As I don't wish to start a flame war I'll reply once, read any reply you post (if you wish to post one), and leave it at that.
First off, calling an article imbecilic is not the same as calling the author of said article imbecilic. I don't consider myself to be an imbecile but am guilty of more than a handful of imbecilic acts. :)
Second, my point of courtesy flushes being largely an action done in public restrooms and therefore doesn't save the bathroom goer any money is still valid. Hence, I argue that this isn't really saving the reader any money.
Thirdly (and I don't mean to offend but...) I can only assume that you are joking when you present this particular article as an article with "a little more depth and perhaps some insight."
Now as for your insinuation that my disagreement with your articles content leads me to be simply looking for "coupons or deals," that came across as merely immature. Not only is it false, but it also attempts to simplify my point of view and thereby disregard my comment as whole.
My husband and I laugh that we will be the last on earth to have one. What did we all do before them? We still do it today. Wait to talk to someone until we get to work/get home - I enjoy my quiet time on the bus, in the car, etc. My family actually talk to each other on car rides instead of hooked up to technology - yes, we don't have a portable dvd player or ipods either... We have been loaned a cell phone when we took a long car trip - more for my parents peace of mine rather than our own... We are also lucky to have friends who have let us use theirs for the handful of times we wanted to use one. We figure that one day we will need to look into one or two, but a tracphone will now be considered, after reading the comments. It has been increasingly difficult to find pay phones these days too. But, we just can't justify the cost and with so many plans out there and all the phones, gadgets, etc... it just makes my head spin. :-)
for a stand-up shower, just install a water-saver button. I think ours was $10 at Home Depot. You just take off the shower head, install the button (it screws in -- make sure to use teflon tape to reduct dripping), and re-attach the shower head. Now you can just push the button in to turn the stream off without turning the water off.
One warning, though: If you shower with hot water, be prepared for a blast of cold when you turn the stream back on! :)
Reading the other comments reminded me of the largest water-saving change we did, 8 years ago:
front-loading clothes washer. Our current washer uses about 13 gallons per load, holds more than a standard washer, and uses less detergent. A reg washer uses up to 60 gallons of water per load!! *faint*
Also, we've never used the "dry" cycle on our dishwasher. That doesn't save water, but it does save electricity. :)
thanks for the article. DH has been practicing this since I've known him. Me? Although I grew up "green", I have come to treasure long showers. However, since cutting my hair short, my time is down to 4 min. We have installed a water-saver button, and that helps a lot! :)
I worked in retail 1993-1995 at a software boutique store, and I was happy to get out of it. Why? Like she said, people shamelessly steal stuff, and then you feel bad because you didn't catch them. (Then you think, OMG, what would I do if I had witnessed the theft?!?!) Then, there's the irate holiday shopper looking for a very particular item that has to be special-ordered and will definitely NOT arrive in time for the holiday. Also fun was the 1 hr commute ONE-WAY once I got a promotion to assistant store manager. That one was especially fun in inclement (snowy) weather.
But, it did have its moments. I still have the Beavis and Butt-Head keychains that a couple of teenagers gave me - apparently they thought I was cool when I imitated Beavis for them.
"To posts #8, 9, and 11, if you let it soak a bit, it'll soften and go down just fine."
This would be fine if one lives alone. But our household of five has one bathroom/toilet. We cannot 'let it soak a bit' when there's a line waiting to use the toilet. It also doesn't work well if one has guests visiting.
Our building did an adoption thing for needy families this year, and there was a kid who wanted a backpack and crayons and hand sanitizer (!), and there was a kid who wanted a Nintendo DS, and everything in between.
One thing it might help to keep in mind if you're upset about the "entitlement" that some of "those people" seem to feel, toward having things that are nicer than you think they deserve: Some of these kids are in quite dire situations (really!), and when much of your life is desperate, it's easy to see short-term gratification as more important than long-term -- *especially* if you are young.
What I mean by that is, if your home life is a mess and your parents are always fighting and sometimes you don't have money for food and your electricity gets shut off every few months, does it make sense for you to want something that's awesome but impractical, like an iPod? Or does it make sense for you to want shoes or a blanket or something like that?
