Archive for January, 2012
Are Girl Scout Cookies Bad for You?
While recently researching trans fats – see Trans Fat: When Cheap Means Costly – I stumbled across the Girl Scouts‘ take on what Harvard calls “the worst fat.” It made me angry. Take a look… Girl Scouts of the USA is proud that all Girl Scout cookies are “zero trans fat per serving” with the [...]
Ask Stacy: How Can I Get Ahead on $26,000 a Year?
The story we printed a couple of weeks ago called How I Wiped Out $37,000 in Debt in One Year sparked a slew of incoming email. Some respondents sent in their own inspirational stories, while many more had questions or concerns about doing something similar. Take this one for instance… While I do enjoy reading [...]
Where to Stash Some Cash Where Only You Can Find It
For the past six years, I’ve kept a stash of ones, fives, tens, and twenties hidden in my apartment. I believe in having legal tender on hand for emergencies – or for non-emergencies that require non-plastic payment. For example, I once bought a Groupon voucher for a discounted massage and found that the practitioner didn’t [...]
Should You Invest in Facebook?
When it comes to an initial public offering (IPO) of the ubiquitous Facebook, there are plenty of investors ready to click the “Like” button. Although the company isn’t talking, rumor has it Facebook may file a Form S-1 with the SEC as early as Wednesday, Feb. 1. That would be the first step in issuing [...]
6 Tips for Getting Job Fair Call-Backs
The following post comes from Joanne Guidoccio at partner site The Dollar Stretcher. Going to a job fair is good. But getting call-backs is better. Job fairs aren’t limited to new graduates at college and university campuses – not anymore, anyway. These well-attended events also attract seasoned professionals, retirees, and the unemployed. (To find the nearest job [...]
Today’s Deals: Dishes, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Vacuums, and 11 Free MP3s
I’ve subscribed to the promotional emails of 500 companies and brands so that you don’t have to. I sift through 1,000 deal-touting emails every week. Most are worthless, but a handful offer valuable coupons, promo codes, sales, and freebies – which I collect and organize for you here. Arts and crafts Hobby Lobby: 40 percent [...]
4 New Ideas for Protecting Your Online Privacy
Apparently, this is Stalking Awareness Month and this past Saturday was Data Privacy Day. Three other things they have in common… Both were made up in the last decade. Both are about protecting yourself online. There are new studies out for each. According to McAfee, 19 percent of Americans have met someone online who “made [...]
4 Places for Free Job Training
The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show 2011 ended with an 8.5 percent unemployment rate – that’s 13.1 million Americans out of work. And more than 5 million of them have been that way for at least six months. Going without a job for that long can make it tough to get [...]
The Smartest US Cities?
Every year, Central Connecticut State University puts out a list of America’s most literate cities, which media from CNN to The Huffington Post immediatly morph into headlines announcing the list of “America’s smartest cities.” Poppycock. Literacy and intelligence are radically different. And for that matter, counting bookstores isn’t a great way to measure literacy either. From Central [...]
Despite TV’s Obsession With Pawnshops, They’re Still Last Resort
Pawnshops have been around for a long time, by some estimates thousands of years. And much of that time they’ve probably been regarded as lenders of last resort. But these days there’s apparently a strong movement afoot to change that image. Here’s part of a press release from the National Association of Pawnbrokers called, incredibly, [...]