How To: Build a Workbench on the Cheap

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How To: Build a Workbench on the Cheap

via LH -mac -news -roundup -sponsors by Tamar Weinberg on 9/27/07

DIYer Bruce Maki describes how to create a simple but sturdy workbench for less than $20. For this project, you'll need a few 2x4s, Oriented Strand Board, and deck screws. Size can vary depending on your personal preference. The end result: a workbench that can handle your weight and then some.

Build a Basic Work Bench [HammerZone]

 

 

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Review of Amazon's DRM-Less Music Download Store

maybe we should start looking here instead of itunes.

 

 

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Review of Amazon's DRM-Less Music Download Store

via Slashdot by ScuttleMonkey on 9/26/07

fdmendez writes to tell us that he had a chance to check out Amazon's DRM-less music download store that was recently released as a beta trial. "Amazon one-ups the iTunes store in every way except for popularity. Never once did I find an album to be more expensive on the Amazon store in comparison to the iTunes store. The download experience was pleasant, and the lack of DRM truly makes it YOUR music. I don't know of any other download service that could top the Amazon MP3 store."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

 

 

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Airlines: How To Request Your Homeland Security Travel Dosiier

 

 

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Airlines: How To Request Your Homeland Security Travel Dosiier

via Consumerist by Ben Popken on 9/26/07

In its efforts to combat terrorism, fight human trafficking, and bust drug dealers, the Department of Homeland Security compiles a large database of where you go, who you travel with, what you read and more. If you're curious about what this record contains, you can request a copy of your file under the Freedom Of Information Act. Unsecure Flight hosts two form letters for submitting this request, along with instructions for doing so.

Read Your Own DHS Travel Dossier [UnSecure Flight] (Thanks to Bill!)

 

 

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Confessions: The Furniture Industry Is A Secret Cabal

 

 

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Confessions: The Furniture Industry Is A Secret Cabal

via Consumerist by Ben Popken on 9/26/07

"Most people do not realize that home furniture has a 200% to 400% markup on it. Some has less, but that is where the majority falls. In fact my friend was a furniture industry insider and at the Highpoint show, a furniture company told him to mark up the price of a wall unit by 400%. One wall unit he came back home with for $1800 had a retail price of $6500. So when these big stores advertise in the local papers with 50% off MSRP sales, they could still be doubling their money. Not only that, many stores advertise their sale prices are 50% off MSRP, yet if you dig a little deeper, you might find that they never sold the pieces at MSRP to begin with, so they are really just dropping their price maybe 5 to 10%. Some stores don't drop their price at all, because they were already at MAP. This means that store really is not having a sale!"

You'll find that manufacturers set their so called "MSRP" price, and then usually in secret between them and the home furniture stores, there is another price called MAP, which stands for Minimum Advertised Price. This MAP price is the bottom threshold selling price allowed by the manufacturer. One mattress store manager even showed me the MAP price on all his mattresses. His sales people get 15 to 20% commission for selling at MSRP, and they only get 7-10% if they sell at MAP. Naturally you'll find a lot of resistance from salespeople to sell at MAP. In my opinion, the term MSRP should be illegal to associate with furniture. Street Price is a better number to use.

Most manufacturers dictate to the stores that they cannot sell the furniture for less than MAP or they can lose their franchise. Often times there is a penalty, sometimes up to $15,000 written into the contract. Many stores like to cut to the chase and just sell at the MAP price. Most of the online furniture discounters in the Carolinas tend to sell at MAP price. If you call them to talk price, always ask them to go lower, until you hear them mention that they are already at the MAP price and cannot go lower.

If you are talking to Online Retailer A and you have quotes from Online Retailer B, ask Retailer A to beat that quote. Verify the price across other sites as well. By selling at the MAP price, a furniture store still makes a decent profit, and you get a nice "discount" off some useless MSRP number that really means nothing anyway. That's how the game is played. It's kind of stupid, there's a lot of charades and smoke screens, mixed in with misinformation, but that's the game.

We went into a mattress store and simply stated which model of Stearns & Foster mattress we wanted, and talked the sales person down to the MAP price. I always ask them "what is the MAP price for this mattress?" This startles a lot of salespeople, who are not accustomed to us "morons walking in off the street with our knowledge and internet prices". Sometimes it involves going to a few home furniture stores to learn for real what the MAP price is. Some home furniture stores like to lie and quote you an MAP price this is higher than the actual MAP price for your furniture. Some may lie to you and say there is no such thing as MAP. Unfortunately there is no Kelly Blue Book or NADA book for us to lookup home furniture prices or furniture store "dealer cost", so you cannot determine how much MAP is, you have to shop around and try to get a consensus, based on what salespeople are willing to tell you. Please don't email me asking where you can look it up, it's nonexistent. They don't have to tell you the MAP. You also don't have to open your wallet.

