Are you traveling by air this week in order to celebrate Thanksgiving where you belong…or at least where you feel obligated to be. USA Today published a list of holiday travel tips…they’re all good general travel tips, but especially helpful when airports are crowded and stress is high. [More]
holidays
Are You Cutting Back On Tips This Season?
By 11.23.09
The end of the year is usually when you tip service providers, but if you’re on a reduced budget then you’re probably going to want to scale back this year. Here are some suggestions from etiquette experts contacted by Reuters.
Black Friday Doorbusters Are A Sleazy Way To Lure Customers
By 11.20.09
Pay no attention to those ridiculously cheap TV sets and game systems—also called doorbusters—that retailers use to lure in hordes of holiday shoppers, notes CNN. They’re the equivalent of that little dangly thing anglerfish use to catch food.
Nordstrom Continues To Oppose Christmas Creep
By 11.19.09
When I was growing up we always put up our Christmas stuff the day after Thanksgiving. Nordstrom agrees. Once again, they are taking a stand against Christmas Creep.
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Free Thanksgiving Tips Book Download
By 11.18.09
Here’s a free Thanksgiving-themed PDF booklet from Money Management International, a non-profit that focuses on financial literacy. The booklet contains some guidelines on how to plan out the big event, how to save money on decor, and tips on shopping and saving money.
Website Tracks Black Friday Deals
By 11.16.09
The website BlackFriday.info tracks post-Thanksgiving sales ads as they’re posted and leaked, giving you one-stop shopping to find out what deals will be worth elbowing strangers in the face for.
Google Offering Temporary Free WiFi Access At 47 Airports
By 11.10.09
From now until January 15th, 2010, Google will offer free WiFi access at 47 airports around the country. As part of the promotion, they’ll be collecting donations through Google Checkout for three non-profit organizations and will provide matching funds up to $250,000. But whether you donate or not, there’s a much better chance now that you’ll be able to go online while waiting for your flight. Imagine all the airline tips you can send to us!
Verizon Wireless Relegates iPhone To Island Of Misfit Toys
By 11.8.09
As a whimsical follow-up to AT&T’s lawsuit concerning their “There’s a map for that” ads, Verizon Wireless released their Christmas-themed set of AT&T/iPhone bashing ads today. They’re harsh, but also pretty funny.
Sears Declares Halloween "Black Friday"
By 11.7.09
Forget Christmas creep. How about Black Friday creep? Sears went ahead and declared last weekend, October 30 and 31st, the beginning of Black Friday, and told their mailing list so.
Here Are Your Shipping Deadlines For Christmas 2009
By 11.6.09
If you’re planning on spending the next 6-8 weeks pouring cash into Mammon’s gaping maw—and really, who isn’t? it’s how we love each other—then here are the shipping deadlines for over 100 online retailers, courtesy of CouponSherpa. In today’s UPS/FedEx world you can frequently wait right up until Christmas week, but you might want to double-check the list if there’s a retailer you absolutely have to shop from.
POLL: When Is Too Early For Christmas Creep?
By 11.6.09
After we proposed tracking Starbucks’s roll out of Christmas products as a metric to gauge yearly Christmas Creep, we got a fair amount of comments saying they saw no problem with Christmas stuff coming out once Halloween was over. So, inside, a poll: at what point does Christmas Creep become acceptable holiday display?
Starbucks Decides It's Time For Christmas
By 11.5.09
A reader wrote in on November 3rd to let us know that Starbucks has busted out the holiday-themed coffee paraphernalia. This gives us an idea.
Government Helped CIT Limp Along Long Enough To Keep From Ruining Christmas
By 11.3.09
According to SpendMatters, one big reason the government burned through $2.3 billion in TARP funds for CIT even though it was buckling under debt was to try to avoid ruining everybody’s Christmas this year.
Least Delicious Halloween Treat: H1N1 Virus
By 10.31.09
As trick-or-treating time looms, we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you: BOO!!! SWINE FLU!
No Visa Or MasterCard Gift Cards This Year, Please
By 10.26.09
If you want to spread some fiscally sound good cheer this year, consider asking your friends, relatives, and coworkers not to give gift cards backed by the major credit card companies. Why am I making such a sour suggestion? Because a new study from two consumer advocacy groups indicates that most of the population still doesn’t recognize what a money trap those little plastic cards can be.
What Are Some Cheap Halloween Costume Ideas?
By 10.19.09
The personal finance blog Moolanomy posted a list of 25 cheap Halloween costumes, including ones that make no sense (see “Soup and crackers”) and ones that sound borderline dirty (see “Facebook wall”). The list made us realize that our readers probably have a lot of equally cheap, and equally-or-more creative, costume ideas of their own.
Expect Airlines To Keep Hiking Ticket Prices As Holidays Approach
By 10.16.09
This year it’s a seller’s market when it comes to buying airline tickets, reports the New York Times, so if you must travel via plane, buy early and try to be as flexible as possible.
Make Your Own Haunted Gingerbread House
By 10.15.09
Are you decorating your house for Christmas Creep, and your Halloween tree just isn’t enough? Williams-Sonoma has combined Christmas and Halloween traditions, and is selling a kit to make your very own haunted gingerbread house. Haunted gingerbread house?
