Burger King will be giving away free onion rings on Februrary 4th and 5th (Saturday and Sunday). All you need to do is show up at a participating Burger King and order them–no need to print out coupons or sign up for anything. This is “while supplies last,” so go early before they run out of free onion rings. You can read more about this promotion on Burger King’s Facebook page, and enter to win a $10 gift card while you’re there.
Yesterday, Megaupload, one of the largest online storage services on the internet, was shut down by the Department of Justice over copyright infringement charges. Regardless of your opinion on filesharing and fighting online piracy, there is an important lesson to be learned from this fiasco: it is dangerous to store all of your data in one place.
The comments I’ve read in response to the Megaupload bust have been heartbreaking. I’ve read about bands and artists who lost all of their legally owned work because they used Megaupload as their primary data storage service. I’ve read about people who lost albums of family pictures, and students who lost their schoolwork, research, and thesis papers. Years of hard work were wiped out with no warning and very little chance of recovery.
Don’t think that because you didn’t use Megaupload that you’re immune to these troubles. If you use popular online storage services like Dropbox or Amazon Cloud Drive, then use this incident as a lesson of what can happen when you put all of your digital eggs in one basket. What would happen to your data if one of these companies disappeared overnight? Would you be in complete panic mode because you just lost all of your life’s work? Don’t scoff at these questions–Megaupload has taught us that even large companies with vast financial and legal resources can still disappear overnight. Don’t take any chances.
The most effective way to store your data is to use multiple forms of online and offline storage. The key here is to diversify. Don’t rely too heavily on one form of storage. Here are a few quick tips to help you protect your data effectively:
Del Taco has a new printable coupon available on their website for a Free Bacon Breakfast Burrito. The catch is that the coupon has to be used “with any purchase.” It looks like “any purchase” includes a small drink or side item, so you can still score a cheap meal. The coupon is valid until Friday, January 27th.
In the days before momblogs and widespread internet use, Amy Dacyczyn doled out frugal advice for years through her monthly newsletter The Tightwad Gazette. Ms. Dacyczyn (pronounced “decision”) became a self-proclaimed “Frugal Zealot” in order to support her vision of buying a New England farmhouse while supporting six children on her husband’s military salary. After achieving her goal, she decided to share what she learned from this experience through her newsletter and books. The Complete Tightwad Gazette is the corpus of her life’s work, including all issues of The Tightwad Gazette, plus her three additional books. Altogether, it’s over 900 pages of frugal advice, cheap recipes, and quick household tips.
Slogging through a 900-plus page book is an understandably daunting task for many readers. Fortunately, The Complete Tightwad Gazette is organized in such a way that allows readers to easily read a few pages at a time without losing continuity or momentum. Think of this book as a long series of short blog posts, as each essay and article is rarely longer than 2-3 pages. Quick tips and frugal recipes are scattered in easily digestible bits throughout the book. Readers who are looking for recipes or specific advice can quickly find what they’re looking for in the comprehensive 30-page index at the back of the book. So do not be scared of this 959 page behemoth—it’s a very easy read that can be finished at your convenience.
Ms. Dacycyzn’s mantra about frugality is “do sweat the small stuff.” Her overall philosophy is that it’s easier and far more beneficial to save a few cents here and there over time than it is to save a big chunk of money at once. With this belief in mind, the main focus of her newsletters are on things that anyone can do right now to save money. This is not a book full of financial and investing advice about finding the best mortgage or how to manage credit card debt. This is a book where you learn how to fix up old shoes found at garage sales to save money, turn old jeans into potholders, and re-purpose a plastic milk jug into a pooper scooper. Hey, it isn’t called The Tightwad Gazette for nothing. Ms. Dacyczyn has some incredibly creative ideas and methods to cut household costs, reuse items that would normally go in the trash, and extend the life of stuff you already own. Readers who are less extreme in their frugality will still find some useful and valuable information. For example, her lengthy guides to saving money on holiday celebrations and kids birthday parties will be welcome advice to many.
What elevates Ms. Dacycyzn’s frugal advice above other frugal experts and bloggers is that she takes the time to thoroughly research her articles and put her advice to the test before sharing it with her readers. For example, while doing research for a newsletter article about septic tank systems, she “spoke with septic pumpers, the local extension service, the EPA Small Flows Clearinghouse, and health-department officials in several states” as well as reading “three books and six magazine articles.” To test a myth about whether letting bars of soap sit unwrapped before use will increase its lifespan, she devised several experiments that included different brands of soap and an additional friend of her’s running her own soap bar experiment (spoiler: the unwrapped soap bars lasted marginally longer). This is one of the main reasons why I highly recommend the The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Ms. Dacycyzn’s advice is thorough, tested, and trustworthy. This is not the work of a tired journalist or blogger pumping out barely researched content to meet a deadline.
In addition to her moneysaving tips and articles, a sizeable portion of The Complete Tightwad Gazette is devoted to cheap recipes and ways cut costs on food. The recipes themselves are simple, familiar, and don’t require advanced cooking skills. A sample of the recipes in the book include lentil-rice casserole, whole-wheat crackers, yogurt, and chili. Although the recipes aren’t adventurous, it’s the accompanying articles about saving money on groceries that are especially insightful. Preceding the recipe for homemade chili, for instance, is an article exploring the costs of making chili with just ground beef versus chili cut with dried beans and TVP (textured vegetable protein). The chili recipe is then followed by a lengthy four-page article entitled, “Are Bread Machines a Good Value?” Don’t buy this book for the recipes; buy this book for its valuable advice on cutting grocery costs and consider the recipes a bonus.
Perhaps the book’s greatest strength is that it has relevant and useful information for people from all walks of life. Unlike many recent frugal books and blogs, this isn’t a book aimed at a highly-specific audience such as mothers or beginners to frugality. This is book that anyone can pick up and learn something new, no matter what their life experience or level of frugality. Thanks to its timeless advice and easily accessible approach, The Complete Tightwad Gazette will certainly remain a frugal classic for years to come.
The Complete Tightwad Gazette (Paperback)
by Amy Dacyczyn
Price: $17.31
79 used & new available from $4.45
(294 customer reviews)
Picture this: you’re sitting at the computer, all ready to get some work done. Suddenly, your mind wanders and before long you find yourself reading the news, watching YouTube videos, or engaging in other internet-aided procrastination. Does this happen to you? If it does, here is a list of programs that might help fight it.
If there are any other internet-limiting productivity tools that I forgot, then please let me know in the comments.
(Image courtesy of Zach Klein)
