Reverse first-world problems: What *good* thing happened to you today?

[RearAdmiral]

fixed it for you.

😉

I would enjoy an ice cream party.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I just randomly remembered about my Mastercard rewards, just one of those things that's kind of set and forget. Made an account on the site since I never did before, and I had enough points to get $350 worth of Home Depot gift cards. My water heater is on the verge of failing on me (does lot of weird noises, I think the anode rod broke and is loose in there) so this money will go towards a new one. I might just go electric as it's easier to install and more efficient. The high efficiency gas ones are a lot of money. If I find this one costs me too much in hydro then I'll save up for a higher efficiency gas one like a tankless or condensing tank unit.

6000 watts though. 😱 Did not realize those drew so much power. I guess it makes sense considering a kettle is like 1500w and only has to heat like a litre of water. Of course it does it faster too.

 

[snoopy7548]

I just randomly remembered about my Mastercard rewards, just one of those things that's kind of set and forget. Made an account on the site since I never did before, and I had enough points to get $350 worth of Home Depot gift cards. My water heater is on the verge of failing on me (does lot of weird noises, I think the anode rod broke and is loose in there) so this money will go towards a new one. I might just go electric as it's easier to install and more efficient. The high efficiency gas ones are a lot of money. If I find this one costs me too much in hydro then I'll save up for a higher efficiency gas one like a tankless or condensing tank unit.

6000 watts though. 😱 Did not realize those drew so much power. I guess it makes sense considering a kettle is like 1500w and only has to heat like a litre of water. Of course it does it faster too.

How much are electric costs in your area compared to gas? In most cases, gas makes the most sense, especially if you have natural gas.

 

[RearAdmiral]

3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon zest

Soak the lemon zest in the lemon juice and set aside in fridge.

Custard base:
Heat cream, milk, sugar in a heavy sauce pan. Stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture is hot but don't bring to boil. Whisk egg yolks and pour into cream mixture. Cook custard, stirring constantly until mixture thickens slightly. Don't allow to boil. Remove the custard from heat. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over custard, pressing the wrap onto the top of the custard and place in fridge. The plastic wrap reduces skin formation on the top of the custard. Chill until custard is at fridge temperature (don't freeze).

Once cooled, remove plastic wrap and any surface skin from custard. Stir lemon juice and zest into custard. Pour custard into ice cream maker and churn/freeze per ice cream maker instructions.

Made this last night for dessert tonight, looking forward to it. The samples I tasted from the dasher were great. The custard portion took forever as I was worried about it boiling so I kept the temp pretty low (~165-175). It made a little less, maybe .5L less, than I was expected from a volume standpoint, so hopefully that is normal for custard based.

 

[sdifox]

I just randomly remembered about my Mastercard rewards, just one of those things that's kind of set and forget. Made an account on the site since I never did before, and I had enough points to get $350 worth of Home Depot gift cards. My water heater is on the verge of failing on me (does lot of weird noises, I think the anode rod broke and is loose in there) so this money will go towards a new one. I might just go electric as it's easier to install and more efficient. The high efficiency gas ones are a lot of money. If I find this one costs me too much in hydro then I'll save up for a higher efficiency gas one like a tankless or condensing tank unit.

6000 watts though. 😱 Did not realize those drew so much power. I guess it makes sense considering a kettle is like 1500w and only has to heat like a litre of water. Of course it does it faster too.

lol electric will cost a fortune...

 

[Red Squirrel]

How much are electric costs in your area compared to gas? In most cases, gas makes the most sense, especially if you have natural gas.

Kind of high but most of the bill is fixed fees and not actual usage, so I'll see how much of a dent it does. I need to at least get by before the one I have now blows up on me. The cheaper gas ones like the one I have are very inefficient, only about 50%, I bet a good chunk of my gas bill is to heat water right now so what I pay more in hydro I will pay less in gas, might work out to the same.