I think the posters here would say it makes more sense for you to want the shoes or blanket, and it probably does. But what you *actually* want is something awesome, something outside the realm of your normal life, and something that helps you forget how distressing or frustrating the rest of your life is.
Everyone who's ever been on a diet, paid off debt, or otherwise restricted an area of their lives is well aware that total deprivation can lead to similar impulses. Deny yourself dessert for long enough and you won't find yourself daydreaming about a single generic Oreo; you'll be thinking about cheesecake and homemade pie. Austerity is no fun; being "rewarded" austerely is also no fun if you have no say in your circumstances; and at Christmas especially I think it's sad to begrudge people their wishes.
I've been called many things in my time but "imbecilic" is a first. As we have said numerous times, the WB writers have to be allowed a little creative freedom to keep the blog interesting. This is on topic, saving water is saving money and it's better for everyone. The Africa reference was to point out how wasteful we are with water in this country, it wasn't an attempt to have you ship the saved water to Africa. Now that would be imbecilic. The post I reference in the beginning of the article was, by your logic, also off-topic. So is a post on answering interview questions. That doesn't save money. If you want coupons or deals, there are dedicated sites for that Kane. If you want a little more depth and perhaps some insight or talking points, that's what WB is here for.
After examining my paternalistic insecurities, I realize that I prefer to give to people who have similar values to my own. I was raised by parents who were children during the Great Depression, so I was imbued with their antiquated ideas and values. I'm good with that. Thanks, y'all, for helping me to accept my self-congratulatory frugality!
Look, I'm not here to change the world... nor am i hear to stop the elites... I just want to be prepared for the next age. If the Amero passes... where should we all have our money in? Which currencies devalue? which ones increase in value? I am not the smartest person here but I just took a simple logic of the "Mean" value between the canadien dollar, us dollar and peso... which leaves the peso's value increased... does this make sense? It's like saying, Project Neighborhood will now be combined with Wealthy Neighborhood... well, Project Neighborhood will increase in value and Wealthy Neighborhood will crash... Or will they both crash?!!
I will be offshoring money really soon... is the Peso safe? commodities? euro? thoughts please.
"Wow, people are putting money into 0% yield investments? I agree with weakonomist. It seems smarter to just put your money in an FDIC insured checking/savings account or just pay off debt."
The people that you refer to are not actually people but large institutions and money managers. The FDIC only insures up to 250k. The money going into T-Bills is much larger.
Because the large players control rates and prices the question becomes, where do you put large amounts of money with little or no risk. According to the rate action, the T-Bill seems to be the answer.
You forgot one: Gold. The metal itself is up for the year. Yes the mining stocks have been crushed (they're coming back), but gold itself is up.
Bonds don't pay anything, stocks are being hammered, Real Estate is still headed down, your bank isn't safe, all commodities are off their highs, but gold is up. I don't think anything else is up.
You can invest in gold in small ways. Having the actual metal in your possession is the safest - in the form of coins. You could buy an ETF linked to the actual metal - CEF, a canadian fund is the safest.
One thing you can say about gold is that it will never go to zero. I'm surprised with your heritage, you omitted this investment.
>> "Those who give to others should do so in a way that fits their own values.
>> "Well, there you go. No need to go assigning terms like 'paternalistic insecurity' to it."
Did you read my previous comment, Andrea? Did you not comprehend the sheer numbers of people in this discussion, including the original poster, who have made blatant and negative value judgments against poor people based on something so ethereal and inscrutable as their Christmas wishes?
Margaret Garcia-Couoh didn't say, "I don't care for how the bank chose to handle their giving tree, so I'm electing to give in some other way that better fits my values." I could have stomached that.
What she did say is that she knows better than someone else what they actually want for Christmas... that the parents of those "needy" children likely put them up to it... that the "needy" children have entitlement problems... that she can't believe the "nerve" of "those people"... and that she wishes she could slap them.
I'm sorry, Andrea, that you're offended at the offense I'm taking here. But I'm calling it like I see it (as many others have in this thread): if one doesn't agree with another person's Christmas wish, the only gracious response is to walk away, and seek a gift request that fits in with your own particular value system. But do not publicly denigrate those people, or proclaim that you know what is best for them, as if God Himself had made you the arbiter of socially-appropriate material desire.
