Month: September 2013

Reassess Who Hosts Your Website

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About two weeks ago I received an automated email from macminicolo.net to let me know that my hosting contract was coming up for renewal.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with MacMiniColo, it is a business that places either a leased or owned Mac Mini into a secure datacenter.  While customers don’t have physical access to their minis, they can do almost anything with them remotely.  In 2009 I sent a mini to the datacenter so I could host several business websites and run my own email server.

Mac Mini (2009)

Macminicolo

The reason why I opted to use MacMiniColo in the first place versus using a more well known web host such as GoDaddy was because in 2009 there weren’t many web hosts that accommodated Ruby on Rails.  My options at the time were limited to paying an exorbitant monthly fee for a dedicated server, or to buy my own server hardware (a mac mini) and setup the machine someplace where it would have an always on, super fast internet connection.  I chose the latter.

Life hummed along just dandy until two weeks ago when I got that renewal notice and it made me think.  I haven’t used Ruby on Rails for years.  In fact, I probably didn’t need a dedicated server what-so-ever!  It was time to reassess what I needed to run my business and personal web presence.

The first thing that I needed to do was to get in touch with the owner, Brian, of MacMiniColo and see if there was any room to negotiate the base price.  Brian is a nice guy and if I could strike up a deal it would also save me the tedious task of moving 3 websites and a dozen email accounts to somewhere else.  His response was pretty much what I expected, $31.50/mo was the lowest he could offer.  I was confident that I could find someone out there that would meet my needs for less than $378/year.

Host Gator

I did *some* research and decided to migrate over to HostGator.  They are like pretty much every other hosting company out there in that they offer shared, semi-dedicated, and dedicated servers.  With the Mac Mini, I had a dedicated server and all of that machines resources were devoted solely to me.  Generally speaking, a website doesn’t take many resources to run, so many small businesses and individuals (myself included) opt to save money by going with a shared server.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  Many different websites are hosted from the same machine.  By switching from a dedicated server to a shared server and using a promotion that HostGator was running I was able to cut my yearly web presence cost down to $71.78, or $5.98/mo.

Host Gator

 

Unfortunately, the honeymoon didn’t last long.  Within a week, both my brother, who piggybacks a website on my hosting, and myself noticed that our respective websites were loading far slower than when they were being served by the Mac Mini.  I did some more research and discovered that Host Gator had recently been bought out my mega conglomerate EIG, Endurance International Group.  EIG owns a whole bunch of web hosts, see a list here, and had recently been moving Host Gator customers from a datacenter in Houston to one that they owned in Provo.  Their Provo datacenter had a major malfunction in early August, that took out HostGator, BlueHost, and HostMonster customers for the better part of a day.

Overcrowding of shared servers plus a spotty track record made me rethink the three year contract that I had just inked.  Did I really want to risk spending the next three years with them?

MDDHosting

MDDHosting

Nope! There is a reason why money back guarantees exist.  HostGator offered a 45 day return policy so after doing some better research and migrating to MDDHosting I took full advantage of it.  MDDHosting is a smaller hosting provider and more importantly, the owner claims that he won’t accept a buyout from EIG.  Switching from HostGator to MDDHosting was a breeze because they both use similar backends (CPanel).  All I had to do was submit a transfer request to them, the tech that I talked to said they get tons everyday.

My websites, this one included, load much faster and more reliably now that I am with MDDHosting.  The best part is that I saved even more money by switching to MDDHosting.  I locked in a three year contract for only $37.38/year or just $3.12/mo.

If I had accepted the status quo, I would have lost out on $1,021.87 over the next three years.

Oh, and one last thing.  Since I purchased the original mini, it is still mine.  I should be receiving it in the mail/UPS/Fedex within the next week or two.  At that point I can either sell it on eBay or use it to replace one of our home computers.

Are you hosting a website?  With whom are you hosting it with?  Have you ever considered getting your own personal domain name (e.g. andrewschenk.com)?

Trimming the Phone Bill, Part 2

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If you haven’t read part 1 yet, then you can see it here.

…Continuing on…

GoPhone prepaid wireless service was saving us a lot of money and we were happy with that for several months.  However, nothing is sacred on our budget, and when I was looking over numbers a month ago I was convinced that we could save even more money without sacrificing any change in lifestyle.

I began looking for alternatives and was intrigued when I read a blog post on mrmoneymustache.com.  Mr. MM goes into considerable detail so I will provide a synopsis of sorts.  By switching from AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone service to Airvoice Wireless we could get a comparable level of service for only $10/mo per phone.

