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Filed under: Shopping , Simplification , Black Friday Last night I watched the latest episode of Life , which described a murder shortly before a mall opens on Black Friday. The detectives are standing in the path of shoppers who flood the mall at 6 a.m. and all any fiscally sensible person can ask herself is: why? At least, that's what I ask myself, and I'm not alone: so does Jeffrey Strain at MainStreet. He tells the "Money Sapping Secrets of Black Friday Sales" and gives several reasons why you shouldn't. First: You don't need any of this stuff. (My thinking exactly.) Second: You can use the time you save waiting in line for hours to get the best deals to save yourself money! Without all the aching feet and strained shoulders! Genius. His next several reasons are basically, You're not getting the deal you think you're getting. Supplies are limited. Seasoned "professional" Black Friday shoppers will get the good stuff first. You'll buy things that you weren't shopping for in the first place. You'll neglect opportunity costs and other costs (gas to get to that great mall, a late breakfast at a pricey mall restaurant to cure your shopping munchies, batteries and accessories, etc.) when you figure your savings. I've got another reason: true happiness cannot be found by a good bout of swapping cash for goods, no matter how many times you see it dramatized on those television commercials. Instead of making family traditions around shopping on Thanksgiving weekend, why not make a family tradition around reading a book, or playing checkers. (Make sure it's a book or a game you already own!) Or better yet, extend the season of gratitude by doing something nice to someone who's been good to you all year. I'm planning to go visit my favorite farmer and tell her how grateful I am that she's changing the world one chicken at a time.Black Friday: Don't. Just don't. originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Shopping , Transportation , Wealth Years ago, I was a member of Costco, and lately I've been debating whether I should join one of those wholesale warehouse stores again. I guess my issue my inner cheapskate always asks me: "Do you really want to pay money, so you can save money?" (At Sam's Club, the membership fee is $40 or $100, depending what type of membership we're talking about; at Costco, it's $45 and $100.) And then I also think to myself, "What am I really missing out on, by not going to one of those stores?" Well, buying an electric car, apparently. According to AutoBlogGreen, an environmentally-friendly blog about cars that is one of WalletPop's sister blogs, Sam's Club just found a buyer for its Super Car, an electric car. The Future of Cars? TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY UNCAS FERNANDEZ (FILES) Undated picture released by Brazilian aircraft maker EMBRAER, showing an ethanol-powered Ipanema aircraft overflying the Sao Jose dos Campos region, Brazil. So far and since 2005 EMBRAER has sold 54 of such plane, as well as 170 gasoline-to-ethanol conversion kits. The ethanol is from two to three times cheaper than aviation fuel, makes for lower maintenance costs and is environmental friendly. AFP PHOTO EMBRAER HO (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY UNCAS FERNANDEZ (FILES) Undated picture released by Brazilian aircraft maker EMBRAER, showing an ethanol-powered Ipanema aircraft overflying the Sao Jose dos Campos region, Brazil. So far and since 2005 EMBRAER has sold 54 of such plane, as well as 170 gasoline-to-ethanol conversion kits. The ethanol is from two to three times cheaper than aviation fuel, makes for lower maintenance costs and is environmental friendly. AFP PHOTO EMBRAER HO (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images The front of "Bamgoo", an electric car with a body made out of bamboo, is pictured in detail in Kyoto, western Japan November 14, 2008. The sixty-kilogram single-seater ecologically friendly concept car, which measures 270 centimeters in length, 130 centimeters in width and 165 centimeters in height, is developed by Kyoto University Venture Business Laboratory, featuring bamboo articles in the Kyoto area. The car can run for 50 kilometers on a single charge. REUTERS/Issei Kato (JAPAN) Reuters "Bamgoo", an electric car with a body made out of bamboo, is displayed in Kyoto, western Japan November 14, 2008. The sixty-kilogram single-seater ecologically friendly concept car, which measures 270 centimeters in length, 130 centimeters in width and 165 centimeters in height, is developed by Kyoto University Venture Business Laboratory, featuring bamboo articles in the Kyoto area. The car can run for 50 kilometers on a single charge. REUTERS/Issei Kato (JAPAN) Reuters "Bamgoo", an electric car with a body made out of bamboo, is displayed in Kyoto, western Japan, November 14, 2008. The sixty-kilogram single-seater ecologically friendly concept car, which measures 270 centimeters in length, 130 centimeters in width and 165 centimeters in height, is developed by Kyoto University Venture Business Laboratory, featuring bamboo articles in the Kyoto area. The car can run for 50 kilometers on a single charge. REUTERS/Issei Kato (JAPAN) Reuters "Bamgoo", an electric car with a body made out of bamboo, is displayed in Kyoto, western Japan, November 14, 2008. The sixty-kilogram single-seater ecologically friendly concept car, which measures 270 centimeters in length, 130 centimeters in width and 165 