Fringe Benefits

One day while searching online for discounts on books, I discovered a nifty way to save money on all sorts of goods and services. I Googled “% off books” and found the search returned not just a whole bunch of bookstores sponsoring sales events, but additionally a whole slew of organizations whose memberships come with bookstore discounts. As a fringe benefit of joining the Sierra Club, for example, you get 10% off Sierra Club books.

Though most organizations like the Sierra Club that print their own books offer discounts on in-house products, membership discounts get a lot better than that. A $50 membership in the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library charitable organization garners you 10% off at over 40 different bookstores in the Bay area. If you buy a lot of books at independent bookstores, these savings alone could pay for the cost of the membership. Not only that, you’re helping to support the public library system and getting a tax deduction for doing so. Sweet!

Read the rest of the story...

Eating Out of Hand

The below article contains some of the tips from the food chapter of Party Like a Rock Star. You'll need to buy the book for more...

It’s your friend’s birthday and he wants to go out for dinner at that new small-plate fusion restaurant with the industrial-chic design and the waiters who look like soap-opera stars. You’re broke, but think you can pay for your meal and chip in for your friend’s. Then five minutes after you sit down, somebody orders a top-shelf cocktail, followed by the most expensive seafood appetizer plate “to share.” Four bottles of wine, fancy food, desserts, and espresso for everybody later, your part of the bill comes to 150 bucks. Next year, your friend is only getting a card.

You’d feel guilty skipping out on a friend’s birthday, but it’s not fair that your participation in it costs half your entertainment budget for the month. Here are a few ways to lessen the financial damage.

Read the rest of the article here

Trading Up

This is a great story about bartering. This guy decided he'd start with a paperclip and through the barter/trade section on Craigslist, keep trading up until he could buy a house. He's not there yet, but he has traded that one paperclip up to a year's free rent. Not bad. The trades went:

paperclip for a fish pen
fish pen for an artsy doorknob
artsy doorknob for a camp stove
camp stove for a generator
generator for a keg of beer
keg of beer for a snowmobile
snowmobile for a weekend trip
weekend trip for a used van
used van for recording studio time
recording studio time for a year's free rent.

And I thought I was crafty!

Theme parks

Here's an article on how to save money at theme parks like Disneyworld. Most of the advice is pretty obvious- go on the off-season and bring your own snacks; but there is some good advice on how to speed up waiting in line and things like that. I suppose if you have a Blackberry, you could just work on emails while in line and write off the trip as a work-related expense.

The 411

I think I mentioned these before but this USA Today article lists phone numbers where 411 information is free as long as you listen to an ad.

When I was in seventh grade we had a "current events" political crossword puzzle to complete. My friend CJ Healy didn't know an answer so he called information and asked for it. Here's the weird thing: they told him and he was one of the only people who got it right.

DSHell

I've been postponing switching my DSL because the service I wanted told me that it would mean a week of me being offline to do so. This is stupid because all they need to do is mail the modem, them flip the switch as soon as my current company turns off my service. Should take maybe a day.

AT&T (formerly SBC) has some cheap DSL that I didn't know about. David Lazarus warns consumers about their rates changing, but I see a much lower rate than what I'm paying so I may switch to them anyway. I mean, why not? I already send them money for my cell phone and regular phone every month. They may as well take all my money.

Secret Paris

This LA Times article has a funny analysis of why Paris Hilton is a commercial success and the chances of her forthcoming album.

The bar is set so low, in fact, that Hilton has almost nothing to lose. On the other hand, if the CD is above average, the surprise factor could turn her into a pop savant- Hilton's advantage position time and again.

Way, way too much fun

Holy crap. This guy took 40,000 hits of ecstasy in a 9 year period. For the first couple of years, it was just 5 hits per weekend. By the end he was up to 25 pills a day for four years. Not surprisingly, he suffers from probably permanent mental and physical deficits now.

Oh and I didn't link to this before, but the SF Weekly had an article on ecstasy and its new role in the hip-hop music and scene. It's probably not too enlightening for hip-hoppers, but ex-ravers will be appropriately disappointed.

props to Towleroad

Group Gastronomy

You know how you have that friend who wants to go out to dinner for her birthday, and she wants to go to the new overpriced ultra-trendy restaurant with the $15 cocktails and $30 entrees? And then out of courtesy you're all supposed to chip in and pay for her meal and you end up paying $150 for your salad and two Cokes because the drunks at the table threw back 5 drinks each and ordered the lobster then everyone got a different dessert and espresso, and then you're still supposed to get her a present?

Screw that. Here are some ways to get out of birthday dinners or at least to reduce the damage if you're guilt-tripped into going. (Many more tips in the book! Please buy it.)