You seemed to take umbrage that I charged the "poor people have gotten so uppity and greedy these days" camp with paternalistic insecurities. Frankly, I think it's less offensive to assume that this post and the ensuing me-too comments reflect individual insecurities, than the alternative:
It is well-documented that elitism and classism often start just like this: with seemingly-innocuous bourgeois remarks about "those people" and "what they deserve"... ideas like those expressed by Margaret.
So you tell me, Andrea - which is it? Are there some mild and hopefully unintentional paternalistic insecurities at play here?
Or is it that we're seeing a really disturbing trend of classism push its way to the fore -- and sold as socially acceptable to a bunch of anonymous proponents all because it's being publicly pitched under the self-congratulatory guise of frugal living?
If you can't afford to give more, don't give more. But do not pass judgment on others in order to justify your own decisions.
>> "(i.e. not cause them more problems than joy, like an iPod is wont to do)."
That you don't see any problem with deciding on behalf of complete strangers that an MP3 player will bring problems to their lives, instead of joy, is nothing if not paternalistic. I encourage you to look up the definition of the word if you aren't sure.
It's very difficult to live frugally without some ironclad discipline. I think most people lack that but will have to learn it. People get into financial difficulties through illness, job loss, and the shenanigans of some corporate and political leaders. Sometimes they are at fault themselves. They simply don't say "no" to impulse buying. They don't stop to analyze if a purchase is a "I want" instead of an "I need."
My family's system (successful thus far) is to write down every single purchase no matter how small and adhere to a strict daily and monthly budget. If we overspend one day or one month we strive to make it up the next day or month. That may mean staying home to read a book instead of going out, and eating out only rarely; checking the newspapers for food bargains and stocking up with sale items, but only those we regularly use.
We don't have a regular cell phone, only one of those prepaid things that we carry for emergencies and top up every 90 days. I don't have DSL but use an slow dial-up. No extra cable channels for us, just basic because it's the only way we get reception here.
Trips to the local library for reading and video pleasure. Generic drugs if we can use them instead. Using the better mileage vehicle for most of our driving and maintaining our older model cars instead of replacing them, until that becomes less cost effective. I kept my last car (bought new) for 13 years by having the oil changed at Walmart as scheduled. I had very few repairs. Of course we replaced tires, batteries, etc. but we even had sort of a plan for that. If you do this, however, I recommend a motor club membership.
If you can cut tiny corners everywhere you look and make it your habit you will find you can get used to it. A big thing was my husband quit smoking, improving his health and we saving a little bit everyday. It all adds up.....a little here, a little there.
I'm glad you reminded readers to contact their cc company at the scene of the decline. Kmart was initially more than patient to have me put my purchase aside (much to the dismay of the people behind me -- they were not allowed to check out until my problem was resolved), while I called my cc company. I did call the number on the back of the card, but their phones were down momentarily (the main reason why my account was generously compensated for my trouble.)
I would suggest that others not be made to feel ashamed, but if it is the first time it has happened to you, and the store makes no differentiation between a genuine theft case or bad credit incident and an unlucky schmuck like me, the staff and other customers get crabby, accusatory, and rude. It's hard to walk away from that with 100% of your dignity intact. But then again, I should just learn to get over it. I didn't do anything wrong.
My frugal parents have triggered fraud detection warnings when they've gone on some rare shopping sprees, but it was handled in a very intelligent way. When the store clerk swiped the card, it instructed them to call the CC company on the spot, who then spoke to the cardholder to verify that the card had not been stolen. After the confirmation, we were allowed to continue the transaction.
When my own credit card number was stolen, however (entirely my own fault) I kept getting automated calls from a fraud detection service I didn't recognize. I was afraid it was some sort of telemarketer, but turns out it was a contractor for my bank. It took me a full week to check out my account and discover that some fool in Hartford, Conn. had run up thousands in charges in Marshalls, PetSmart and Walmart.
I come to Wisebread because historically it's been a good source of information on saving a buck. I've even recommended it to a few friends.
This article, however, is nothing short of imbecilic; and for the life of me I can't see how this helps me save money. There is indeed a mention of the price of water, however don't courtesy flushes usually happen in public locations? That's "no cost" water!
