fyre asst has sent you an article from  .this is kind of what makes me nervous about google voice.... are they keeping this data to understand connections? |
| technology Google's Trojan Horse Did the search giant just sneakily launch a Facebook killer? By Farhad Manjoo Posted Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 12:39 PM ET For years, Google has had me all wrong. Type my name into the search engine and, amid a catalog of my many amazing achievements, you'll find the most scurrilous stuff: Thi! s guy thinks I'm an idiot, someone else says I'm misguided, and Wikipedia calls me "an avid Facebook enthusiast," which is a crude exaggeration. I'm not alone; for many people, vanity searching can be an irresistible but crushing exercise, like asking a plastic surgeon to scrutinize your face. Is that really how the world sees me? You're shattered if Google says something nasty about you, but you're also shattered if Google says nothing about you. It's no wonder that "online reputation management" is a growth industry. Now Google itself is offering some solace. Last week, the company gave self-Googlers more power to control their online image. Now, in addition to e! verything else that Google turns up on a vanity search, it will also display a link to your Google Profile—a page that Google is encouraging everyone to create. Type in "farhad manjoo," and at the bottom of the first page you'll see a link to my profile, which leaves out the nasty bits—I tell the world about my job, my schooling, my link-blog, and my book but not that some people on the Web have accused me of villainy. In a blog post, Brian Stoler, a Google software engineer, wrote that the company is a dding profiles to search results in order to "give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name." That sounds sensible enough. But some observers see a more ambitious agenda. Why would Google want to encourage people to create profiles of themselves? Because it aims to take on Facebook. By promising improved vanity searches, the thinking goes, Google is getting us to tell the company a lot more about ourselves. In the process, it's garnering enough information to build the world's largest social network—and make a fortune besides. If the speculation proves true, Google's plan would be both deviously brilliant and also a little scary. Why would Google want a social network? To get to know you better—and, thus, to serve you more profitable ads. Google has long made gobs of money by running ads based on search keywords—if y! ou search for "shoes," Google runs spots for Zappos and DSW, and it makes a few cents if you click on them. But last month Google announced that it would join many of its rival Web companies in adopting "behavioral targeting," a method of serving ads that relies on a much more extensive picture of your online activity. In the future, instead of showing you an ad targeted simply to your search keyword, Google might look at everything it has learned about you over an extended period of time in order to give you a message better-tailored to your interests. If you type in "shoes," Google might be able to tell if you're a nurse who lives in New York or a construction worker who lives in Miami—and would show you shoe ads customized to your character. (Se! e this blog post for instructions on how to manage or opt out of Google's new ad plan.) Here's where the social network might come in. Google already knows a lot about you; through its search engine, its vast advertising network, and its many Web applications (Gmail, YouTube, etc.), the company can probably already glean enough information about a Web surfer to be able to tell the difference between a nurse and a construction worker. But a Google social network would add one more dimension to the picture—it could mine your relationships, too. So if it found that your buds totally love Judd Apatow comedies, it might guess that you'd like them, too—and thus show you an ad for Funny People the next time you visit YouTube. You might notice a couple of problems with this theory. First, Facebook, MySpace, and other networks can already examine your rel! ationships—and none of them has seen anything near the financial success that social-networking evangelists have long promised. Indeed, as I argued a couple weeks ago, it's still a mystery whether sites like Facebook, which spend vast amounts on infrastructure to host all the junk you put online, will ever see huge profits. That's because advertisers are wary of running spots alongside user-generated content. So if other social sites haven't managed to turn your relationships into billions, how would Google succeed? Because Google controls a much larger swath of the Web than its rivals. Facebook can use what it knows about your relationships to serve you targeted ads on—well, pretty much just on Facebook. That isn't much use, because people aren't very interested in commerce when they're checking in with their friends. But Google operates the Web's most far-reaching advertising network, so whatever it ! learns about you while you're interacting with your friends can be use d to target you later on, while you're in some more ad-friendly part of the Web—when you're reading the New York Times, or watching YouTube, or searching for a Mother's Day present. By using your "social graph" as just one factor in a much larger behavioral profile, the company could finally turn social-networking into a killer business. The possibility of Google getting into the social-networking business might sound vaguely familiar. That's because it's happened before—and it didn't work. In 2004, the company launched Orkut, a social network along the lines of Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook. Orkut took off in Brazil and India, where it remains quite popular, but it fizzled in much of the rest of the world. Many of Google's other social ventures have proved similarly unspectacular. Last summer, for instance, Google launched an abysmal 3-D virtual-world called Lively; in the fall, it shuttered the project. But to profit from your relationships, Google doesn't necessarily need to build a social network that you find fun—that is, it doesn't have to build an alternative to Facebook. Instead, all it really needs is to get you to tell it more about your connections. I'll bet that a promise of improved vanity search results will be enough to bring a lot of people on board. Indeed, even if you're not so vain, it makes good sense to set up a page on Google. A Google Profile is a good way to present your best side to potential employers, prospective dates, future in-laws, or your parole board—anyone you'd like to impress. Why wouldn't you sign up? And you might find yourself giving Google a lot of personal info, too. In setting up my profile, I hand! ed Google the links to my pages at Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed. By analyzing those sites—not to mention everything that it already knows about my contacts through my activity at Gmail and Google Voice—the company could probably create a startlingly precise map of my friends and family. You can think of it as a shadow social network: All of a sudden, Google has the ability to traverse my entire social circle, and I didn't even have to approve a single friend request. Farhad Manjoo is Slate's technology columnist and the author of True Enough: Learning To Live in a Post-Fact Society. You can e-mail him at farhad.manjoo@slate.com.Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2217232/ |
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Slate Article: Google's Trojan Horse
Slate Article: The Name's Du Xiao Hua, But Call Me Steve
| fyreasst has sent you an article from . as i was saying.... |
| culturebox The Name's Du Xiao Hua, But Call Me Steve What's up with Chinese people having English names? By Huan Hsu Posted Monday, April 27, 2009, at 6:04 PM ET Texas state Rep. Betty Brown suggested recently that Asian-Americans should change their names because they're too difficult to pronounce. During public testimony for a voter-ID bill, she asked political activist Ramey Ko (who happens to be my cousin) why Chinese people don't adopt names for "identification purposes" that would be "easier for Americans to deal! with." I know I should denounce Brown's coded use of "American" and p oint out that Ramey and Ko are both easier to handle than, say, Zbigniew and Brzezinski. But, mainly, I'm struck by how dramatically Brown misjudged her audience. If she wants to peddle her renaming plan, she should do it in China. When I moved to Shanghai about a year ago, I figured my name would finally seem "normal." No longer would it be the albatross of my childhood in Utah—making me stand out among the Johns, Steves, and Jordans. But when I introduced myself, I was met with blank stares, double takes, and requests for my English name. People—Chinese people—often wondered whether I were being patronizing, like the fabled Frenchman who icily responds in English to an earnest American's attempts to get directions en français. My company almost didn't process my paperwork because I left the box for "English name" blank. "You don't have an English name?" the HR woman gasped. "You should really pick one." She then wai! ted for me to do just that, as if I