Eleven Ways To Save Money Every Month

How to Save Money Every Month

1. Cut cell phone service down to minimum. Talk to your current provider about reducing your monthly minutes, or eliminating features you just don’t use that often. We recently asked our cell phone provider to tell us the average paid minutes we used over the last six months and discovered it was well below the next smallest plan from our current arrangement. Dropping plans shaved $20 a month off our cell phone bill.

2. Shop for cheaper car insurance using tools such as Ai insurance  (free quotes available). We saved quite a bit just by switching carriers. If you have a solid emergency fund in place to easily cover deductibles, it might make sense to increase those deductibles on your auto insurance policy.  Raising deductibles from $250 to $1,000 can save you a few hundred dollars on insurance–just be sure you can afford that $1,000 in the event something bad happens.

3. Consider dropping home telephone service. Just about the only people who call us these days are telemarketers. Most friends and family have cell phones and those that are “in network” can talk to us for free for an unlimited amount of time.  Even if you don’t cancel your home telephone service, you can probably save some by cutting back on extras like call waiting, caller ID, etc.  Since you are not using the land-line that much, you won’t miss the features.

4. Reduce the temperature setting on your hot water heater.  This one does require a little effort, especially if your water heater is in an out-of-the-way place.  Set the temperature to around 120 degrees.  You can count on about a 5 percent reduction on energy bills for each 10 degrees you drop the water.  While you are at it, consider a thermal blanket to insulate your water heater, particularly if it is stored in an uninsulated location that gets cold in the winter (garage, utility room, etc.).

5. Run your ceiling fans in the winter. I know, it sounds crazy. By changing the blade direction on your ceiling fan to create an updraft, you can help recycle heat throughout a drafty room. Most fan models have a switch on the base of the unit that allows you to change direction.

6. Use microwaves in the summer, and ovens in the winter.  During the dog days of summer, cranking up an oven can put an air conditioning system into overdrive.  However, in the winter the warmth of an oven can lessen the load of your heating system.  Your monthly utility bill will thank you.

7. Divide credit card payments in half.  If you are already paying $100 a month on your credit card, half the amount and schedule two payments with the first coming about half way through the billing cycle.  Since interest is calculated using the card’s average daily balance, you’ll be reducing that balance earlier in the month by paying a little bit of the balance off, instead of waiting the full month to make a single payment.

8. Switch to generic prescriptions. Talk to your health care provider about switching to generic prescriptions, and be sure to check out places like Walmart and other grocery store pharmacies that now offer 30-day supplies of many popular generic prescription medicines for only a few dollars a month.

9. Disconnect electronic devices when not in use.The easiest way to do this is to plug devices into a single power strip and then unplugging the power strip when the items are not in use.  Electronic items continue to pull small amounts of power continuously even when powered down (this phenomenon is often referred to as “vampire power,” probably because it is sucking the life out of your finances!

10. Improve your car’s gas mileage by replacing the air filter.  I know I said these would be effortless, but this one is so easy you can do it in less than five minutes.  Stop by a parts store and ask for a new air filter.  They will need to know your vehicle’s make, model, year and maybe the engine size (six-cylinder, eight-cylinder, etc.).  All this information should be listed in your owner’s manual, or on the inside of your driver’s side door panel.  Following the directions in your owner’s manual, which include locating the filter’s housing, removing a few screws, and swapping out filters, only take a few minutes of time.

11. Use a drying rack for heavy linens. If you aren’t up for hanging a clothesline (or your neighborhood frowns on their use), consider buying  a simple drying rack to hang heavy towels and jeans over.  When the clothes are nearly dry, toss them in the dryer for a couple minutes with a fabric softening pad to freshen them up a bit and remove most of the wrinkles.

10 Common Misconceptions Dispelled

Baby Ruth Candy Bars Actually Were Named After Babe Ruth

Myth: Baby Ruth candy bars weren’t named after Babe Ruth.

     The rumor that they were not was actually started by the company who made them originally, the Curtiss Candy Company, founded by Otto Schnering.  They claimed it was named after Ruth Cleveland, the granddaughter of President Grover Cleveland.  Ruth Cleveland supposedly visited their plant and, while there, inspired the name for the candy bar.

     There are a few problems with the official line, but the main problem is that Ruth Cleveland died in 1904 at the age of 12 years old, some 17 years before the Baby Ruth candy bar was created and about 15 years before the Curtiss Candy Company was created. Further, Grover Cleveland hadn’t been President for 24 years and had been dead for 13 years when the candy bar was named, so there doesn’t seem to be a good reason they’d have randomly picked his granddaughter to name a candy bar after and the official reason they give, which at least sounds plausible, is easily proved false.

