My wife enjoys Starbucks. Following the pinch of furloughs and the like, though, she has held back on Starbucks — especially after they discontinued offering free soy with her gold membership. (Apparently a lot of people took advantage of it. Duh!) With MyPoints, though, I’ve been able to get a $25 Starbucks card once every … Read more
I was a high-school salutatorian. More often than I’d care to admit, I translate that word as “first loser.” (I married a high-school valedictorian.) Most people don’t like to fail. They especially don’t like to fail in front of people. Plainly: it’s embarrassing. Your check was in the mail. You were called bluffing a two-seven … Read more
No sooner than the furloughs from sequestration were over, many government employees were facing another one — this time due to a government shutdown. That part looks to be over for the time being, but could reappear at the beginning of calendar year 2014 as the stopgap funding bill expires. For government employees, what was … Read more
A friend from college shared a funny picture from his calendar. The content of the sign: Funerals 50% Off He asked what a half-off funeral might be. I said: “One foot in the grave.” Then he asked me if the Mighty Bargain Hunter approves. I gave that comment a like. As long as the bottom … Read more
I didn’t know that there was a term for “buying a piece of clothing with the intent of returning it after wearing it for one evening.” It’s called wardrobing and it apparently cost stores nearly $9 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Bloomingdale’s is taking matters into its own hands to combat … Read more
Gift cards are not as liquid as cash. Gift cards are good for most purchases at a particular store — or a particular set of stores — but nowhere else. This is why there’s a secondary market for unwanted gift cards: People sell their unwanted gift cards for a discount to face value. They might … Read more
Odds are good that you’ve heard of NBC’s Million Second Quiz, which is about half over now. If you haven’t, the premise is simple: The quiz is a million seconds long. You earn money by sitting in the Money Chair. You get into the Money Chair by beating the person in the Money Chair at … Read more
There are a lot of bargain hunters out there, I just found out. Deals are all over the place, of course, but the better-than-average ones get snagged really quickly. As in, “throw the item into the shopping cart and run for the register” quickly! My wife asked me to get some more powdered milk. We … Read more