could make such an important existential decision on the spot; I told her I'd get back to her. People—Chinese people—had trouble recalling my name. One guy at work, a Shanghai-born VP, called me "Steve" for almost three months. At my workplace, which is 90 percent mainland Chinese, just about everyone I interacted with had an English name, usually selected or received in school. The names ran the gamut, from the standard (Jackie, Ivy) to the unusual (Sniper, King Kong), but what really struck me was how commonly people used them when addressing one another, even when the rest of the conversation was in Chinese. To sort out how English names became necessities in China, I recently spent an afternoon with Laurie Duthie, a UCLA doctoral candidate in anthropology who's finishing up her dissertation in Shanghai. Duthie has studied Chinese white-collar workers since 1997 and traces the popularity of English names in China back to the! influx of foreign investment following Deng Xiaoping's market reforms. With foreign investment came foreigners, and many of Duthie's research participants told her that they got tired of outsiders butchering their Chinese names, so they adopted English ones. "If Betty Brown's your boss, or if your boss can't say Du Xiao Hua, I'd want to change my name, too," says Duthie. Increasingly, these bosses are Chinese, yet the English names persist, in part because English tends to be the lingua franca for business technology, and even native Chinese often find it more efficient to type, write, or sign documents in English. Using English names also creates a more egalitarian atmosphere. Most forms of address in China reinforce pecking orders, such as "Third Uncle" and "Second Daughter" at home or "Old Wang" or "Little Hu" in the village square. Your given name—customarily said in full, surname first—is reserved for use by those with equal or higher social sta! nding, and the default honorific for an elder or superior is "Teacher"—no surprise in a country that reveres education. But an English name, other than separating those with and without such names, frees users from these cultural hierarchies. Given the nationalism I've witnessed in China, I was a bit surprised at how readily Chinese adopted Western names. (Even my Americanized parents were uncomfortable with the idea of me changing my name. They said I could do as I wished when I turned 18, though always in a tone that suggested such an unfilial act would cause them to die of disappointment.) But Duthie's participants insisted that taking an English name isn't kowtowing, nor is it simply utilitarian. Rather, it's essential to being Chinese and achieving Chinese goals. Whereas in the past patriotism was expressed by self-sacrifice, it is now expressed! through economic activity. So by working for, say, 3M, Chinese citize ns are helping to build up China, and the English names they take on in the process are as patriotic as Cultural Revolution-era monikers like Ai Guo (Loves China) or Wei Dong (Mao's Protector). Taking English names also fits with various traditional Chinese naming practices. In the past, children were given "milk names" when they were born, and then public names once they started school. Professionals and scholars used pseudonyms, or hao, that signified membership in an educated class. Confucius, born Kong Qiu, sometimes wrote under his zi, or courtesy name, Zhongni. Even now, Chinese sometimes take new names to mark the start of a new job, entry to graduate school, or a marriage, as my coworkers Alpha and Beta did. They subsequently named their son Gamma. (For the record, Alpha is the male.) For now, English names remain limited to those living in urban areas or with access to education—ask a migrant worker for his English name and you'll ge! t a quizzical look. But as China globalizes, more and more Chinese pass through checkpoints where they'll acquire English names. Since 2001, all primary schools have been required to teach English beginning in the third grade (for big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, lessons start in first grade), and parents regularly choose English names for their children. China now churns out approximately 20 million English speakers each year, and the estimated number of English learners in China is in the hundreds of millions. In fact, there are probably as many Chinese who can read this sentence as Americans. In the United States, people tend to view names and identities as absolute things—which explains why I agonized over deciding on an English name—but in China, identities are more amorphous. My friend Sophie flits amongst her Chinese name, English name, MSN screen name, nicknames she uses with her friends, and diminutives that her parents call her. "They're all me," sh! e says. "A name is just a dai hao." Dai hao, or code name, can also refer to a stock's ticker symbol. I still haven't gotten around to choosing an English name. Maybe my being Chinese-American makes me feel like I already have enough identities, or maybe I've at last outgrown my childhood angst. The other day, I asked my friend Zhengyu, a fellow American in China who also doesn't have an English name, why he had never picked one. "At some point I just stopped caring about it," he said. "I like my name, and I think it would be odd to hear another name identified with me." I have to agree with him. After all these years, I've learned to treat my name like a big nose or a conspicuous birthmark—not my favorite feature, but a part of me all the same. Huan Hsu is a writer in Shanghai.Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2217001/ |
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Levitt Shell schedule posted
I think I see a Friday and a Saturday show that we will want to go to for sure... we'll be gone for a good chunk of it, though.
Monday, April 27, 2009
fyre@asst.com sent you a link to content of interest
Buttermilk Ice Cream recipe
http://www.eatingwellanywhere.com/?p=456
The sender also included this note:
new recipe for you?
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Slate Article: Scratch That
| fyre asst. has sent you an article from . time to start making bagels! |
| food Scratch That How cost-effective is it to make homemade pantry staples? By Jennifer Reese Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at 12:17 PM ET Although I love to cook, I've always secretly, darkly, suspected it is costlier to craft at home what you can buy at Ralph's. Obviously, homemade bread tastes better than Wonder, but does playing Martha Stewart really save you money? While packaged food is mostly lousy, some of it can be spectacularly inexpensive. Out of work and increasingly obsessed with our grocery budget, I decided to test my intuition and run a cost-benefit analysis on how much I'd save�! ��if anything—by making from scratch six everyday foods that I usual ly purchase from Safeway and my local bakery. Except where noted, I chose the most affordable products and ingredients available (i.e., the 10-pound sack of generic sugar instead of a tiny pouch of organic cane sugar from Whole Foods) and priced everything down to the last grain of salt. Based on an estimate from my utility company, it costs around 32 cents per hour to run an electric oven. To melt butter slowly over a gas burner: 9 cents per hour. To boil water, more like 14 cents per hour. I take it as a given that everyone knows better than to quit their job—any job—to take up cracker-baking, so I attached no value to time. I happen to love messing around in the kitchen. Here's what I found: Bagels Cheaper than store-bought? Dramatically. If you break down the cost of Clayton's recipe, it works out to 23 cents per bagel. Moreover, if you use bulk yeast, which you should if you do much baking, the price drops to 15 cents. By comparison, one of Thomas' so-called "bagels" is 45 cents. A fresh bagel from Noah's in San Francisco: 75 cents. At H&H Bagels in New York City: $1.20! Better than store-bought? These are by far the best bagels I've ever eaten. Make or buy? Make. Cream Cheese Cheaper than store-bought? No. Homemade costs more than Philadelphia brand and almost twice as much as Safeway generic. Make or buy? Buy. Yogurt Cheaper than store-bought? Shockingly, yes, and by a lot. The ingredients to make 4 cups of ambrosial yogurt cost roughly $1.75. The cheapest, most insipid quart of factory-made yogurt that I found locally: $2.50. Better? Much better. By comparison, even premium brands seem thin, sour, and harsh. The only product that comes close—Greek yogurt—costs more than four times as much. Make or buy? Make. Jam Cheaper than store-bought? Depends. My organic strawberry jam cost slightly more than the corn-syrup-sweetened Safeway brand but less than the premium Bonne Maman. Better than store-bought? Yes—brighter, tarter, fresher—though a kid would never notice in a peanut butter sandwich. Make or buy? If I'd stopped with the strawberry, I might have said buy. But when my father brought over a crate of Meyer lemons from his tree, I spontaneously made nine jars of rockin' marmalade. Now that was some exotic, crazy-good jam. It wound up costing $1.50 a jar—and most of that was jar. Safeway doesn't sell lemon marmalade, so I tracked down a petite jar at a fancy grocery store in Berkeley, Calif.: $13.50. I know. You don't have free lemons, so what's the point of this smug anecdote? One day you will have a lot of free fruit on your hands, and that's when you make jam. It's probably how jam was invented. My conclusion: Make it, but only when the fruit is free or close to it. Crackers Cheaper than store-bought? A wash. Both "rich crackers" and Safeway's Ritz knockoffs cost about 2 cents per cracker. Better than store-bought? Again, a wash. My crackers had a flaky home-baked je ne sais quoi, but they lacked the inimitable factory crunch. Make or buy? Probably buy. It's more fun to spend your time making something people will really go crazy over, like Alton Brown's granola. Granola Cheaper than store-bought? At $1.45 per cup, no. Thanks largely to the staggering price of maple syrup, Brown's granola costs roughly three times what you pay for Quaker 100% Natural. But when compared with a premium brand like Bear Naked, which works out to around $1.70 per cup, Brown's granola begins to seem more reasonable. Plus, you can customize your granola, making it sweeter, omitting raisins, adding chocolate chips … Better? Vastly. World-beating, super-crunchy cereal, worth every calorie and penny. Make or buy? Make it. Budget be damned. The experiment wasn't a complete victory for the home cook, but it came remarkably close. Stupid cream cheese. That a human being can generally produce tastier food than a factory is hardly surprising, but while I desperately hoped it would be cheaper to cook at home, I was shocked when, in many cases, it actually was. It's one thing to eat runny yogurt and flaccid bagels because they're a bargain; it's another entirely to pay for the privilege. My verdict: If you've been eyeing some intimidating culinary project—mozzarella, marshmallows, vanilla?—give it a try. It might be fun, it might be delicious, and it might very well save you some money. Jennifer Reese, former book critic for Entertainment Weekly, blogs at the Tipsy Baker.Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2216611/ |
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Mexican Lemons To the Rescue
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
Thanks to a comment on this post, I've had a chance to read this interesting article from Stephen Johnson of Bristol-Myers Squibb, entitled "The Trouble with QSAR (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Embrace Fallacy)". (As a side note, it's interesting to see that people still make references to the titling of Dr. Strangelove. I've never met Johnson, but I'd gather from that that he can't be much younger than I am).
The most arresting part of the article is the graph found in its abstract. No mention is made of it in the text, but none has to be. It's a plot of the US highway fatality rate versus the tonnage of fresh lemons imported from Mexico, and I have to say, it's a pretty darn straight line. I've seen a lot shakier plots used to justify some sweeping conclusions, and if those were justified, well, then I'm forced to conclude that Mexican lemons have improved highway safety a great deal. The vitamin C, maybe? The fragrance? Bioflavanoids?
None of the above, of course. Correlation, tiresomely, once again refuses to imply causation, even when you ask it nicely. And that's the whole point of the article. QSAR, for those outside the business, stands for Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship(s), an attempt to rationalize the behavior of a series of drug candidate compounds through computational means. The problem is, there are plenty of possible variables (size, surface area, molecular weight, polarity, solubility, charge, hydrogen bond donors and acceptors, and as many structural representation parameters as you can stand). As Johnson notes dryly:
" With such an infinite array of descriptions possible, each of which can be coupled with any of a myriad of statistical methods, the number of equivalent solutions is typically fairly substantial."
That it is. And (as he rightly mentions) one of the other problems is that all these variables are discontinuous. Some region of the molecule can get larger, but only up to a point. When it's too large to fit into the binding site any more, activity drops off steeply. Similarly, the difference between forming a crucial hydrogen bond and not forming one is a big difference, and it can be realized by a very small change in structure and properties. (Thus the "magic methyl" effect).
But that's not the whole problem. Johnson takes many of his fellow computational chemists to task for what he sees as sloppy work. Too many models are advanced just because they've shown some (limited) correlations, and they're not tested hard enough afterwards. Finding a model with a good "fitness score" becomes an end in itself:
"We can generate so many hypotheses, relating convoluted molecular factors to activity in such complicated ways, that the process of careful hypothesis testing so critical to scientific understanding has been circumvented in favor of blind validation tests with low resulting information content. QSAR disappoints so often, not only because the response surface is not smooth but because we have embraced the fallacy that correlation begets causation."
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Here's What A Card Skimmer Looks Like On An ATM [Skimmers]
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
A lot of you have been asking to see what a skimmer looks like before it's yanked off an ATM. Are they easy to spot or virtually unnoticeable? Our reader Timeus works for a bank and deals with this sort of thing every day, and he sent in the following photos. Enjoy.
He writes,
Now, let me explain some of the pictures. The scary thing when it comes to skimming device problems is that, the skimming device itself is only half the battle, per se. Take the following example.
See that gray rectangular box? That box was attached to the lighting above the ATM screen. If you look closely, you see a small pinhole in that box? There is a camera in that box, aimed right down at the ATM keypad where people enter their pin codes. Here's this device pulled off, sitting on the ground upside down, to show you the camera, with its Sony Lithium-Ion battery powering it.
[Editor's note: another reader, Will Z, sent us a link to a tiny battery-powered video camera he found through a simple Google product search. It looks strikingly familiar.]
Also included are pictures of the skimmer on the ATM, as some members of the site had asked to see, as well as the skimmer when it was removed.
The strange thing that gives this away to me as a skimming device is that the skimmer itself appears to be a part of what we call a Dip-Reader. A Dip Reader is where you slide your card in and out, like on the card reader you see in this picture of a Shell Gas Station card reader:
The other type of Card reader we use is what we call a motorized reader, where you slide your card in, and the machine takes the complete card, and then ejects it when you're done with your transactions. From the pics of this location, they stuck the housing for a dip-reader onto an ATM that has a motorized reader. That's a huge red flag to me, had I been someone who walked up to use this ATM before the reader was found.
Timeus also points out that even though the standard customer service rep may have no idea how to respond to your call if you try to report a suspected tampering, the bank's ATM security people will definitely want to know. He left a lot of good information in the comments to this post, so we've collected it together below for easier access.
I won't lie, skimming devices are still uncommon to come across. I can't tell you how many times we've spoken to a technician who says, "Well what do you know? I've heard of these things but this is the first time I ever saw one, what do you want me to do with it?" Not to scare anyone, but I've spoken to more than one police officer who has said, "Ok, what do you want us to do with it?"
The bank has to tell these people what to do with them, a lot of the time. Some PD will hold the device as evidence while our investigations unit tries to build a case and find out who was responsible, some PD simply destroy it, it seems to vary frm one police department to the next.
[...]
If we get notified, we can begin notifying all potentially affected customers and begin the process of safeguarding their accounts. If we don't get notified, potentially hundreds, maybe thousands of accounts are at risk for fraud depending on how busy a particular ATM is.
[...]
We have procedures for situations where an ATM skimming device is found. There's almost always a number on the ATM to call in the case of any emergency, that goes directly to our Corporate Security Department. They will contact us, unless a customer gets to my department first via Customer Service. We would immediately shutdown the ATM, dispatch a Second level technician to the site to evaluate the situation, remove the device, and send out a Privacy Event Notification to our investigations department as well as dispatch the police to meet our vendor tech on-site. We would also pull all ATM logs and submit that information with the Privacy Event Notification to notify all customers who were potentially effected.
