Free Prostate Cancer Screening at Parkview Field on August 10

On Wednesday, August 10, Parkview Cancer Center and Fort Wayne Tin Caps are collaborating to bring free PSA (Prostate-specific antigen) screening tests to men over age 40.  This involves a blood draw that will be conducted by one of Parkview Health Laboratories professional phlebotomists.  Here's how you or your loved one can participate:

• 12pm to 3pm - For men over 40 who visit the ballpark.
• 6pm to 9pm - For men over 40 who attend the Tin Caps Game

Appointments are not required, but are highly recommended.  Make yours by calling (866) 784-6706.  Only a certain number of tests will be collected. 

More Free Protection for Your PC

A previous post on Frugal Fort Wayne discussed the merits and money savings of Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware program. One great way to complement Ad-Aware and create a one-two antivirus punch to protect your home desktop or laptop is to download AVG antivirus. You can download here: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage . The theory behind having two or more antivirus programs on the same PC may seem a bit odd, but these two do carry subtle differences.

Without getting too geeky, Ad-Aware is a bit more internet and browser activity focused than AVG. In short, AVG is more of a comprehensive anti-virus protection for your PC while Ad-Aware is like using hand sanitizer after touching the icky internet. If your “friend” sends you a cute puppy video that ends up erasing you’re My Documents folder, hopefully AVG can help. If you were shopping for an iPad online and mistyped the web address and saw something horrible you can never un-see and now your internet explorer is full of pop-ups, then Ad-Aware should cure it.

The point of this post isn’t to teach how to run these programs or use them, both have supportive websites and documentation. This was meant for those of you who may have Norton antivirus or McAfee antivirus. It’s not a shot at those programs, both are excellent. But Norton’s latest Norton 360 has a premier edition that runs you $99 bucks. McAfee’s Total Protection 2011 is only $45, but that’s on sale from $90. A lot of what you are paying for is the fact that you have no clue what you are paying for. A simple investment of time and study (both free) will increase your computer skills to where you can confidently protect yourself in an inexpensive way.

If you need proof, yours truly spent five years in the IT field. We have had the same computer running the same build of Windows XP for about the same amount of time. Never paid a dime for antivirus or internet security software. We had one major virus which was repaired with a little time spent on Google and a couple beers. If you still don’t think you can remove viruses on your own with AVG or Ad-Aware, you probably at least know someone with tech skills who would help…and they might like beer.

A Cleaning Tip...for your PC

Many times as we are looking through the house for areas to save money, the search will focus on the pantry, refrigerator, or the supplies. We often overlook that one thing in your house that holds more viruses, creepy crawlers, cookie crumbs and bugs than anything…your computer!

Keeping a computer running clean and up-to-date is often the realm of the unknown for the homeowner. This lack of tech skill usually means paying through the nose for anti-virus, support or repair.

In the business of keeping your computer safe and clean, one company, Lavasoft, has offered a wonderful free antivirus product for years. It is called Ad-Aware and it can be downloaded here http://www.lavasoft.com/.

Ad-Aware software can be downloaded, installed and ran on your computer for free. It receives rave reviews year after year in tech forums and magazines. The software is designed to be easy to use and understand. It’s as simple as “start”, “scan” and “remove.” This software is designed to keep your computer free and clear of nasty bugs, pop-ups and software, specifically those you have contracted after a rousing jaunt around the internet.

Internet browsing allows the unfortunate evil of your computer filling up with little devices designed to flag and track your habits, create annoying ads and potentially harm your PC. Ad-Aware is a wonderful, free weapon in your ongoing computer battle against the enemy!

Man Corner:

The Big One -- It caused arguments and battles. It was discussed, proposed, vetoed and re-proposed. Tensions mounted and something had to break. After all was said and done, you finally decided as a family to take the most painful of all frugal steps: you cut the cable TV.  Dad and the kids went through multiple stages of grief, wandered aimlessly through the living room, and once even asked what the strange item full of paper pages was, to which you politely replied, “it’s a book.”  After a while, you may discover that even the most committed of frugal Fort Wayne families can’t live on PBS alone. You can only watch so many re-runs of Law and Order, after all. So what is a 6-channel (7 if you count Doppler radar!) frugal family to do? Here are some ideas to help expand your viewing pleasure in an air-only TV house.

Sports – In a complete pinch, most local teams have their games broadcast on the radio. It may not be the most common experience anymore, but it beats nothing when the season is on the line…but not the screen. Then, there is an antenna-only man’s best friend: ESPN3.com What is ESPN3? Well, their website explains it like this: ESPN3 is a broadband network for live sports programming. ESPN3 harnesses the quality ESPN has built through its TV networks and delivers online sports programming to fans through a rich, interactive, and easy-to-use experience. In short, it’s ESPN sports on the internet! The catch is that the service is offered through your internet provider. Good news for those on fiber in Fort Wayne – Frontier carries ESPN3. Plug your laptop into your TV as a display for a poor man’s ESPN on the big screen!

Shows – Since frugal families are often out doing frugal things, they may not be sitting in front of the TV during all hours of primetime. Fortunately, a couple options allow you to keep (relatively) in touch with the latest shows. First, you could borrow show set DVDs from your friends. Often, people will get DVD sets of a show and only watch them once. This is where you swoop in and borrow them. Or, you could familiarize yourself with hulu.com – Once again harnessing the power of the internet, hulu is a huge online collection of shows and movies. Hulu used to be all free, but some content is now subscription required. It’s like YouTube for shows and movies. Finally, check network sites. ABC has plenty of recent episodes for family favorites like Modern Family or Grey’s Anatomy.

Movies – Our family has never ventured into Netflix waters, but some people swear by the cost savings of this popular service. Others mention cheap movies from Redbox. These services may be a good place to start for saving on cinema, but frugal troopers can save even more on movies. Find yourself a VCR from grandma’s house or a thrift store. Go through the old collection of VHS tapes for family movie nights. You will be surprised how timeless Home Alone gags are. The horrible quality simply adds to the nostalgia. Scan local listings for movies on TV, often on the secondary channels.  Don't forget the library as a great source of free movies and other entertainment. 

Cutting cable TV represents a huge sacrifice for most families in today’s world. These simple ideas help soften the blow and keep your house filled with kickoffs, drama, and laughs.

Man Corner Introduction

As you may have imagined, both the sisters who regularly give money-saving tips and frugal ideas on Frugal Fort Wayne are happily married. You may have also guessed that any time things aren’t so happy, talk of money is in the air. While both ladies have wonderful, thoughtful, loving and compassionate husbands (one being yours truly), the reality is that their frugal ways sometimes meet friendly resistance from their male counterparts. Sometimes a frugal idea is met with a joke or a roll of the eyes, but overall, both husbands were somewhat “conditioned” over time to the money-saving lifestyle and now speak about its benefits just like the wives.

If any of the moms or wives reading this out there need some advice on how to gently make their own cave man see the frugal light, here it is: start small. There will be no better strategy to get the entire house, including the husband, to save money in full force. Especially if your man currently spends money like a sailor who just won the lottery. Trying to stop every bad spending habit at once may feel a little more like culture shock than prudent living. Start with little things and gradually introduce more frugal ideas. Make sure your husband (and your kids, too!) see the value of saving before taking things to the next level. Make trades, make deals, make action plans and make it fun. If your husband or your kids are allowed to participate and take ownership, as well as offer ideas of their own for saving money, it will yield a much better return for the whole family than trying to put a clamp on his wallet.