Secondly, why the mention of Africa? People in Africa probably don't have Dunkin' Donuts on every other corner, does this mean we should stop getting doughnuts and coffee? There's ZERO relation between my flushing and Africa's water supply.
To the editors of wisebread: please keep this site focused on what your readers are here for: living large on a small budget.
The Treasury dropped the amount of I-Bonds you could purchase in a year from $30,000 down to $5,000.
Since they are Tax-Deferred I guess the idea is to limit the amount of money you can shield from taxes.
The new administration is going to wallop us with new taxes and if you could defer a lot of them until a friendlier one got elected and repealed the tax increases it "Wouldn't Be Fair".
Biggest pet peeve from working retail? People who insist on licking their fingers before counting out their bills. Praise God for Purell!
I also love those people who slap their money on the counter while you stand there, holding your hand out for it (especially change, I was a nail-biter at the time - those evil people must have done it for the sheer entertainment value of watching me struggle).
Funny, I'm very particular about treating service personnel well now.
Yes, I have also said that, to make the world a better place, I believe everyone should work behind a counter for a period of time.
I used to expect sales people to know EVERYTHING, to give me answers, to work fast and efficiently. And if they don't, they're incompetent.
Then I took a job behind a counter and cash machine on the weekends. I had a full-time executive job during the weekdays, but I needed extra money and took a weekend job.
People in retail are not stupid. I loved them and had more fun than my office job. And I realize that there are legitimate reasons why sales people do not know everything. Maybe they don't work there full time. Maybe they weren't given adequate training. Maybe company policy. Maybe just a bad boss. There are things we cannot control. I also realize there are people who do love retail and are made for it and do their job well.
Before you complain again, go work behind a counter. Go do customer service.
As I don't wish to start a flame war I'll reply once, read any reply you post (if you wish to post one), and leave it at that.
First off, calling an article imbecilic is not the same as calling the author of said article imbecilic. I don't consider myself to be an imbecile but am guilty of more than a handful of imbecilic acts. :)
Second, my point of courtesy flushes being largely an action done in public restrooms and therefore doesn't save the bathroom goer any money is still valid. Hence, I argue that this isn't really saving the reader any money.
Thirdly (and I don't mean to offend but...) I can only assume that you are joking when you present this particular article as an article with "a little more depth and perhaps some insight."
Now as for your insinuation that my disagreement with your articles content leads me to be simply looking for "coupons or deals," that came across as merely immature. Not only is it false, but it also attempts to simplify my point of view and thereby disregard my comment as whole.
My husband and I laugh that we will be the last on earth to have one. What did we all do before them? We still do it today. Wait to talk to someone until we get to work/get home - I enjoy my quiet time on the bus, in the car, etc. My family actually talk to each other on car rides instead of hooked up to technology - yes, we don't have a portable dvd player or ipods either... We have been loaned a cell phone when we took a long car trip - more for my parents peace of mine rather than our own... We are also lucky to have friends who have let us use theirs for the handful of times we wanted to use one. We figure that one day we will need to look into one or two, but a tracphone will now be considered, after reading the comments. It has been increasingly difficult to find pay phones these days too. But, we just can't justify the cost and with so many plans out there and all the phones, gadgets, etc... it just makes my head spin. :-)
for a stand-up shower, just install a water-saver button. I think ours was $10 at Home Depot. You just take off the shower head, install the button (it screws in -- make sure to use teflon tape to reduct dripping), and re-attach the shower head. Now you can just push the button in to turn the stream off without turning the water off.
One warning, though: If you shower with hot water, be prepared for a blast of cold when you turn the stream back on! :)
Reading the other comments reminded me of the largest water-saving change we did, 8 years ago:
front-loading clothes washer. Our current washer uses about 13 gallons per load, holds more than a standard washer, and uses less detergent. A reg washer uses up to 60 gallons of water per load!! *faint*
Also, we've never used the "dry" cycle on our dishwasher. That doesn't save water, but it does save electricity. :)
thanks for the article. DH has been practicing this since I've known him. Me? Although I grew up "green", I have come to treasure long showers. However, since cutting my hair short, my time is down to 4 min. We have installed a water-saver button, and that helps a lot! :)
I worked in retail 1993-1995 at a software boutique store, and I was happy to get out of it. Why? Like she said, people shamelessly steal stuff, and then you feel bad because you didn't catch them. (Then you think, OMG, what would I do if I had witnessed the theft?!?!) Then, there's the irate holiday shopper looking for a very particular item that has to be special-ordered and will definitely NOT arrive in time for the holiday. Also fun was the 1 hr commute ONE-WAY once I got a promotion to assistant store manager. That one was especially fun in inclement (snowy) weather.
