The Frug Recommends

How a Roman Emperor and a Greek slave helped me develop a life philosophy.

6 things the ancient Stoics can teach us about modern life.

By Brad Beckstrom

I don’t recall enjoying anything about philosophy class in college. It might’ve been that the class was early in the morning and the professor spoke in a whispering monotone voice, reading texts from ancient, long dead philosophers. I was too busy looking forward to have much concern for these lessons from the past.

I hadn’t learned much about Stoicism. The Stoics had largely gotten a bad rap and their philosophy nearly vanished thousands of years ago. These ancient Greeks, and later Romans, were depicted as stern characters that expressed little or no emotion in the face of tragedy, or even life’s grand victories. They internalized things and were indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain. That last sentence is right out of the dictionary. Holy crap, these guys seemed like a bunch of downers.

As it turns out, they are still largely misunderstood and only parts of their philosophy of life have been communicated over the years. The Stoics were actually full of joy and had truly advanced thinking on how to live the best life.

Discovery [Read more…] about How a Roman Emperor and a Greek slave helped me develop a life philosophy.

Free e-books, Charging Stations, and Hot Coffee.

04/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Saving our public libraries.

By Brad Beckstrom

We used to have a Borders bookstore down the street. We also had a couple of independent bookshops with a smaller more curated selection of books.

Both are gone.

It seems like a brick-and-mortar battle in which the big guys and the little guys both lost. I used to go to bookstores all the time. I like to have a destination when I go on a bike ride, maybe get a cup of coffee and thumb through some new releases or the crazy selection of 1000s of magazines they had. It wasn’t frugal either. I could walk into a Borders and spend 60 bucks on books and magazines, sometimes work-related, sometimes something I had no intention of purchasing when I walked into the store.

Then along came Kindle, iPad, audiobooks, feed readers, ebooks, and podcasts. One click ordering from Apple and Amazon. Strong competition from every direction. It’s so easy. You hear about a great book, open up the Kindle app on your iPad and download a free sample. If you like it, it’s yours with one click, usually for less than 10 bucks, sometimes for $1.99, sometimes free. The books even sync across devices. I read a lot more now, fewer magazines, more great writing.

The problem with doing all of your reading on a digital device.

First, we were spending more on books than we ever had, thanks to Amazon’s recommendation algorithms and one click ordering. [Read more…] about Free e-books, Charging Stations, and Hot Coffee.

Pocket Change The World.

02/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Automatic Transaction Roundup Giving is Here.

By Brad Beckstrom

Remember pocket change?

I used to have a ton of it. As an urban payer of tolls, connoisseur of food carts, dive bars and large beverages in convenience stores, there was never any shortage of it. It would spill out of my khakis and accumulate between the seats of my car or in the ashtray. I would also fill jars of it at home. I purchased my first mountain bike with a bucket of change that amounted to just over $500.

I chose my bank at the time because they had a free service where you could drop off your loose change and they would run it through a machine and then deposit a check into your account. Just picture The Frug walking into a hundred-year-old marble and mahogany bank on Capitol Hill with his mop bucket of change. If I didn’t have a business account with them they probably would’ve laughed me out of there.

Panhandlers

The other element of living in DC was that there was always someone to give your change to. Our nation’s capital is home to a large homeless population. So I was the guy to talk to if you had a cardboard sign and you were looking for spare change. One roommate told me that giving money to panhandlers just fueled their addictions and that I should give in different ways. I thought sure, it would be nice if I could give out apples or muffins, but the change was there and a person who needed it was there. So why not? This was something extra.

Years later, things have changed. I am amazed by how little change or small bills I have. Nearly everyone takes credit cards now, swipe, tap, waive. It gets easier and easier. Faster and faster, no signature required. If you have a credit card that gives 2% cash back rewards, it makes sense to use it, as long as you pay off your bill in full every month.

In a few years, the actual card itself will be gone and we’ll simply be waving or tapping our phones to complete touchless purchases. Apps and services like Apple Pay have the potential to be a bad thing (spenders) but potentially a fantastic thing (savers and givers) Here’s why.

Dusty CDs and the Price of Music.

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Why now is really the best time for music lovers.

In my relatively short time on this planet, here are the many different ways I’ve purchased and listened to music. Oh, so many ways that the music industry has zapped us music lovers over the years.

