You know, Linsey turned me on to the Amazon thing shortly after I joined Wise Bread, and I have to say it was a HUGE help. We've also found Staples has free delivery as well as a decent membership rewards program. However, now that we are temporarily in a spot with no high speed internet, we are still having to dive into town a few days a week to actually use internet the way we are used to.
Regarding the local delivery . . . we were just talking about this with my folks over dinner a few weeks ago. We too think this is a nice start up opportunity for someone with a box van or truck. And also an extension of services for companies with consumable products, such as stove pellets. I think it would be great to see more than the Schwan's truck on a regular basis, and dream of produce coming to the door. . .
I will donate and give the stuff that people give to me to the homeless people or shelter or good will or salvation army or I will give it to someone who really needs it like people moving into houses that need stuff for their home or teenagers who needs it for their apartment.I love helping others and I do that by helping them find things they need or by giving things to them that they need.So please help me out on this so I can keep helping others and maybe in the long run you will also be happy cause you would be helping them also by giving me stuff for them that they need and they will be so happy an so thankful to you all.
I will donate and give the stuff that people give to me to the homeless people or shelter or good will or salvation army or I will give it to someone who really needs it like people moving into houses that need stuff for their home or teenagers who needs it for their apartment.I love helping others and I do that by helping them find things they need or by giving things to them that they need.So please help me out on this so I can keep helping others and maybe in the long run you will also be happy cause you would be helping them also by giving me stuff for them that they need and they will be so happy an so thankful to you all.
Hi
This post is regarding the beauty secrets and here it explained very excellently all about the new trend, I hope this post brings very good shine over many people.
As the new paradigm sets in, the discount model will gain traction. Of course you're seeing opposition to it - that's natural. But soon enough, traditional house salespeople will be forced to take 1/3 less (if not more). Why pay 6% when you could pay much less? I wouldn't be surprised if realtors go the way of the travel agent.
And for a lot of the country, now is NOT the time to buy a home. Don't listen to commission-based salepeople who have a vested interest in any transaction. At least wait for the S&P/Case-Shiller and OFHEO indices to level off.
1. Piggy Banking (Best Habit) - Make it a habit to put atleast $2 in the piggy bank everyday. If you are concerned about how to implant this habit – Thumb rule says, repeat the action for 21 days consecutively and it will result into a habit
2. Lend it as an expense – Whenever you friends/relatives need money, lend it to them and psychologically consider it as an expense. Any person will have a set monthly target of saving x% of salary, when you have lent it and treated as an expense, you will restrict yourself on spending it on a luxury/not-an- urgent item for that month
3. Term Deposit – Whenever your friend returns your money, deposit it in a bank for a long term
4. The “C” in cash – Cash expenses creates more awareness in total spending and type of spending. It will instigate new ideas of saving or maximum utilization of spend and avoid nonessential spending.
Exactly. One reason we still live in the apartment that we do is that the bus stop is right across the street (about a 4-minute walk from our door).
As a bonus, the transit district has this great combined train and bus station that serves the city buses as well as Amtrak and the long-distance bus lines.
We're planning a little experiment on our next trip--we're going to take the bus to the train station, so we don't have to leave our car parked downtown while we're on our trip.
We're well aware that Champaign has superior bus service, but it's not pure luck that we're here to take advantage of it. We didn't pick Champaign for its bus service, of course--we both moved here after finding jobs, and had other local connections that prompted us to look here for jobs in the first place--but the great bus service is one small part of why we still live here. The fact that Amtrak serves Champaign is another.
I think your focus on walking, rather than seeing sites from the window of a speeding tourist bus or running through the streets behind a guide with a megaphone, is really important. I've lived in San Diego for almost two years now and I am always darting off to other places to travel, without really knowing my own city. I am really happy that I stumbled on this blog and look forward to seeing more posts in the future. Best of luck (from a frugal grad student).