In the future, if you ever come across a skimming device on an ATM, if you have the time, I know we appreciate a call to be notified. Trust me when I say, when a device is found, "alarm and whistles" go off in my department, upper management is notified and everyone gets involved.
In other words, if you end up talking to a standard CSR who doesn't get what the big deal is, try to find a way to reach the bank's security or fraud department instead.
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Michael Ruhlman on Freeing Yourself from Recipes [Cooking]
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
If Michael Ruhlman's done his job, your cookbooks might become obsolete—at least for everyday cooking. Here's what the food writer said over email about ratios, the foundation of all your food.
Foodies might recognize Ruhlman from his non-fiction accounts of training at the Culinary Institute of America, working with Thomas Keller at the world-renowned French Laundry restaurant and writing its lavish cookbook, and his culinary take on recreating the writer's bible, Strunk & White's "Elements of Style," for the home cook with The Elements of Cooking. TV junkies might better know him for his judging stints on The Next Food Network Star or Cooking Under Fire, or his guest appearances with fellow prose-friendly cook Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.
Ruhlman's latest work, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, aims to reeducate the home chef and open their minds to the idea of cooking without a line-by-line recipe; to instead learn the basic formulas of five food groups (doughs, stocks, sausages, sauces, and custards), and then improvise and experiment from there on out. Chefs know these ratios, even if they don't call them ratios, and they're a big part of why they can vary a menu and branch out without fear.
The topic sounded like an ideal kitchen hack to us, so we asked Ruhlman to trade a few email questions about cooking and writing with us. He kindly responded, and the transcript follows:
Lifehacker: What does learning the ratio of a dish or food type, as opposed to knowing a great/grandma's recipe, allow you to do differently?
Michael Ruhlman: It allows you to improvise. It allows you to take a basic preparation like quickbreads and apply any flavor you want to it. It allows you to cook without recipes
Lifehacker: Why has the average home cook been left in the dark about the fundamentals of cooking by ratios? Has this knowledge been hard to come by, or just considered too wonky for most everyday cooks?
Michael Ruhlman: I don't know why. A recent Wall Street Journal article describing an upswing in cooking intuitively suggested we got hooked on recipes because of Fannie Farmer. Processed foods and cake mixes lead us to believe that we couldn't do it on our own, and we believed the companies selling us the mixes.
Lifehacker: Can you give an example of a ratio that lets an everyday cook get creative?
Michael Ruhlman: Well, to use the quickbread ratio: 2 parts flour and liquid, 1 part egg and butter. That will give you a perfect muffin or, baked in a loaf pan, a quickbread. Now, you also need to have a little technique and common sense. A teaspoon of baking powder for every 5 ounces (cup) of flour is needed for leavening, a pinch of salt for flavor, but that's it. If you want a lemon-lime cake, add lemon and lime juice and zest; vanilla is always good, or add lemon and popyseeds, add cranberry and orange, blueberries, bananas. Make a savory quick bread with cumin coriander and ginger to accompany a dal. (Secret: If you season the batter with a little sugar and vanilla and pour it on a griddle, you have perfect pancakes. That savory quickbread suggestion? Pour it over corn or peas, just enough to bind them, spoon the mixture into hot oil for amazing fritters).
That's what ratios allows you to do.
Lifehacker: Stepping away from food for a minute: How do you go about organizing and outlining a book like Ratio or The Elements of Cooking?
Michael Ruhlman: I don't know! You just start and if it doesn't make sense, fix it! Ratio started out completely different, with stocks. But by the end, I realized that doughs and batters were the most important, so I led with that.
Lifehacker: What tools, computer or otherwise, help you research and organize notes, and run a line through them?
Michael Ruhlman: I use a computer and a kitchen scale.
Lifehacker: Your work usually takes high-end culinary experiences—training at the Culinary Institute of America, working with famous chefs, the elements of cooking—and creating a teachable, but not textbook, narrative out of them. How do you know when you've done that? What kind of goal do you set for yourself in turning something like charcuterie into plain speak?
Michael Ruhlman: I write books because I don't know the answer to something. I write to explore. When I know the answer to my own questions, then I go and write. And if it doesn't bore me to death when I reread, I know I'm on the right track.
Lifehacker: What kind of food resources—books, websites, etc.—do you turn to when you're researching or just digging around online? What kind of stuff do you try to avoid?
Michael Ruhlman: For food: McGee (On Food & Cooking), Food Lover's Companion are my two most turned-to books, and the internet. Or I call or write to people who know the answer.
Lifehacker: Finally, because we have to ask: Mac or PC? And what kind of gadgets can't you live without?
Michael Ruhlman: I'm 100% Mac. (Other than that), kitchen scale, instant read thermometer, and I'm really liking my iPhone (the "Units" app is great).
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112 Ways To Save Money [Saving Money]
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
You guys are some thrifty freakazoids. We asked you to submit your money-saving secrets and you dumped like 35 elephants on our heads in comments and emails. We've trimmed that down to 112 . Here they are! Enjoy your savings.
TRICK PEOPLE OBSESSED WITH BRAND-NAMES
My wife is all about brand-names. She wants Tide - nothing else. Tide is $12 a bottle and Purex is like $7. When we are almost out of 'Tide', I go buy Purex and pour it in the Tide bottle. We have had the same bottle of 'Tide' for about 7 months. They change packaging now and then so occasionally I still need to buy the real stuff.
THE ZEN OF CONSUMPTION
Don't buy more than you can use; use everything you buy.
HOST A SWAP PARTY WITH FRIENDS
Trade with friends. Hold a swap and give away stuff while you dig through someone else's stuff, too. FREE rocks!
KILL YOUR CABLE
Cut loose that sacred cow of budgets: your cable TV. Use sites like www.hulu.com and watch shows on network websites for FREE. Sign up for www.redbox.com and get one free movie on Monday. Every week. For FREE.
STICK PENS IN MICROWAVE TO GET LAST INK
When your pen ceases to write, it probably still has a great deal of ink in it that is just stuck temporarily. instead of throwing it out, stick your pen in the microwave for 10 seconds to get that ink running again.
BECOME A HAGGLE-MONSTER
Negotiate everything! You've got the money, and they have the service. So always ask if that's the best they can do. I've had a lot of success with the cable company, and when buying things at big box electronics store. At J Crew the other day, I found out they offered student discounts. So my advice is to always try to negotiate. My next target: Verizon Wireless.
PRICEBOOKING
Rough pricebooking. I know, I know, really frugal types keep actual price books and note the tiniest fluctuations from store to store on every product. I don't have that kind of time. Instead, I look to general indicator products I buy frequently and many stores carry in order to gauge which stores are generally the best deal. For example, Kraft Mac and Cheese fluctuates in my area between 50c and 75c a box, but there are two stores of the same chain near me, and one has it between 50 and 60 cents and the other between 65 and 75 cents. Stores in more affluent areas often jack up prices, so it's worth keeping an eye on that sort of thing.