centimeters in height, is developed by Kyoto University Venture Business Laboratory featuring bamboo articles in the Kyoto area. The car can run for 50 kilometers on a single charge. REUTERS/Issei Kato (JAPAN) Reuters An electric car by the brand Brabus is presented on November 13, 2008 to promote the Essen Motor Show on the fair grounds in Essen, western Germany. During the motor sport fair running from November 29 to December 7, 2008, around 500 exhibitors from 19 countries will present their latest products. AFP PHOTO DDP/STEFFI LOOS GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read STEFFI LOOS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images An electric car by the brand Brabus is presented on November 13, 2008 to promote the Essen Motor Show on the fair grounds in Essen, western Germany. During the motor sport fair running from November 29 to December 7, 2008, around 500 exhibitors from 19 countries will present their latest products. AFP PHOTO DDP/STEFFI LOOS GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read STEFFI LOOS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Yassin Al Obaidi, a chemist at Gevo, Inc., holds up a container of biogasoline produced in the company's laboratory in Englewood, Colo., on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008. While ethanol might reign as the king of biofuels, several companies such as Gevo are betting on a close cousin - butanol - to overcome some of the fuel's shortcomings. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) AP Josh Taylor, front, a chemical engineer at Gevo, Inc., pours biogasoline into the tank of a Jeep Rubicon owned by Pat Gruber, back, chief executive officer of the firm, as he looks outside the company's laboratory in Englewood, Colo., on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008. While ethanol reigns as the king of biofuels, several companies such as Gevo, which is backed by high-profile capitalists Richard Branson and Vinod Khosha, are taking a different route and betting on ethanol's cousin butanol to possibly overcome some of the fuel's shortcomings. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) AP Continue reading Sam's Club sells its $100,000 electric car Sam's Club sells its $100,000 electric car originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . 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Filed under: Career My first job out of college, I was an office worker inside a movie studio near Hollywood, and as a 22-year-old who had just weeks before been a student at Indiana University, I was as excited as I could be. That said, my job was nothing particularly special or interesting. A chimpanzee could have done it -- or a chimpanzee with a driver's license, anyway. I drove to a few houses around Los Angeles, dropping off television scripts that I kept wishing I had written, but mostly, I did a lot of filing. That is, for about a week. Then, when I had cleaned the office and organized the filing cabinet, it became clear that there wasn't a lot for me to do. I sharpened my boss's pencils and watered his plants. I washed out his coffee mug. It was 1992, and I had no computer to hide behind, and so I just wandered the office, trying to straighten things up. But everything was immaculate, and with the phone almost silent, I rarely even needed to answer the phone. I was polishing a picture frame on the wall when my boss -- an assistant to one of the owners of the television production company, and so I was an assistant to an assistant -- came up to me and delivered the bad news: I was out of a job. Not because I was a bad employee. I simply wasn't a busy employee. Continue reading How to look busy at work (not as easy as you think) How to look busy at work (not as easy as you think) originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Bargains , Budgets , Food , Shopping If you're looking for a way to save money at the grocery store, shopping for a Thanksgiving meal is a good way to find deals that you normally won't find the rest of the year. Turkeys are historically less expensive in November and December than in other months, so now is the time to clean out your freezer to make room for as many turkeys as you can. And as a high-protein, low-fat food, it's a healthy meal. And some Thanksgiving side dishes, such as cranberries, are cheaper now than they are the rest of the year. Continue reading Stock up on turkeys now before prices go up after holidays Stock up on turkeys now before prices go up after holidays originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Home , Real Estate , Career , Recession Welcome to WalletPop's new book club, where we will have an author-in-residence to give us a peek into a new book and be on hand all month to answer reader questions. Our inaugural writer is real estate expert Alison Rogers, who was the founding editor of the New York Post real estate section and a licensed real estate broker. The following is a Q&A with her about her book, Diary of a Real Estate Rookie , which was called "must reading" by the Wall Street Journal and a "Witty bunch of horror and success stories mixed with real advice for other Realtor newbies" by Newsweek. ZB: You went from Harvard to Fortune magazine reporter to New York Post editor to real estate agent. How did that happen? AR: I graduated from Harvard summa cum laude, at the top of my class -- and then I couldn't get a job. It took me a year to get hired on Wall Street. That was the beginning of a long