Having worked at a hotel that was both self-proclaimed "green" and energy star certified, I think the whole thing is a bunch of bunk. The amount of research done in the Energy Star certification process, at least for hotels, is minimal and they take A LOT on the word of the property.
My hotel claimed to:
compost waste (they tried it for a while but F&B was run by a separate entity and there was no oversight. The person in charge of green relations actually still sells the hotel on this point although it was only done for about 3 months, max),
use energy efficient bulbs (this was def. done for a while until a new GM came in and hated them and thought they were dim and changed a bunch, especially in public spaces, out),
use low VOC paints and environmentally friendly construction materials in renovation (apparently, low VOC paint costs less than non-low VOC paint and since budget was still a huge factor and higher costs were not budgeted in, cheaper ruled),
smart thermostats and lights (switches on the lights would routinely break - not detecting a person was in the room and having to be manually turned on and then not automatically turning off, I don't think they were ever installed in guest rooms, thermostats were talked about FOREVER but never installed, housekeeping was supposed to set them back but oversight and training was lacking so it rarely, if ever, got done),
save your towels/sheets (I'm sure the sheets were not changed on a regular basis during single, multi-day stays but we frequently received comments that the towels would be changed out no matter where they were left in the room, also, not enough places to hang the towels to dry between uses led a lot of guests to request they be changed--I have noticed this in my own travels as well, regularly I hang up my towels and regularly I come back to find new ones),
Hotel-wide recycling (one was supposed to leave newspapers, cans, etc for the housekeeper in the rooms and the housekeeper was supposed to recycle them - again, lack of training and oversight led to this rarely being done. In my office, we had bins for paper at every desk as well as a huge bin in the back, if we had a substitute for our regular housekeeper all of it would find its way into one trash can/bag and there was no little gnome in the basement separating it out again)
We had won a bunch of green awards and are energy star certified (which is v. expensive to undertake but apparently not too hard to achieve if you're willing to pay for the process - at least for hotels). I would regularly be horrified to read press on the hotel extolling virtues never practiced or never implemented.
Buyer beware. I'm sure there are a lot of great green properties out there--but there are even more claiming to be something they are not. Do your research carefully.
I see lots of people driving Prius around town, many with out of town plates on them. But there are still plenty of people driving around in huge trucks and SUVs who think that high gas prices are not going to actually happen. They consider the current prices as a temporary thing and seem to act like it is some great American act of defiance by refusing to change.
We have consolidated trips and cut down on our driving. It is the same distance into most places in town as it is to the nearest bus service. Probably the one thing we end up wasting extra trips on seems to be milk. We run out and nobody says anything. I'm allergic to something they put in some of the brands of regular milk and the grocery within walking distance carries only that. But the pain of paying for an extra trip has made us more aware of things like milk and try to buy more on an already planned trip or call and have someone pick it up on their way back home.
We buy just about everything in bulk, buy multiples at a time on sale or buy multiples off of Amazon. It has really helped save extra trips.
Were just hoping housing demand stays up in our area so we can sell in a few years. Public transit, close to everything and having Amtrak access are really high on our list of things we want when we move.
gift? My brother is getting married. He owes me about $3500, which he has been paying down at about $100/month. I think I would love to have that much debt wiped out as a wedding gift, but I was wondering what other people thought. I think he and his fiance are very practical people and not too caught up in the wedding hype. Thanks.
I'm really interested to see whether information technology can make the long-distance, ground-shipping model work, as fuel gets more expensive. (I think that next-day service, like passenger service, will go back to being a luxury that's only available to the wealthy.)
The old model, before FedEx, was for stuff to be stored locally in warehouses, which were supplied by rail, and from which stuff was shipped out in trucks. It was usually shipped to stores, which then did local delivery to urban customers. (Rural customers had to come into town and bring stuff home themselves.)
FedEx, on the other hand, created a hub-and-spokes model, where everything was shipped to a central hub, where it was sorted and then put back on planes to be sent back out to the FedEx office closest to its destination. That model wouldn't work for rail or barge shipping.