CREDIT CARDS ONLY IN SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Credit cards are only for cash not on hand, not on-the-spot loans. Use them online, use them in stores instead of carrying cash, but don't rack up charges you can't immediately cover. Don't assume that the money will come, because you never know when catastrophe will hit and a job will be lost, a car will need sudden repair, or a medical bill might hit.
DON'T BUY KIDS' CLOTHES NEW
Do not buy children's clothes, especially infant clothes, first-hand unless they are a gift or some kind of special souvenir.
DIY OR DIE 4EVA
When possible, make instead of buying. But don't be suckered into spending a fortune on craft tools you don't really need. For basic home crafts like knitting, sewing, etc., you can easily get away with just a few bucks on inexpensive supplies and tools and then delight your friends and family with home-made gifts.
DIY EYE GLASSES LENS CLEANER:
Just mix 50/50: Rubbing Alcohol and Sterile or Deionized Water. Pour into travel hand pump containers.
Eye glasses lens cleaner is 2.99 for 4-oz. Sure, soap and water works, but not if you're our-doors or when it's not available. This recipe is so cheap, and it works great.
CHEAP TEA
When I make a pot of tea (after letting it steep) I pour a cup of tea and then top off the pot again with more hot water (leaving the tea bags in place to continue steeping).
CHEAP WARMTH
It was a long, brutal winter. Instead of cranking up the thermostat on cold nights my husband and I invested in a very nice electric blanket.
GET THIS BOOK
Borrow a copy of "The Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn from your local public library. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest. You may even be able to pick up a free copy from Freecycle.org (another useful site forsaving money and doing good).
BRUSH WITHOUT TOOTHPASTE
Clean your teeth with a combination of salt and baking soda. Doesn't taste as good as toothpaste, but is much cheaper and better for your gums (my late husband was a dentist and I owe this one to him - he died at age 89 with all his teeth in his head!)
TURN DOWN THE HEAT
Turn down the thermostat on your water heater. 120 deg F is hot enough and you save a lot by not heating to 140 deg. F.
BUY A $5 ROTISSERIE CHICKEN
My wife and I buy a $5 rotisserie chicken from the store ($3 if it is one day old), and eat the white meat for a dinner. Next, we pick off all the meat we can, and cook the skin, bones, etc in a stockpot or pressure cooker. This garners about 2 quarts of wonderful broth, which freezes well. $5 can make the basis for 6 meals in our household.
Even cheaper is frozen chicken, but who has the time!
DIY BROTH
Making your own broth or stock needs a comeback. We currently have 4 quarts of broth in our freezer, plus a gallon of chicken soup made from some other broth, in addition to 2 quarts of chili, all in Foodsaver bags.
SAVE BY DELAYING
Consider the future: most new release movies are between $18-20, wait a couple months and most will drop to $10-12. Walmart's $5 bin!
The obvious one: If you don't NEED it, or you can live without it, then don't buy it, at least right now. Wait on it and see how badly you want it, and when you have a little extra, go for it. That way you're not just spending on impulse, you know you really want it and it will be worth the money.
DON'T BUY PRE-CUT FRUIT
Don't buy pre-cut fruit, buy the whole fruit. You save a couple dollars every time.
EDITED BLUE-CHEESE DRESSING
If you like blue cheese dressing, but find the price in grocery stores a bit too much ( a bit too blue cheesy), do what a lot of restaurants do- cut it with mayonnaise. A regular sized blue cheese dressing cut with equal amount of regular mayonnaise will literally double the amount you get, and the flavor is much better. I reuse old mayo containers to mix a batch up each time I buy a new blue cheese dressing.
REFILL YOUR OWN HOT SAUCE
Also, if you're a fan of the hot sauce with the whole peppers in vinegar, you can simply replace the vinegar 5 or 6 times with regular white vinegar, and stash in it the fridge for a few days. The result in exactly the same thing, less $3 for a new bottle.
DIY PAPER TOWELS
I saved a few of the cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls. I bought two yards of white cotton flannel (about $8) and cut it into paper-towel-sized squares. I did a fast zigzag stitch around the edges of each one (cutting and sewing took about two hours total) and rolled them up onto the tubes. I use them for anything you'd use a papertowel for. When they're dirty, I wash them in hot water with bleach, dry them in the dryer without a dryer sheet (so they'll be more absorbent) and roll them onto another tube. I'll never buy paper towels again. Cheap, and better for the environment, I think.
TREAT STAINS RIGHT AWAY
Use stain treatment sprays to prolong the life of your clothes. Treat stains right away. Laziness will lose your fave shirt....
PLAN YOUR MEALS
Plan your menu for at least one week at a time. This will prevent you from over-buying. Planning accounts for every penny.
DIY BREAD
Make your own bread. Not only will you feel super accomplished, but your bread will taste better than anything you can buy. Seriously....store bought bread sucks....Some to my house and have some of my bread. It'll make you slap your momma and leave home.
CLOTHESLINE
Use a clothesline. If for nothing else, then jeans and towels which take FOREVER in the dryer. Saves me about $50 a month.
SERGE YOUR SOCKS
My husband buys long tube socks for work. When his safety shoes' metal toe causes holes in the toe of the sock, he asks me to serge (sew and cut) the toe section off. When they finally become short as anklets, he then uses them for rags in the garage. I've been doing this for him for the last 20 years.
DIY WHITENING TOOTHPASTE
Instead of a whitening mouthwash, use a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide ($1.99/32 oz bottle) and water.
USE FARMER'S MARKETS
I like to go to farmers' markets and hunt for deals on certain foods that when purchased in moderate bulk can be very cheap. Also, if you get to know the vendors they will often give you a deal if you come back week after week. Trader Joe's is good too. I basically don't buy any prepared foods whether it's fresh or frozen. That can really drive up the cost.
CUT YOUR MEAT
I also cut down on my meat and fish consumption and try to eat meals with lots of veggies. Stews and soups are the most economical because it makes the most of a little meat and you can make a ton of it and freeze half.
EAT EGGS
Eggs. They're so cheap yet you can make so many delicious high-protein meals with them!
JACK ALL THE FREE SOAP IN A HOTEL ROOM
I travel for business A LOT. Every month or so at minimum, and sometimes I can be gone for most of an entire month. Therefore, I'm always at hotels. Most hotels give out free soap, shampoo, and conditioner, with maybe some lotion or mouthwash if you're lucky. I say that because I take them ALL and hoard them.
REACTIVATE YOUR SHAMPOO
When shampoo or bodywash is empty, place opening near showerhead and fill it with a little water. Swoosh it around a little and walah, you have more left and it seemingly works just as well.
"DISPOSABLE" RAZORS CAN LAST A LONG TIME
I get my disposable razors to last for 6+ months just by making sure they are wiped clean and dry when I finish shaving and it still doesn't nick me.
PUT A MASON JAR IN YOUR TOILET
Put one or two 1 quart mason jars in the tank of your toilet. If you keep the lid off the jars there will always be fresh water flowing into them and they won't get nasty, but they will save a quart of water for each jar you use everytime you flush the toilet.
REPLACE SCRUBS WITH HAND MITS
I used to buy an apricot scrub for my face. Instead of buying the scrub, I now use reusable hand mitts, whose texture exfoliates my skin. I bought them at a local pedicure place for $3. They work better and the cost of one bottle of the scrub is about the same for a pair of mitts.
