Magazines are almost as hard for me to avoid buying as cookbooks. They always have such amazing pictures of the final product — whether or not the recipe actually ever turns out like that.
I love epicurious.com -- most of the recipes come from magazines like Bon Appetit, Cooks, and Gourmet, as well as healthy living sources. The user reviews on this site are usually very good as well.
My dad (retired accountant) is volunteering for the AARP's tax filing service. They'll help low income people file tax returns for free. And not just retirees - anyone. There are some catches - you can't have certain kinds of income that require special forms. But for most people, it's free and the AARP does train its volunteers.
Other options, if you can't stand the thought of washing in cold water...
* See if there's a local YMCA or university facility you could use [better if your lack of hot water is due to a breakdown rather than finances]
* If you're friends with your neighbors, ask to use their shower for very important events like that.
* Ditto if you have any family in town or anywhere nearby.
* And finally, if your pride will allow it, you might look into nearby shelters that have shower facilities for their residents.
Sure, there are circumstances when none of these would work, but they're a few alternatives. But seriously, there's no excuse for a lack of hygiene.
My husband and I started on the Dave Ramsey program a few months ago. Rather than using the plain envelopes - I made these cool individual "designer" envelopes. I just like having something with a little personality. These things work great. If you are interested - check out my Ebay and Etsy sites.
Buy a new one, send your old one to Microsoft for repair, return the new one when your old one is fixed. Most places have a 30 -day opened box return policy. You should have it fixed by then. Don't be a fraudster and return your broken one. Some kid will be wrecked when he powers up his new system to get an error message.
We did the instant refund the first year H&R did it. We paid a flat $50 for doing our return and getting us the check in 24 hrs. They obviously found a way to make MUCH more money off of it.
The following year we went to H&R to get our taxes done. They guy knew less about what he was doing than we did. So now we either do them on paper if it is an easy year or use Turbo Tax if it is complicated. I did make a mistake on our return last year but even our tax attorney we hired to straighten it out had to call the IRS to get a determination because they never printed any rules for that income source. So I can't quite blame Turbo Tax for not catching it.
Good advice! I let several thousand accumulated miles exipire after building them up at my last job. I was kicking myself the next time I had to actually pay for a ticket!
Excellent advice Sprithitler. Many people use cruise control for acceleration because, in many newer cars, it is the most even, steady means of speeding up.
I also couldn't agree more with your advice on tackling hills.
Many cars with automatic transmission have a 'sport' button, or something like it. This essentially tells the car to stay in a low gear longer, as doing this does indeed increase speed at acceleration. If you want to save gas, be sure this feature is switched 'off.'
My wife works at H&R Block doing tax preparation. She hates the IRAL and RAL products. She tries her best to talk people out of them, but so many people want their money +now+ and won't listen to reason. I'm sure some people really can't wait 2 weeks to have their refund direct deposited, but most probably can.
My wife also complains about the number of people who try to lie and cheat to get bigger refunds. She tells them to go away, but they just end up going to another branch (or another service) once they figure out what to say. But that's another story....
...in the days of electronic filing. The last two years, I got both my refunds within two weeks of filing!
As I mentioned on another blog...why don't more high schools have required personal finance and life lessons classes? Most people get in the rut they are in now because they never learned any different...and the cycle will continue with their kids...
I didn't know there was even any place you could do this, the information itself if pretty cool. The membership and rewards program thing is something I haven't used since I lived on Guam, where even one flight home qualified you for something significant.
I agree with New Guy above, the chart shown in the post is for wholesale purchasers, there is a 2nd chart for retail purchasers and it does list refunds as a percent of purchase price. It is the max amount you could possibly get so depending on how many people file claims, you may get very little back.
Here's the 2nd chart (for retail purchases of diamond jewelry):
I think the wrong chart is listed in your article. There are 2 charts listed on the class action website, and from what I can tell the second chart is the one most consumers will use. I'm referring to anyone who just bought a diamond ring. That chart does in fact show percentages of the RETAIL price, so it would be a percentage of the price you actually paid. But I notice 2 things: first, no matter what chart I use I end up with about the same dollar amount (assuming wholesale price is 50% of retail price). And second, as already pointed out, this is the max you can possibly receive. There is a set dollar amount they are going to distribute, and you will almost certainly get way less than the max amount allowed.
Still, a refund of any kind is nice. I'm filing because, incredibly enough, I still have the payment book from when I bought my wife's engagement ring. I don't know if that constitutes a receipt, but it's worth a try.