But maybe information technology can fill the gap. A computer system, programmed with all the available shipping modes, could route packages on any transport that had space, preferring the cheapest and fastest ones.
The old model was for the local delivery to be done by a local firm, whether specialized delivery companies, or local stores handling their own deliveries (as furniture stores, but not much else, still do). A local firm can set up delivery routes and schedules that make sense for their customers and the goods that they sell. (Fresh groceries need prompter delivery, furniture needs to be delivered by people who can carry the heavy stuff in, etc.) But the local UPS or FedEx office can potentially have just as much "local knowledge" as a local delivery company, so that could continue to work.
In some form, though, I think delivery will grow in importance. It's much more efficient for one truck to deliver goods to dozens of people than it is for dozens of people to all drive their own cars to the store.
I spent a summer in college living in a house a couple miles out of town, with no car and sparse bus service. Along the lines of what Linsey said, Internet retailers were a huge help. I did close to 100% of my shopping through .com stores with free shipping. More broadly, I was able to do almost all of my "errands" over the web. My commute to work was a 45 minute walk, which turned out to be an enjoyable part of my day.
Internet access and reliable mail makes rural living much different from pre-railroad homesteading. We can order goods, communicate, consume mass-media entertainment, collaborate, access huge volumes of reference material, and so on, at negligible cost. A monthly trip to town isn't our only connection to the outside world; we can be connected constantly. It's true that we still need mobility to get to work, socialize in person, and obtain some goods, but very much of our needs can be met over the wire.
Right on the mark--as usual! Folks in the US are facing what other countries have had to deal with for a very long time. Is some countries it's very common to have several workers share a flat (maybe paid for by the employer) during their work week. Co-housing is popular in other areas. Depending on and sharing transportation with your neighbors is yet another well used option. We're just so tied into the individuality and ideas of independence, especially those who choose to live in the country; we need to go back to our roots.
Just as a warning to those who do depend on mail, the USPS is seriously trying to cutback, and that includes rural routes. Keep alert and if you hear they are consolidating routes, or eliminating individual home delivery, SPEAK UP! They will listen. Utilizing the postal service is actually a good way to insure ongoing service: They can more easily justify keeping a route that has significant deliveries.
Some weeks we live and die by Amazon's free shipping. I use Subscribe and Save for everything from laundry detergent to diapers. It's for products I buy anyway, it's reasonably priced, and it allows me to let my household goods come to me. I have gotten pretty good at figuring the per unit price, and it is on par or better than my local and usually overpriced store. If I can't justify making a $12 trip to town for an item, I can have most anything shipped to my door for much less.
And while shopping once a week or less has been something we've been doing for almost a year, there are just some times you forget something. Ordering online has saved us in time, money, and frustration.
I like those hotels that give you the option of signaling that you don't need your towels washed every day by putting them back on the towel racks - if you want them washed, you put them in the tub. It's a little thing, but for a big enough hotel I'm sure it saves quite a bit of water and energy if people do it (I always do).
I think we'll see more mass transit in the fairly near future. Wealthy elites have resisted it primarily for two reasons. First, they don't expect to use it, so it seems like an unnecessary expense. Second, they see it mainly as a way for poor folks (i.e. undesirables) to get to "their" part of town, which they'd just as soon avoid.
The same wealthy elites who don't want poor folks to be able to get to their neighborhood do want workers and shoppers to be able to get to the shops and factories. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if WalMart started being a strong force for mass transit in towns that don't have it, once the fuel cost of getting to the edge of town starts cutting into their bottom line.
