Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone - Consumerist Comments

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Mr. Gunn — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:28:28 EDT

Cal: Especially when you consider that many phones, including many free with ocntract ones, can also send email.

With many phones you have to debrand them to get around the carrier's attempts to force you to send MMS instead of email attachments, but you can always pop the memory card out and put it in your computer, that is, if your phone uses memory cards.

Mr. Gunn

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

a_m_m_b — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:54:30 EDT

already do & it works great :)

a_m_m_b

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Erzengel — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:53:43 EDT

i dont know in the USA, but here in Mexico, they wont allow you to take pics of items inside the store. I tried to take a pic of some brand, just to remember it, and the clercks went all paranoid over me, thinking i was a spy or something, kicked me out of the place.

Erzengel

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

witeowl — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:49:56 EDT

Oh, no, I just don't think this will work for me. This totally shatters the little story I tell myself every month when I get my credit card bill:

"$1,693.37 in new charges this month? That can't be right. Someone must have stolen my credit card information. I should report it immediately. Wait, no. Just like last month, I'll just pay it. The poor soul surely needs money more than I do, or he/she wouldn't have resorted to a life of crime. Now, let's go play with my new iToy while I ponder the greatness of my generosity."

witeowl

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Cal — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:45:45 EDT

The irony, of course, is that one would use one's iPhone in order to save a buck here and there. Penny-wise, but pound-foolish?

Cal

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

allstarecho — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:52:48 EDT

Unless of course you have unlimited messaging like I do.. $7.00 a month!

allstarecho

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

wring — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:41:35 EDT

@jaredutah: i loled

wring

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

psm321 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:32:57 EDT

I'm surprised nobody else noticed the sudden drop of the royal we towards the end of the post.

"IF I workout/monitor my caloric intake THEN I get to put something on Flickr. We'll see if it result in weight loss."

psm321

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

hometoast — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:31:36 EDT

@dbeahn:
Are you in the US with that unlimited plan?

hometoast

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

thatsfearagain — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:41:53 EDT

Why not just take a picture of the receipt?

thatsfearagain

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

jaredutah — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:26:59 EDT

I have the merchant where I'm buying the item send me a paper message describing the transaction, including the costs associated with the item, they call it a 'receipt'. I then upload that message to my home via my 'pants pocket' where I then copy it to my finance tracking tool using a method known as 'typing'.

jaredutah

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Eugene — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:52:14 EDT

@dbeahn:
Yes, I read it, they are talking about manyally typing in the item and price in the subject when you upload the picture then going back through the pictures and copying and pasting into your budget speadsheet/program. I'v saying save some work by just downloading the info from your bank and dropping that in your spreadsheet program. Then I suppose you could paste in pictures if you wanted to but at least no manuall typing of prices and such.

Eugene

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

lilyHaze — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:47:28 EDT

@LatherRinseRepeat:
I do the same. I have a complex excel spreadsheet with different categories (groceries and restaurant are separated, etc). It's helped me to see what I spend in what and when to spend less.

I don't see the point of taking pictures of your purchases. Why waste all that bandwidth/time?

lilyHaze

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

msb2: blue balls machine — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:08:03 EDT

three steps forward and [I take] two steps back

We come together 'cause opposites attract....

msb2: blue balls machine

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

mopar_man — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:02:39 EDT

Make sure you read the National Geographic book on camera phone photography before starting this.

mopar_man

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

dbeahn — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:54:37 EDT

@Eugene: Um....the whole idea is to make this MORE work, and to have all your friends be able to see everything you buy. To make you think twice about what you buy.

Obviously if you just want a list of purchases there are easier ways to go about it.

Sheesh. Did you even read the article?

dbeahn

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Consumertaz — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:40:21 EDT

Ok.. I've have my morning coffee so i can be civil and constructive now.

I use the note pad in my cell phone to track the amounts i spend, including ATM withdrawls to track cash. I dont really care where i spend it, just how much. Then i enter it into a spreadsheet weekly where I track my budget and various other things. Gives me a ballpark of how my spending for the week is and takes almost no effort.

Consumertaz

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Eugene — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:28:39 EDT

Has no one ever heard of internet banking. Just use your debit card and download the transactions from your web based bank. Even if they won't let you download you can stil copy and paste from the web site all in one easy step.

Eugene

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

dbeahn — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:00:47 EDT

@Consumertaz: Yes, the department of redundancy department has a lot of people surfing instead of working today...

Sorry for the redundant comment about your comment ;)

dbeahn

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

dbeahn — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:58:13 EDT

@PsychicPsycho3: Good lord, if you're still paying for minutes and messages on your cell phone, I think you need to start the financial retooling there. I've been with an unlimited minutes-messaging-picture messaging-data carrier for years. $58/mo including tax, handset insurance (which I can drop now, actually) and I'm set. It was totally worth paying the $200 up front for my Razr to have my bill go from $140(avg.) to $58!

dbeahn

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Consumertaz — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:46:32 EDT

Does anyone actually read what was written? It says its not cost effective if you dont have the right plan or equipment to start. But thanks to all you geniuses for making redundant comments.

Consumertaz

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

LatherRinseRepeat — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:08:44 EDT

When it comes to tracking my spending, I just save my receipts and put them in a container on my desk. At the end of the week, I just tally up the receipts and enter them in Excel.

No need to take blurry camera phone pics. And no need to spend additional money on SMS/MMS fees.

LatherRinseRepeat

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

lorddave — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:11:38 EDT

This is a tremendous idea. I will start tomorrow.

lorddave

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Alvis — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:50:29 EDT

So, to cut down on spending, you should buy a cameraphone?

What ever happened to SELF CONTROL?!?

Alvis

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

icruise — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:43:15 EDT

With an iPhone, this would actually be doable (while the iPhone doesn't support normal MMS messaging, you can upload to Flickr by email, which would be free no matter how much you used).

icruise

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

tylerkaraszewski — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:42:10 EDT

I do this, except I use twitter instead of flickr. I just send text, typically something like "7.25 lunch" or "42.35 gas", anytime I buy anything. It gets posted to twitter, and then I wrote a small script (I'm a programmer by trade) that automatically tallies up all my purchases for me and gives me some nice averages and things. It's a lot easier to just send text instead of taking pictures, in my opinion. Also, text messages are generally cheaper than picture messages.

In the last 7 days, I've spent $69.48 on food. On the average, I spend $175.89 in any 30-day period on gas. I get this inofrmation automatically as long as I keep texting my purchases to twitter.

tylerkaraszewski

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

SBR249 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:28:57 EDT

haha, at about $.25 (poss. more now) a pic msg for me, that's one expensive way to trim my spending habits.

SBR249

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

Major-General — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:27:04 EDT

@PsychicPsycho3:
Ditto. I was just thinking to myself: "Self, is there a Verizon exec who just can't quite swing the payments on his new Mercedes this month?"

This may work for those people who have the unlimited messege plans, but I think I've used picture messaging about 4 times in three years, which includes the charges VZW made when I called tech support to figure out why I couldn't send any messeges.

Major-General

Cut Spending With Flickr And A Cameraphone

PsychicPsycho3 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:15:02 EDT

Never mind the $15 you'll rack up in messaging charges.