Sunday, December 23, 2007

Veronica in her Rice Bag Dress






I wanted to get some shots of Veronica modeling her rice bag dress before she no longer fits into it. She is 3 years and almost two months old and growing vertically with amazing speed.

This is just a Zebra brand basmati rice bag with the bottom cut open. The handles act as shoulder straps and there is even a nifty zipper at the neck.

I think somehow this qualifies as even more frugal than dressing your children in hand-me-downs. Our baby girl wears recycling!

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Why Does it Cost More to Ship Nothing?

So, my Aperture trial period has expired and I'm ready to buy the software.

If I buy a boxed copy from Amazon, it costs $239 with free shipping.

But it would be nice if I could just buy a license and not have to get anything shipped -- just buy a key that doesn't require that anyone ship a physical box and media around.

From the Apple Store, that costs $299 -- $60 more for the privilege of shipping no physical artifacts around whatsoever.

OK, so I'm determined to do the right thing -- not use fossil fuels needlessly and all that.

Then I get to the checkout on Apple's site and they are going to charge me tax, which Amazon won't. So that's $316.94 to buy a license key as opposed to $239 from Amazon.

I had budgeted $250 for Aperture. That's $66.94 over my budget.

Why am I punished for trying to save carbon?