     In the official story, the Curtiss Candy Company also went on to discuss the fact that Babe Ruth wasn’t even famous in 1921 when the candy bar was named, so why would they name it after some random baseball player?  Here’s another problem with the official story, Babe Ruth was incredibly famous by 1921.
In that year, Babe Ruth  hit 59 home runs, had a .378 batting average, and a .512 on base percentage.  The year before that, he had his breakout year with the Yankees hitting 54 home runs with a .376 batting average and a .533 on base percentage.  From 1919-1921, he hit an astounding  142 home runs and was well on his way to revolutionizing the game of baseball. This all resulted in Babe Ruth’s fame skyrocketing from what it had been only a few years before serving primarily as a pitcher and pinch hitter for the Red Sox. Babe Ruth was a national celebrity in 1921.

     Further, the original version of the “Baby Ruth” candy bar was actually called the “Kandy Kake” and was coincidentally renamed to “Baby Ruth” directly after Babe Ruth had become a national celebrity.  The Curtiss Candy Company also tried to get Babe Ruth to endorse their product after its launch, which he refused to do.  Not only that, but the Curtiss Candy Company was headquartered very close to Wrigley Stadium and, in 1932, they setup a lit advertising sign near the spot where Babe Ruth’s supposed “called shot” landed, advertising Baby Ruth candy bars and fully visible in Wrigley Stadium.  This sign remained there for four years.

Over and over again they attempted to associate their candy bar with Babe Ruth.  The cover story told by the company was simply a way to get around having to pay Babe Ruth royalties for the use of his nickname and last name in their marketing efforts.   The Curtiss Candy Company even had to use this story in actual legal proceedings when the manufacturer of the Babe Ruth Home Run Bar challenged the Baby Ruth name in court, claiming the Curtiss Candy Company were using the name without Babe Ruth’s permission, something the makers of the Babe Ruth Home Run Bar had managed to get from Ruth.  The Curtiss Candy Company then successfully defended their candy bar’s name using the above “granddaughter of Grover Cleveland” story, which is full of inaccuracies and strains credibility.

Bonus Factoids:

• In 1923, Otto Schnering, the founder of the Curtiss Candy Company, hired a pilot to fly his plane over Pittsburgh and drop several thousand Baby Ruth candy bars over the city.  Each candy bar was equipped with a parachute, to avoid injuring people.
• Seventy four years after the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after Ruth, Nestle, who now owns the rights to the Baby Ruth candy bar, finally officially acquired the rights to use Ruth’s name and likeness in Baby Ruth marketing campaigns.
• Nestle has since played this up even more when in 2007 they claimed the Baby Ruth candy bar is “the official candy bar of major league baseball.

5 Legal Tips for Peace of Mind

     Legal issues don’t have to be stressful.  In fact, you can use the law to reduce your risk, eliminate uncertainty, and plan for the unthinkable.  The law can help with your overall peace of mind.

1. Execute a will
     Estate planning isn’t just for wealthy old people.  If you’re an adult, you need an estate plan.  This spells out what happens to your property when you die.  While the law provides default rules for people who don’t specify their intentions, you might be surprised by what those rules say.
For the average person, an estate plan is simply a will (or “last will and testament”).  This document spells out who gets what from your estate.  Your handwritten will can be valid, but it’s safest to have a lawyer draft your will and walk you through the formal execution ceremony.  If you have a spouse or children, you really need a will to ensure they are properly taken care of.

2. Designate your health care wishes
     How should medical decisions be made for you in the event of an accident?  Without the appropriate legal papers, your next of kin will attempt to make the decisions that you would want.  But does he or she know all your wishes?
You should protect your health care decisions by at least appointing a health care power of attorney.  This designates the person who will make your decisions.  They are bound to make the decisions that you want, not what they think is best.
To go the extra mile, you can execute a living will.  This document attempts to set forth your wishes for different medical scenarios.  Then your health care agent will be bound to act according to this document.  If you neglect both of these health care documents, your life might be in the hands of someone you don’t trust.

3. Select the correct beneficiaries
     Do you have a life insurance policy or retirement plan?  Who are your beneficiaries?  If your estate is listed as the beneficiary, your heirs could be in for a surprise when you pass away.
Life insurance and retirement plans automatically pay the designated beneficiary when the policy holder dies.  To make sure your family or other heirs get this money, you should designate them by name as the beneficiaries.  If your estate gets paid directly, the true beneficiaries will be in for a long wait before they can be paid anything.  And your creditors might claim the money before anyone else can be paid.  Those beneficiary blanks are critical.