But, it did have its moments. I still have the Beavis and Butt-Head keychains that a couple of teenagers gave me - apparently they thought I was cool when I imitated Beavis for them.
"To posts #8, 9, and 11, if you let it soak a bit, it'll soften and go down just fine."
This would be fine if one lives alone. But our household of five has one bathroom/toilet. We cannot 'let it soak a bit' when there's a line waiting to use the toilet. It also doesn't work well if one has guests visiting.
Right on, Tracy. I applaud your posts.
Our building did an adoption thing for needy families this year, and there was a kid who wanted a backpack and crayons and hand sanitizer (!), and there was a kid who wanted a Nintendo DS, and everything in between.
One thing it might help to keep in mind if you're upset about the "entitlement" that some of "those people" seem to feel, toward having things that are nicer than you think they deserve: Some of these kids are in quite dire situations (really!), and when much of your life is desperate, it's easy to see short-term gratification as more important than long-term -- *especially* if you are young.
What I mean by that is, if your home life is a mess and your parents are always fighting and sometimes you don't have money for food and your electricity gets shut off every few months, does it make sense for you to want something that's awesome but impractical, like an iPod? Or does it make sense for you to want shoes or a blanket or something like that?
I think the posters here would say it makes more sense for you to want the shoes or blanket, and it probably does. But what you *actually* want is something awesome, something outside the realm of your normal life, and something that helps you forget how distressing or frustrating the rest of your life is.
Everyone who's ever been on a diet, paid off debt, or otherwise restricted an area of their lives is well aware that total deprivation can lead to similar impulses. Deny yourself dessert for long enough and you won't find yourself daydreaming about a single generic Oreo; you'll be thinking about cheesecake and homemade pie. Austerity is no fun; being "rewarded" austerely is also no fun if you have no say in your circumstances; and at Christmas especially I think it's sad to begrudge people their wishes.
I've been called many things in my time but "imbecilic" is a first. As we have said numerous times, the WB writers have to be allowed a little creative freedom to keep the blog interesting. This is on topic, saving water is saving money and it's better for everyone. The Africa reference was to point out how wasteful we are with water in this country, it wasn't an attempt to have you ship the saved water to Africa. Now that would be imbecilic. The post I reference in the beginning of the article was, by your logic, also off-topic. So is a post on answering interview questions. That doesn't save money. If you want coupons or deals, there are dedicated sites for that Kane. If you want a little more depth and perhaps some insight or talking points, that's what WB is here for.
After examining my paternalistic insecurities, I realize that I prefer to give to people who have similar values to my own. I was raised by parents who were children during the Great Depression, so I was imbued with their antiquated ideas and values. I'm good with that. Thanks, y'all, for helping me to accept my self-congratulatory frugality!
And a very happy Solstice To All!
Look, I'm not here to change the world... nor am i hear to stop the elites... I just want to be prepared for the next age. If the Amero passes... where should we all have our money in? Which currencies devalue? which ones increase in value? I am not the smartest person here but I just took a simple logic of the "Mean" value between the canadien dollar, us dollar and peso... which leaves the peso's value increased... does this make sense? It's like saying, Project Neighborhood will now be combined with Wealthy Neighborhood... well, Project Neighborhood will increase in value and Wealthy Neighborhood will crash... Or will they both crash?!!
I will be offshoring money really soon... is the Peso safe? commodities? euro? thoughts please.
"Wow, people are putting money into 0% yield investments? I agree with weakonomist. It seems smarter to just put your money in an FDIC insured checking/savings account or just pay off debt."
The people that you refer to are not actually people but large institutions and money managers. The FDIC only insures up to 250k. The money going into T-Bills is much larger.