Wherever there is some form of mass transit, even just a minimal system, we'll see a growing number of working class and lower-middle class folks start to use it. This will gradually increase its support among voters, both those who ride the bus and those whose employees and customers use the bus. This will help thwart the common tactic of opponents pointing to low ridership as "proof" that bus service wasn't needed
While I'm glad to see rural living addressed, you still talk as if even every town HAS a bus stop to drive to! I've lived in 3 towns in my life, none have had a bus system, nor have the towns near them. We certainly need more bus systems in this country, but sometimes it gets frustrating when people who are used to busing just say "take the bus!" as if it solves everyones problems.
www.contacthelp.com is another great site and is updated by its users. Best part about that one is that you can upload recordings of your customer service calls :)
Philip, you zero in on an important factor where I live. But "move to town" is a difficult remedy. For one thing, housing prices are sky high, and housing stock is tight, tight, tight in the small, upscale college community where I work. People live out in the country because they are priced out of anyplace within walking distance. And public transportation out here is sporadic and doesn't reach very far. At the same time, selling off country property is going to be problematic. I am stuck with my mortgage until one or both of those factors changes. We need better bus service, at least in this transition period until things shake out and we find better systems all around. Americans' reluctance to fund, and use, public transportation is a real stumbling block.
1) The 6% commission is NOT STANDARD and neither is it enforced by ANYONE, not even NAR, CAR, what have you. Locally, there are plenty of people doing 1/2%, 1%, you name it.
2) The seller pays the percentage, not the buyer, and this also covers the buying agent. Thus, if you want to buy a home, you have NO WORRIES when it comes to this, as you won't be footing the bill.
3) Discounters cannot get a hold of the market because agents refuse to show properties, or are hesitant to do so, if their potential earnings from that sale will be the 1/3rd of what it could be from non-discount brokers. Would you take 1/3rd of what you normally make doing the exact same thing? Neither would we.
Agents get a bad rap but realize that you are the one in control. 99.9% of buying agents actually work without a contract, and quite often that means the buyer is tempted to get a "deal" from the listing agent, who has no sympathy for the buyer and instead wants to lure them in with some cheap discount.
A short answer to your question about how it's done: First, you find some CVS coupons that will reduce say, a $15 transaction by $3. Then, you get the monthly booklet available at CVS of products that pay ECBs, or Extra Bucks. There are also a few ECB deals in each weekly flyer, but the monthly is the best.
When you pick a few things -- $15 worth is good if you have one of the abovementioned coupons -- then look for manufacturers' coupons for those items. Moneysavingmom and slickdeals.net are good places to find out where you might find coupons for the current deals. The Sunday papers and the Internet are the main sources.
To use a $3 off coupon (or a $4 off $20, or whatever), most CVS stores require the total to hit $15 BEFORE coupons are deducted. So if you put $15 worth of stuff in your cart that is "free after ExtraBucks," use $5 worth of manufacturers coupons and a $3 CVS coupon, you end up paying $7 to get $15 Extra Bucks.
This is how you build up Extra Bucks. In just a couple transactions, you will get to the point where you no longer have to pay any real money, except for tax and maybe a dollar or less to cover the difference between a $5 Extra Buck note (you don't get change for them) and a $5.75 total. In the future, you can either buy a ton of "free after ECBs" stuff at the beginning of the month and then use ECBs instead of cash whenever you need something, or you can pair something you need with something that pays off so you end up getting back about the same amount you spend on each trip.
Life is ment to be enjoyed and rewarding. Everyone wants to have a lot of free time that is why I love residual income were I make money without having to work so hard.
So, I read the article. Interested in how you CVS to the extent you are discussing. I understand how normal rebates work but I am not familiar with the CVS system...Are you spending money on items to get extra cash back to use on other items? B/c if you are it seems that maybe CVS hikes the price up on items and offers cash back which results in a closer to normal sale price of the item...If I am wrong, please explain the process a little better for me.
Great article...finally some commmonsense being applied. Going or acting green seems to be the trend right now and is being commercially exploited in a number of ways (like holidays!).
You know, Linsey turned me on to the Amazon thing shortly after I joined Wise Bread, and I have to say it was a HUGE help. We've also found Staples has free delivery as well as a decent membership rewards program. However, now that we are temporarily in a spot with no high speed internet, we are still having to dive into town a few days a week to actually use internet the way we are used to.
