There’s really not enough money to go around these days, what with the economic crashes and the rise in prices of, well… everything. Yes, this would be the perfect opportunity to complain about the price of gas, but this is a technology blog, so I’m going to complain about the price of food instead — wait… what? Yep, you read me right: Food. The prices are climbing toward the ridiculous for the essentials, and frankly, I’m more than a little put out about it!
Thankfully, the always vigilant folk over at Wise Bread have taken the time to scour the technology world (see, I brought it back…) for online tools that are made to help you save a bit of your hard earned cash without having to tighten up your belt.
Wise Bread breaks the tools they showcase into three categories: Menu-Planning, Coupon Resources, and Price Comparison. Menu planning takes a bit of time and dedication, but it beats the hockey sticks out of the customary North American (or , at least, my) pastime of pouring money into an active garburator. As the author, Sarah Winfrey, says — and I’m paraphrasing here — you’ll spend less, waste less, and leave the impulse buys in the past.
The menu-planning tool I liked the best was Kitchen Monki. You can get some good recipes from the site, or add your own, and there is a shopping list which can be scaled to suit your plan’s needs. The shopping list can be printed or sent to your phone, which is also handy, and the site has an active community and blog. The other two tools in this category were MealsMatter, which focuses on eating healthy, and Relish! — which costs 7 bucks a month. I’m not a fan of Relish! for the reason that I am interested in saving money, not spending it, but mostly I liked Kitchen Monki because of the site’s friendly layout and monkey mascot.
Some of the other featured resources were coupon sites CouponMom and Redplum, and price comparison site Pricible, all of which are worth a look if you are in the US.
These online tools and services are a great way to keep your cash where it should be: saving itself until it grows big enough to buy you a fancy new tech toy. Or on your kid’s college fund, but you know — whatever. Kids can get jobs…
What are your favourite money saving tools/apps/services, for food or otherwise?
Save Money On Groceries With These Online Tools [Wise Bread]
BitCoin Digital Currency: Financial Revolution or Doomed to Fail?
I recently read a Gizmodo article about BitCoin, a new digital currency that is peer-exchanged — and generated — and aims to “revolutionize global finance.” It’s a nice idea, really, and some stores and services have already adopted it. According to Gizmodo, you can already trade BitCoin tokens for web designers, games, guns, and even drugs — yep… drugs. This sounds like the makings of real money to me, but how far will it — or can it — go?
Money is many things: the root of all evil, maker of spinning worlds, an absolute necessity to live in our society, yada yada. It also has a basis on which to trade — generally gold and silver repositories that give the coins and paper some degree of relative worth. Even our debit and credit cards, which are the primary ways of buying things digitally, are tied up in the worldwide economy of shiny valuable metals. This has been going on for thousands of years, ever since a few people decided that hoarding pretty things was a good way to live — and other people decided they wanted those same pretty things too. In a nutshell, anyway.
Can BitCoin stack up against all of that? It creates itself out of nothing! It’s an app on your computer that uses your machine to crowdsource the power to facilitate the currency’s transactions, all the while generating tiny bits of BitCoins for you. The creators have put some thought into it, sure, putting a cap on the creation of BitCoins (21 million in total) that will introduce scarcity, and therefore a basis for value, but what kind of potential does this new currency have against thousands of years of history? Not to mention that the wheels that turn the economy, like credit card companies, might have a thing or two to say on the matter – especially about the lower of fees, transaction limits, country walls, and other things that provide financial control over users.
I think BitCoin is a nice idea. I think it even has potential — at least to gain some sort of reasonable adoption over the long term. It will probably be a very long term, though, before any real revolution is seen. Everything we do is too tied up in regular currency. There are those out there who believe in BitCoin now, however — and they are trading the online currency at one BitCoin for $7.50. That’s virtual coins for real money — and not bought by someone who is looking to get a new castle or set of armour in their favourite MMORPG.
Think about it.
Is BitCoin revolutionary? Doomed to failure? Ahead of its time? — Or maybe all of the above? Let us know what you think in the comments.
What is BitCoin [Gizmodo]