Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2009

Lucky Numbers?


I've had two bizarre numerical coincidences occur in the last few days. Being a mathematician I tend to notice these kinds of things.

Tuesday, I had breakfast at Eat-N-Park. I planned on using a $3 off coupon and the remains of a gift card, $3.58, to pay most of the check. Amazingly, the check came to exactly $6.58!

This morning, I entered yesterday's receipt from Weis in my checking account register, $17.58. My last receipt from Weis five days ago, for completely different items, was remarkably $17.58!

Not to mention the dollar amounts in all these all contained 58¢! What does this mean? Should I but a lottery ticket, 0-5-8? Hmmm ...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

American International Group, Inc.Image via Wikipedia

I saw on the news this morning that AIG was insisting they still needed to pay their executive bonuses for a variety of reasons. One was that the bonuses were parts of previously negotiated contracts. If they were not paid, they might be sued and the legal expenses would exceed the bonus amounts. I can sort of give them that.

But, another was that they might lose these executives to competitors if the bonuses were not honored. I suppose it would be tragic to lose the executives responsible for guiding your firm to financial catastrophe to your competition. To use a sports analogy, you would really hate to lose the coach who led your team to a 2-28 record to another team in your conference.

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Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Saving Money in Plain English

Saving is becoming cool again. Over-spending is so passé.

Saving Money in Plain English
is another excellent video from Lee LeFever and the good folks at Common Craft. It's an introduction to the magic of compound interest and how it helps money grow over time.
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Sunday, November 30, 2008

Daily Video #11 - Cheap Gas!!!

To the best of my recollection, this is the lowest price for gas locally since I moved here 4 years ago.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Daily Video #4 - Less than Two Bucks

This is a very short clip celebrating the price of gasoline dipping below $2 a gallon for the first time since who knows when!

This is at the GetGo in Logantowne Centre, Altoona, PA

Friday, June 06, 2008

The Republic of South Africa Owes Me a Million Pounds

From Dr. David Njama Radebe
Director (Payment Approval)
Office of the Treasure - Department Of Finance
Pretoria Head Quarters,
Republic of South Africa
The Treasury office of the Department of Finance here in the Republic of South Africa, has investigated your fund, which has been on transfer process for some period of time.
During the second quarter of the general Financial Auditing in the South African Reserve Bank, the office of the auditing and fund recovery unit, has recovered your fund at the tune of GBP£1,000,000.00, which was to be paid to you through bank-to-bank transfer to your bank account.
After the auditing, the SARB decides that all recovered and returned fund should be paid to their various beneficiaries within 21 days starting from today. This decision was taking by the Board of the auditors and the External Affairs in the Department of Finance (Office of the Treasury), and at present your fund is in the escrow account of the South African Reserve Bank.
It has been understood by our investigation team, that this fund was acquired by you as a result of the initial inheritance of fund, which an agent in South Africa was supposed to remit the fund into your bank account in your country some time ago, although you have not received the fund due to the fact that the South African Revenue Service Department and some other finance entities requested for some payment, including the Inland Revenue Tax

The Department of Finance has signed the released of your fund, and it has also decided that your fund should be paid out to you without any further delay.
For your full identification and completion of your payment, you are hereby advised to send to our agent (Citizens Finance Corp of South Africa), your full information as stated below:
NAME:
AGE:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
PHONE NUMBER:
FAX NUMBER:
EMAIL:
Don't you already know my name and email? If not why did I get this?
Note that the Department of Finance has ordered and assigned our accredited agent (Citizens Finance Corp of South Africa) to carry out your payment, therefore you should urgently contact them on the following details;
CONTACT PERSON: Prof. SAMSON NGOBENI
COMPANY: CITIZENS FINANCE CORP OF SOUTH AFRICA
POSITION: PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTOR
PHONE: +27 780 531 122

PAYOUT AMOUNT: GBP£1,000,000.00
IN WORDS: ONE MILLION BRITISH POUNDS STERLING
Please contact the above person on phone urgently +27 780 531 122 and request them to give you more information on the means which you will receive your fund.
As soon as our agent (Citizens Finance Corp of South Africa) has confirmed to us that you have contacted them, the Department of Finance will proceed to hand over your fund to (Citizens Finance Corp of South Africa) and request them to commence your payment with immediate effect.
Is it Department of Finance or Ministry of Finance or Department of Treasury or Office of the Treasure or ...?
Waiting for your reply for further proceedings.
Regards,

Dr. David Njama Radebe
Department of Treasury
Ministry of Finance
Republic of South Africa.