4. Get insurance, even if you rent
     Property insurance isn’t just for homeowners.  Even if you rent, you need insurance protection.  Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance primarily covers against loss to your property due to damage or theft.  But it can also be important if you’re ever sued.
When guests come onto your property, you legally take on a certain amount of liability for their safety.  If a guest is injured while on your property, you could be held responsible.  Fortunately, the typical property insurance policy provides some protection for you.  Guest medical coverage will pay for your guest’s medical bills.  For the cost of a renter’s insurance policy (at most $15/month), you can’t afford to neglect this coverage.

5. Separate your business
     If you run your own business, you should consider a limited liability business entity.  Running a sole proprietorship is simple, but it exposes you and your family to certain risks.  Creditors and people you have possibly wronged can come after you personally.  Your business could be putting the family home at risk.
To solve this problem, you can easily setup a basic corporation or a limited liability company (LLC).  Then when you sign contracts and incur business debts, you are only putting the business on the line.  It’s important to run the business properly to maintain your liability shield.  But without the formal business entity, you have no hope of limiting your personal liability.

250 Movie Character Introductions in One Amazing Video

     Some of the coolest moments in any movie are the character introductions. Who could forget the badass moment where the defeated villains hear "I am Batman," the silly moment where that gold robot introduces himself as "C-3PO, human-cyborg relations," or the iconic introduction of "Bond. James Bond." A new supercut video condenses 250 of these moments into one totally satisfying 9-and-a-half-minute romp.

     The supercut runs the gamut from action to sci-fi to comedy, but mostly sticks to mainstream flicks that you'll easily recognize. If you're stumped on any of them, there's a list in the video description on YouTube.

We are Urlesque, and we were unable to stop watching these introductions before the very end.

Cockroaches Would Not Survive an Extreme Nuclear Fallout

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Myth: Cockroaches would survive an extreme nuclear fallout

     You’ve probably heard that “the only living things that would survive a nuclear war would be cockroaches and Cher”.  The latter may be true, but the former is most definitely not.  It has even be suggested that cockroaches can survive the amount of radiation at ground zero of a nuclear explosion, though of course, not the explosion itself if they were right next to it (assuming they weren’t in a lead lined refrigerator; then of course they’d definitely survive, as would humans. *looks disapprovingly at Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*)
     In any event, more recent research has shown that, while cockroaches can withstand ionizing radiation bursts about 10 times as high as humans, they actually are relative light weights in that arena.  In fact, it only takes a burst of about 1,000 rads to significantly interfere with a cockroaches’ ability to reproduce, which would obviously be the eventual end of the cockroach, if they were all exposed to this level.  For reference, this is about the level of radiation at around 15 miles from Hiroshima directly after the bomb was detonated. (note: the Hiroshima bomb was a 15 kiloton weapon, which is nothing next to the megaton nuclear bombs that can be found in most nuclear stockpiles today.)
     Further, at levels of around just 6400 rads, about 94% of immature cockroaches will die and at around 10,000 rads, most adult cockroaches will not survive. While this is very impressive by human standards (humans only being able to survive about 400-1000 rads before death), it’s decidedly unimpressive by insect standards; most insects can survive much higher rates than the cockroach, according to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, who, when they aren’t spending their time trying to spit out their name, apparently enjoy zapping various living things with ionizing radiation. Squeal piggy!
     So who are the actual living creatures that would inherit the Earth after a world-wide nuclear war?  Well, it has been shown that fruit flies take around 64,000 rads to kill.  More impressive than that is the flour beetle which can withstand up to around 100,000 rads before dying.  Even better is a type of wasp, the Habrobracon, that can survive as high as 180,000 rads!  These all get beat by the Deinococcus radiodurans microbe.  This bacteria can survive radiation levels as high as 1.5 million rads at room temperature and nearly 3 million rads when frozen, such as during a hypothetical nuclear winter.
It isn’t entirely clear where the myth that cockroaches were impervious to ionization radiation got started, but it seems to have been largely popularized by anti-nuclear activists in the 1960s who often used the cockroach in their slogans and campaigns.  For instance, in a New York Times advertisement sponsored by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy: “A nuclear war, if it comes, will not be won by the Americans … the Russians … the Chinese. The winner of World War III will be the cockroach.”