Airvoice Wireless

Airvoice is one of dozens of MVNOs, Mobile Virtual Network Operator.  You can think of an MVNO as a reseller who buys network coverage and airtime from AT&T and then sells it in different packages to customers.  Of course there are MVNOs that do the same thing for the Verizon network.  In order to switch from GoPhone to Airvoice we had to do a few things.

1.) Purchase new SIM cards

While it may be possible to switch over to the AirVoice network and retain your original AT&T sim card, Airvoice cards can be found pretty cheaply ($5) online.  There are several different sizes available nowadays thanks to the smartphone race for thinner devices.  Our

iPhone 4S phones required micro sim cards.

micro sim

2.) (Optionally) Port Your Phone Number

Airvoice Wireless makes it easy to keep your phone number.  Just fill out the form on their website and within a day or two your new SIM card will have your old phone number attached to it.  When GoPhone got our port request they terminated our account.  We knew this was coming, but it’s worth saying that any credit or account balance that you had with them gets wiped out (i.e. if you had $5 in your account it is theirs now).

3.) (Optionally) Enable Data & Texting

By default Airvoice has texting and data disabled on new accounts.  You simply have to give them a call and ask for them to enable it for your account.

Here is what $10 gets us each month with Airvoice:

250 minutes or 500 text messages or 30mb of data or some combination of all three.

We’ve only been with Airvoice for a week or so and I still need to switch over Shae’s phone.  There are a few key differences between the two prepaid services.  I like some of them and others I’m not terribly fond of.

Pro’s of Airvoice:

  • Cheaper than GoPhone with similar features
  • Don’t have to explicitly add a data package (saves us $5 when we travel and want maps/email on the road)
  • Same network coverage
  • Unused dollars rollover to the next month

Con’s of Airvoice:

  • A message pops up on the phone after each action that costs money.  For example if I send a text a popup appears on the screen telling me how much it cost, $0.02, and my remaining account balance.  Some people might find this helpful, but I wish I could limit it to once a day or once a week.
  • Their website is very lacking.  While auto refills can be set up.  It takes some digging to find where and how to do it.
  • Visual voicemail does not work.  With GoPhone it would work so long as you had a data package.
  • Account balance will expire unless you add to it every month.  For example if you skip a month you lose service.

So there you have it.  We started off a couple of years ago spending $113/month for phone service and once we finish switching over to Airvoice we’ll be spending just $21/month.

We will save over $1100 a year in our phone bill by paying only what we need and not a penny more.  What could you do with an extra $1100?

Pssst, the correct answer is to invest it, earn 5% return for 20 years, and have an extra $16k in interest for a grand total of $38k.  Is your phone really that important to you?!

What’s For Dinner? 9/1/2013

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Every week I will share our meal plan for the coming week.  Making your own food is a great way to save money, explore new cuisine, and eat healthy (if you choose to make healthy foods).  A good meal helps bring people together and as you improve your cooking skills you will impress more and more people!   I generally use recipes as a starting off point and then experiment with different proportions or ingredients.  Leftovers make great lunches for the 9-5 crowd who might otherwise have to decide between a sandwich or a pricey cafeteria.

This Week For Dinner…

Tuna Salad with Tortilla chips

This simple recipe is one that I learned as a kid and it still tastes great.  Cook a box of your favorite short noodles (I like to use tri-color rotini).  Drain the noodles and in a big bowl add the noodles, 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sweet relish, 1 cup of mayo (or substitute), and 2 cans of tuna.  Give it a stir and then put it in the refrigerate.  Serve chilled with tortilla chips.  note: I rarely measure the relish and mayo so just go with what looks good to you.

Baked Spaghetti with Garlic Bread & Steamed Corn

baked spaghetti

Spaghetti is delicious but it always tastes so much better on day two.  This is the basic recipe I like to use to get that melded flavor faster!  Of course, I always add in a bunch of other ingredients to add a bit more texture and flavor.  Try adding some mushrooms, green pepper, onion, chile pepper, garlic, and some red pepper flakes.  If you use skinny noodles like Angel Hair then the next day it is really easy to cut into small cubes.  They’re perfect for packing lunches!

 Pork Chops w/ Mac and Cheese & Steamed Broccoli

pork chops

Comfort food at its finest.  I want to try out a new pork chop recipe this week.

Snack Food…

Cantaloupe with Cottage Cheese

Tis the season for melon fruit in the stores or in your garden.  Cantaloupe plus cottage cheese makes a surprisingly refreshing snack that not only fills you up but packs a lot of protein in it as well.

cantaloupe & cottage cheese

 

What are you eating this week?