Regarding the local delivery . . . we were just talking about this with my folks over dinner a few weeks ago. We too think this is a nice start up opportunity for someone with a box van or truck. And also an extension of services for companies with consumable products, such as stove pellets. I think it would be great to see more than the Schwan's truck on a regular basis, and dream of produce coming to the door. . .
I will donate and give the stuff that people give to me to the homeless people or shelter or good will or salvation army or I will give it to someone who really needs it like people moving into houses that need stuff for their home or teenagers who needs it for their apartment.I love helping others and I do that by helping them find things they need or by giving things to them that they need.So please help me out on this so I can keep helping others and maybe in the long run you will also be happy cause you would be helping them also by giving me stuff for them that they need and they will be so happy an so thankful to you all.
I will donate and give the stuff that people give to me to the homeless people or shelter or good will or salvation army or I will give it to someone who really needs it like people moving into houses that need stuff for their home or teenagers who needs it for their apartment.I love helping others and I do that by helping them find things they need or by giving things to them that they need.So please help me out on this so I can keep helping others and maybe in the long run you will also be happy cause you would be helping them also by giving me stuff for them that they need and they will be so happy an so thankful to you all.
Hi
This post is regarding the beauty secrets and here it explained very excellently all about the new trend, I hope this post brings very good shine over many people.
Submitted by Henry on May 31, 2008 - 19:11.
As the new paradigm sets in, the discount model will gain traction. Of course you're seeing opposition to it - that's natural. But soon enough, traditional house salespeople will be forced to take 1/3 less (if not more). Why pay 6% when you could pay much less? I wouldn't be surprised if realtors go the way of the travel agent.
And for a lot of the country, now is NOT the time to buy a home. Don't listen to commission-based salepeople who have a vested interest in any transaction. At least wait for the S&P/Case-Shiller and OFHEO indices to level off.
Unless you like to overpay...
1. Piggy Banking (Best Habit) - Make it a habit to put atleast $2 in the piggy bank everyday. If you are concerned about how to implant this habit – Thumb rule says, repeat the action for 21 days consecutively and it will result into a habit
2. Lend it as an expense – Whenever you friends/relatives need money, lend it to them and psychologically consider it as an expense. Any person will have a set monthly target of saving x% of salary, when you have lent it and treated as an expense, you will restrict yourself on spending it on a luxury/not-an- urgent item for that month
3. Term Deposit – Whenever your friend returns your money, deposit it in a bank for a long term
4. The “C” in cash – Cash expenses creates more awareness in total spending and type of spending. It will instigate new ideas of saving or maximum utilization of spend and avoid nonessential spending.
Exactly. One reason we still live in the apartment that we do is that the bus stop is right across the street (about a 4-minute walk from our door).
As a bonus, the transit district has this great combined train and bus station that serves the city buses as well as Amtrak and the long-distance bus lines.
We're planning a little experiment on our next trip--we're going to take the bus to the train station, so we don't have to leave our car parked downtown while we're on our trip.
We're well aware that Champaign has superior bus service, but it's not pure luck that we're here to take advantage of it. We didn't pick Champaign for its bus service, of course--we both moved here after finding jobs, and had other local connections that prompted us to look here for jobs in the first place--but the great bus service is one small part of why we still live here. The fact that Amtrak serves Champaign is another.
I think your focus on walking, rather than seeing sites from the window of a speeding tourist bus or running through the streets behind a guide with a megaphone, is really important. I've lived in San Diego for almost two years now and I am always darting off to other places to travel, without really knowing my own city. I am really happy that I stumbled on this blog and look forward to seeing more posts in the future. Best of luck (from a frugal grad student).
Having worked at a hotel that was both self-proclaimed "green" and energy star certified, I think the whole thing is a bunch of bunk. The amount of research done in the Energy Star certification process, at least for hotels, is minimal and they take A LOT on the word of the property.