Bonus Factoids:

• The primary reason cockroaches and many types of insects are so resistant to ionizing radiation is that their cells don’t divide that much between molting cycles.  Cells are most susceptible to damage by ionizing radiation when they are dividing.  Given that a typical cockroach only molts about once a week and its cells only divide around a 48 hour period during that week, about 3/4 of the cockroaches exposed would not be particularly susceptible to damage by ionizing radiation, at least, relative to those whose cells were currently dividing.
• As you might have inferred from this, this means that if the radiation experienced by these cockroaches was consistent over a long period of time, they are going to be significantly more susceptible to problems than the numbers quoted in this article.  The above numbers are using specific bursts of radiation over a short span.  Given that at any given moment about 75% of cockroaches aren’t experiencing cellular dividing, about 75% of them are going to be much less susceptibility to damage from these short bursts of radiation, which will drastically skew the numbers of what the species as a whole could survive when talking about a global nuclear fallout scenario.  More accurate research would then have to be done to see what levels of radiation kill or otherwise will significantly harm the roaches that are currently having their cells divide.  Further, ionizing radiation is cumulative, so that would have to be factored in as well.
• The largest nuclear bomb ever detonated was the Tsar Bomba, detonated by the Soviet Union.  This bomb was estimated at around 100 megatons of TNT or about just shy of 7000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
• The Deinococcus radiodurans  microbe was first discovered growing on rotten canned meat that had been sprayed with an ionizing substance meant to preserve it.  This microbe had no problems surviving such low levels of radiation.
• A cell’s increased susceptibility to damage by ionizing radiation when dividing is why humans and other mammals are so susceptible to this radiation, given that we experience cellular dividing all the time.  This is also why radiation is effective at such low doses at killing cancer cells, relative to what is required to damage healthy cells.  Cancer cells divide much quicker than most other cells in the human body; thus, you can kill the cancer cells faster than the healthy cells and hopefully find a happy medium where all the cancer cells die, but enough of the healthy cells remain and are undamaged enough for the person to continue living on more or less as before.
• While cockroaches may not be well equipped to survive nuclear fallout, relative to various microbes and most of their insect brethren, these little critters are extremely hardy with  fossil records of cockroaches dating all the way back to 300 million B.C., which pre-dates dinosaurs by around 70 million years.  Cockroaches have been shown to survive with their heads chopped off for nearly a month.  Further, they can survive as much as 45 minutes without oxygen and can survive on very low quality of food, such as the glue on a postage stamp, or cellulose, and very little of this food.  They can even survive by simply eating each other, if needs be, which would ultimately doom them if that was their only food source, but works out in the short run.

Black Friday Best Buy Shoppers Rewarded for Record Start

     With more then a week to go to Black Friday, two Best Buy Black Friday shopping families started camping out to be the first in line. Needless to say, this got the attention of the press, which got the attention of Best Buy's marketing team. They decided to reward these early shoppers with iPads.

     The shoppers were Tina Thain and Lorie Davenport (their family members are rotating shifts) and the Best Buy receiving all the attention is located in St Petersburg, Florida. We're not positive, but we believe this is a world-record for Black Friday line starts. They officially started Wednesday at 10 a.m, a full 9-days before Black Friday.

     Again, the level of competition is set by Best Buy Black Friday shoppers. Last year a Best Buy Shopping Couple got married while in the Black Friday line.

Black Friday is not the biggest shopping day of the year!!!

     Black Friday is not the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact, it’s typically not even in the top five, though has cracked the ranks a few times in recent years.
The real biggest shopping day of the year is nearly always the Saturday before Christmas, excepting a few occasions where it typically then ends up being the Thursday or Friday before Christmas, when Christmas falls on a weekend day.  Thus, the procrastinators seem to outnumber the early birds in this respect.
Besides people’s naturally tendency to procrastinate, this should not be a surprise as most people are simply trying to get specific great deals on Black Friday and aren’t tending to look to get all their Christmas shopping done in one day.  So while there might be a lot of people in the stores, most of them aren’t coming home with a lot of items, according to consumer reports.  On the other hand, the last Saturday before Christmas is the last convenient time for many shoppers to get their shopping done and, for many, they put off shopping for a lot of the people they have to shop for until the last minute for various reasons.  So shoppers on this day tend to buy significantly more items per person than shoppers on Black Friday, making it a much more profitable day for retailers.
Bonus Factoids:

• While it may not be the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday still rakes in an amazing amount of money, typically bringing in $15-$20 billion worth of revenue each year for the last three years in the United States.
• Another myth online retailers would love for people to start believing is that the Monday following Black Friday, which is beginning to be known as “Cyber Monday”, is the busiest online shopping day of the year.  In fact, Cyber Monday historically doesn’t even make the top ten and before the term was coined and promoted, it wasn’t even typically in the top 30.  Most of the actual biggest online shopping days of the year tend to fall between December 5th and December 15th.  As someone who once owned a reasonably successful online store, I can attest to the fact that the online shopping days between around December 5th-ish to about the 20th, for my store, would see normal sales jump about fifteen times the normal volume per day on average, during that span; then typically tailing off a bit, but staying well above average until around January 5th, at which point sales tend to see their worst rates of the year until around the end of January or early February when things would begin to get back to normal.  The last two Cyber Monday’s I owned that store, I actually saw below average sale rates on that day.
• The idea for Cyber Monday was supposedly the brain child of Shop.org executives who were trying to find a way to get people to devote more of their Christmas shopping to online sales.  A year before the first official Cyber Monday, Shop.org began brainstorming the idea and sent out a mass email to many other major online retailers, hoping everyone would push the idea the following year.  Up until that point, most online retailers hadn’t noticed any significant jump in sales on that day vs. any other day around that time.

Chameleons Don’t Change Color to Match Their Environment

     Chameleons don’t change color to match their environment. Rather, they change color as a response to mood, temperature, health, communication, and light.
     Now, not all kinds of chameleons have the ability to change color and some only have limited ability for color changing; for instance, many types of chameleons can only turn, green, brown, or gray.  Others have the ability to change to a variety of different colors including: pink, blue, red, orange, green, black, brown, blue, yellow, turquoise, and purple.  Of the ones that can change color, they’ll often change to darker shades, when they are cold, and will lie out in the sun during this time.  Likewise, if they are hot, they can change to lighter colors which will reflect the sun better, helping to cool themselves off.
     Most color changes though are simply due to mood changes or for communication purposes.  For instance, the Panther Chameleon will change to red and yellow when they are angry or are getting ready to attack.  This serves as a warning to other chameleons and humans to back off.  Some types of male chameleons will also change to mixed bright colors when they are trying to attract a nearby female chameleon.

Bonus Factoids:

• Those chameleons that can change to a variety of colors can do so thanks to special cells, collectively called chromatophores.  These chromatophore cells are grouped in layers underneath the chameleon’s transparent outer skin layer.  The upper most layers contain yellow and red pigments.  The lower layers are comprised of a colorless crystalline substance and melanin, which both are used to modify the visible color of the upper yellow and red pigments, producing a variety of colors.  In addition to that, the melanin layer also controls the intensity of the final output color.
• Chameleons that can change color typically can change from one color to another in less than 20-30 seconds.
• Chameleons are extremely territorial.  They also typically like to be by themselves.
• Some types of chameleons have tongues that are actually longer than their whole bodies.  These tongues can be fully extended as fast as 26 body-lengths per second, which is faster than the human eye can follow.
• Chameleons have the ability to see ultraviolet light.
• People who own particularly colorful types of chameleons can usually quickly learn to discern the mood of their chameleons and whether the chameleon is sick or not, simply by looking at its coloration.

How to Most Effectively Battle the Common Cold

     I had my first bout with the common cold last week, and yours isn't far behind. This year, I decided to stop blindly subscribing to anecdotal "cures" and preventions and get to the bottom of what science says really works.

     The temperature is dropping, and with winter comes the coughing, sniffling, and sneezing of the common cold. The internet is overflowing with health "tips", but among the huge amount of information available online, it's hard to separate the myths from the realities. Everyone has their own anecdotal evidence proving or disproving home remedies, over-the-counter medicines, and alternative "miracle treatments", but it's hard to tell which so-called remedies are actually the most effective at dealing with the common cold. Here, we're going to dive into some of the most popular cold treatments and note what the scientific community has to say about their effectiveness.

Things You Can Do at Home (That Won't Cost You an Arm and a Leg)

     When most of us get sick, the first thing we do is rush to the drug store to stock up on over-the-counter medicines: Whether it's the cough suppresant dextromethorphan (found in cough syrups like Robitussin) or the antihistamine doxylamine succinate (found in the sleep-inducing Nyquil). Oddly enough, though, the most well-supported cold treatments are things you can find lying around the house. We've talked about winterizing your body for the chilly months to come, but if you start to feel a cold coming on, here are some of the best options for taking care of yourself.

Gargle with Salt Water

     We've actually mentioned this remedy before, but it bears repeating: One of the oldest tricks in your mother's book, it seems that gargling with salt water is actually an effective home treatment for the common cold. Not only does it alleviate throat pain and loosen irritating mucous, but it can even help prevent colds: A study by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found people that gargled warm salt water three times a day were less likely to get sick during cold season. Just dissolve half a teaspoon of salt in a full glass of water, gargle for a few seconds, and spit it out. Photo by Casey Serin.