YOU CAN ONLY FIT ONE EYEDROP IN YOUR EYE
If you use eyedrops for any reason, there's NO need to use more than 1 in each eye. My doctor told me recently that more than one drop cannot physically fit within the confines of your eyelid, and only one drop is enough to cover the entire surface of the eye. He said that drug companies always encourage you to use 2 or more in an effort to reel in more money at twice the rate necessary. So, whether it's an antibiotic drop for a pink eye infection or seasonal allergy drops, one in each eye is enough.
Mouth rinses (like Listerine) tell you to use a full capful. Half a capful is perfectly sufficient for me, and it might be just enough for you, too.
You'll cut down on sugar intake AND save money by watering down your juices halfway. This might sound disgusting at first, but after doing this for a few years, full-strength juices are way too sweet for me. A half cup of cranberry apple juice + a half cup of water = perfect. (Oh, and don't let Mott's assist you in the process and make you pay for it — do it yourself by only purchasing 100% juice.)
Do you love the scent of super-expensive laundry detergent but hate the price? Buy some of the cheaper unscented store-brand detergent, put about 1/3 of it into another container temporarily, and then replace the lost amount with the good-smelling expensive kind. Blend, and use. Your laundry will still smell the way you like it & it'll cost less over time.
SAVE 50-70% ON HOME IMPROVEMENT
If you're planning a home improvement project, check with Habitat For Humanity's "ReStore" Facilities in your area. Prices are 50-70% lower than they are elsewhere. http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore.aspx
Also, check with local builders for any properties that are going to get demolished. Old fixtures, tubs, etc. can sometimes be scavenged and sold at a profit or used in your own renovations.
INFLATE YOUR TIRES
Make sure your car tires are inflated to the proper pressure and tune up your car as per the manufacturer's specifications. Today's computer controlled cars do not operate at peak efficiency unless all of the sub-systems are in good working order.
KILL ANTS WITH BORIC ACID
Use boric acid instead of high-cost pesticides or traps to deter ants from coming into your house.
SAVE EVERY $5-BILL
I save every $5 bill I'm given. I collect them, deposit them into the bank, and then I put them into a high interest savings account. The result? I've saved almost $3,000.
People have said "why don't you just move a lump sum from checking to savings every month?" The problem is that human beings are bad at doing this. But we're good at saving small amounts - I hardly notice that my purchase "cost" an extra $5. And since the money goes through my checking account a second time so quickly I never am tempted to spend it.
RECORD EVERYTHING YOU SPEND
Feel the pain every time you spend $$$, no matter how small, by opening an account at xpenser.com (free) and getting into the habit of recording EVERY time you use cash or credit by sending them a text. you can also use email, twitter, etc. however texting would work best for most people since it takes a few seconds and they carry their cell phone with them everywhere. this system allows you to be completely honest about your expenses and lets you tag and track categories of spending. just logging into xpenser reminds you how wasteful (or frugal!) you are and can be a great tool.
GHETTO ICED LATTE
In the summer when you want an iced latte, but don't want to spend $5 order an 'iced doppio' which costs $2 and add your own milk. In the iced drinks they don't steam the milk, so you're paying $3 for them to put it into your glass for you.
MAKE THIS YOUR NEW CREDO
"If it's not on sale, it doesn't exist."
APPLE TV FTW
One way I saved money was to get rid of my satellite TV service and replace it with an Apple TV. The satellite was costing me $50 per month and now I budget $12 per month to rent movies over the internet.
BECOME THE CAULK OF THE WALK
Another way to save money for me was to buy a bunch of tubes of clear caulk (88 tubes) and caulk the heck out of my all electric ranch house. I caulked around the electrical outlet boxes, wall switch boxes, air registers, recessed ceiling lights and underneath the baseboards (behind the carpet). It took me a few days to do it all but Duke Energy's online analysis of my bill showed that it saved me $100 in January.
MAKE A GARDEN
I garden, starting my seeds indoors (not buying plants from a store/market). I also learned how to harvest seeds from my mature plants last year, so I didn't even need to buy seeds.
CAN IT
I learned how to can/preserve. So any surplus produce gets turned into sauces, or simply gets canned on its own.
RIDE YOUR BIKE
Ride your bicycle to work. No need to pay for gasoline or added depreciation, wear, and tear on your car. Your auto insurance company may also reduce your rate if you reduce your annual mileage.
DILUTE WINDEX
When Windex bottle is half empty, fill to brim with water — diluted Windex works just fine.
DAY OLDS
Buy day-old (price reduced) bread, rolls, pies and freeze.
FREEZE YOUR BERRIES
Buy on-sale berries in summer and freeze for year-round use.
CUT YOUR OWN HAIR
Do your own haircuts and coloring — not as hard as you might think!
GROOM YOUR OWN DOG
Learn to groom your dog yourself — we learned from an episode of "Dirty Jobs."
REUSE AMAZON BOXES
Re-use shipping boxes from Amazon.com to ship back items sold on Ebay.
GET A BIIIIIIIG BOTTLE OF KETCHUP
Buy industrial size ketchup containers in cans for $5 and then refill your individual bottles. These cans can be found at restaurant suppliers typically but can save a lot of money on ketchup, especially name brand like Heinz!
BUY NEARLY SPOILED MEET, THEN FREEZE TIME!
I've heard of people buying almost expiring meat products from the deli with the sticker reduced to 50 cents. A friend of mine grabs all of these, sticks them in the freezer and carefully eats them each week. He says once its frozen the ice prevents spoilage of the deli meat products.
MAKE SALADS LAST 10 DAYS
People I've shared this with don't seem to know that if they make a whole green-salad and put it into a ziploc-style bag as opposed to a tupperware-type container, the salad will last about 10 days! The trick to it is: 1)never, ever use a metal knife on lettuce- it oxidizes it and it turns brown. Use a plastic lettuce-knife, or do what I do- pretend it's a rich Wall Street exec and rip it to shreds. 2) You have to squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag as possible- simply lay it on the table, use your arm to push out the air and the other hand to zip it quick. Works like magic, and who needs stupid green bags, vacuum-seal bags, etc!
STOP DRINKING
I quit drinking for a month, and by a rough estimate, I saved probably $300-$350. Maybe I'm kind of an alky, but even people who drink moderately can save money by cutting down on drinking, or just drinking at home. Also, buy the cheap stuff. Booze tastes exactly the same with any mixer in it. Like, you probably won't notice the difference between Pinnacle vodka (12 bucks a bottle in WA, where I live) and Ketel One ($27 a bottle) if you're putting cranberry juice in it. Just a thought.
GET SCISSCORHAND ON YOUR CARDS
My buddy cut up his debit card. he has the info memorized so if he needs to order something online he can but he has to go to the bank to get $ to spend. this way unless he really needs it he doesn't feel like taking the time to go to the bank and also it completely curbs his late night spending
YOU REALLY CAN FIND IT ALL ON EBAY
If you know what you are doing, you can buy almost anything on Ebay cheaper than a store (be careful of shipping costs, but remember there is no sales tax). Ink cartridges, razor blades, clothes, shoes (all new and unused), sporting goods, electronics, car parts, etc. Many items are one-fourth to one-half of what you would otherwise pay.
LOSE THE LANDLINE
If possible, get rid of your landline telephone. Replace with VoIP, or cellphone depending on your needs. Getting VoIP has saved me several hundred dollars annually.