My hotel claimed to:
compost waste (they tried it for a while but F&B was run by a separate entity and there was no oversight. The person in charge of green relations actually still sells the hotel on this point although it was only done for about 3 months, max),
use energy efficient bulbs (this was def. done for a while until a new GM came in and hated them and thought they were dim and changed a bunch, especially in public spaces, out),
use low VOC paints and environmentally friendly construction materials in renovation (apparently, low VOC paint costs less than non-low VOC paint and since budget was still a huge factor and higher costs were not budgeted in, cheaper ruled),
smart thermostats and lights (switches on the lights would routinely break - not detecting a person was in the room and having to be manually turned on and then not automatically turning off, I don't think they were ever installed in guest rooms, thermostats were talked about FOREVER but never installed, housekeeping was supposed to set them back but oversight and training was lacking so it rarely, if ever, got done),
save your towels/sheets (I'm sure the sheets were not changed on a regular basis during single, multi-day stays but we frequently received comments that the towels would be changed out no matter where they were left in the room, also, not enough places to hang the towels to dry between uses led a lot of guests to request they be changed--I have noticed this in my own travels as well, regularly I hang up my towels and regularly I come back to find new ones),
Hotel-wide recycling (one was supposed to leave newspapers, cans, etc for the housekeeper in the rooms and the housekeeper was supposed to recycle them - again, lack of training and oversight led to this rarely being done. In my office, we had bins for paper at every desk as well as a huge bin in the back, if we had a substitute for our regular housekeeper all of it would find its way into one trash can/bag and there was no little gnome in the basement separating it out again)
We had won a bunch of green awards and are energy star certified (which is v. expensive to undertake but apparently not too hard to achieve if you're willing to pay for the process - at least for hotels). I would regularly be horrified to read press on the hotel extolling virtues never practiced or never implemented.
Buyer beware. I'm sure there are a lot of great green properties out there--but there are even more claiming to be something they are not. Do your research carefully.
I see lots of people driving Prius around town, many with out of town plates on them. But there are still plenty of people driving around in huge trucks and SUVs who think that high gas prices are not going to actually happen. They consider the current prices as a temporary thing and seem to act like it is some great American act of defiance by refusing to change.
We have consolidated trips and cut down on our driving. It is the same distance into most places in town as it is to the nearest bus service. Probably the one thing we end up wasting extra trips on seems to be milk. We run out and nobody says anything. I'm allergic to something they put in some of the brands of regular milk and the grocery within walking distance carries only that. But the pain of paying for an extra trip has made us more aware of things like milk and try to buy more on an already planned trip or call and have someone pick it up on their way back home.
We buy just about everything in bulk, buy multiples at a time on sale or buy multiples off of Amazon. It has really helped save extra trips.
Were just hoping housing demand stays up in our area so we can sell in a few years. Public transit, close to everything and having Amtrak access are really high on our list of things we want when we move.
gift? My brother is getting married. He owes me about $3500, which he has been paying down at about $100/month. I think I would love to have that much debt wiped out as a wedding gift, but I was wondering what other people thought. I think he and his fiance are very practical people and not too caught up in the wedding hype. Thanks.
I'm really interested to see whether information technology can make the long-distance, ground-shipping model work, as fuel gets more expensive. (I think that next-day service, like passenger service, will go back to being a luxury that's only available to the wealthy.)
The old model, before FedEx, was for stuff to be stored locally in warehouses, which were supplied by rail, and from which stuff was shipped out in trucks. It was usually shipped to stores, which then did local delivery to urban customers. (Rural customers had to come into town and bring stuff home themselves.)
FedEx, on the other hand, created a hub-and-spokes model, where everything was shipped to a central hub, where it was sorted and then put back on planes to be sent back out to the FedEx office closest to its destination. That model wouldn't work for rail or barge shipping.
But maybe information technology can fill the gap. A computer system, programmed with all the available shipping modes, could route packages on any transport that had space, preferring the cheapest and fastest ones.
