by C.V.Rajan

Created on: August 04, 2008

As a person basically thrifty by nature and as one running his home office for the past 15 years, I feel I am quite qualified to write on the subject. I have seen that things have changed a lot in the past 15 years in technology, mode of communication, needs and expectations of customers etc. In tune with the changes, we can constantly evolve ourselves by keeping an eye on our expenditures and save money on all possible channels. Here are my tips:

(1) COMPUTER & SOFTWARE:

As long as your nature of home office does not demand the latest and the best in computer hardware and software, be content with prolonging the life of your computer by judicious up-gradations rather than a full and frequent replacement. This would save you considerable money. Based on the needs, I add a RAM, add a Hard disk, add a graphic accelerator, upgrade the optical disk drive and so on to my computer. Only when the system becomes too obsolete or when a major breakdown occurs, I switch over to a new system. (On an average, this happens for me once in 5 years).

I do not jump into upgrading my operating system or application software just for being up-to-date. For example, I switched over to Windows XP from Windows 98 not till the year 2004. As of now, I have no plans to invest money on Windows Vista.

(2) PRINTER

I use inkjet printer and I never buy or refill the color cartridges. As for black cartridge is concerned, I refill ink at least 2 to 3 rounds till the print quality deteriorates beyond tolerable limits. I normally keep one original cartridge as spare to take good prints where it becomes essential. Not buying original cartridges saves quite a lot of money.

Earlier (before inkjet printers became affordable), I used to spend money on screen-printed letter heads, and other printed forms (like invoices). One major headache in printing and stocking them comes when your address or phone number changes. Sometimes these stocks have to be discarded and new ones need to be printed.

But, after Inkjet printers became affordable, I started printing my letter heads too (using the color cartridge) with logo and address. When color cartridge gets exhausted, I simply print my letter head in black (compromising on the looks).
This saves quite some money on printed stationery.

(3) FAX:

I was using fax (only thermal paper fax which was much cheaper, not the plain paper type) when e-mails and internet connections were much less popular (in India). But in the past 5 years, I have stopped using the fax machine

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>