Because the large players control rates and prices the question becomes, where do you put large amounts of money with little or no risk. According to the rate action, the T-Bill seems to be the answer.
the above is absolutely not investment advice!
Xin,
You forgot one: Gold. The metal itself is up for the year. Yes the mining stocks have been crushed (they're coming back), but gold itself is up.
Bonds don't pay anything, stocks are being hammered, Real Estate is still headed down, your bank isn't safe, all commodities are off their highs, but gold is up. I don't think anything else is up.
You can invest in gold in small ways. Having the actual metal in your possession is the safest - in the form of coins. You could buy an ETF linked to the actual metal - CEF, a canadian fund is the safest.
One thing you can say about gold is that it will never go to zero. I'm surprised with your heritage, you omitted this investment.
>> "Those who give to others should do so in a way that fits their own values.
>> "Well, there you go. No need to go assigning terms like 'paternalistic insecurity' to it."
Did you read my previous comment, Andrea? Did you not comprehend the sheer numbers of people in this discussion, including the original poster, who have made blatant and negative value judgments against poor people based on something so ethereal and inscrutable as their Christmas wishes?
Margaret Garcia-Couoh didn't say, "I don't care for how the bank chose to handle their giving tree, so I'm electing to give in some other way that better fits my values." I could have stomached that.
What she did say is that she knows better than someone else what they actually want for Christmas... that the parents of those "needy" children likely put them up to it... that the "needy" children have entitlement problems... that she can't believe the "nerve" of "those people"... and that she wishes she could slap them.
I'm sorry, Andrea, that you're offended at the offense I'm taking here. But I'm calling it like I see it (as many others have in this thread): if one doesn't agree with another person's Christmas wish, the only gracious response is to walk away, and seek a gift request that fits in with your own particular value system. But do not publicly denigrate those people, or proclaim that you know what is best for them, as if God Himself had made you the arbiter of socially-appropriate material desire.
You seemed to take umbrage that I charged the "poor people have gotten so uppity and greedy these days" camp with paternalistic insecurities. Frankly, I think it's less offensive to assume that this post and the ensuing me-too comments reflect individual insecurities, than the alternative:
It is well-documented that elitism and classism often start just like this: with seemingly-innocuous bourgeois remarks about "those people" and "what they deserve"... ideas like those expressed by Margaret.
So you tell me, Andrea - which is it? Are there some mild and hopefully unintentional paternalistic insecurities at play here?
Or is it that we're seeing a really disturbing trend of classism push its way to the fore -- and sold as socially acceptable to a bunch of anonymous proponents all because it's being publicly pitched under the self-congratulatory guise of frugal living?
If you can't afford to give more, don't give more. But do not pass judgment on others in order to justify your own decisions.
>> "(i.e. not cause them more problems than joy, like an iPod is wont to do)."
That you don't see any problem with deciding on behalf of complete strangers that an MP3 player will bring problems to their lives, instead of joy, is nothing if not paternalistic. I encourage you to look up the definition of the word if you aren't sure.
"I don’t care if you’re producing noxious aromas that would shame a flatulent elephant, it’s just not worth it."
LOL.:D
It's very difficult to live frugally without some ironclad discipline. I think most people lack that but will have to learn it. People get into financial difficulties through illness, job loss, and the shenanigans of some corporate and political leaders. Sometimes they are at fault themselves. They simply don't say "no" to impulse buying. They don't stop to analyze if a purchase is a "I want" instead of an "I need."
My family's system (successful thus far) is to write down every single purchase no matter how small and adhere to a strict daily and monthly budget. If we overspend one day or one month we strive to make it up the next day or month. That may mean staying home to read a book instead of going out, and eating out only rarely; checking the newspapers for food bargains and stocking up with sale items, but only those we regularly use.
We don't have a regular cell phone, only one of those prepaid things that we carry for emergencies and top up every 90 days. I don't have DSL but use an slow dial-up. No extra cable channels for us, just basic because it's the only way we get reception here.
Trips to the local library for reading and video pleasure. Generic drugs if we can use them instead. Using the better mileage vehicle for most of our driving and maintaining our older model cars instead of replacing them, until that becomes less cost effective. I kept my last car (bought new) for 13 years by having the oil changed at Walmart as scheduled. I had very few repairs. Of course we replaced tires, batteries, etc. but we even had sort of a plan for that. If you do this, however, I recommend a motor club membership.