CUT YOUR PAPER TOWELS IN HALF, USE TWICE AS LONG
Cut your paper towel rolls in half. I know, short-sheet versions are sold now, but they cost more.
JUMBO BAG OF POTATOES
3 lb. bag of potatoes FTW! Seriously. Potato is the most flexible food in the world. A little garlic, milk, butter, salt and pepper... voila.
VISIT MUSEUMS ON FREE DAYS
Go to museums on "free" days, which are generally in the beginning or middle of the week, when people are less likely to take a day off. They also won't be as crowded either, especially if it's cold right now. Tourists only come when it's warm.
ALWAYS CHECK THE UNIT PRICES!
Look at unit prices every time you shop. The bigger package isn't always cheaper... and sometimes it was cheaper last week but not this week.
MAKE MULTIPLE MEALS AT THE SAME TIME
Cooking more than one meal. People who live alone complain "they don't want to cook for just want person." So I say don't. Cook, but cook several meals and portion them up into tupperwares.
If you're making chicken, rice, salads, etc - bake or grill a whole tray of it (or include other meats for variety) and save it. If I make something good, like barbecue chicken or green chili I certainly don't mind eating the same thing the day after for lunch.
On Sunday afternoons I usually grill some meats, hard boil some eggs, boil potatoes and rice and put it all in various size tupperwares. Then I have full meals I can grab, and stuff to snack on that isn't junk. (like cooked chicken with mustard.)
Great for at home, taking to work, and on the go. And I rarely eat fast food or junk food.
REUSE YOUR ZIPLOCS
I wash out my ziploc bags. You can turn them inside out and throw them in the wash when you do laundry. Hang 'em to dry and you'd never know they were in the washing machine.
DON'T BUY STUFF YOU CAN'T AFFORD
Seriously, 50% of the things people buy are not necessities. The way I've done it is to only spend cash. Yes, I carry a debit and credit card for emergencies, but I only spend cash. That way, if I want to buy something I either have to make a special trip, or I have to consider buying it, get cash from home (when I reconsider buying it), and then reconsider buying it again at the store. Most of the time, by the time I get home I've talked myself out of buying whatever it is I wanted because I don't really need it. If more people started using cash for their day-to-day expenses rather than just throwing that latte, lunch, and dinner on the debit or credit card they would save a ton of money.
WE LOVE COSTCO
Join a warehouse club like Costco or BJ's — or both. (I refuse to endorse anything related to Wal-Mart). The membership fees can easily pay for themselves... they do for us!
DID YOU FORGET HOW TO BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH?
I'll put in a plug for the Lunch in a Box blog [lunchinabox.net] , especially its FAQs and lists, for helpful lunch-bringing tips. The bento-esque approach is also useful for maximizing leftovers, because a tablespoonful is enough to stick in a lunch along with other stuff.
TEAR SNUGGLE'S SHEETS IN HALF
Make the Snuggle bear cry: tear those dryer sheets in half. A half works just as well as a whole on static and you won't go to work smelling like a field of chemical flowers.
PIMP YOUR OWN RIDE
Do your own auto maintenance. This requires a bit of up-front investment for some tools, but spending $75 on a quality socket set, an oil-filter wrench, and an oil pan will save you a lot down the road. For a filter and 4 1/2 quarts of oil I paid $18 as opposed to the $30 and up most places charge. I was quoted $500 for a brake caliper change that I did for less than $100 with some brake fluid and an aftermarket part from Checker.
SPLIT INTERNET WITH NEIGHBORS
Split your internet. This is a big one for apartments: If you can, hang up a flyer, set a secure WPA or WPA2 key, and charge them $5 or so a month. If someone abuses it, change the key and give it back out to those who are still using it.
LASER PRINTERS ARE CHEAPER
Buy a desktop laser printer, not an inkjet. Yes, the printer and toner are more expensive up-front but a typical toner cartridge pumps out 5,000+ sheets (as opposed to the roughly 500-100 that an ink cartridge can do). If a black cartridge costs $20 and the toner is $80, you've saved $120 or more. Plus toner cartridges don't dry out and look a hell of a lot more professional.
SAVE 50% ON HEATING WITH PROGRAMMABLE THERMOSTATS
Purchase a programmable thermostat and learn how to use it properly! This, combined with plastic on my windows, knocked my heating bill in my house down about 50%.
BUY FOOD ON FRIDAYS
I do my grocery shopping on Friday when the sales and specials come out. This means I have a fridge and cupboards full of food — no excuse to eat out, and on the weekends I have time to try new recipes or bake bread, make casseroles for busy nights.
LEARN TO SEW
Learn basic sewing - Doesn't have to be anything fancy just some needle and thread to sew on buttons or repair small tears along seams.
GET A BIG OL FREEZER AND FILL IT
Buy a large freezer and buy in bulk - over the long term this can save a lot of money. Have some freezer bags and foil at home, go out to a bulk store buy a 10 lb container of hamburger and break it up into 1 lb bags. Savings will add up quickly and you don't have to go out to shop as often. The more you go out to shop the more impulse buys you will make.
RICE IS NICE
Cook with Rice - rice is a great side dish or filler for almost any meal and it is VERY cheap it's also very healthy. If you do this on a regular basis a rice cooker may be a good investment as most double as vegetable steamers as well (vegetables are also great to buy in bulk frozen).
CHANGE YOUR OWN OIL
Learn to change your own oil for your car - when you do this buy a reusable oil pan (one that seals) so you can take the oil to a drop of for recycling.
FLASK IT
I know this sounds ghetto, but...before I go out on the night on the town I fill my flask with the strongest stuff I have in my liquor cabinet. This why I don't have to by drinks. Or if I'm going out to eat with friends, I try to eat something before leaving home so I just order a cheap appetizer when I'm out.
FIND THE CHEAP FAS
Use websites like www.gaspricewatch.com or www.gasbuddy.com to keep track of where the cheapest gas is in relation to where I am.
SAVE ON GAMES AND MOVIES WITH GAMEFLY AND NETFLIX
Gamefly and Netflix. I've saved hundreds in going to the movies and buying games cause of these services.
CEILING FANS
We installed ceiling fans in the bedroom and living room. They really help keep cooling costs down. Of course in the summer when it's hot, we'll use the AC at night but for just regulating temperature, the fans are perfect.
SAVE WITH PREPAID CELL SERVICE
Prepaid cellular is a great way to save money depending on you calling habits. The spouse and I average about $25 per month on calls, much cheaper than any standard post paid plan that I can find.
CLOTH DIAPERS
We just spent about $450 on diapers and wipes. How does that save any money? They're reusable, adjustable (one size fits all), cloth diapers and flannel wipes.
We expect our son to be in diapers for at least another 24 months, and given that we easily spend $70 a month on disposables, we should save at least $1200 in the long run. Plus the resale value of the bumgenius diapers is high, we can probably get $200-300 back when we're done, pushing our savings to $1400-1600.
DIY DRY CLEANING
Do you dry cleaning at home w/ a kit and an iron. You'd be shocked at how much you pay someone to do something this easy.
START A COSTCO POSSE
Create a "bulk club" - take 2-3 friends and split up bulk items (usually TP, paper towels, cleaners, etc) from Sams Club or Costco into usable amounts that won't take up all your space.
