DVD Rentals

SmartMoney.com compares DVD rental services.

Dirt-Cheap Detroit

What with the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (or whatever they're calling it this year), and.... whatever else it is people go to Detroit for, you don't need another reason to go there. But About.com's Budget Travel section gives you some tips on saving money in the motor city.

LA Savings for Visitors and Residents

Subscribers to the San Francisco Chronicle all received in their Sunday paper a "See LA Summer Spectacular" coupon book. It has a bunch of discounts to things like theme parks, museums, the zoo, etc. It would come in handy for people visiting the area.

I checked the website, seemyLA.com, to see if all the coupons were there as well, so that LA residents could use them for themselves or while entertaining out-of-town guests. Unfortunately, you'll only get a fraction of the stuff there. Still, if you have tourists visiting or if you're a tourist planning to hit LA this summer, it's worth a look to see what's available.

Passport to Savings

Today I went to renew my passport and had my photo taken for it. (I looked great, thanks!) When I got home, I looked at my old passport one more time before mailing it in, and realized that I am wearing the exact same shirt now as I was in my passport photo from ten years ago. Damn!

That shirt is a very plain gray polo shirt from J. Crew that I bought for my first job out of college. I have another one just like it in dark green that I still wear also. These are my work clothes, which always last forever. There are easy ways to keep your work clothes a long time:

1. Only wear them to work and take them off as soon as you get home.
2. Wear an undershirt so you don't have to wash it every time you wear it.
3. Buy work clothes in the most boring, solid, plain colored styles and patterns you can find and they'll never go out of style.

Buy the book for more tips!

Gassy

AAA launched a cheap gas finder on their website here. It should find the cheapest gas nationally from those stations reported. Note that you may have trouble with it if you have a web browser pop-up blocker (and really, who doesn't?). I couldn't actually make the thing work, but then again, I don't have a car. Good luck with that.

Frugal Faggotry

I've started to write some money savings things for the gay magazine Frontiers in Southern California. My first one, which has tips on saving on drinking, can be found here (scroll down).

Industry Nights

Service Industry nights are usually Monday or Tuesday night bar events. They always have serious drink specials for the serious drunks who work in the service industry. Sometimes the nights are just extended happy hours. Sometimes they're movie nights in bars. And sometimes, they're like the place I found last night- a monthly happy hour in a four-star hotel with unlimited wine and champagne and two cheese and cracker stations. Word!

Crashing in the Airport

About.com's Budget Travel section has a little information and a few good links on sleeping in airports (Just like that Tom Hanks movie!) (p.s. Did anyone bother to see that Tom Hanks movie?)

More Rental Car Advice

A guy I met at a party the other day shared this tip with me:

When you reserve a rental car, do it online. Select the economy model car and also select the GPS option. As they don't make economy cars with GPS systems in them, when you show up to the counter you can show them your reservation and complain, and they'll likely put you in a better model car with a GPS system for the economy car price.

Accidental Discovery

I found that going to the optometrist closest to your house can be a real time saver. This is because I keep passing out drunk and waking up on top of my glasses, so I can just run across the street the next day and get them fixed.

I think they're kind of getting sick of me there though.

Rental Car Keys

SoundMoneyTips lists your options when losing your rental car keys. This happened to me once- I was on a canoe trip and tipped the thing over. (I also ruined my digital camera.) I found that the cheapest option by far was having a locksmith in a van cut a new key. When I turned the new key in to the rental car place, they didn't seem to notice and I never got charged. Phew.

A different book party

Hey San Francisco People- the kids at Leisure Team Productions are throwing a book launch party for their new book at 111 Minna, with drink specials and belly dancers! Check it:

Location:	111 Minna Gallery 111 Minna @ 2nd,San Francisco,CA View Map
When:	Thursday, June 16, 6:00pm
Phone:	415-974-1719
Join us in celebrating the release of our new book, Time Off! The Upside to Downtime -- and learn more about the fine art of leisure while you're at it. We'll have instruction in golf, yoga, cooking and belly dancing, and a no-host bar will feature Liquid Leisure made with Johnny Love's Vodka, plus a surprise drink special created just for the Leisure Team. All that for the low price of free! Need a little time off yourself? You never know what our travel sponsor might have in store...

Best Advice

I like hearing what people think is the most useful advice in the book. One friend told me, "The section of how to get cokeheads out of your apartment at the end of a party is so going to come in handy."

Glad to be of service!

Extra hint

At the book launch party, someone asked me to sign a book with a tip not already included. After thinking about it for ten minutes, I wrote, "Clean your sneakers with Windex."

It's not very rock and roll, I know.

Coast to Coast for $200

From a press release:

Song(R), Delta Air Lines' high-style, low- fare air service, is celebrating its newest coast-to-coast service with a special $99 fare (Additional taxes/fees/restrictions apply. Fares shown are available only for purchase on flysong.com, delta.com, or from a travel agent. See below for details and other important restrictions) on nonstop flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), JFK and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and JFK and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Tickets will be available for purchase from June 5 though June 11, for travel between JFK and LAX June 12 through August 26, 2005, and travel between JFK and San Francisco or Seattle July 4 through August 26, 2005.

ranking

It's my pet project to obsessively check my Amazon.com ranking. I'm hoping to break into the top 10,000 sometime.

• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,831 in Books

Playboy

Party Like A Rock Star is featured on Playboy.com!

A source for cheap magazine subscriptions

New Yorker for $24/year? Sign me up! (Article on Sound Money Tips)

Thirfting tips

There is much better advice in Party Like A Rock Star than in this article about thrifting.