The old model was for the local delivery to be done by a local firm, whether specialized delivery companies, or local stores handling their own deliveries (as furniture stores, but not much else, still do). A local firm can set up delivery routes and schedules that make sense for their customers and the goods that they sell. (Fresh groceries need prompter delivery, furniture needs to be delivered by people who can carry the heavy stuff in, etc.) But the local UPS or FedEx office can potentially have just as much "local knowledge" as a local delivery company, so that could continue to work.
In some form, though, I think delivery will grow in importance. It's much more efficient for one truck to deliver goods to dozens of people than it is for dozens of people to all drive their own cars to the store.
I spent a summer in college living in a house a couple miles out of town, with no car and sparse bus service. Along the lines of what Linsey said, Internet retailers were a huge help. I did close to 100% of my shopping through .com stores with free shipping. More broadly, I was able to do almost all of my "errands" over the web. My commute to work was a 45 minute walk, which turned out to be an enjoyable part of my day.
Internet access and reliable mail makes rural living much different from pre-railroad homesteading. We can order goods, communicate, consume mass-media entertainment, collaborate, access huge volumes of reference material, and so on, at negligible cost. A monthly trip to town isn't our only connection to the outside world; we can be connected constantly. It's true that we still need mobility to get to work, socialize in person, and obtain some goods, but very much of our needs can be met over the wire.
Right on the mark--as usual! Folks in the US are facing what other countries have had to deal with for a very long time. Is some countries it's very common to have several workers share a flat (maybe paid for by the employer) during their work week. Co-housing is popular in other areas. Depending on and sharing transportation with your neighbors is yet another well used option. We're just so tied into the individuality and ideas of independence, especially those who choose to live in the country; we need to go back to our roots.
Just as a warning to those who do depend on mail, the USPS is seriously trying to cutback, and that includes rural routes. Keep alert and if you hear they are consolidating routes, or eliminating individual home delivery, SPEAK UP! They will listen. Utilizing the postal service is actually a good way to insure ongoing service: They can more easily justify keeping a route that has significant deliveries.
Some weeks we live and die by Amazon's free shipping. I use Subscribe and Save for everything from laundry detergent to diapers. It's for products I buy anyway, it's reasonably priced, and it allows me to let my household goods come to me. I have gotten pretty good at figuring the per unit price, and it is on par or better than my local and usually overpriced store. If I can't justify making a $12 trip to town for an item, I can have most anything shipped to my door for much less.
And while shopping once a week or less has been something we've been doing for almost a year, there are just some times you forget something. Ordering online has saved us in time, money, and frustration.
wonderful piece, as usual, Philip!
I like those hotels that give you the option of signaling that you don't need your towels washed every day by putting them back on the towel racks - if you want them washed, you put them in the tub. It's a little thing, but for a big enough hotel I'm sure it saves quite a bit of water and energy if people do it (I always do).
I think we'll see more mass transit in the fairly near future. Wealthy elites have resisted it primarily for two reasons. First, they don't expect to use it, so it seems like an unnecessary expense. Second, they see it mainly as a way for poor folks (i.e. undesirables) to get to "their" part of town, which they'd just as soon avoid.
The same wealthy elites who don't want poor folks to be able to get to their neighborhood do want workers and shoppers to be able to get to the shops and factories. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if WalMart started being a strong force for mass transit in towns that don't have it, once the fuel cost of getting to the edge of town starts cutting into their bottom line.