Apparently a modern (electronically controlled injection) engine is always less efficient on acceleration than on a steady speed. Consequently you should reduce time spent accelerating. Accelerate as quickly as you with retained control, safety and comfort cant, up to your desired speed, then shift to the highest gear reasonable for that speed, or let your automatic transmission set into as high gear as possible. Of course some automatic transmissions may think that your fast acceleration up to the desired speed means that you want to drive sportily, and thus they may set into a lower gear than necessary to give you more available power.
Also, when travelling up hill, allow the car to loose speed, when travelling downhill regain that speed by allowing the car to coast up to and beyond the set speed limit (but not too far beyond, beware of smnokey bears) and then to coast down to the speed limit on the plains.
I actually manage mine on Bank of America's My Portfolio, which is linked into Yodlee. I think on Points.com you can trade certain points for other kinds of points, but they take a cut when you swap the miles between programs.
It seems like there is a new product recall everyday. I am especially concerned about all the recalls on children's toys and household products. I set up a personal file that alerts me to all product recalls and it sends me a timely notice when one of my products has been recalled.
Great post. This article reminds me about a time when I went on a picnic with my family and my Mom and Aunt were reminiscing about how on road trips my Grandmother had an old peanut butter jar filled with soapy water and a washrag to clean their sticky hands and faces. My Grandmother was so ecco-friendly and she didn't even realize it!
Having problems using these. The best solution that has come up is contacting the local spa you would like to use it at directly. Many of them have already honored them from others, and if you can get them to acknowledge this fact, they can sometimes work it out with the Spa Rewards people directly. Or by calling Spa Rewards and letting them know which spa you want to book with, they can go from there.
Sorry to hear everyone having so much difficulty. It sounds like this promotion was way more popular than they expected.
Oobleck sounds fun!
Living small allows you to so much more with your money. Lots of cool stuff here.
Magazines are almost as hard for me to avoid buying as cookbooks. They always have such amazing pictures of the final product — whether or not the recipe actually ever turns out like that.
I love epicurious.com -- most of the recipes come from magazines like Bon Appetit, Cooks, and Gourmet, as well as healthy living sources. The user reviews on this site are usually very good as well.
My dad (retired accountant) is volunteering for the AARP's tax filing service. They'll help low income people file tax returns for free. And not just retirees - anyone. There are some catches - you can't have certain kinds of income that require special forms. But for most people, it's free and the AARP does train its volunteers.
And you're right...any kind of refund is nice.
Other options, if you can't stand the thought of washing in cold water...
* See if there's a local YMCA or university facility you could use [better if your lack of hot water is due to a breakdown rather than finances]
* If you're friends with your neighbors, ask to use their shower for very important events like that.
* Ditto if you have any family in town or anywhere nearby.
* And finally, if your pride will allow it, you might look into nearby shelters that have shower facilities for their residents.
Sure, there are circumstances when none of these would work, but they're a few alternatives. But seriously, there's no excuse for a lack of hygiene.
My husband and I started on the Dave Ramsey program a few months ago. Rather than using the plain envelopes - I made these cool individual "designer" envelopes. I just like having something with a little personality. These things work great. If you are interested - check out my Ebay and Etsy sites.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5522217
http://cgi.ebay.com/Personalized-Designer-Budget-Cash-Envelope-Organizer...
Buy a new one, send your old one to Microsoft for repair, return the new one when your old one is fixed. Most places have a 30 -day opened box return policy. You should have it fixed by then. Don't be a fraudster and return your broken one. Some kid will be wrecked when he powers up his new system to get an error message.
We did the instant refund the first year H&R did it. We paid a flat $50 for doing our return and getting us the check in 24 hrs. They obviously found a way to make MUCH more money off of it.
The following year we went to H&R to get our taxes done. They guy knew less about what he was doing than we did. So now we either do them on paper if it is an easy year or use Turbo Tax if it is complicated. I did make a mistake on our return last year but even our tax attorney we hired to straighten it out had to call the IRS to get a determination because they never printed any rules for that income source. So I can't quite blame Turbo Tax for not catching it.
Good advice! I let several thousand accumulated miles exipire after building them up at my last job. I was kicking myself the next time I had to actually pay for a ticket!
Excellent advice Sprithitler. Many people use cruise control for acceleration because, in many newer cars, it is the most even, steady means of speeding up.
