Inspired by our post on thirty- and forty-somethings trying to snag traditionally teenage jobs? If you’ve always wanted to be a lifeguard, bar back, or roller coaster operator, here are some tips for beating the other applicants and letting teenagers worry about the unemployment rate. (Photo: Atwater Village Newbie)
how-to
Tax-Saving Moves For 14 Big Life Events
By 6.2.09
Life is full of surprises and challenges. Luckily, there’s a tax form for just about all of them. Via Kiplinger’s, here’s 14 major life events that allow for smart tax-saving moves, and how to make those moves.
Hoard Stuff, Use It To Back Currency Of Your Creation
By 6.1.09
Printing your own ersatz currency is legal, so long as you don’t counterfeit government notes, which explains Disney Dollars, Microsoft Points, Linden Dollars and the like. Matthew McDermott of the environmentalist blog TreeHugger points to localities and business that run successful operations that use their own currency, including Ithaca Hours in Ithaca, NY and BerkShares in Massachusetts:
Buy The Right Sunscreen And Avoid Sunburn
By 5.31.09
Buying the right sunscreen could mean the difference between a pleasant day at the beach and a nightmare of splotchy pain. Consumer Reports conducted a poll to see how you people use sunscreen, and even dunked a bunch of volunteers in a tub for forty minutes to see how different sunscreens held up. Inside, the sunscreens that earned Consumer Reports’ praise, and a few tips for avoiding the dreaded summer sunburn.
Make Jewelry From Your Discarded Credit Cards
By 5.27.09
Sure, you could cut up your credit and debit cards and throw them away once they’re closed, expired, or the account number has been stolen in a massive data breach. Or, with a few simple tools, you could re-purpose them into lovely pieces of jewelry.
Use Your Dishwasher Properly
By 5.24.09
Listen parents, we told you all those years that cleaning the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher was silly and duplicative, and now we have the Times telling us we were right! Ha! Pre-rinsing dishes is “actually triple bad” according a “senior dishwasher design engineer,” because dishwasher detergent exists to attack food, and when it doesn’t find any, it instead attacks your glasses. It also wastes electricity and water. And that’s not the only mistake most people make. Inside, the Times’ tips for keeping your dishwasher happy…
Make Your Own Playdough
By 5.17.09
Looking for a cheap way to entertain your kids or spice up a rainy day? Make your own playdough! The homemade stuff may not come in a shiny yellow play-doh container, but you probably have most of the ingredients in your cupboard already, and the concoction won’t smell or contain yucky toxins. Hit the jump for the recipe…
Use Codeshares To Find Cheap Summer Flights Abroad
By 5.16.09
Before locking in your summer fare to Europe, see if you can’t find a better deal by searching an airline’s codeshare partners. Airlines use codeshares to sell seats on each other’s planes so they can reach destinations they wouldn’t otherwise serve. Since ticket prices constantly fluctuate, codeshare partners often quote different fares for the exact same flight. Inside, reader Christiana shares how she used codeshares to save almost $300 on a flight to England…
Create Your Own Opt-Out When A Company Ignores Your Requests
By 5.6.09
Mark started getting promotional emails from Hilton over a year ago, and he’s tried all sorts of opt-out strategies:
Freeze Your Food To Save Money, Time, And, Of Course, Food!
By 5.6.09
You’re not getting the most out of your freezer, reports NYT. Have you tried freezing more food? It’s a two-pronged process – 1) Take raw ingredients you have too much of: freeze them. 2) Take stuff you’ve cooked: and freeze it. Remember that a full freezer is more efficient, fight freezer burn by double and triple-wrapping food, and don’t forget to label. Check the article for advice on strategies and tips for freezing various kinds of food.
Create A Phone Stand For Free With A Business Card
By 5.5.09
Some PR person just sent us a notice about a new wallet-sized iPhone stand, which reminded us that there’s an easy and free alternative, and it most probably works for a lot of other (fairly thin) media devices as well.
Don't Change Oil For 30,000 Miles? Here's Your Engine Carnage
By 5.1.09
This sludge-filled massacre is what happens to your engine if you don’t change the oil for 30,000 miles. The six photos depict abject carnage, a crime scene for cars. Good job, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car. Don’t let this happen to you. Checking and changing your oil is a good weekend project, here’s how to do it. [via Jalopnik]
Never Get A Chase Over-The-Limit Fee Again
By 5.1.09
Stop the presses! You know how most banks are glad to let you charge more than your credit limit and then charge you fees for the “courtesy?” CreditMattersBlog reports it turns out Chase will let you block these “over-the-limit” purchases. You just gotta call and ask for it, 1-800-432-3117. If you’re a Chase credit card customer and sometimes find yourself going over your credit limit and incurring fees, putting an over-the-limit block on your account could be just the thing.
Letter To T-Mobile Executives Results In Fees Waived, Charges Reversed
By 4.28.09
Chris was surprised to find that T-Mobile didn’t cancel his account as promised a few months ago. What’s worse, the note on his account that mentioned his cancellation request was missing, and nobody at customer service would help him. Chri works for a “very large consumer electronics company” that he won’t name (we’re pretty sure it’s Apple) and thinks customer service is important, so he gave up on the CSR angle and instead came to our site to find contact info for T-Mobile executives. One EECB later, Chris is free from T-Mobile and the ETF they tried to apply.
Make Sure You Secure Your Smartphone
By 4.24.09
Do you own an iPhone, G1, Blackberry, Windows or Nokia smartphone? Fancy phones are a nice target for thieves, and unfortunately they’re often packed with sensitive information that can be too easily accessed and exploited. Why not take the time this weekend to make sure it’s secure?
ID An ATM Skimmer
By 4.21.09
Here’s a 24-page PDF of a powerpoint on ATM skimmers that’s making the rounds in Australia. If you’ve been reading every ATM skimming post, most of this is review, but it contains several more examples of what skimmers can look like and what to watch out for. Though it’s from an Australian bank, most of the information is general enough to apply to any ATM. A handy document to pass around to friends and family to warn them about ATM skimming dangers.
Take Your Tmobile Complaints To The Tippity-Top
By 4.21.09
Here’s a big sexy pile of escalated T-mobile contact info in case you have an intractable complaint that regular customer service can’t or won’t help out with. Besides the senior management and internal reporting division, It includes a way to figure out how to dial a whole mess of executive customer service reps, as well as which specific government bodies to file complaints with the situation warrant.
