Everyone wants to save a little money here and there, right? Especially on things we legally HAVE to pay for, like car insurance. Purchasing car insurance can be a giant pain in the ass: you have to search for hours and compare prices and hope the coverage is close enough so that the comparison is actually apples to apples. This blog is not about that.
I’ve been with Progressive for more than 5 years, and I’m pretty satisfied with their service, but this isn’t about that either. This is about their Snapshot program. (No they are not paying me a cent to write this.)
So what IS Snapshot? Well, it’s a device that looks like a weird, awkward USB drive. You plug it into your car and it sends data about when you drive, how long you drive, and if you make any hard breaks. You plug it into your car’s data port and drive normally. If you break too hard, it beeps at you to let you know, like that annoying back seat driver you know.
It comes in this cute little box with some paperwork. So I plugged it in, which was pretty easy. My port is on the underside of my steering wheel and easily accessible. I drove my normal route for a month. At any time I could log into my account and see my most recent trips. The report clearly showed when I was traveling and for how long, and how many hard stops I had.
My one complaint is that the Snapshot’s “hard stops” are focused solely on deceleration speed, and don’t seem to take into account how fast you were actually moving at the time. So if you’re driving a mere 2 miles an hour (basically just coasting before even setting foot on the gas) and you have to stomp on the brakes it counts against you as a hard brake. Kinda silly.
Anyhow, apparently I’m a fairly decent driver, because after the first month I received a 7% discount on my policy! I’m supposed to continue to use the Snapshot throughout the policy term to get the maximum discount available. Now as you can see, I don’t drive very far for the most part. My commute is less than 7 miles each way, and I almost always drive during the day, and very rarely late at night. This works to my advantage here. The good news is, even if you’re not a great driver, your rate won’t go up, so the worst that can happen is…nothing. 🙂
I’m pretty happy with the program so far, and I’ll update as the policy period continues.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
I…drink a lot of protein shakes. Hey, I work out a lot, people. Don’t be judgy. But the bad part of drinking lots of protein is having giant plastic containers left when you’re done. But, there’s good news, there, too, if you are frugal and you like to grown some of your own food. They’re the perfect size for planters!
Not pictured: paper towels, soap and water.
This still left a residue, so I used some more adhesive remover and a paper towel to get it all off, then gave it a good scrubbing with some dish soap. I rinsed it and dried it.
Next, using a utility knife VERY CAREFULLY, I cut off the top of the tub. Isopure has a convenient seam I could follow. Tasty and helpful!
Now, you have two options. You can recycle the top of the tub if you want, or, if you want to help keep some moisture in your soil in the warmer months, you can flip it over and tuck it back inside like I did. I didn’t attach mine because I’m going to be using mine for herbs outside, but if you glued it in you could easily use this as a vase!
Look how pretty!
I’d been hanging on to this awesome plastic egg carton since mid-winter, and I was itching to use it to start my seeds. You don’t need any fancy equipment, and if you use the recycled cardboard egg cartons, you can plant the seedlings right in their tiny cup! I, however, had plastic, so that’s what I used.
Bingley, of course, stood guard while I worked.
Then, since it’s unseasonably chilly in April here in The Jerz, I brought them just inside so they could be in a warm, safe place. Now it looks dark here now, but we get morning sun, so I’ll prop them up on a box so it gets a nice amount of light.
A Measured Life 