Try a Little Honey

     Another popular home remedy with some strong evidence behind it is honey. A 2007 Penn State University study found that one to two teaspoons of honey is not only effective at treating nocturnal cough, but it's actually more effective than dextromethorphan, the cough supressant found in oh-so-popular cough syrups we mob to. Photo by Bethany Egan.

Congestion Irrigation: The Neti Pot and Nasal Sprays

     If you're experiencing some nasal congestion, one of the best ways to get rid of it is to rinse it out at the source using a saline nasal spray, or other similar irrigation technique. Not only have researchers found that it reduces the severity of congestion, but that also reduces infection. While you can buy many such nasal sprays over-the-counter, you can also make your own at home by mixing a quarter teaspoon salt, a quarter teaspoon baking soda, and 8 ounces of warm water (or some similar variation). You an either spray it into your nose via a bulb syringe, or use a tool like the ever-popular neti pot to clear your nasal passageway. It can be a bit daunting for some, but it's been shown to be pretty effective and have little or no side effects, so if you're serious about feeling better, it's a good method to try. Photo by Dennis Yang.

Keep Your Stress Level Down

We've made a few mentions of how stress can affect your health: if you have more psychological stress in your life, you're likely to have health issues. Even if you're lucky enough to escape the serious issues like depression and anxiety, you're still susceptible to cold and other illnesses: The Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University found a significant relationship between stress and acute illnesses. Everyone's stress is different, so examine your own life and be sure to keep up with our favorite stress-relieving tactics here at Lifehacker to stay healthy. Photo by John Mayer.

 

 

Get Plenty of Rest

     It's one of the first pieces of advice you get when you're sick, but we can never stress it enough: give your body time to fight off the virus, and don't waste that energy elsewhere. A number of studies (such as this one from the Archives of Internal Medicine) found that sleep deprivation results in poorer immune function. Not only do good sleep habits help you fight off a cold, but they will even increase your resistance to catching one in the first place. So, if you're sick, it's important to get plenty of rest—but don't neglect it when you're healthy either. Make sure this is quality sleep, too: drugs like NyQuil contain alcohol, and we already know what that does to your sleep cycle. You'll fall asleep quickly, but you won't get the deep sleep you need to get better. Photo by Craig Dennis.

Unproven, But Unharmful: Good Ol' H₂0

While the above remedies have quite a bit of supporting evidence, other oft-recommended treatments, mentioned in this section, have either received little attention or have yet to produce conclusive evidence. The plus side: These methods aren't likely to hurt you, so there's no reason not to give them a bit of attention on your sick days.

Increase Your Fluid Intake

     Very little hard research has been done on the link between fluid intake and alleviating cold symptoms, but it's long been one of the first pieces of advice given to cold sufferers. Drinking lots of fluids during a cold is said to break up your congestion, keep you hydrated and keep your throat moist. I had a tough time finding actual studies about the common cold and hydration, but it's no secret that hydration is good for your body and your health—it is, after all, one of those things necessary to bodily function—so there's no reason to not continue following this advice. In fact, this is good advice even when you're not sick. Just remember not to go overboard. Photo by Brian Turner.

Inhale Steam

     We've advocated using humidifiers in your home on more than one occasion, and while there are definitely a lot of good reasons to maintain good humidity levels (from keeping your walls in good condition to avoiding nasty static electricity), the research on its effect on congestion is actually inconclusive. A Cochrane review found that only three out of six trials found benefits of steam for symptom relief. However, apart from some minor side effects (such as nasal discomfort or irritation), humidification carries little risk and provides other benefits for your home, so there's no reason to avoid it. If you'd rather not spend money on a humidifier, other sources of steam (such as a hot shower) can serve the same purpose.

Treatments to Skip: Alternative Remedies

Apart from the popular over-the-counter cold medicine ingredients (like the few mentioned above), a few other widely discussed treatments have yet to be proven effective, and also carry unnecessary side effects. These are the treatments you probably don't need.

Vitamin C

     People have studied and argued about the effectiveness of Vitamin C for decades, and a Cochrane review of trials on the subject found megadosing (you know—taking handfuls of the vitamin when you come down with the cold) Vitamin C to be mostly ineffective. While there are a few exceptions in the literature (most notably athletes and those subject to cold environments), it doesn't look like Vitamin C is the miracle cold cure that many people swear it is. However, it carries little risk, so as long as you don't go overboard with it, feel free to drink up that orange juice—just don't rely on any magical powers therein. You're probably best off staying away from high-dose Vitamin C formulations like Airborne, though, since they not only contain high levels of other, megadose-unfriendly vitamins (such as Vitamin A), but they also include unnecessarily high amounts of Vitamin C, which may have unwelcome side effects in those susceptible to kidney stones.