- Anonymous

Lessons:

• The value of good research
• The need to comparison shop
• With price-negotiable goods, try asking straight-out for "MAP"
• Remember that your ability to walk away is your strongest negotiation tactic, never forfeit it by getting emotionally attached to a purchase

RELATED: What Is Minimum Advertised Price?

(Photo: Paul Keleher)

 

 

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DIY: Make Your Own Playdough

 

 

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DIY: Make Your Own Playdough

via LH -mac -news -roundup -sponsors by Wendy Boswell on 9/23/07

Store-bought playdough is stinky and dries out really quickly - but you can get around that with Instructables' easy recipe for homemade, non-toxic playdough.
This is an easy recipe that you can customize with your own colors; plus, it's easily rejuvenated if it gets a little dry with just a little water kneaded in.

How to Make Playdough (Play-doh) [Instructables]

 

 

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Bartlett Celebration

http://www.cityofbartlett.org/index.asp?NID=628

2007 Bartlett Celebration & Car Show
Make plans now to be a part of the 2007 Bartlett Celebration & Car Show
on Friday evening, September 28 from 6 to 10 p.m. and on Saturday,
September 29 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at W. J. Freeman Park located at 2629
Bartlett Blvd.

This fun-filled family event will kick-off on Friday evening with a glow
of color as Hot Air Balloons light up the sky, a midway carnival and
live musical entertainment. Then come back for Saturday's events that
will include an amateur BBQ cooking contest, musical stages, arts &
crafts, a car show, children's activities, food and much more. The
perfect place to spend an autumn weekend.

Bloglines - Intercoms as baby monitors

Bloglines user ncaut (nc_aut@yahoo.com) has sent this item to you.

Parent Hacks a collaborative weblog of practical parenting wisdom

Intercoms as baby monitors By Asha Dornfest on habitat Nothing like multi-use gadgets. From Jason: When I had an office in the basement, my wife and I bought a pair of intercoms at Radio Shack so we didn't have to shout back and forth.  It turns out that these intercoms have a "transmit lock" feature that makes them perfect baby monitors.  The sound is clear, and you can expand the system by buying two more at a time.  This way any room you want can be a potential transmitter or receiver room without having to move anything.  As a bonus, the unit set to "transmit lock" won't receive, so you can still use the intercom feature without waking the baby.  I recommend a unit in the kitchen to eliminate shouts of "dinner's ready!".  Maybe a little more expensive than normal monitors, but the sound is great and it's so useful for everyday non-baby-monitoring family life. Related: Cell phone as baby monitor Uniden phone doubles as baby monitor Link

Bloglines - A-maze the kids this fall on little money

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m3mphis M-town. Online.

A-maze the kids this fall on little money By Karen Ott Mayer on Memphis Blogs It's fall in the Mid-South and the weather is painfully beautiful. If talk of pumpkins and hayrides turn your little ones upside down from excitement, the perfect cure exists just 90-minutes from Memphis. Throw everyone in the car and head to The Garden District, just east Batesville, MS on Hyw [...] Comments

U-Haul Box Exchange

i guess everything about u-haul isn't bad after all.

 

 

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U-Haul Box Exchange

via Cool Tools on 9/17/07

I have mixed feelings about U-Haul and their prices, but one thing they have done that is priceless is create and maintain a surprisingly helpful Box Exchange forum. It's a standard web forum divided into geographical areas so people can request free used boxes or make theirs available for free or cheap. We just saved ourselves $250. After responding to two posts, we had something lined up in no time. We drove into the city (Manhattan) the next day from where we live in Jersey City and picked up a bunch of boxes in various sizes that were practically brand new -- all for free. I basically ignored the "buy" forum as the "free" one was successful in under 24 hrs. We first tried Craigslist, but found that most people in our area at the time wanted money for boxes. From our experience, people on the U-Haul forum seemed willing to go a little out of their way to get rid of their boxes. Most of the posts are definitely from individuals, but interestingly, there were a couple of business disposing of boxes (we got ours from an electronics importer in Chinatown). We have not yet completed our big move to Wisconsin, but will be giving away our boxes the same way when we do.

