blogs

Local Flavor

It was time again to stock up on some things, and so this past weekend I went to my usual places: the fish market in Pyrmont (where one employee asked me how work was going since t

Debt repayment is not an expense

Over and over again, in budgeting articles and even books on personal finance, I see sample budgets that include debt repayment as if it were an expense. This shows a fundamental

Would You Like Free Fries With That?

Like free food? How about french fries? In celebration of a new kind of fry, you and all your friends can score some, with no additional purchase necessary! Read on to find out

The Great Whitening Hype

The home teeth whitening market is expected to grow 30% in the next decade. While this isn’t surprising in itself, I am shocked at the number o

How To Get A Discount Every Time

Discounts. Wouldn't they be great to get every single time you purchase something? Big or small, from new hats to furniture sets? It is more possible than you may think.

Fix energy in tangible form

They key problem with energy is that it's really hard to store--it's tough to buy energy now and use it later, and most energy storage techniques lose a large fraction of the energ

Relax... It's Only $2

Feeling stressed out, my first instinct is to schedule a one hour massage and order take out from the Chinese place. After doing t

Share your brilliant burst (or dashed dream) as a consumer advocate

Ever protested an unfair retail policy, pointed out that an advertisement is misleading, organized a boycott, or somehow advocated for yourself or another consumer? Whether you won

6 Steps to Eliminating Your Debt Painlessly

Eliminating Debt Painlessly. Rarely do you see these words fit together in a neat little sentence. The very act of putting your hard earned money towards the stack of debts you've

The $40 Hidden Inside a 12V Battery

This battery hack that will save you roughly $40 on those 1.5V button cell batteries. All you need is a 2-pack of 12V A23 batteries.

Exercise (and alcohol) good for your brain

A story in the New York Times says that exercise helps human brains build more neurons (a process called neurogenesis). It also reports on some mouse studies that show that exe

Federal Reserve cuts the discount rate

In response to the recent credit squeeze, the Federal Reserve did something unusual: they cut the discount rate without cutting the federal funds rate. The federal funds rate is the rate at [more]

Throwing out your own trash

Businesses, especially big businesses, try constantly to shift work from their paid staff to their customers. It's one of the major trends in business today. [more]

A year without toilet paper - The Interview

You wouldn't necessarily know it from watching him on his appearance on The Colbert Report. He comes across as a soft-spoken, good-natured guy, for sure. [more]

9 (and a half!) things to do at work when there's no longer work to do (also good for a boring day at home!)

My job is crazy one week and snail-slow the next. During the slow times, it's easy to get sucked into the web, clicking from one page to the next, waiting for someone to have a fir

The false goal of maximizing investment returns

Along about the middle of the dot-com boom--when the market had already had two years of 20% annual gains--I read an article that suggested that individual investors had no need of a cash res [more]

How to Erase Your Medical Debt

As most of you know, the cost of healthcare in the United States is outrageous! [more]

Cure it with Garlic!

I am married to a garlic lover. Not that my husband craves the pungent flavoring in his meals, but rather is insistent on eating it to ward off any impending sickness. [more]

Your 401(k) is not an investment

Your 401(k) is not an investment. Neither is your IRA. Those are legal compartments for holding investments. [more]

Almost 2000 uses for a can of WD-40

My dad always sang the praises of WD-40. "It's not just for a squeaky hinge or a rusty bolt" he'd say. Alas, my memory is not all that sharp and I couldn't quite remember how