love/hate relationship with corporate America. Bascially, the Wall Street gig was a two-year in-and-out, so after I did that I decided to try journalism, and I had a connection at Fortune. That was a great job; it really trained me to write and think. I then developed a sort of specialty in business-oriented publishing. When the New York Post needed an editor to launch the real estate section, I said, you know, this is the kind of publishing I do, and I love real estate. Remember, if you've got questions for Alison Rogers, you can ask them here , or below in the comments field. Continue reading Open Book: Alison Rogers on how to go from unemployed to super agents Open Book: Alison Rogers on how to go from unemployed to super agents originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Food , Health Today is National Diabetes Day, and the folks at Webvet are trying to make people aware that dogs and cats are facing their own mini-epidemic of diabetes. It's not anywhere near as severe as the human spread of the disease. About one in 400 dogs and cats now has diabetes compared to one in 12 people . Just like in people, lousy diet and exercise habits are causing more diabetes all around. The difference is dogs and cats aren't the ones deciding how much food they get and how many times they exercise. We are. Yeah, I know they have those irresistible eyes. That's why one-quarter of our cats and dogs are now clinically obese, according to Webvet. PetClubUK says overweight cats are four times as likely to get diabetes. To be fair, diabetes isn't just caused by being fat, in either humans or animals. Genetics plays a huge role. In dogs, females and certain breeds, such as miniature Pinschers and cairn terriers are more likely to be afflicted with diabetes . No gender has an upper hand in cats, though some think Burmese are more susceptible . Continue reading Animals & Money: The cost of your pet getting diabetes Animals & Money: The cost of your pet getting diabetes originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Bargains I've probably bought 20 or more Entertainment Books over the years, those collections of coupons hawked by not-for-profit groups that promise to save the user many times the cost of the book. Now the company that makes these books is offering an on-line deal for the 2009 version, $5 off plus free shipping . They are available for most sizable communities in the U.S. I wonder, however, if these are really a value. The cost to me is only $20 with this deal, but, looking back, I doubt I've recouped the price of a book more than a couple of times. Why? Because I'm human. I forget, or I don't want to eat at the restaurant offering the deal, or I don't want to eat within the time limitations, or no movies are playing that I want to see. Pretty soon, I've lost track of the book. For me, this falls in the realm of good intention purchases. I know that I can save money, but I fail to concede my inability to remember to make use of it. Much like gym memberships and DVD foreign language lessons, it speaks to the person I wish I was, not the one I am. I'd be very interested in your experience with Entertainment books. Do you buy them? Use them? Save more than the purchase price? Take a moment to take the poll below, and I'll report back on the results. Thanks, Cash Money Life View Poll 2009 Entertainment Books on sale - good deal or waste of money? originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Extracurriculars We occasionally add polls to our posts to get your take on hot topics. I thought this would be a good time to report back on the results of some of our recent polls. After reporting that the U.S. passports are, in part, produced overseas , we asked the question "Do you think U.S. passports should be made in the U.S.?" The results- 98% (32,490 people) voted yes 1%, (31), felt it doesn't matter 1% (39), voted no After reporting that the Wheel of Fortune had raised its top prize to $1,000,000 , we asked, "What would you do if you won a million bucks?" 32.8% (6,516) would spend it 55.4% (11,002) would save it 3.2% (639) would donate it 8.6% (1,714) would invest it in the stock market. Not a lot of confidence in the market, is there? After my post conjecturing where the U.S. will be in four years we asked, "What do you see in your crystal ball?" for the nation's immediate future. 38.1% (8,545) voters saw better times ahead 51.1% (11,453) voters saw worse times ahead 10.8% (2,411) voters thought things would remain the same We asked you if you'd consider living without a motor vehicle , and you responded- 12.6% (185) already do 32.8% (481) would consider it 28.1% (413) doubt they'd ever do so 26.5% (289) would give up their motor vehicle when they pried your dead, cold fingers from the steering wheel Frankly, I question that over 40% of Americans would willingly live without a car. The country just isn't built for mass transportation. Continue reading Results of recent WalletPop reader polls Results of recent WalletPop reader polls originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Charity Residents of Colorado Springs need not reach in their pocket this year for change when they hear the familiar ringing of the Salvation Army volunteer calling attention to its donation bucket. In a test program, some Santas wil be equipped to take plastic . For the test, done in cooperation with U.S. Bank, the volunteers (augmented, when necessary, with paid temps) will be equipped with wireless card readers, so dono