Vinyl 45 records on mono record player
Vinyl LP records with high fidelity turntable and stereo
Cassette Tapes and mix tapes on tape deck (Luckily, I avoided the whole 8-track tape thing) But my Dad’s 1968 Olds Tornado did have one in the dash.
Recording cassette mix tapes from vinyl records and playing them on my first Alpine car stereo (I had arrived)
Cassette tapes in a Walkman
Compact discs on a compact disc player plugged into home stereo
Compact discs and cassettes on a boombox
Compact discs on portable Sony Discman
CDs, Concert DVDs, cassettes and vinyl LPs with 6 speaker home theater surround sound system. (why would I ever need anything else to listen to music?)
Six Disc CD changer in the car with cassette player and AM/FM radio
MP3 Player (one of the early versions, can’t remember how I even got the music on the thing.)
Using my laptop to “Rip” my CDs to iTunes and then sync them on my iPod
iTunes on laptop with Harman Kardon surround sound speakers and subwoofer
iPod with iTunes. Discovered the iTunes store along with everyone else.
Burning CDs from tracks downloaded on Napster, LimeWire, shared with friends
Streaming commercial free radio stations like Radio Paradise on my Mac with various desktop apps including iTunes, Chrome and Safari browser extensions
XM satellite radio
iPhone with iTunes
Streaming music via apps on my iPhone, like Last FM, then Pandora
Streaming music on Tivo, Roku and Apple TV with Surround Sound Digital Amplifier
Streaming Music from Apps to Bluetooth car stereo and a Bluetooth HD home receiver
Amazon Prime Music via Amazon Music apps

I’d almost be afraid to total up what I’ve spent on music, including all the gadgets, CDs clubs, and concerts. But the problem is, I love music. I basically listen to it all the time and I still use many of the items on this crazy list, including the vinyl records.

Dusty CDs

I am sitting here in my office looking at a very tall tower of dusty CDs. [Read more…] about Dusty CDs and the Price of Music.

Is your wallet hurting your health?

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

“The best way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket”

– Will Rogers

This is excellent advice. However, my wallet is sitting out in front of me on my desk because my chiropractor told me it’s throwing my back out. Here’s what’s happening: Sitting on my not-so thick wallet is not only twisting my spine but it’s also compressing a large nerve that extends through the buttock and down my left leg. Ouch!

You see, my not-so thick wallet has gotten too thick with membership cards, business cards, healthcare cards, credit cards, debit cards, access cards, and even some cash once a while. I clean it out every week but it’s still too thick.

At the chiropractor, I open my wallet looking for my healthcare membership card and my HSA (Health savings account) debit card to pay my chiropractor to solve the problem. They also need to make a photocopy of each of said cards and my driver’s license – for the third time.

There are quite a few problems with men’s and women’s wallets.

The wallets are designed to hold a lot of stuff, inefficiently, making them thick and bulky. (see some new options below)
For men, we spend too much time sitting on them throwing out our backs and compressing large nerves.
For women, (based on a lifetime of observation in retail checkout lines lines and also being married) Women spend too much time rooting for their wallet through large purses with entirely too much stuff in them. Once the wallets are found in the large purse, the rooting begins again in the large wallet.
This problem increases for both sexes with age. Most young guys and gals tend to travel lighter. Mature adults and professionals of some sort seem to accumulate all kinds of crap in their wallets.
Old men and old ladies are off the charts keeping entire decades of information in their wallets. For a while, my mom had my birth certificate in her wallet, 20 years after I was living on my own.
If you lose said monster wallet, your whole month is pretty much messed up. Credit could be damaged, shit goes wrong. Yep, you forgot about that folded up check you had in there.
Speaking of losing wallets, if you travel frequently you will eventually be pickpocketed if you keep your wallet in your back pocket or in a purse. Best to carry something in your front pocket. In parts of Europe and South America pickpocketing has been elevated to an art.

Don’t Get Robbed Blind Buying Prescription Glasses.

08/14 by The Frug 8 Comments

My journey to find the perfect $44 pair of prescription shades.

Just got back from a walk and I am really enjoying my new $44 prescription Ray-Bans. The walk was short but the journey to find inexpensive prescription glasses has been a long one.

Over years I’ve been ripped off buying prescription glasses.. I don’t wear contacts, so you would think that would save me some money. Not really. I need progressive lenses and have an astigmatism.

While my prescription is not that strong, decent lightweight progressive lenses are still pricey. In addition, since I don’t wear contacts, I need prescription sunglasses, which are another racket.

If you want a decent pair of prescription sunglasses, you need to buy them and then immediately replace the expensive tinted polarized lenses with your custom made prescription. Unfortunately, because they’re sunglasses, they often get smashed, bent, broken and sometimes lost. #firstworldproblems

I’ve got a decent track record with lost sunglasses, my wife SuperK does not. Still, I’ve lost a couple of pairs of prescription sunglasses over the years, and busted one other pair.

Here are a few of the many comical ways I’ve been ripped off purchasing glasses. [Read more…] about Don’t Get Robbed Blind Buying Prescription Glasses.