Happiness is a Cold Beer in the Early Evening

You spend all day toiling for the man, in front of a hot computer screen, just to pay the rent. (And also to afford your collection of mini-dogs and those designer dog-carrying bags to put them in, but I’m trying to be dramatic here). You’re tired, your arms ache from all the instant messaging, and your back is killing you because they won’t buy you that Aeron chair you so justly deserve. Then you hear that 5 p.m. ping on your online reminder system, and that can only mean one thing: It’s You Time.

Now, you could go straight home and wash last night’s dishes, or go do 50 sets of 90 reps on your tri-deltoids at the gym. But both of those options suck. Where can you go to shake off the stresses of the day? Where can you go to both wind down and also get the party started?

The bar, that’s where. And they don’t call it happy hour for nothing. From 5 to 9, or 4 to 6, or 6 to 8 depending on the place, bars provide incentives to get you to visit them. Financial incentives. Because they’re lonely and they want your company. And don’t you want a drink? Of course you do.

Read more about the Joy of Happy Hour

Winers are Winners

See my Cocktails blog for information on getting ten bucks off a Hip Tastes wine tasting in San Francisco this Friday.

Dear Ray Ban Sunglasses:

This has got to be the most out-of-touch advertisement I've seen in a while. Saxophone? Maybe it's time to get out of the 1980's. Yoy.

Tracky

I spend a lot of time reading the show schedules for music venues in the alternative weeklies, and every time I skip a week a show I want to see sells out before I'm aware of it.

So this thing is pretty cool. It's called Track50, and so far it's only available for the Bay Area. You put in the names of bands you want to see, and when they're coming to the area you get an alert.

Press!

Hey look, more press- an article in AM New York about saving money with me under the umbrella of "experts say." Woot!

It's Electric!

My gas and electricity bill is usually quite high for a one-bedroom apartment. But this month I dropped it by about 15 dollars based on a tip I read:

Even if you leave your computer on all the time, you should plug your peripherals- printer, scanner, speakers, etc., into a separate power strip that you can turn off when you're not around.

I have a big-ass set of speakers attached to my computer- each one has it's own power cord- so I know those puppies were costing me money when I wasn't using them as they're on all the time. I wasn't totally diligent in turning them off every night, but even doing it 60% of the time I reduced a good portion of my power bill.

So look into it.

My Space for Advertising

I read an article about how putting up a MySpace page for your book helps sales, so I've done that and basically spammed everyone with "Rockstar" in their user name to be my friend. As I get about 10 band friend requests and 15 fake profiles that link to porn sites every week, I don't feel too bad about inflicting myself on others.

Linkage

The good thing about personal finance is that there is tons of free information about it online. Of course, most of these Web sites are about investing and mutual funds and NASDAQ and reverse mortgages and other things you and I are much to poor to be concerned with. I invest in paying the rent and not starving to death, have a couple of bucks automatically deducted for my 401(k) each month, spend way too much money on drinks, and then if I have anything left over, I put it in my savings account to spend it on drinks next month.

As I’ve tried to covey as much as possible in this column, there are millions of ways to save on everyday expenses, including rent and food and drinks, for those of us living paycheck-to-paycheck, hand-to-mouth, month after month. And though I try to share as much as I can here, you probably have expenses that I don’t have, and vice versa. I don’t own a car, so I’m not going to tell you how to save on gas. You probably don’t collect used books about pirates, so you won’t want to read about that.

The easiest way to save money on something is to Google “how to save money on something,” and you’re almost guaranteed to find some cheap ways of doing it. But sometimes you need reminders and new ideas. Below are resources on the Web to check regularly to find ways of saving money on things you might not know it’s possible to save money on. Bookmark them and check them when you have extra time to goof off (like at work). You’ll probably know by the title of the articles on each site if you want to read them, so most of the time going through the list will only take a few minutes.

Read the Rest of the Story (with links) here.

I briefly mention WikiHow in the article, but it's my favorite new website for thrifty fun. Here are a few examples of articles you'll find on the site:
How To:
Survive a Freestyle Rap Battle

Fix a Scratched CD

Run up a Wall and Flip

Cool Yourself Without Air Conditioning

Deal With Being in Prison

Exercise While Sitting at Your Computer