I also couldn't agree more with your advice on tackling hills.
Many cars with automatic transmission have a 'sport' button, or something like it. This essentially tells the car to stay in a low gear longer, as doing this does indeed increase speed at acceleration. If you want to save gas, be sure this feature is switched 'off.'
My wife works at H&R Block doing tax preparation. She hates the IRAL and RAL products. She tries her best to talk people out of them, but so many people want their money +now+ and won't listen to reason. I'm sure some people really can't wait 2 weeks to have their refund direct deposited, but most probably can.
My wife also complains about the number of people who try to lie and cheat to get bigger refunds. She tells them to go away, but they just end up going to another branch (or another service) once they figure out what to say. But that's another story....
...in the days of electronic filing. The last two years, I got both my refunds within two weeks of filing!
As I mentioned on another blog...why don't more high schools have required personal finance and life lessons classes? Most people get in the rut they are in now because they never learned any different...and the cycle will continue with their kids...
Good piece, Linsey. And timely!
I didn't know there was even any place you could do this, the information itself if pretty cool. The membership and rewards program thing is something I haven't used since I lived on Guam, where even one flight home qualified you for something significant.
I agree with New Guy above, the chart shown in the post is for wholesale purchasers, there is a 2nd chart for retail purchasers and it does list refunds as a percent of purchase price. It is the max amount you could possibly get so depending on how many people file claims, you may get very little back.
Here's the 2nd chart (for retail purchases of diamond jewelry):
Purchase price - Claim Percentage
<200 - 10.5% of retail price
200-999 - 27.5%
1000-5499 - 32%
5500-9999 - 38.5%
>10000 - 45%
I think the wrong chart is listed in your article. There are 2 charts listed on the class action website, and from what I can tell the second chart is the one most consumers will use. I'm referring to anyone who just bought a diamond ring. That chart does in fact show percentages of the RETAIL price, so it would be a percentage of the price you actually paid. But I notice 2 things: first, no matter what chart I use I end up with about the same dollar amount (assuming wholesale price is 50% of retail price). And second, as already pointed out, this is the max you can possibly receive. There is a set dollar amount they are going to distribute, and you will almost certainly get way less than the max amount allowed.
Still, a refund of any kind is nice. I'm filing because, incredibly enough, I still have the payment book from when I bought my wife's engagement ring. I don't know if that constitutes a receipt, but it's worth a try.
Also, even if you don't qualify for free federal e-file, your state might offer free e-filing with fewer or no restrictions. Here's a list:
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2007/01/free-online-tax-e-filing-opt...
Apparently a modern (electronically controlled injection) engine is always less efficient on acceleration than on a steady speed. Consequently you should reduce time spent accelerating. Accelerate as quickly as you with retained control, safety and comfort cant, up to your desired speed, then shift to the highest gear reasonable for that speed, or let your automatic transmission set into as high gear as possible. Of course some automatic transmissions may think that your fast acceleration up to the desired speed means that you want to drive sportily, and thus they may set into a lower gear than necessary to give you more available power.
Also, when travelling up hill, allow the car to loose speed, when travelling downhill regain that speed by allowing the car to coast up to and beyond the set speed limit (but not too far beyond, beware of smnokey bears) and then to coast down to the speed limit on the plains.
That's not a yak, it's a highland cow (AKA "heilan coo"!)
Thanks for the helpful article, though.
I actually manage mine on Bank of America's My Portfolio, which is linked into Yodlee. I think on Points.com you can trade certain points for other kinds of points, but they take a cut when you swap the miles between programs.
It seems like there is a new product recall everyday. I am especially concerned about all the recalls on children's toys and household products. I set up a personal file that alerts me to all product recalls and it sends me a timely notice when one of my products has been recalled.
Great post. This article reminds me about a time when I went on a picnic with my family and my Mom and Aunt were reminiscing about how on road trips my Grandmother had an old peanut butter jar filled with soapy water and a washrag to clean their sticky hands and faces. My Grandmother was so ecco-friendly and she didn't even realize it!
Having problems using these. The best solution that has come up is contacting the local spa you would like to use it at directly. Many of them have already honored them from others, and if you can get them to acknowledge this fact, they can sometimes work it out with the Spa Rewards people directly. Or by calling Spa Rewards and letting them know which spa you want to book with, they can go from there.
Sorry to hear everyone having so much difficulty. It sounds like this promotion was way more popular than they expected.
Linsey Knerl