Joann Hong's blog
Posted December 28, 2007 - 14:02 by Joann Hong
Budgeting
This holiday season has been rough for me. I moved out to New York for a few months and thought I'd be set with my savings and supplementary, lucrative temp work. However, at the approach of the New Year I still felt the financial strains. Looking back now, I want to hit my head at some of the foolish mistakes I could of avoided as a city newbie. I've learned that you've got fast to be quick city -- I mean this in a financially saavy way-- and hopefully my experiences with rip offs can help those who are planning a trip or a move to NYC avoid learning the hard way.
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Posted September 15, 2007 - 04:00 by Joann Hong
Life Hacks, Lifestyle
Out of all the famous shows to come out of the UK, who would have thought my favorite would star two nanny-like figures clad with rubber gloves? But as a girl who moves around from city to city every few months, I've found the housekeeping tips from the show How Clean Is Your House to be extremely helpful budget-wise and also in minimizing clutter. Here are some tricks to try for WB readers who don't have access to the show.
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Posted July 26, 2007 - 03:44 by Joann Hong
Green Living
An Australian company, Heap, has come up with a search engine that could Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. How will they do it? They've turned Google black. From what I've read, there is some debate on whether the energy saving is significant or not. This Wall Street Journal article mentions a test which was performed using different screens and websites to compare the actual energy saved.
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Posted July 24, 2007 - 02:25 by Joann Hong
DIY
I am a believer in the idea that wealth can stunt personal creativity. When you can buy it all, what’s the need to invent anything? When I was a kid my mother forbade me from playing with makeup. But I wanted to so badly that I chopped up the insides of my color pencils to a fine dust and turned them into eyeshadow and blush. I’m still, and will always be, a fan of DIY.
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Posted July 3, 2007 - 13:35 by Joann Hong
Health and Beauty
Beauty products are my weakness. I don't feel as guilty spending money on them because they're always cheaper than 20 dollars (well, the ones I buy anyway). But this is a bad habit because it's deceiving. When you buy many cheap things at different times, you don't feel how they are slowly depleting your bank account. Here are some beauty products I've learned to live without:
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Posted June 26, 2007 - 12:39 by Joann Hong
Consumer Affairs
Ok, recycling is as eco-friendly as I get so far, and I'm even too lazy for that sometimes. So I really have to applaud these people who have dedicated their best brains to creating some of the most ingenious inventions I've seen, all for the sake of a more sustainable future.
I recently stumbled upon this site,
Inhabitat.com, which is worth looking at not only for the fabulous design but also some damn good ideas.
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Posted June 23, 2007 - 12:39 by Joann Hong
Shopping
Did your high season European flight take a huge chunk out of your savings? Well, at least the shopping doesn't have to be as painful, even with the weak dollar conversion rates. Many countries in Europe, France being the most evident with their "soldes", have government regulated retail sales. This means they can only slash retail prices twice a year, which results in mega summer and winter reductions.
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Posted June 17, 2007 - 13:48 by Joann Hong
Food and Drink
News about the "secret" Starbucks short cup is now over a year old, but people still don't believe me when I tell them about this little treasure. For those who may not have heard yet, the 12 oz. tall cup at Starbucks isn't actually their smallest size. Starbucks has an unadvertised 8 oz. cup, otherwise known as the short, which supposedly works better with certain drinks.
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