Echinacea

     Echinacea is an herbal remedy said to enhance the immune system and reduce the severity and duration of the common cold. It's popular, but once again, not likely that beneficial: a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that it was flat out not effective at preventing nor alleviating cold symptoms. Photo by London Looks.

     That said, Echinacea is a complicated treatment as well: There are many different types, strengths, and parts of the Echinacea root that have all produced different results, so unlike Vitamin C (which has been studied over and over again), the results on Echinacea are not consistent. It doesn't have a ton of side effects (other than a possible upset stomach), but allergies and other drugs can cause some more severe issues if you're not careful. Furthermore, herbal supplements aren't regulated by the FDA. When it comes down to it, it's a crapshoot as to whether the product you're buying is going to help or not.

Zinc

     Another popular alternative medicine treatment is zinc, both in the form of throat lozenges or nasal sprays. Quite a few studies have been done on the treatment, but again, only some of them found positive results. In those examples, high doses of zinc did significantly reduce the severity and duration of the common cold—especially when taken at the first sign of a cold—but the side effects hardly make it worth the unproven possibility that it will help. Mild side effects include mouth irritation, a seriously awful metallic taste in your mouth, and stomach upset, while other studies have shown that high doses of zinc can lead to a loss of taste or smell. While shorter-term use is likely safer than long-term use, you're once again better off saving your money.

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"Daylight Saving" Not "Daylight Savings"

    

     It’s “daylight saving time”, not “daylight savings time”. “Daylight saving time” uses the present participle “saving” as an adjective, as in “labor saving device”.
     Daylight saving time was first used during WWI to conserve fuel. The theory was that by adding an hour of sunlight to people’s normal “awake time”, it would cut down on the nations need for artificial light. This may have actually been effective then, but because of our vastly different energy usage today (only 3.5 percent of our energy usage today goes towards lighting), it has generally been shown that the effect on energy usage is negligible; though it has been shown to be a profitable thing for many stores, particularly those that sell product related to outdoor leisure activities.

Bonus Factoids:

• Ben Franklin often gets credit for being the “genius” who came up with daylight saving time. Interestingly though, the letter he proposed something like what we now call daylight saving time and which was eventually published in 1784 under the title, An Economical Project, was actually a witty satire meant to entertain some of his friends, not to be taken seriously on any account. It’s quite humorous, click here to give it a read (scroll down a bit for the start). In it, he also proposes taxing people who have shutters on their windows, rationing candles, and waking people as soon as the sun comes up by ringing church bells and firing cannons. With Franklin’s humor though, he probably would find it hilarious that many countries in the world eventually decided it was an idea that made sense. Although it’s quite clear he’s joking around in this paper, he was known for putting more subtle jokes in many of his other papers that only the most astute would recognize. He was so famous for this that when they were deciding who should write the Declaration of Independence, they chose Jefferson over the significantly more qualified and respected Franklin, as they feared Franklin would embed subtle humor in it that wouldn’t be recognized until it was too late to change¹.
• The modern day version of DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson in 1895.
• The credit though for the modern day DST system is often incorrectly given to William Willett who independently thought up and lobbied for DST in 1905. He was riding through London one day in the early morning and noticed that a good portion of London’s population slept through several hours of the sunlit summer days. Willet lobbied for DST until his death in 1915. Ironically, it was one year later in 1916 that certain European countries began adopting DST.
• Daylight saving time once single handedly thwarted a terrorist attack, causing the would-be terrorists to blow themselves up instead of other people. What happened was, in September 1999, the West Bank was on daylight saving time while Israel was on standard time; West Bank terrorists prepared bombs set on timers and smuggled them to their associates in Israel. As a result, the bombs exploded one hour sooner than the terrorists in Israel thought they would, resulting three terrorists dying instead of the two busloads of people who were the intended targets.

Source: MisconceptionJunction.com

Pittsburgh Steeler's player's hair insured for $1,000,000

     Troy Polamalu's hair is as iconic as he is. As such, the Troy Polamalu hair style must be protected, so Troy Polamalu hair responsibility now falls on Head & Shoulders. The company has been attached to the Steelers' safety for two years, as his unique style makes him an ideal spokesman. However, his locks are so long that they can be damaged on the field, especially since it's legal to grab them during play. Therefore, Polamalu's hairstyle is the first in sports history to get its own insurance policy.

     Procter & Gamble, which owns Head & Shoulders, got Lloyd's of London to draft a policy on football's most famous mane. It was taken out for $1 million, according to a statement yesterday. However, their investment was probably secure before this policy was made.