I'm not really fully decided on this though,I might just go for another gas one to match my current one as it will be a drop in replacement and probably cost around 2 grand installed. (I don't really want to mess with gas) Trying to pay down my credit line though... every time I manage to get down by a grand something comes up and it just goes back up.

Ultimately a tankless condensing unit would be the best bet but that's like 5-7 grand installed (got an estimate). I could probably shave off several grand by installing it myself but it would still require lot of pipe fitting for the gas which is a lot of money on it's own.

 

[rh71]

So you know all those insurance commercials that say a 15-minute call can save you 15% on your insurance? They're full of it.

It's actually closer to a 45-minute call, but they saved me 20%. $3000 for 12 mo. home & auto at Liberty Mutual now instead of Allstate at $3800. I left Liberty many years ago because of cost and left Allstate prior to that because of cost and ended up at them twice. Now left again.

Bottom line, if you guys just accept the incremental increases every year, you don't realize that it adds up. Shop it every few years.

I also signed up for the OBD-II driving-monitoring program since it's only 90 days I'll have to grandma my car, then never again. Saves about 15% by itself.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Just got a call from my accountant and my taxes are ready. That was quick. My workplace used to send the T4 form at the very last minute which was always annoying but in the past few years we can download it early so I dropped it off yesterday with rest of my papers. I should invest it in GME. 😛

Going to put it on the credit line though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

So you know all those insurance commercials that say a 15-minute call can save you 15% on your insurance? They're full of it.

It's actually closer to a 45-minute call, but they saved me 20%. $3000 for 12 mo. home & auto at Liberty Mutual now instead of Allstate at $3800. I left Liberty many years ago because of cost and left Allstate prior to that because of cost and ended up at them twice. Now left again.

Bottom line, if you guys just accept the incremental increases every year, you don't realize that it adds up. Shop it every few years.

I also signed up for the OBD-II driving-monitoring program since it's only 90 days I'll have to grandma my car, then never again. Saves about 15% by itself.

My insurance went up from $150 to $170 for no reason when the pandemic started. Then they have the audacity to offer a covid relief program. uhhh, first start to give relief would be to not raise prices perhaps? I ended up getting down to around $160 though by taking some coverage off the truck. It was not worth taking anything off the house or even increasing the deductible. I shopped around a little but rates are pretty much similar everywhere. There's some thing the government did around that time which meant all the rates went up.

 

[Muse]

I turned on my cold water faucet and cold water came out.

 

[Svnla]

Lately, I have free coupons for free dozen eggs or 50% discount from Kroger. My FIRE plan is still going well.

 

[highland145]

Went to the USPS, no line and they had stamps. 😳

 

[Stiff Clamp]

So you know all those insurance commercials that say a 15-minute call can save you 15% on your insurance? They're full of it.

It's actually closer to a 45-minute call, but they saved me 20%. $3000 for 12 mo. home & auto at Liberty Mutual now instead of Allstate at $3800. I left Liberty many years ago because of cost and left Allstate prior to that because of cost and ended up at them twice. Now left again.

Bottom line, if you guys just accept the incremental increases every year, you don't realize that it adds up. Shop it every few years.

I also signed up for the OBD-II driving-monitoring program since it's only 90 days I'll have to grandma my car, then never again. Saves about 15% by itself.

Can you elaborate on the driving-monitoring? Never heard of that. Is that for premiums based on mileage?
I'm quite sick of Allstate's constant increases, BTW.

 

[highland145]

Can you elaborate on the driving-monitoring? Never heard of that. Is that for premiums based on mileage?
I'm quite sick of Allstate's constant increases, BTW.

And breaking, Gs, acceleration, etc.

Call a local independent that has multiple carriers. Auto owners, Hartford, progressive,....have them shop it every year.

 

[snoopy7548]

And breaking, Gs, acceleration, etc.

Call a local independent that has multiple carriers. Auto owners, Hartford, progressive,....have them shop it every year.

*Braking.

 

[highland145]

*Braking.

Just a slip. Working too much.

 

[rh71]

Can you elaborate on the driving-monitoring? Never heard of that. Is that for premiums based on mileage?
I'm quite sick of Allstate's constant increases, BTW.

