I was passing through the living room yesterday when I caught a bit on the Today Show about saving money. The advice was pretty standard stuff, but it came with a twist… First up, they suggested taking your lunch to work everyday instead of eating out. At an average savings of $7.50/day, this will total up to close to roughly $1900 over the course of a year. They also suggested that you skip your manicures, mow your own lawn, and wash your own car… After tallying up how much you could save in these areas, they went on to suggest that you might want to spend your newfound cash on a plasma TV. Huh? What a total non-sequitir — and not exactly sound financial advice. Then again…

It’s funny that they should mention buying an expensive new TV in the context of lawn mowing. After all, we recently wrangled with the issue of whether we should mow our lawn or hire a lawn service. As it turns out, we ultimately decided to do it ourselves, and we ended up buying a John Deere lawn tractor. What’s more, we also bought a new flat panel TV for our great room.

I know whaat you’re thinking… That FiveCentNickel dude is an absolute genius! He had the foresight to buy a lawn tractor and a huge TV even before the Today Show said it was a good idea… But really, it’s just common sense. After all, we’re going to save so much money on our lawncare that the TV is practically free. Or at least that’s what the Today Show would have you believe.

Then again, our new TV isn’t plasma… It’s a large screen LCD rear projection TV (details to follow in a future post). Hrrrmmm… I’ll have to give the Today Show a quick call and find out if this was still a good use of our newfound savings. Oh, and I still haven’t given up my manicures.