A Few Thoughts About the Internet

If I was more creative, I would try right now to make a poem about how I love the internet. I’ll spare you. Instead, I’ll just share some thoughts I have had lately about the internet.

Sometimes I am very thankful we have come so far technology-wise to have the internet. There is so much information at your fingertips. You think back to the time depicted on Little House on the Prairie (one of my favorite shows) and if something went wrong and you didn’t have a solution, you had to ask around town to see if anyone else knew. If you didn’t have luck there, you could try the next town which could take a while to do. With the internet, you do a search and chances are good that you can find something regarding what you are looking for within a few minutes.

For instance, we had a bad smell in our basement. I did a search on Google and came across a few home repair sites that said the smell was likely due to the water evaporating in our open drain (normally there is a layer of water in it to keep the gases below from escaping into the basement). Just pour some water down there to replenish the layer. Viola – problem fixed and no calls to a plumber.

I started thinking about it some more, and we have saved quite a bit of money by trying to find solutions from the internet. Word of caution, though. Sometimes it can cost you. We had to pay money because we followed some advice about a water heater that was knocking. It ended up being bad advice and we could have really broken our heater. But we lucked out and only had to replace one part that ran about $15. I’m really cautious now and do not stop searching with the solution I first come across. I check multiple sites.

For learning about things, books from the library are great. But the internet has some great resources that combine videos and written instruction. My son and I are learning American Sign Language and we came across this awesome site: Michigan State University ASL Browser. For more structured lessons, we found the ASL University.

To help our son with his learning, I am thankful there are sites out there with printable worksheets. Here’s a few of my favorite sites for free ones:
TLSBooks.com
SchoolExpress.com
Teachnology.com

Oh, and the recipe sites! Or Google Books! It has been suggested in the past that we cut our internet out of the budget to save money. We couldn’t do it because my employment depends on it. But even if we could cancel internet we wouldn’t. Now that I am really thinking about it, it has saved us more money than we have paid for it ($25/month).

Posted by Tricia on November 14, 2008 at 12:18 AM in Saving Money | 7 Comments »
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That One Caveman responded:
Posted: November 14th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Ya, the internet is a wonderful resource. If it weren’t for the internet, I certainly wouldn’t be living the way I do now. My job and my side income both come directly from work related to the web.

I do wonder at times how “freeing” it would feel to live a simpler life such as your LHotP illustration, but I think that’s more of a romantic fantasy than anything. I’m more infatuated with the idea than I actually believe I could handle it.
MadeMistakes responded:
Posted: November 14th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I love being able to find answers to all my tiniest little “I wonder…” questions. Like, what does a scottish fold kitten really look like?
Craig responded:
Posted: November 14th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Yea, I agree its hard to look back to a decade ago when the internet was first getting big and see how much has progressed and how much it plays a factor in our lives. I agree it saves time (research), money (purchases are cheaper on internet). There is a ton of information and you have to do research and get good recommendations to where to find resources and make purchases. As much of the good and helpful is out there, there are still security risks and just plain bad advice out there. But what would we do without the internet?

Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Esther responded:
Posted: November 14th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Just wanted to share a way that the internet helped me – by reading your blog! You posted a tip (or someone in one of your comments did) about getting the plastic wrap for the windows. We moved to the midwest from California three years ago and no one ever told us to do that. The previous owners of our house installed the cheapest possible windows and we’ve been freezing every winter but can’t afford to replace them. My husband put up the plastic and we are SO MUCH warmer and saving money on heat.
LA responded:
Posted: November 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I’m on the caveat side— have a bathtub liner that came with the house we bought. Got water between the liner & the tub so it “squished” when you got into the empty tub. Looked online for suggestions, and every one said, “It’s a big deal, major plumbing issue, have to rip out liner, etc.” Two plumbers we called said the same thing. $3000 – $5000 to fix & replace.

My husband thought, “Why don’t I just call BathFitters?” While it turned out not to be a BathFitter-brand liner, the BathFitter guy came out and had the problem fixed in about 10 minutes, for $75.

Savings? $2925, minimum!
Finance responded:
Posted: November 15th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Internet is a great place for all. You can get a lot of useful information, doing your research on interesting topics, or even earn money by building websites, writing articles and many more.
Andy @ Retire at 40 responded:
Posted: November 15th, 2008 at 6:25 am
You’re right, the internet is a great saviour when finding out information.

As for cutting out the internet to save you money, well whoever told you that doesn’t know how many ways the internet can actually save you money.

I think that my internet connections is so worthwhile. Also, I’m planning on using it not only to save money but to make money too!