I just got my Amazon Echo invite.

[F Horn of Valere]

I'm pooling my allowance for the next few months to pay for it (my wife and I get "allowances" so we budget our "for fun" spending and so our gifts to each other actually come from each other)... but Amazon just sent me my email invitation to get the Amazon Echo! I'm pretty excited about it (I use my phone now for TuneIn, and I'd much rather have something voice activated that doesn't tie up my phone). 

 

Only downer is its limited roll out means I won't get it until June. It will be a long wait...

[Daruya]

What is Amazon Echo?

[BridMorgan]

I got mine too, but probably won't dish out the $99 for it.  Too new for me to jump right on it.

 

Here is the website

[F Horn of Valere]

I certainly would not pay the $199 for it. $99 is still a tough pill to swallow for me... but since it is from my spending money and not our rent money, and since there have been many times when I wished for something like this (and since my sports events will not be on local radio for me anymore when I move), I bit the bullet!

[Daruya]

Brid, that link is for this thread.    No worries, I'll bing or google it later.

 

Horn, I just got done reworking our ASP (Allocated Spending Plan) for the next few weeks.  Every dollar has a name and very few are mine! LOL!

[F Horn of Valere]

Here you go!

 

http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/ref_=ods_dp_ae

 

To be honest, our allowances are too much. Working on that... some baby steps in getting everyone on board the "we can't afford this" train. I'm hoping to accomplish a coup and get our allowances cut in half by summer, without having a sad wife. We'll see!

[Daruya]

I'm the frugal one in our family . . .

 

Hubby and I both get $30 allowance and that's per pay period, which is 2 weeks. And that was a limit that I set! Granted, it doesn't go far but . . .  Our biggest chunk goes to our mortgage.  We are definitely house poor but at least we aren't upside down!  Hubby's car accident in late August hurt the budget even though it wasn't his fault.  Deductibles and having to replace a paid-for vehicle really put a dent in the budget as did my truck needing its tranny rebuilt (Allison) just before Christmas. How's that for timing? LOL!

 

Do y'all use the Dave Ramsey tools for budgeting (debt snowball, Allocated Spending Plan, etc.)?

 

Right now, we have a mortgage, car loan, personal (unsecured loan - for the tranny) and a loan against my TSP (which will be paid off in June! Yay!).  Oh, and we owe my mom some money but I have a payment plan worked out for that already and we'll make the first payment on Friday.

 

We cut back to non-HD cable and no DVR recorder.  We got rid of all our credit cards and pay cash for everything or don't buy it at all (well, except for the transmission work; we had to get a loan for that). Still, we are in better shape financially this year than we were this time last year because we've been budgeting so tightly.  As Dave Ramsey puts it, you have to bite the bullet for awhile and "live like no one else so later we can live and give like no one else." 

 

Anyway, we can continue the budget discussion offline if you like. I don't want to hijack your thread!

[F Horn of Valere]

Thread hijacking is what makes threads last longer!

 

Well, if I am honest with myself, we can't afford an allowance at all. We're technically at a negative net (not including tuition) because of my status as a student, and some insanely high rent. (Due to incompetence of another complex's compliance office, after we had signed a new lease when moving, we had 72 hours to locate a new complex to move into... starting on a Saturday. Not many cheap places are open on a Saturday.)

 

I've got things back under control now (they were NOT under control when I left the military... we were counting on the $10,000 I would have made from a long career course, and a sizable income as becoming an active duty officer was in the plans), but student loans and tax returns give us the extra bump to make rent on time. Our allowances are pretty much our way of still feeling human-- as a family we don't really spend any money at all. So basically part of my student loan goes towards being irresponsible.

 

One thing will be nice... when I get my VA disability (back-paid to 2009) we'll have a sizable boost! If I get the minimum rating, our car will be paid off. If I get what I am expecting/hoping for, we'll even be able to start paying off school loans!

[Basel Gill]

So this Amazon Echo sounds like a digital assistant ala Siri, except in a self-contained device rather than installed within a smartphone. If that's the case, then what good is an Echo as opposed to just getting a smartphone?

 

Smartphones and tablets have already incorporated the functions of other standalone devices, like alarm clocks, watches, and cameras. I really don't see the point to introducing an entirely new standalone device that basically fulfills a function of something created specifically for the smartphone in the first place. Why bother selling a Siri without the phone?

[F Horn of Valere]

Two things for me:

 

1. Radio with good non-phone speakers. I would listen to a LOT more radio, and even podcasts, if I didn't have to tie up my phone or tablet. Bonus points that while lounging in my living room, I don't have to thread a charger by my chair.

 

2. More advanced than Siri, but even more important, voice activated.

 

First point is the main thing for me, but the second part is a nice perk.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

I'd not go for a first ten product but that's me.

 

I'm sure you'll enjoy your toy whatever it is tho.

 

I <3 my kindle

[BridMorgan]

Basel, Cindy! So good to see you!! :)

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Amazon is quite a draw :)

[F Horn of Valere]

IT ARRIVED!!! 

 

I've only begun to play with it, but so far I really like it. I'm about to put some of my iTunes music into Amazon Music (we use Apple more so we only buy digital media through iTunes) to see how it works. So far I'm in love with the Echo though, after trying out just basic commands and a local radio station that is a pain to find on our Apple TV.

 

It is also a LOT smaller than I expected-- the pictures I saw online made me think it was taller. I was pleasantly surprised at the compact size.

[Guest]

does that work in Belgium, i wonder ?

 

 

*Calls for Thane*

[F Horn of Valere]

It uses your wifi. For radio, it has access to any iheartradio or TuneIn station. If you are a prime member, it has access to Prime Music as well!

[Guest]

i looks sooooooo great, i'll ask Santa to get me one *nods nods*