Comments on: The Five Stages of a Product’s Life: Saving You Money on Replacing Expensive Household Items

By: Super-Widescreen Laptops: My Lap Isn’t THAT Big! | Punny Money

Super-Widescreen Laptops: My Lap Isn’t THAT Big! | Punny Money — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:46:43 +0000

[...] for me, since my notebook is still in Stage 3 of its lifecycle, I’m hoping a good deal on a sub-15-inch notebook will come along this summer because I [...]

By: » May Link Love (Selected Investment Links) # The Shark Investor

» May Link Love (Selected Investment Links) # The Shark Investor — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:56:55 +0000

[...] Punny Money is always funny, so check his The Five Stages of a Product’s Life: Saving You Money on Replacing Expensive Household Items. [...]

By: rocketc

rocketc — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:53:14 +0000

twin, i would hate to be one of your kids who has to clean out your house after you die.

By: twin

twin — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:31:35 +0000

Before I toss away any item in that has reached stage five I disassemble it and keep any parts like screws, cords, connectors, wood, metal strips, and brackets. I keep these parts in small bins in a storage closet in the garage. It is amazing how I can find just the right part for new projects. I enjoy re-using old parts and machines in new applications. I am a computer teacher and I get discarded computers, refurbish them and install Ubuntu Linux. I give them to students who use them for years. PS - Have fun and save a bundle by riding a bike. You will feel great!

By: A.J.

A.J. — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:30:09 +0000

Now I just feel bad. My PowerBook laptop is only 2.5 years old, and I just dying to replace it.

By: Monroe on a Budget » Punny Money: Five Stages of Product’s Life

Monroe on a Budget » Punny Money: Five Stages of Product’s Life — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:14:45 +0000

[...] Punny Money has an illustrated article with examples on The Five Stages of a Product’s Life. [...]

By: Monroe on a budget

Monroe on a budget — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:10:34 +0000

Very clever! I’ll be linking to this.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:36:54 +0000

My laptop is in the midst of transitioning from stage 3 to stage 5 in a mater of a couple days. The power input works like 15% of the time now, I think I might be in the last few hours of stage 4.

At least I still have my E key, though.

By: Maria @ Financial-Tip

Maria @ Financial-Tip — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:28:48 +0000

s. jennifer– thanks for the tip! How would I know if one was stolen? What should I look for (yeah, I would NOT want to support thievery!) ?

By: Bruce Point

Bruce Point — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:56:45 +0000

Purchasing things that are in good working order or good as new has saved our family a lot of money over the past several years. I used to foolishly buy everything new especially cars. I was losing 30 percent of cars value the moment I signed the purchase agreement. I now buy good used cars. I estimate we have saved more than $22,000 since 2003 by making this simple change in spending.

By: What are Your REAL Savings?

What are Your REAL Savings? — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:08:47 +0000

[...] The Five Stages of a Product’s Life — Saving You Money on Replacing Expensive Household … - Is This Meal at Wendy’s Really Frugal? Some Related Posts: Frugality: Increasing Your [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:13:22 +0000

This reminds me of a toaster I had during my college years. It belonged to my grandparents, was made out of steel, and had a cloth-covered two pronged power cord. It toasted well enough, but it had a nasty habit of shocking you every time you touched it. Now, this didn’t bother me; I just depressed the switch with a wooden spoon, and very carefully pulled out the toast without touching the sides (kind of like operation). I guess it shocked one too many roommates, though, and one day I came home to find a shiny new toaster in its place. I still have that toaster. I’m saving it for when my enemies come over for toast.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:44:55 +0000

But what about sophisticated, cultured fellas such as myself who need a new car every 2 years? What about our needs?

You can buy a brand new laptop for $400 with 2 GB RAM and a dual core megasuperawesometritium intel processor these days. Even less if you order it without the OS and install linux.

By: Monty Loree

Monty Loree — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:15:45 +0000

I like your plan.

Just recently our very high end expensive drier broke down immediately after the warranty ran out. In order to fix the drier it was going to cost the same as the cheapest new drier at the store.
I just replace the expensive drier with the cheapest drier I could find.

The cheapest drier works just fine, and we saved hundreds of dollars. Now we don’t have the 6 extra buttons that we didn’t understand anyway.

By: s. jennifer rose

s. jennifer rose — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:13:43 +0000

Maria: You can get cheap new cell phones on eBay. Just be careful who you buy from to try and avoid purchasing stolen merchandise. (Unless your moral compass doesn’t care about that…)

——

My boyfriend’s 12 year old car was in the Wait and See category (had stuff wrong with it but it still got us from A to B), and then moved quickly to Obsolesence. The wiring got very messed up: it constantly thought the passenger side door was open, so the inner cabin light would flicker on and off every 3 seconds at night while beeping warnings at us. And it always thought we were low on coolant, and it beeped that at us too. So we stopped driving it at night (I think cars following us thought we were trying to signal SOS with the inner lights). Turned out that fixing the car was going to cost more than he could sell it for as a trade-in, so it was better to trade it in as is, and get a new(er) car. Now his car is in the first category and it has 3 times the gas mileage! Yipee!