-- Guil Barros

U-Haul Box Exchange
Available from U-Haul

[The site does not have anywhere near the critical mass of a Craigslist, but if you're looking to save $ and/or recycle, it's worth having another resource in your arsenal -sl]

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Forearm Forklift Freecycle Nylon Hand Truck

 

 

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Bookmarking: Custom Google Search Your Del.icio.us Bookmarks with deliGoo

 

 

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Bookmarking: Custom Google Search Your Del.icio.us Bookmarks with deliGoo

via LH -mac -news -roundup -sponsors by Adam Pash on 9/14/07

Search the contents of every web page you've ever bookmarked with del.icio.us using a dynamically built Google Custom Search engine from deliGoo. Just point your browser to the deliGoo homepage, enter the username and optional tag you want to search, and then enter your search terms and click Goo. deliGoo will analyze your del.icio.us account and create a Google Custom Search Engine, then use it to search the contents of every site for a match. If you're a prolific bookmarker and you've run into a situation where you know you've bookmarked a page, remember what it was about, but can't find it using your tags, a deliGoo search might be just what the doctor ordered.

deliGoo

 

 

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RSS: Get Weather Forecasts in Your RSS Reader from AccuWeather

 

 

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RSS: Get Weather Forecasts in Your RSS Reader from AccuWeather

via LH -mac -news -roundup -sponsors by Adam Pash on 9/13/07

Popular weather web site AccuWeather's RSS Center builds RSS feeds of your local weather so you can get your latest weather forecasts delivered to your RSS reader. It's nothing big, but if you live in your newsreader, this is one more bit of info you can get directly in your news digest. These one-off information-only RSS feeds--like sports scores or severe weather warnings--are great utilitarian additions to your newsreader.

RSS Center [AccuWeather via AppScout]

 

 

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Bloglines - seeking podcasts

Bloglines user ncaut (nc_aut@yahoo.com) has sent this item to you.

not martha (p.s. I now have comments, yay.)

seeking podcasts By megan on technology I'm looking for podcasts to listen to on my recently inherited iPod. All the podcast directories are huge and most of the favorites lists I can find are tech heavy, so I've decided I need some individual recommendations. Here is what I listen to now: Splendid Table Lip Gloss and Laptops Day to Day On the Media Fair Game Savage Love Podcast SModcast This American Life Do you have any favorite podcasts? I'd love to hear about them. Comments

Bloglines - Mud Island: Riverwalk

Bloglines user ncaut (nc_aut@yahoo.com) has sent this item to you.

memkids.com Where parents go to be in the know

Mud Island: Riverwalk By santo on Downtown Memphis Mud Island River Park 125 North Front Street Memphis, TN 38103 901-576-7241 Open from April through October 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays. The riverwalk is one of our family's favorite urban attractions. The five-block miniaturized lower Mississippi was one of the first tourist attractions we visited when we first moved here. It is impressive — in that it [...] Comments

Shopping: Morning Deals

maybe we should score a wii game for 10% off at target.com?

 

 

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Shopping: Morning Deals

via Consumerist by Ben Popken on 9/11/07

Apple: New refurbished macbooks announced, starting at $799 with free shipping and free printer after rebate.

Free Sample of Hugo Boss Fragrance (click one of the free sample bottles on the upper left. Note that the DOB format is day/month/year).

Target: 10% off online coupon

Highlights From Bargainist

Arbor Day Foundation: 10 Free trees w/membership

Home Depot: Grill Sale save up to $300

Amazon.com: Radio Flyer Fold 2 Go XL Trike $27

Highlights From Dealhack

Old Navy: Save 25% off Baby, Kids, & Maternity Clothes + Free Shipping Coupon

Amazon: Save $75: Netgear Dual Mode Cordless Phone with Skype $125

Buy.com: Garmin StreetPilot C330 Mobile GPS Receiver $190 Shipped

 

 

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On The Cheap: Top 10 Most Frugal New Cars

looks like we made a pretty good choice. we didn't sit in a corolla, but i'd take the versa over a fit or a yaris for sure.

 

 

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On The Cheap: Top 10 Most Frugal New Cars

via Consumerist by Meg Marco on 9/10/07

Forbes magazine has released a list of the top 10 least expensive cars to own. The list is interesting because it takes into account things like depreciation and maintenance costs, rather than just listing some cheap-ass cars.

We like it.

Forbes' Frugal Cars:

10) Pontiac Vibe $16,760
Five-year cost of ownership: $35,348

9) Hyundai Accent $12,865
Five-year cost of ownership: $34,808

8) Kia Rio $13,571
Five-year cost of ownership: $34,802

7) Toyota Matrix $16,558
Five-year cost of ownership: $34,778

6) Ford Focus $15,752
Five-year cost of ownership: $34,092

5) Chevy Aveo $11,844
Five-year cost of ownership: $34,048

4) Nissan Versa $13,950
Five-year cost of ownership: $33,275

3) Toyota Corolla $15,449
Five-year cost of ownership: $33,053

2) Honda Fit $15,440
Five-year cost of ownership: $32,547

1) Toyota Yaris $12,625
Five-year cost of ownership: $31,785

Frugal Rides: Top 10 Least Expensive Vehicles to Own [Forbes]
(Photo:blue_j)

 

 

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