Hard Times, Good Time

422 ways to save money

John.Records — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:37:07 +0000

Time Magazine offers 422 ways to save money.

Free guides to do useful geeky stuff

John.Records — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:32:42 +0000

Makeuseof.com offers free pdf downloads to help you do useful geeky stuff. Here are some examples:

FREE PDF Guides from MakeUseOf

Free video lectures from top colleges

John.Records — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:27:12 +0000

UC Berkeley and MIT are among colleges offering free access to videos of course lectures. I’ve thought these could be a good adjunct to a course taken locally. And one of these years maybe I’ll really learn calculus from this kind of source–it never “stuck” in college.

Save money on cellphones, credit cards

John.Records — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:03:37 +0000

Billshrink helps with comparison shopping for cellphones and credit cards, and if you’re fortunate enough to be able to save, offers comparisons for saving options. It was really eye-opening re cellphone costs and potential savings.

Beware job search scams

John.Records — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:56:13 +0000

So many people I know are impacted by unemployment. One friend has three grown sons and all have been laid off, for example. And of course there are predators who are ready to take advantage of people’s desperation. This article in Time magazine gives tips on avoiding the scamsters.

Make extra cash fast

John.Records — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:52:14 +0000

I don’t usually read Cosmopolitan, but I ran across this article in Cosmo on making extra cash that has some ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of.

Selling Apples in the Great Recession

John.Records — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:09:34 +0000

Selling apples and pencils on the street is an image from the Great Depression that has remained with us. Today in Sonoma County I bought a bag of apples from a man who had a battered car parked on a side street in a local community, with big handmade signs offering organic apples. With him were his daughters, perhaps 6 and 10 years old. “I’ll give you a good deal,” he said. “Whatever you want, a big, big bag.” The apples were from a friend’s 150 year old tree, he said. “Have a nice day,” said the older girl as we paid and continued our walk.

Savings on coffee

John.Records — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:46:59 +0000

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I observe that it helps many people make it through the day.

I’m bemused by Starbucks’ new Via product, an instant coffee. A buck for one cup of instant coffee that is alleged to be as good as the real thing. I guess compared to the cost of buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks it’s a better deal.

Trader Joes has a much less expensive product that is said to be made the same way and to taste as good. Check out Trader Joe’s 100 percent Colombian Instant ($2.99 for a 3.5 Oz Jar).

Great free digital photo organizer

John.Records — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:42:26 +0000

Picassa 3.5 is Google’s free digital photo organizer. It used to be a commercial product. Google bought it, continually improves it, and offers it for free. It’s very, very good although I prefer iPhoto on my Mac.

Cat litter in your shoes

John.Records — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:38:50 +0000

I couldn’t resist the title of this article, “Destink smelly shoes with cat litter.” It should work.

One commenter noted: “Thanks for the tip! Although, I’m a little concerned about what the cat might do if I leave my shoes lying around…”