CheapStingyBargains says that rather than relying on a butcher, it can be cheaper just to buy a whole piece of meat and cut it up yourself:
BLOGS
Instead Of One Big Retirement, Take Mini-Retirements!
By 6.4.08
Personal finance blogger JD Roth at Get Rich Slowly has been interviewing Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, about a new concept of retirement: the mini-retirement. Ferriss suggests that instead of working and saving during our careers to eventually retire and enjoy life, that we instead plan regular times of “retirement” throughout our lives. He deems these “mini-retirements.” Mini-retirements seem like they could be the same as either sabbaticals or vacations, but they differ in the following ways:
ATT Settles Class Action Over Fraudulent Ringtone Charges
By 6.4.08
Thanks to AT&T settling a recent class-action, the era of third-party scammers cramming consumers with fraudulent subscriptions to ringtone, hookup text and other stupid content services may soon be over. AT&T Customers can claim refunds for wrongful charges from up to 3 of their bills between 1/1/04 and 5/30/08. The lawyers will get $4.3 million. AT&T will now require subscriptions to 3rd party-services with recurring fees to be confirmed by responding to a text message. 3rd party services will also have to send a monthly reminder with unsubscribe info. The firm has filed similar suits against Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Claim forms and more info at thirdpartycontentrefund.com.
American Airlines Forces Passenger To Ride In Urine-Saturated Seat
By 6.4.08
An American Airlines passenger says they had to sit through an entire flight in a seat soaked with urine from a previous passenger, the Fort Wayne Observed blog reports. Here’s an excerpt of the complaint letter they emailed the airline:
Chili's Chips, Now With Savory Chip-Warmer Knob
By 6.2.08
As if to prove that their chips are served warm, Chili’s is now serving their chips complete with the temperature control knob from the chip warmer. Reader Jared describes his chips with a twist, inside…
AT&T Shipped Me An Empty Plastic Bag Instead Of An iPhone!
By 6.2.08
David ordered a refurbished iPhone from AT&T. What he received was a brand new empty plastic bag. Apparently, AT&T has 500 backorders for refurbished iPhones, so for some completely unknown and nonsensical reason, they’ve decided to start shipping empty plastic bags. Let’s join David as he tries to track down the iPhone he ordered…
Manage Your Money While Traveling
By 6.1.08
Budgeting a key part of travel, but your usual budgeting tricks lose their potency when you leave home. Get Rich Slowly compiled a handy list of budgeting tips to keep you from overspending on your next vacation.
Broken Scales Help Airlines Profit On Fraudulent Baggage Weight Fees
By 5.30.08
Before leaving home, Shawn’s bags weighed 44 pounds. At Chicago, the airport scale said they weighed 44 pounds. When lifting off from Phoenix, the airport’s scales said the bag weighed 52 lbs, incurring at $50 fee. When he landed in Chicago, he weighed the bags again at the check-in counter. 47.5 pounds. “Her bag had lost 4.5 pounds on a 3 1/2 hour flight,” Shawn told Elliot.org. After writing a complaint letter, Shawn received a $50 voucher from American Airlines who defended their fraudulent scale by saying they were in “full compliance with the policies for scale calibrations.” So apparently the policy allows for defrauding passengers. The voucher is nice, but I would want my actual money back. And what of all the other travelers who didn’t pay attention or didn’t complain? Pure profit.
By 5.29.08
../../../..//2008/05/29/in-the-summer-a-bunch/
In the summer a bunch of theaters show G or PG films for free or super cheap on weekday mornings. Here’s a roundup of all the places and their deals. [Raising4Boys]
Get 5% (Or More) Off Anything Anything At Amazon
By 5.29.08
ProBargainHunter tells us how to snag 5-15% in extra savings on Amazon by tweaking the “Quick Picks” function.
Another Story About IDT Energy's Door-To-Door Scams
By 5.29.08
Here’s another report of IDT Energy using the old “We need to make sure you got a discount on your last energy bill, just sign here” tactic to trick people into switching to IDT Energy. In this post written by Amanda, a blogger in the Adirondacks, she describes how a guy with a badge and clipboard showed up at her door, saying he was checking to make sure she got a discount off her last bill. He had her go get her latest bill, then,
Friendly Banter Helps Get Better Customer Service
By 5.29.08
Marketing blogger Seth Godin has a post with “Sixteen tips for getting your Mac or iPhone fixed.” Some are specific to Apple, like how if you bought the item under 30 days ago sometimes it’s better just to take advantage of the 30-day guarantee, return the product, and get a new working one. But here’s two of them that we should all remember when we call tech support or customer service:
10 Popular Food Myths Debunked
By 5.29.08
Despite their differences there’s one thing people agree on, they love food. What they don’t agree on are some of the myths surrounding food. Is seafood actually the most likely food to make you sick? Should you wait to swim after you eat? Is it bad if ground beef looks brown instead of red? To alleviate your confusion, Asylum debunked 10 common food myths. The myths, inside…
ATT Begins Reducing ETF Charges Month By Month
By 5.27.08
AT&T has started having early termination fees go down each month for new contracts (old customers are still screwed). The $175 fee for canceling AT&T service before the end of your two-year contract will go down $5 every month. This means that even by month 23 out of the total 24 you will still pay a $60 fee. While the other providers have announced their intention to do the same, Verizon and AT&T are the only companies to actually have ETFs go down over the course of the contract. This should not be confused with “pro-rating,” however, as the fee is not being divided proportionally. If it was, the fee would go down $7.30 each month and by month 23 you would only pay a $7.30 penalty.
HCA: It's Hospital Policy To Shakedown Patients Before They Leave
By 5.25.08
Among the many hospital personnel who stopped in to see my father after surgery was a “financial counselor” from the billing office, who basically started stalking him from the minute he left the intensive care unit.
By 5.23.08
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A site where people post a picture and talk about the stuff they bought with their stimulus payment. [How I Spent My Stimulus]
Complain About Tropicana's Shrinking Containers, Earn A Free Carton Of Juice
By 5.17.08
Joel loves his orange juice and is none too pleased with Tropicana’s recent decision to shrink their containers by 7 oz. He fired off a complaint through Tropicana’s website, and was pleasantly surprised when the company responded with a coupon for a free carton of shrunken sweetness.
"Series Of Tubes," Mario Reference, Found In ATT Manual
By 5.14.08
A testament to the “Series of Tubes” meme’s pervasiveness is its inclusion in an AT&T FastAccess business DSL tech support manual. According to a former employee, her bosses who made the manual were big nerds and read BoingBoing, Gizmodo, and The Consumerist. She also says in one of the the tech support training videos for the new customer Yahoo portal that’s rolling out later this month, it shows how to create a feed for The Consumerist. Note too that the internet is depicted as a giant fluffy cloud.
