I have a soft spot in my heart for Saturn. The first new car I could truly call my own was a bare bones Saturn SL. The sticker price was around $11,000, and with Saturn’s original no-hassle-no-haggling policy, I happily paid the sticker price. I delivered pizzas and drove cross-country in that super reliable, unsexy, no-A/C vehicle, and …
The gift card is viewed as a thoughtful, less crass alternative to cash. When you present a gift card to someone, the message sent is something like, “I didn’t want to buy you something you don’t need, so you decide.” But if it’s truly the thought that counts, old-fashioned greenbacks are the better way to go.
A couple in England bid just $81 on eBay and won a wedding at a classy country inn, easily saving them more than $2,000.
Here’s another disturbing stat about health care: 54. That’s the percentage of medical malpractice money that goes to trial lawyers and administrative costs.
Cabbies in Chicago have requested a bump up in fares—up from $2.25 to $2.75 to start off, and from $1.80 to $2.10 per mile—along with several new fees. One request is a $50 fee assessed to anyone who vomits inside the taxi.
Well, at least not if the cars are GMs, and if the prices are nothing special. The troubled car manufacturer is putting an end to a briefly-lived strategy of trying to sell cars on eBay.
Most people know the big number: 45 million. That’s the generally accepted tally of Americans currently without health insurance. With the prospect of a public option all but gone, it appears that any change that does occur will pretty much bring more of the status quo—meaning more numbers like these.
To attract customers at a time when many are inclined to eat at home, restaurants are offering big happy hour discounts (and adding more happy hours period), slashing the prices of margaritas and wine, and introducing new drinks priced especially for the recession—like Benihana’s Scorpion punch, a mix of vodka, sake, and Southern …
Starbucks is introducing a new instant coffee called Via. It’ll cost a bit less than $1 per cup, and the company CEO, when comparing the new brew to the store product, says, “Most people will not be able to tell the difference.”
Apparently it’s not enough to inundate babies with “educational” toys soon after they’re brought out into the world. Now, fetuses are being forced to listen to foreign language recordings and classical music in the womb, all under the pretense of making the child smarter.
The experience of living through the Great Recession will forever change the way we spend. It will create a generation of cheapskates. Or so the thinking goes. But will folks who are new to thrift really stick with it? Can the currently frugal-chic environment truly change people into less buy-crazed consumers? Or is being a …
If you’re going to scale back in the hopes of saving money, it sure makes sense to do it smartly, ensuring that all your sacrifice and effort pays off.