RESEARCH BEFORE YOU BUY
Avoid big purchases without researching prices on the internet first. If you know what it goes for in a retail location, you can ALWAYS find a better deal online.
CLOTHING SWAP SITES
Rehashclothes.com- this is a site where you can trade clothes, shoes, accessories, etc with others. All you do is agree on a trade with someone, and ship the items to them. So you get a new wardrobe for the cost of shipping.
DIVA CUP
For the ladies: Diva Cup. (Or Moon Cup)
BUY OUT OF STATE
Simply shopping online can be a huge money-saver. Since you can often avoid sales tax and shipping (which avoids gas cost of going to the store) you can save a lot.
Another option - especially for big ticket items and when you can't avoid paying sales tax online — research sales tax rates of your neighboring states. I live in Maryland and often go to Delaware (0% sales tax) to buy things. If you plan to buy a lot of things, the gas is definitely worth it!!!
USE IT ALL
I see a lot of blog entries and articles on how to save money on groceries but not a lot of ink is spilled on how not to waste what you spent so much energy getting on the cheap. Paying $1.00 a gallon for milk doesn't save you money if you end up throwing three gallons away because they spoiled before you could drink it all. And even the tiniest bit of something leftover - like 1/2 a cup of cooked squash or leftover oatmeal - can be saved and incorporated into another dish like muffins.
USE CFLS
Replace all the bulbs in your house to CFLs! A 20 watt bulb replaces a 75 watt incandescent and gives you 100 more lumens. Don't use the 75-100 watt equiv. where a 40 watt one will work (porch, fridge, hallway etc...) Over a 5 year period EACH incandescent will cost about $70 in fees while each CFL is about $20! (Not to mention replacement costs for regular bulbs.)
BUY FROM A BUTCHER
When buying meat, find a grocery store with a butcher. Buying more meat than you need wastes money. If your grocery store sells only prepackaged meat and you can't find the exact amount that you want, flag someone down that works there and have them check the back. The savings add up quickly.
DIY SWIFFER
Make your own swiffer cloths from an old flannel shirt (go to the thrift store if you don't have one), old flannel works just as good as the throw away cloths, and they can just be washed in the washer with towels (and the swiffer is a necessity at my house with a dog and a cat and 2 boys on hard wood floors)
WORSHIP THE COINJAR
Collecting change is a good way. We saved up enough change to buy our Wii. The next thing we spent change on was a ski trip (paid for hotel stay.) Right now we have over $100 in our change bag from the last 9 months or so.
COUPONS!
Clipping coupons. No joke, I save anywhere from 10 to upwards of 40% of my total bill when I use coupons. The trick is to only cut them for the products you will actually (and usually) purchase. Don't be tempted to buy something just because you have a coupon and it looks interesting. Chances are you will never use/eat it. The Sunday paper is my favorite source, but of course they have a slew of on-line coupon websites, only downfall is having to print them out. If and when you do print them out: go to the box marked "Preferences" and remember to select "Print in Grayscale" in the options and under print quality, select "Draft" so you don't use any color ink and you minimize the amount of black ink when you do print them. Hope this helps!
SWITCH YOUR DRUGDEALER
Watch for those switch your prescription to a certain pharmacy deals. Pharmacies here during certain promos will give you $25 gifts cards for up to 2 or 4 prescriptions transferred to them.
TELL YOUR KIDS NO
Here's a big one: STOP SPOILING YOUR KIDS! I'm always amazed at how otherwise sane and thrifty people will spend any amount of money on all kinds of unnecessary crap to keep their kids happy.
HOW YOU PAY YOUR BILLS
Use your bank's free bill pay service to manage your bills. Never use credit cards to auto-pay for anything. Never allow a vendor to debit your bank.
CALL YOUR SERVICE PROVIDERS AND ASK FOR DEALS
Re-evaluate all your services every 6 months. Credit cards, cell phones, cable/satellite, utilities, etc. Often new deals can be had, but they will not give them to you unless you ask.
GET INK ON EBAY
Buy ink for your printer on eBay for about $1.25 per ink tank. They work for me and I save a ton of money.
SHARE RAZORS
My husband and I share razors - the blades we like are expensive but they nick his face long before they nick my legs. So, he uses them on his face and after a couple of uses he passes them on to me. We spend only half as much on the super-good blades.
MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE
This is so dumb, but I recently started actually measuring out how much laundry detergent I put in the washing machine, rather than just eye balling how much I pour in. It lasts so much longer now.
KILL THE ENERGY VAMPIRES WITH TIMERS
Get a few heavy duty, 3 prong timers ( [www.amazon.com] ) and put them on the power hungry things in the house. I plugged my TV, stereo, DVD player, Xbox and Wii into an power strip and then that into the timer. They all get turned off completely every night. Over the course of a month, it works out to the same time as if they were off for an entire week. I put another under my computer and the second monitor, printer, speakers, and chargers all get turned off at night. Saves at least about 15 bucks each month.
DIY DOG FOOD
I make my own dog food. It's healthier for the dog than all the gluten filled food and we can usually just add all our leftover beans, rice and veggies to it. I buy the cheapest cuts of meat and marked down stuff then add whatever is on sale. Her allergies are improving and I don't have to make an extra trip to Petsmart
HAVE ONLY 4 PERIODS
I use a form of birth control that limits me to 4 periods a year and reduces the length and severity of those which I do have. Since I naturally have very rough periods, it's been great for my energy level and productivity. It saves me a good deal of money on sanitary supplies and over-the-counter medication for pain relief and upset stomach. I can maintain a smaller wardrobe because I don't have to use my "bloaty clothes" very often. And let's be frank - it stabilizes my mood and prevents a lot of emotional eating, impulse buying, and other costly, unhealthy habits.
CHANGE YOUR LIGHT SWITCHES
Change your light switches. Seriously. I have automatic dimmers in my house for most of my lights. I set the intensity to about 70-80% and with one push I am always at the lower usage setting. If I need brighter lights, just tap the switch two times. Here's the really best part. By using a dimmer the light bulbs last WAY longer. This is because they don't experience the sudden jolt of being turned on. Bulbs on dimmers in my house have not been changed AT ALL in over 4 years, while other bulbs have been changed 3, maybe 4 times at least.
MEAL-SHARE WITH FRIENDS
1. Have a meal-share deal with a friends. I'm single. I have a lot of single friends. We take turns hosting dinners at our places. It keeps us from going out and spending money, plus I get 2 homecooked meals for every meal I make. I also like it because I have issues with cooking too much food, so I don't waste as much.
COMPOST HEAP
Start a compost heap. Not only do you get free fertilizer and it's good for the environment, but you'll probably save money when you see how much crap you throw out and adjust your buying patterns.
ORGANIZE YOUR CUPBOARDS
Organize your cupboards in a first-in-first-out order. Put the new stuff in the back so you use old stuff first and it doesn't go to waste.
ONE-PERSON, ONE LIGHT
We have a one person, one light rule; if you move from room to room, you have to turn off the lights as you go. There's no reason you have to light up a room you're not in and once you get into the habit, it's easy to maintain.
DIY LADIES SANITARY ITEMS
Sew your own reusable ladies sanitary items. Seriously. You can download the patterns free online and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying that disposable crap every month!
(Photo: darkmatter)
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