Damn Economy!

Image Source

An Expensive Mistake, It Is

Via

Mmmm Bacon

Via

The Top-5 Groceries You Buy and Then Throw Away

Image Source

Yeah that's moldy bread, and it is on the list. I thought it would be #1, but it's not.

We go into the grocery store with the best of intentions, usually... I mean, assuming we're not violating the cardinal rule, "Never grocery shop while hungry." We try to plan out our meals to some degree, and think of all kinds of great things we can cook with various ingredients.

But outside the grocery store, life is different. You get busy, you get exhausted, you don't feel like making the intricate meals that seemed worth the time in your head. Or you get depressed and instead of something fresh, you reach for the comfort of microwave pizza or nachos or what have you. While you're breaking all these self-imposed promises, the stuff you bought is growing mold colonies that look a lot like your standard Sim City layouts. Here's the foods that have been left to decay in our refrigerators most often:

5. Vegetables
It's after the holidays. You're fat as hell. Your clothes are tight, and you feel like you're starting to have trouble catching your breath. It's time to lose weight. In accordance with your New Year's resolution (the same one you make every year), you spent the last grocery trip buying tons of healthy meal options, including way too many vegetables. So you take them all home and put them in your crisper drawer, and there approximately 80 percent of them will remain until they've sprouted vines and walked away. Oh, you'll probably eat a serving or two of salad, or at least put some of it on a sandwich. The first couple of nights, you'll snack on the carrots and celery - with low-fat dressing, even - and try to be good.

But then you'll remember the reason you never eat this crap in the first place: It's wholly unsatisfying. By the time you've eaten enough vegetables to feel full, you've got gas problems that scare your family and pets. You have to worry about whatever pesticides they're soaked in, and if you buy organic veggies, then you have to worry about them rotting twice as fast. We don't know how vegetarians do it. Veggies will never, ever beat chips or meat or pasta, and most of us are only able to lie to ourselves that they do for so long.


3. Milk
Milk doesn't get much of a chance to go bad at our house, because we personally go through a lot of it. It's our favorite thing to drink with meals, the one childish habit we never really outgrew (that, and our love of Silly Putty). Nearly every other house we've set foot in, however, has always held a trap for us in the form of a carton of milk curdling on the top shelf of the refrigerator. Spending the night at friends' places, we learned pretty quickly to thoroughly check the appearance and scent of their milk before giving it a passing grade. People just don't use milk for much. People put it in their coffee and on their cereal, but that's pretty much it. Very few people drink it by the pint like we do, and it goes bad quickly.

Continue to the complete list..

Via

Man Gets Speeding Ticket - Buys Department's Domain Name

Image Source - (Unrelated)

Most of the time, if you get a speeding ticket you just grumble about it and pay the fine. It’s usually not a big deal for most people unless it happens a lot or they get caught going a ridiculous amount over the posted speed limit. You can fight it in court or just pay the ticket, and for most people those are the only options.

However, after receiving a $90 speeding ticket in Bluff City, Tennessee, Brian McCrary discovered a third option. The Bluff City Police Department had forgotten to renew their domain name, BluffCityPD.com, and let it expire. McCrary bought the domain name for $80 and posted his side of the story with information about speed traps in Bluff City and the $250,000 per month they cost the town’s 1,500 residents.

The police department had no idea their domain name had expired and that McCrary owned it until reporters started calling them to ask about it. Bluff City Police Chief David Nelson said they may approach McCrary about buying the domain back from him, but they are not optimistic.

McCrary’s goal is to get enough attention to put pressure on the local government to remove the traffic enforcement cameras in Bluff City.

Source

Via

More on this story here..

Receipts FAIL

Original Via

The Best Times To Buy Almost Anything

My mom has a sixth sense when it comes to bargain hunting. Where I’m thrilled to get 25 percent off and free shipping, she’s finding deals of 70 percent off and getting inside scoop from the salespeople, who probably have her on speed dial should a ginormous everything-must-go-or-we-torch-it clearance sale come along.

Okay, so I’m exaggerating, but not by much. The point, however, is that the key to finding bargains is timing—off-season, end-of-season, new models bringing down prices on the old models. There’s a pattern and a perfect time to buy just about anything.

When possible, plan your purchases by using the following list to score the best deals:

Mattress — New mattresses arrive in stores in May, when you’ll find a good deal on the previous year’s models.

New car — New models roll into the lot in fall, so shop in September for last year’s model. Shop on a weekday at the end of the month to get the undivided attention of a salesperson trying to make their monthly quota.

Gasoline — Fuel up on a weekday, early in the morning if gas prices are rising or in the evening if gas prices are going down (prices are usually changed between 10 a.m. and noon).

Groceries (supermarket) — On Sunday evenings, you’ll save money through store sales (typically run Wednesday through Thursday), and by shopping in the evening, you can save even more on items that must be sold by day’s end. If you clip coupons from the Sunday newspaper, you’ll enjoy additional savings.

Cell phone — New customers get the best deals. For new phones, wait six months if you can. Search online for coupon codes, as well.

Continue to the rest..

Via

10 Things Not To Buy In 2010

Ten years ago, most homes relied on dial-up connections to access the Internet and iPods, flat-screen TVs and the Nintendo Wii didn't exist.

In 2010, consumer should expect to see more revolutionary products supplanting old mainstays. In media, DVDs, books, newspapers and magazines will continue to lose ground to services like in-home movie rentals and gadgets like the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle. In big-ticket items, the push for energy efficiency will continue to influence consumer decisions on cars and home upgrades.

As a result, some consumer products appear poised for a dip in sales, which could be a prelude to obsolescence. Here are 10 items not to buy in 2010.

Home Telephone Service
It will probably take a while, but home landlines could become as archaic as the rotary phone.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than one in five U.S. homes (22.7%) had cellphones — and no landlines — during the first half of 2009, up from 10.5% during the same period in 2006.

Ditching your home phone is easier now than it has been in the past, as cell phone companies compete for greater market share and alternatives to the home landline continue growing. For example, magicJack provides phone service when it's plugged into a computer's USB port and a home phone. It costs $39.95 and includes a one-year license for calls in the U.S. and Canada; after that, service costs $19.95 per year. (By contrast, Time Warner Cable's digital home phone service costs $39.95 per month.)

And, consider Skype, which is free when you communicate with other Skype users; this software application uses the Internet as a platform to make calls, hold video conferences and send instant messages.

CDs
When was the last time you bought a CD or even walked into a record store?

The past decade was one of the worst for the industry. In the beginning, there was Napster. Then came iTunes, which was introduced in 2001 and offered affordable pricing and easy accessibility. Face it, CDs aren't coming back.

Record stores are feeling the pinch. Most Virgin Megastores in the U.S. have shut down following declines in sales and revenues. In 2004, Tower Records entered bankruptcy and by 2006 most locations had closed.

Continue reading..