Wherever there is some form of mass transit, even just a minimal system, we'll see a growing number of working class and lower-middle class folks start to use it. This will gradually increase its support among voters, both those who ride the bus and those whose employees and customers use the bus. This will help thwart the common tactic of opponents pointing to low ridership as "proof" that bus service wasn't needed
While I'm glad to see rural living addressed, you still talk as if even every town HAS a bus stop to drive to! I've lived in 3 towns in my life, none have had a bus system, nor have the towns near them. We certainly need more bus systems in this country, but sometimes it gets frustrating when people who are used to busing just say "take the bus!" as if it solves everyones problems.
www.contacthelp.com is another great site and is updated by its users. Best part about that one is that you can upload recordings of your customer service calls :)
Philip, you zero in on an important factor where I live. But "move to town" is a difficult remedy. For one thing, housing prices are sky high, and housing stock is tight, tight, tight in the small, upscale college community where I work. People live out in the country because they are priced out of anyplace within walking distance. And public transportation out here is sporadic and doesn't reach very far. At the same time, selling off country property is going to be problematic. I am stuck with my mortgage until one or both of those factors changes. We need better bus service, at least in this transition period until things shake out and we find better systems all around. Americans' reluctance to fund, and use, public transportation is a real stumbling block.
I'm a Realtor and here are the facts:
1) The 6% commission is NOT STANDARD and neither is it enforced by ANYONE, not even NAR, CAR, what have you. Locally, there are plenty of people doing 1/2%, 1%, you name it.
2) The seller pays the percentage, not the buyer, and this also covers the buying agent. Thus, if you want to buy a home, you have NO WORRIES when it comes to this, as you won't be footing the bill.
3) Discounters cannot get a hold of the market because agents refuse to show properties, or are hesitant to do so, if their potential earnings from that sale will be the 1/3rd of what it could be from non-discount brokers. Would you take 1/3rd of what you normally make doing the exact same thing? Neither would we.
Agents get a bad rap but realize that you are the one in control. 99.9% of buying agents actually work without a contract, and quite often that means the buyer is tempted to get a "deal" from the listing agent, who has no sympathy for the buyer and instead wants to lure them in with some cheap discount.
Go out there and buy homes, now's the time!
Moneysavingmom has a very good introduction to CVSing here:
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/03/cvs-101.html
I also write a lot about my latest CVS deals and things I've learned on my own site: http://www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
A short answer to your question about how it's done: First, you find some CVS coupons that will reduce say, a $15 transaction by $3. Then, you get the monthly booklet available at CVS of products that pay ECBs, or Extra Bucks. There are also a few ECB deals in each weekly flyer, but the monthly is the best.
When you pick a few things -- $15 worth is good if you have one of the abovementioned coupons -- then look for manufacturers' coupons for those items. Moneysavingmom and slickdeals.net are good places to find out where you might find coupons for the current deals. The Sunday papers and the Internet are the main sources.
To use a $3 off coupon (or a $4 off $20, or whatever), most CVS stores require the total to hit $15 BEFORE coupons are deducted. So if you put $15 worth of stuff in your cart that is "free after ExtraBucks," use $5 worth of manufacturers coupons and a $3 CVS coupon, you end up paying $7 to get $15 Extra Bucks.
This is how you build up Extra Bucks. In just a couple transactions, you will get to the point where you no longer have to pay any real money, except for tax and maybe a dollar or less to cover the difference between a $5 Extra Buck note (you don't get change for them) and a $5.75 total. In the future, you can either buy a ton of "free after ECBs" stuff at the beginning of the month and then use ECBs instead of cash whenever you need something, or you can pair something you need with something that pays off so you end up getting back about the same amount you spend on each trip.
I'm getting on a roll here, so I'm going to continue this explanation at www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
Life is ment to be enjoyed and rewarding. Everyone wants to have a lot of free time that is why I love residual income were I make money without having to work so hard.
http://www.stocks-simplified.com
So, I read the article. Interested in how you CVS to the extent you are discussing. I understand how normal rebates work but I am not familiar with the CVS system...Are you spending money on items to get extra cash back to use on other items? B/c if you are it seems that maybe CVS hikes the price up on items and offers cash back which results in a closer to normal sale price of the item...If I am wrong, please explain the process a little better for me.
Great article...finally some commmonsense being applied. Going or acting green seems to be the trend right now and is being commercially exploited in a number of ways (like holidays!).