my fyre blog

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Personal Finance Roundup

the first guide has a few things we'll want to get in the next year or two.

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

The Best Time to Buy Guide for 75 Products and Services [Go Frugal Blog] "Before you make another major purchase, check with this guide to know when the best time to buy is."

5 Savings Tips for Soon-to-Be Retirees [Smart Money] "Here are five ways to boost your retirement savings -- even later in life."

Simplify Your Financial Life [Kiplinger] "Now is the perfect time to do some financial spring cleaning, from tossing old papers to digitizing important documents."

How Much to Donate? God Knows [NY Times] "Of the $229 billion that Americans donated in 2009, about half went to religious institutions."

Cash Provides a Cushion [Wall Street Journal] "People who lose their jobs often think about using a severance package to pay off debts. Instead they should focus on conserving cash."

— FREE MONEY FINANCE

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Exploiting Visa's Concierge Service For All Its Worth

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

Exploiting Visa's Concierge Service For All Its Worth

via The Consumerist by Phil Villarreal on 5/4/10

Blogging at Four Hour Work Week, John tells about how he made Visa his personal assistant via its concierge service. Testing it out to see whether or not he could get the CSRs to agree to his silly whims, he decided to enlist the company's help in securing a huge tub of nacho cheese:

TEST #1: GIANT TUB OF NACHO CHEESE
I made my first call to the Visa Chase Freedom concierge service by calling the toll-free number on the back of my card. I was connected to a concierge named David, who I pictured wearing a little bellboy hat, like a hotel concierge, though I think they just wear a telephone headset nowadays.

David spoke English, which was a nice change from my usual calls to Visa. "I'm traveling to Austin next week, and I want a big tub of nacho cheese. Make that a HUGE tub," I told him. "Enough to fill a punch bowl."

"Does it need to be in a tub?" he asked, taking the request with the seriousness of someone who worked for me.

"Can, jar, tub, I don't care," I said. "I just want liquid cheese, and a lot of it."

"Would you like us to get back to you by phone or email?"

"Phone, please. I don't want there to be any miscommunication about my cheese."

"Is it okay if we have this information to you by 2:00 pm tomorrow?" he asked.

"That would be fine," I responded, "as long as I get my cheese intel."

"You'll get it, sir," he assured me. "Thank you for calling Visa Signature concierge service."

Someone from Visa actually called him back with an address and phone number of the store with the cheese he was looking for. Click on the link to read about how John got Visa to help him solve a crossword puzzle.

How to Make Visa Obey Your Every Desire: The Credit Card Concierge Experiment [Four Hour Work Week]
(Thanks, Eric!)

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FDA: McNeil Plant That Made Recalled Tylenol Is A Dirty Stinkpot With No Qua...

this sure does inspire confidence...

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

FDA: McNeil Plant That Made Recalled Tylenol Is A Dirty Stinkpot With No Quality Control

via The Consumerist by Chris Walters on 5/5/10

One of the implied promises of a brand name, especially when it comes to drugs, is you can expect higher quality, but maybe that doesn't apply when it comes to McNeil products.The FDA says the plant that produced the recently recalled children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl, was using raw materials that were contaminated with bacteria. The plant also lacked adequate quality-control procedures and was dirty. So far none of the recalled medicine has tested positive for bacterial contamination, but the FDA report suggests that the contaminated material was used to make the recalled lots. The plant has been shut down indefinitely.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare and the FDA both insist that despite the crappy quality of the plant and the products it produced, there is very little risk of illness from any of the recalled drugs.

But as several consumer advocates and health experts point out to ABC News, the real issue is that brand name drugs are just as susceptible to shoddy manufacturing practices as generics. In particular, McNeil has issued three recalls in less than a year for problems with their drugs; the last one was the bad-smelling Tylenol Arthritis product back in December and January.

Johnson & Johnson is acting all "Oh we're just as shocked as you folks" about it:

Johnson and Johnson issued a statement Tuesday in response to the report.

"The quality issues that the FDA has observed, many of which we had recently identified in our own quality reviews and communicated to the FDA, are unacceptable to us, and not indicative of how McNeil Consumer Healthcare intends to operate," the Johnson and Johnson statement read.

Until McNeil operates as J&J intends, you can just use generic equivalents and bypass their branded products. You'll save money, and you might even get a higher-quality product.

"Children's Tylenol Recall: FDA Report Rips Quality Control at Plant" [ABC News]

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Monday, May 3, 2010

Make Your Own Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cups [Cooking]

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

Make Your Own Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cups [Cooking]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 4/18/10

We love making certain popular snack foods at home, and this week our selection has a small twist—instead of the traditional version, try these flaky, peanut-butter-on-the-outside, chocolate-on-the-inside peanut butter cups, courtesy of food blog Serious Eats.

If you've always thought peanut butter cups were too heavy on the chocolate and too stingy with the peanutty goodness, you'll love these—the outside crust is essentially peanut butter cookie, and the inside is a chocolate/peanut butter fudge. The recipe should be simple enough for baking veterans and novices alike—though the crumbly peanut butter crust was reported (by the creator of the recipe) to be a bit difficult to handle, so if you are a whiz in the kitchen, perhaps you can improvise and improve on the architecture of the cup. If you do, be sure to share your innovations with us in the comments! That is, after checking out the full recipe over at Serious Eats, of course.

Cakespy: Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cups [Serious Eats]