I’ve had my office in the basement for as long as we’ve lived in our current house. It’s been pleasant to have a consistent place to sit since I started working at home. The problem is environmental. During these cold midwest winters it becomes unbearable to spend more than a few minutes in the basement.

Dena and I debated the pros and cons of getting an office outside the home but in the end we came up with a great alternative. We decided to usurp the guest bedroom. It only gets used a handful of times a year. By moving some furniture around and putting the bed in the corner we were able to free up quite a bit of space. We made the trek to Ikea and spent less on office furniture what I would have spent on one months rent for a small office elsewhere.

I finally have a proper office area to work again. My Mac Mini on the left desk and a PC on the right, with various laptops and other sundry scattered around. I now have a comfort zone to work or write, without the need for slippers, a blanket, or snow suit.

A lot of stores offer price guarantees. If the price drops within 30 days, they will credit you the difference. The trick is that you have to request the credit. It’s a little easier now, if that vendor is Amazon.com, thanks to RefundPlease.com. Register your purchases with them and they will monitor Amazon for price fluctuations and notify you if there is a change in your favor (they will even include the direct link to requesting a credit).

I think it sucks that someone had to build a system to automatically watch for money due to the consumer when businesses themselves should be doing it. I think it makes good business sense for more businesses to be proactive about putting money back into the consumer’s pocket instead of playing lip service and playing the odds to increase their margin (only a third of shoppers actually send in rebate forms, I would guess much fewer are applying for price protection credit) .

Kudos to RefundPlease for coming up with a great service.