Two Questions? (1) What kind of morons think this will fool anybody? (2) What kind of morons are fooled by something like this?

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Economy in a Nutshell

I found this juxtaposition of headlines in my Google Reader feeds this morning from MSNBC.com constituted a snapshot of the current economic climate.

Friday, April 18, 2008

The Money of Politics

An interesting comparison of the 2007 incomes, taxes paid, and charitable contributions of the top political figures in the US...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

What's Better Than Good Stuff Free?


What's better than good stuff free?

This is an extensive list of The Web's best free stuff compiled by Preston Gralla and Erik Larkin of PC World and IDG News Service

Monday, March 10, 2008

How Much is $12 Billion-a-Month?


This article reports on a study by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes that the war in Iraq will cost about $12 billion dollars a month in 2008.

Studies: Iraq a $12 billion-a-month war - Conflict in Iraq- msnbc.com

A little simple arithmetic means the war costs a family of four in America about $150 a month. What would en extra $150 a month in the family bank account mean?

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Unadvertised Discount Coupon Codes

RetailMeNot is an easy way to find unadvertised coupon codes for online retailers. These are the codes that can be entered on the checkout page for additional discounts.

Coupon codes for thousands of online stores - RetailMeNot.com

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Signing The Back Of Your Credit Cards?

The conventional wisdom says you should sign the strip on the back of your credit card immediately upon receipt. This is supposed to be a deterrent to fraud.

On a casual level, this may be true. However, how often have salesclerks actually checked the back-of-the-card signature against your receipt signature. And, if it's a digitally signed receipt, my signature seldom bears even a remote resemblance to the one on the back of the card. And, that's assuming it's not blurred or worn away altogether.

But, don't leave that strip blank, either. golbguru suggests writing "Ask for photo ID" in the space as a more effective solution.

Read more ... Sign The Back Of Your Credit Cards - Useless Fraud Prevention Advice?

Saturday, September 01, 2007

The Refurb Depot

I'm a real believer in buying refurbished products when I can. Both my Apple computers, my Kodak camera, and several other things were bought refurbished with no problems.

The Refurb Depot | #1 Source For All Things Refurbished

These products often (but, not always, check) come with the same warranty as the new product. Usually, any bugs have already shown up and been corrected.

Many refurbished items were not defective, just returned for various other reasons.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Better read the small print

I captured this from a TV commercial for CashCall. These commercials feature Gary Coleman, former star of Diff'rent Strokes.

An APR of 99.25%!!! You would have to be desperate or nuts. I can't believe it's even legal to charge this much interest. Forty-two payments of $216.55 totals almost $9100 to pay off a $2600 loan.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Dozens of Tips to Save Money on Gas

wikiHow offers a pretty comprehensive listing of ways you can reduce your fuel consumption and pay less at the pump.

Some simple, easy to implement tips include -
  • Don't drive a car when you don't have to
  • Avoid idling
  • Get a better air filter
  • Slow down and drive at a consistent speed
  • Anticipate stop signs and lights
  • Accelerate slowly from a stop

How to Save Money on Gas - wikiHow

Friday, July 13, 2007

Oil by the Numbers

FYI: In the past few days, the price of gasoline at the pump has risen approximately 4%. I read a news story this morning indicating the prices of crude oil for August delivery rose between 0.12% and 0.18%.

Interpret these numbers as you will.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

FREE Shipping Materials from USPS



You can get free shipping materials from the US Postal Service, envelopes. labels, boxes of many sorts. Yes, FREE!

Why give your money to Staples when your tax dollars have already kindly bought these things for you.

Gotta love free stuff!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

10 New Uses for Dryer Sheets

Dust venetian blinds, prevent old books from smelling musty when in storage, loosen caked-on food from a pan, freshen smelly shoes, more ...

10 New Uses for Dryer Sheets | RealSimple.com:

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

A Military Solution to HP Printer Problems

I stopped using HP printers a long time ago and will never buy another one. I just discovered this morning that the expiration date on HP inkjet cartridges is on a chip on the cartridge which reads your computers clock. If you manually turn back the calendar on your computer, the cartridge still works.

Here's a fine militarily expedient solution to HP frustration --

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Save Money on Groceries and More

I saw this Web site featured on WTAE news Saturday morning and checked it out. You can find a ton of coupons for groceries and other things that you can print.

The Coupon Mom

Also, some tips for given for making the most of your coupons. One of these was to not use your coupons too soon. Most items for which coupons have been published will go on sale in about a month after the coupons appear.

Happy Shopping :)