If you can cut tiny corners everywhere you look and make it your habit you will find you can get used to it. A big thing was my husband quit smoking, improving his health and we saving a little bit everyday. It all adds up.....a little here, a little there.
I'm glad you reminded readers to contact their cc company at the scene of the decline. Kmart was initially more than patient to have me put my purchase aside (much to the dismay of the people behind me -- they were not allowed to check out until my problem was resolved), while I called my cc company. I did call the number on the back of the card, but their phones were down momentarily (the main reason why my account was generously compensated for my trouble.)
I would suggest that others not be made to feel ashamed, but if it is the first time it has happened to you, and the store makes no differentiation between a genuine theft case or bad credit incident and an unlucky schmuck like me, the staff and other customers get crabby, accusatory, and rude. It's hard to walk away from that with 100% of your dignity intact. But then again, I should just learn to get over it. I didn't do anything wrong.
Thanks for your comment!
Linsey Knerl
My frugal parents have triggered fraud detection warnings when they've gone on some rare shopping sprees, but it was handled in a very intelligent way. When the store clerk swiped the card, it instructed them to call the CC company on the spot, who then spoke to the cardholder to verify that the card had not been stolen. After the confirmation, we were allowed to continue the transaction.
When my own credit card number was stolen, however (entirely my own fault) I kept getting automated calls from a fraud detection service I didn't recognize. I was afraid it was some sort of telemarketer, but turns out it was a contractor for my bank. It took me a full week to check out my account and discover that some fool in Hartford, Conn. had run up thousands in charges in Marshalls, PetSmart and Walmart.
I come to Wisebread because historically it's been a good source of information on saving a buck. I've even recommended it to a few friends.
This article, however, is nothing short of imbecilic; and for the life of me I can't see how this helps me save money. There is indeed a mention of the price of water, however don't courtesy flushes usually happen in public locations? That's "no cost" water!
Secondly, why the mention of Africa? People in Africa probably don't have Dunkin' Donuts on every other corner, does this mean we should stop getting doughnuts and coffee? There's ZERO relation between my flushing and Africa's water supply.
To the editors of wisebread: please keep this site focused on what your readers are here for: living large on a small budget.
Everyone is more or less in the same boat these days - so why splash out to impress?
If everyone stopped piling their supermarket trolleys so high and made more from scratch then they could half the cost of entertaining.
I live in the UK and this is the first time I've heard of a Courtesy Flush
Can't say I've ever noticed it being practiced here.
Many establishments now have half flush toilets depending on the need - to cut down on water consumption.
But as we have so much rain here - I doubt whether we will ever run out!
Limit.
The Treasury dropped the amount of I-Bonds you could purchase in a year from $30,000 down to $5,000.
Since they are Tax-Deferred I guess the idea is to limit the amount of money you can shield from taxes.
The new administration is going to wallop us with new taxes and if you could defer a lot of them until a friendlier one got elected and repealed the tax increases it "Wouldn't Be Fair".
BIG Raspberry...
~ R
Biggest pet peeve from working retail? People who insist on licking their fingers before counting out their bills. Praise God for Purell!
I also love those people who slap their money on the counter while you stand there, holding your hand out for it (especially change, I was a nail-biter at the time - those evil people must have done it for the sheer entertainment value of watching me struggle).
Funny, I'm very particular about treating service personnel well now.
Yes, I have also said that, to make the world a better place, I believe everyone should work behind a counter for a period of time.
I used to expect sales people to know EVERYTHING, to give me answers, to work fast and efficiently. And if they don't, they're incompetent.
Then I took a job behind a counter and cash machine on the weekends. I had a full-time executive job during the weekdays, but I needed extra money and took a weekend job.
People in retail are not stupid. I loved them and had more fun than my office job. And I realize that there are legitimate reasons why sales people do not know everything. Maybe they don't work there full time. Maybe they weren't given adequate training. Maybe company policy. Maybe just a bad boss. There are things we cannot control. I also realize there are people who do love retail and are made for it and do their job well.
Before you complain again, go work behind a counter. Go do customer service.