The New York Times has a free 7-Day Financial Tuneup that asks you a few quick questions and then sends you a series of (somewhat) customized e-mails containing financial advice. I did the survey twice with different answers to reveal more possibilities, telling it that I had credit card, mortgage, and student loan debt. Here’s what came with my introductory e-mail:

Thanks for signing up for The 7-Day Financial Tuneup. Based on what you told us, we selected the seven tasks most relevant to your financial situation that we recommend you complete this week to optimize your individual financial situation. We will send you an email every day with a task that you can complete immediately, or choose to leave until later in the week when you have more time. These tasks will help you take important steps to educate yourself, trim your spending and determine your financial priorities. Check your inbox tomorrow for the first day’s task.

I haven’t gotten any e-mails yet, but here’s what I have to look forward to:

• Day 1. Optimize Your Thinking. Prepare for the week ahead by taking a few moments to figure out how you think about money. (Good news: There are no wrong answers.)
• Day 2. Trim Your Budget. Cut costs on things you don’t use, and lower your spending on the essentials.
• Day 3. Find the Best Credit Card for You. Make sure you have a credit card that matches your needs.
• Day 4. Plan for Your Retirement. Take a moment to save for retirement, your future self will thank you.
• Day 5. Understand Your Credit. Learn how to read your credit score and figure out how to make it better (if you need to.)
• Day 6. Save on Health Care Costs. Make sense of your flexible spending plans and figure out the right amount to set aside tax-free.
• Day 7. Student Loans. Organize your existing loans and set a reasonable plan to pay them off.
• Other possible topics include “Compare Insurance Rates” and “Funding your Emergency Funds”.

Altogether, I would think of it as a free, short personal finance book. Sounds good to me.

Here’s an interesting chart from Statista showing how landline telephones are slowly dying away and being replaced by cell phones only.

In 2004, more than 90 percent of households in the U.S. had an operational landline phone – now it’s (significantly) less than 50 percent.

We use our cell phones almost exclusively, but we technically have a home phone line (though not a landline). If you still want home phone service, consider purchasing an Obi200 VoIP box and use it with Google Voice to get free home phone service over your internet at the great price of $0 a month and no taxes. Setup takes under 15 minutes and you can use your existing landline phones.

We should be thankful that long distance phone calls no longer cost so much, as I still remember the days of calling cards and when 10 cents a minute was cheap. (I’m getting rather old…) Heck, we are only paying $6 a month for unlimited cell phone service this year.

Consumer Reports has an updated for 2017 list of the 10 vehicles (including cars, SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks) that reached 200,000+ miles according to their big annual car survey. Here’s the list based on the total number of responses (ignoring model years), with the Toyota Camry the top model.

• Toyota Camry
• Honda Accord
• Toyota Prius
• Honda CR-V
• Toyota Sienna
• Honda Civic
• Toyota Corolla
• Toyota 4Runner
• Toyota Highlander
• Ford F-150

There are a couple of wrinkles to consider:

• This is a raw list based on the number of responses, but the Toyota Camry is already the best-selling model in the US. It would be interesting if they adjusted for the overall number of vehicles sold. You might then find some hidden gems. What if Mitsubishi made a really solid car but nobody noticed since there are so few of them? Also, any new model names like the Buick Encore will not have been around long enough to get to 200,000 miles.
• The demographics or other characteristics of a Toyota Camry or Honda Civic owner may be different. Maybe Toyota and Honda owners tend to be more frugal, more diligent at regular maintenance, and not buy new cars every 3-7 years. That would be a big factor in getting to 200,000 miles as a new car. Perhaps the more often a car is sold, the less likely it will reach 200,000 miles. If you only plan on owning a car for a couple years, why spend a lot of energy taking care of it?
• As noted in the article, a specific car model can go through period of higher or lower reliability, especially when a new generation is released. A specific Toyota or Honda model year may have a known issue with transmission, etc.

I’ve been a participant in the online reliability website TrueDelta for a while. It uses crowd-sourced data, but it often needs additional data points to be accurate enough to be useful. I recommend contributing if you find it useful. To their credit, they do try to make the periodic reporting as quick and easy as possible.

Most cities have local ethnic food stores that sell produce for a lot less than the big grocery chains. I suppose they are called this because they are often started by immigrants to serve other immigrants (ex. Mexican, Vietnamese, Armenian). But why are they cheaper? One popular theory was that they bought the “ugly” stuff that the chains wouldn’t buy. (Driscoll’s became dominant by breeding beautiful strawberries, even though in my opinion it tastes like they crossbred with styrofoam.)

In the case of New York City Chinatown at least, the WSJ found (non-paywall link) that a major reason behind the lower prices are special, local supply chains.

Her discovery: Chinatown’s 80-plus produce markets are cheap because they are connected to a web of small farms and wholesalers that operate independently of the network supplying most mainstream supermarkets.

My personal theory is that these are family businesses and everyone pitches in. The article doesn’t directly address cheap family labor, but minimal overhead is discussed:

Indeed, Chinatown’s green grocers make Costco look like Dean & DeLuca. Some are mere sidewalk stands renting space in front of a nail salon or a drugstore. Shelves are typically made of plywood and lined with newsprint; prices are hastily marked on strips of cardboard. Shoeboxes serve as cash registers. The scales are still analogue, and good luck using a credit card.

All this translates into low overhead for the retailers—and low prices for shoppers. The typical Chinatown produce markup is just 10% to 12% over wholesale, said Wellington Chen, executive director of the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corp.

This special sourcing can vary. Unfortunately I don’t live near NYC Chinatown, but in my local ethnic market, some of the produce will also be from a local farm, often the lesser-known asian vegetable or herbs that grow like weeds but wilt quickly. However, some of these vendors also offer everything from watermelon to tomatoes in December. In that case, then they are probably buying some things directly from a commercial wholesaler. (It still might be cheaper than a chain.) I usually look for a sign that says “local” or simply ask them what is locally grown.

The hottest time of the year has arrived. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shared some results from their 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey in regards to air conditioning.

A programmable thermostat can save you a ballpark 15% on your cooling bill, with the average household saving $10-$15 per month. A programmable thermostat will adjust based on a preset schedule of when you expect to be home, away, or sleeping. Various studies (Nest whitepaper) have shown that you can save about 10% on heating and 15% on cooling, with the averaging household bill going down by about $10-$15 per month.

Prices start at only $20 for basic models, but you could theoretically break even in two years even with a fancy $250 thermostat. This highly-rated touchscreen model is $45 and this basic Honeywell version is only $20. Newer smart thermostats like the $250 Nest Thermostat and $250 ecobee4 can learn how you like the temperature and also work with WiFi and Amazon Alexa so you can change the settings wherever using your smartphone or with your voice.

So… you’d think they would be quite popular, right?

Less than 20% of homes with central air conditioning regularly use a programmable thermostat. Heck, only 30% of folks who already have a programmable thermostat installed actually use them. The article doesn’t explore the reasons behind this behavior. Maybe it’s just too complicated to program? They tried it and didn’t like it?

In case you’re curious, below are the average temperatures at which other people report setting their air-conditioning thermostat. Hmm… is it weird that my house is usually around 78 or 80 degrees?

Bottom line. Using a programmable thermostat is a pretty reliable way to save money your electricity bill. But for some reason, people don’t use them! Using a smart thermostat is a less reliable way to save money (higher upfront cost, lower marginal benefit over basic programmable thermostat), but if the alternative is doing nothing, then it could be worth the additional upfront investment.