me how much paper goes into such a thing. Sheet after sheet after sheet after sheet…

And with the university rules stating that there must me 1½ line spacing throughout the entire paper I was thinking that I could’ve printed the same paper out in 28 pages rather than 42.

So in saving paper there are 4 things (off the top of my head) that you definitely can do:

• Unless university or other rules state so then no need to use 1½ or double line spacing
• If your printing out unimportant stuff like bus schedules, first drafts, quick recipes, etc. you can print on both sides of the paper – cutting your paper costs in half
• Cut out the paper you’ve already printed on (both sides) into small square cards with a scissors. Then when you need a small scrap paper to write down a phone number or the like, then you always have some handy.
• Printer paper is always more expensive than normal lined paper. If you don’t need the entire map of your friend’s street but just the address instead of printing it out  consider jotting it down on a small piece of scrap paper instead.

Another thing you can save on is ink.

• A quick tip here is naturally to print your documents out in “draft mode”. This mode again uses half the normal dosage, meaning you save half your ink cartridge expenses.

I used this tip today when printing out my exam papers. I did it today mostly because I was running short on ink, hadn’t had the time to buy a new ink cartridge, and was simply afraid that I didn’t have enough for the whole exam paper. Fortunately I did.

But actually I have (almost) always printed out in draft mode everytime I’ve handed in an exam paper. Both to save money (those ink cartridges are quite expensive) and also just because I happen to like the more subdued “look” of the draft mode prints. To each his own, I guess.

And, most importantly, because it’s faster to print out in draft mode. I forgot that important fact. Never underestimate this. This is truly a great thing!

So that’s what I’ve been doing today to save money in my personal finances.

“Global Recession - where did all the money go?”

On The Guardian’s website under the title “Global Recession - where did all the money go?” you can take a look at this flash presentation named “The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme Explained”. It’s is a very good and interesting explanation on the global economic meltdown.

BlackBerry Bullet Shows Apple Who’s Boss!

This is a cool video I found today when surfing the web. I myself have neither a BlackBerry or a Mac (I’m a frugal college student :) but I think this video is hilarious and very cool.

Why Commenting On Other People’s Blogs Won’t Improve Your Google Page Rank

There’s a common misconception out there that commenting on other people’s blogs will get you incoming links (backlinks) that will improve your Page Rank within Google.

This isn’t true. I learnt this the hard way.

Let me say from the get go that there are two types of blogs. Those that are self-hosted (they own their own domain) and those that are hosted for free (i.e. Blogspot, Wordpress).

Commenting on self-hosted blogs – No Problem

Commenting on blogs that are hosted for free (i.e. Blogspot, Wordpress) – Big Problem!!!

At least when it comes to gaining a bit of Google Page Rank in the process.

As I said earlier I learnt this the hard way.

THE ROOKIE MISTAKE

I’m still a rookie when it comes to blogging only having started my own blog 7 months ago. So my best bet to get site traffic was through commenting on other people’s blogs. A common and well-meaning piece of advice that is floundering around the blogosphere.

So there I was… happy as a clam… commenting away…

Not spamming, mind you, but actual commenting, in my delightful, intelligent and witty way. Being supportive and encouraging.

I did a site search on my own blog in Yahoo recently (this was the first time I tried this - only having done site searches on Google before) when to my dismay –and horror– realized that my site only had 2(!!) incoming links. Those that I posted on a self-hosting blog. The rest, as they say, were…well, gone with the wind.

This shocked me a bit so naturally I googled around for a while and sure enough I found the information I was looking for.

“DO FOLLOW” BLOGS AND “NO FOLLOW” BLOGS

You see evidently there’s a system (which I didn’t know of) that Google (meaning Blogspot) and Wordpress implement.

They attach a “No Follow” tag for URLs (that is, your http://www.yoursitename.com/) in blog comments as a standard. This means that all the URLs in their blog comments are ignored, overlooked and just simply not paid any darn attention to at all.

This was of course implemented back then to stop or at least minimize spamming.

However, spamming hasn’t stopped and it sort of discourages simple folk like me to comment on Blogspot and Wordpress blogs now that I know about it. I don’t think they meant for that. I hope not.

The answer to this problem however is simple. “Do Follow” our blogs!

This means that we enable URLs in our comments to be picked up by Google spiders thereby giving others a chance to increase their incoming links and thereby their Google Page Rank. And in the end through both the links and the better Page Rank ultimately we help others generate traffic to their site.

BLOGSPOT

Here’s a very simple step by step guide by The Blog Doctor named Remove No Follow Attribute On Comments that will help you to easily change your Blogspot blog from a “No Follow” to a “Do Follow”.

Afterwards to avoid spam change the settings in your blog so that you will now moderate your comments. Here’s a step by step guide on how to do this called How do I moderate comments on my blog? from the Blogspot Help pages.

WORDPRESS

For Wordpress Users there’s a “Do Follow” plug-in. You just install it.

And as for spam you will need to use a spam filter called Akismet. Or alternatively also moderate your comments. A quick guide on how to do so can be found in this eHow article called How To Moderate Comments On A Wordpress Blog.

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And if you want to know more about “Do Follow” blogs and the whole “Do Follow” blog “movement” (not my words:) in general then read the post Why “Do Follow”? on dofollowblogs.com.

So what do you think? Show me the comments!