It's an OBD-II port device that you leave plugged in. For Liberty Mutual, it's called RightTrack and they only need data for 90 days and your savings rate is locked in forever. Allstate explained their DriveWise needs to be in every 6 months for 60 drives. LM gives you up to 20% off your auto rate (10% up front) depending on the data results which you can even track on your own. She explained the following:
- monitors hard acceleration and hard braking
- night time driving
- top speed like 80mph on a highway doesn't matter, only how fast you got there
- total miles (must be > 125 mi. to qualify, which I may have trouble with)

So I'm going to granny it for 90 days and hopefully get their avg of 15% off. No idea if the car computer stores previous data and whether the device will read that.

 

[sdifox]

Can you elaborate on the driving-monitoring? Never heard of that. Is that for premiums based on mileage?
I'm quite sick of Allstate's constant increases, BTW.

Well they use a monitoring device (can be your smartphone) and check your driving habit. I don't think the discount justifies the loss of privacy.

 

[rh71]

Well they use a monitoring device (can be your smartphone) and check your driving habit. I don't think the discount justifies the loss of privacy.

Considered it... what kind of privacy should I be worried about in this case?

 

[sdifox]

Considered it... what kind of privacy should I be worried about in this case?

Telematics on your driving habit. Don't know how invasive the smartphone apps type are.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It was not so bad when it used to be a box in your car, but the smartphone apps, no thanks. It's one thing to track driving habits, it's another thing to track my whole life. Not worth the savings. Some of those even require that you leave location services turned on. 😱

 

[Stiff Clamp]

And braking, Gs, acceleration, etc.

Call a local independent that has multiple carriers. Auto owners, Hartford, progressive,....have them shop it every year.

It's an OBD-II port device that you leave plugged in. For Liberty Mutual, it's called RightTrack and they only need data for 90 days and your savings rate is locked in forever. Allstate explained their DriveWise needs to be in every 6 months for 60 drives. LM gives you up to 20% off your auto rate (10% up front) depending on the data results which you can even track on your own. She explained the following:
- monitors hard acceleration and hard braking
- night time driving
- top speed like 80mph on a highway doesn't matter, only how fast you got there
- total miles (must be > 125 mi. to qualify, which I may have trouble with)

So I'm going to granny it for 90 days and hopefully get their avg of 15% off. No idea if the car computer stores previous data and whether the device will read that.

OK, thanks, very helpful. My car was made just before ODB2 hit the market, so I'd not be eligible techwise.
I'd have to think about the smartphone tracker.

 

[rh71]

It was not so bad when it used to be a box in your car, but the smartphone apps, no thanks. It's one thing to track driving habits, it's another thing to track my whole life. Not worth the savings. Some of those even require that you leave location services turned on. 😱

Well they use a monitoring device (can be your smartphone) and check your driving habit. I don't think the discount justifies the loss of privacy.

Thankfully this looks to be only adapter info. Driving habits I don't care about. Time & location is already collected by Google (Maps) as I use that EVERYWHERE I go. You guys don't use it?

If you use smartphone-only apps just be sure what they're grabbing.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah a dedicated box I would not really care about if it's just something that stays in the car and only tracks driving habits. The issue with smartphone apps is they have access to pretty much everything such as your contacts, your web browsing, your camera, mic (they can use accelerometer for that too) etc. This is why I don't install any discrete apps for anything. Fast food places, stores, the covid apps etc. Even flashlight apps can be suspect.

 

[sdifox]

Thankfully this looks to be only adapter info. Driving habits I don't care about. Time & location is already collected by Google (Maps) as I use that EVERYWHERE I go. You guys don't use it?

If you use smartphone-only apps just be sure what they're grabbing.

Lol just to give you an idea how data driven insurance is. A PMML has 80+ inputs just to score a driver. This score is predicted loss ratio. If your score is too high, you don't even get a quote.

The dividing line can be updated in seconds by the actuarial people if they so desire.