     The Troy Polamalu hairstyle has been growing for 10 years, as the Steelers' star has left it alone in honor of his Samoan ancestors. Given how that look has become his trademark -- and hasn't stood in the way of winning two Super Bowl rings -- he has no reason to take it off now.

     However, it is still vulnerable on the field, just like any other body part. Since Troy Polamalu's hair sticks out so much, players are allowed to grab it in order to bring him down. The Chiefs' Larry Johnson did just that in 2006, although the locks stayed where they were.

     It seems unlikely that a player can grab those locks hard enough to pull some off or ruin the style. But anything can happen in football, and since Head & Shoulders is tied to the Troy Polamalu hair image, they are not taking any chances.

     Still, this policy is the least of his concerns, as he has to worry about the rest of his body. Injuries interrupted his season last year, and provided a huge hole in the Steelers' defense. In order to return to the playoffs and make another Super Bowl run, the Steelers need all of Polamalu to return and be healthy again.

     If the Troy Polamalu hair insurance policy makes him feel more secure in that goal, then the Steelers will not protest. He is on track to start the regular season on time, but Pittsburgh needs him to finish it on time as well.

Turkey Doesn’t Make You Drowsy

     Now that Halloween’s done, on to Thanksgiving.  Seems fitting then to start November off with one of the more popular Thanksgiving related myths.  That being that, in fact, turkey does not make you drowsy after you eat it.
     Now to be clear, turkey does contain tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid which the human body doesn’t naturally produce, but is essential to proper body function and, thus, must be acquired from food. The reason tryptophan is tied to drowsiness is that it is used by your body to create serotonin. Serotonin, among other things, acts as a calming agent in the brain and plays a key role in sleep. So with turkey containing tryptophan, one would logically say it would make you sleepy after you eat it… except, this isn’t actually the case.
     So, why not? Primarily because of how we eat turkey and more importantly how the body deals with tryptophan. If you tend to eat turkey on a completely empty stomach and don’t eat anything else but a little turkey, then there’s a very small chance that the tryptophan in the turkey will make you a little drowsy right after you eat it. Add it to a sandwich or have it with some mash potatoes or really pretty much any other food eaten at the same time or just eat it on a non-empty stomach and it won’t be the turkey that is making you drowsy if you feel drowsy after.
     It turns out, tryptophan needs to not only be taken on an empty stomach to have any instant effect, but also with little to no other amino acids or protein present in order to make you drowsy after you eat something that contains it. Given that there is a lot of protein in turkey and other amino acids, even if you are a bit malnourished, you are not likely to get drowsy from the tryptophan after you eat turkey, though it will increase your body’s store of the tryptophan.
     What’s going on here is that when there are a lot of amino acids around, this causes competition among the amino acids as far as crossing the blood-brain barrier. Tryptophan is a particularly bulky amino acid so it ends up being at the back of the line, so to speak, and will generally stay there until those other amino acids are gone or, at the least, until quite a lot of them are gone so the ratio of tryptophan to those other amino acids is drastically increased.
     So why do you get drowsy after, say, eating turkey on Thanksgiving or the like? Well, there are a lot of reasons, but primarily because, with your holiday meal, you likely just crammed a couple days worth of food into your body in the span of an hour or so, possibly with some alcohol, which is a central nervous system depressant that has a mild sedative effect. Also, with a full stomach, your body directs blood away from your central nervous system and other organ systems to help with your digestive system. More than anything, this is probably causing most of the drowsiness after a large turkey dinner, such as on Thanksgiving or Christmas or the like.
     The “drowsy” effect is even more noticeable when your food contains quite a bit of various fats, which take a lot of energy to digest, and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates in particular release insulin. This results in a lot various amino acids being more or less swept out of your blood, being absorbed into your muscle cells, and thus the tryptophan to other amino acid ratio increases quite a bit, giving the tryptophan a better shot of crossing the blood-brain barrier and raising your serotonin levels.
     Now there is typically always a nice store of tryptophan in your body at any given time due to the fact that it is not only prevalent in turkey, but also higher levels than in turkey per ounce can be found in chicken, beef, pork, cheese, chicken eggs (which contain nearly four times as much tryptophan per ounce over turkey), sunflower seeds, and many types of fish; it also is found, in lesser or similar amounts as in turkey, in milk, beans, sesame seeds, lamb, wheat flour, chocolate, white rice, oatmeal, potatoes, and bananas, among a lot of other foods. So your body is typically stocked full of tryptophan most of the time and eating some turkey isn’t going to significantly change your body’s store, though it will add some.
     So, if you want to point to a specific food that can make you quite drowsy, it would be things high in carbohydrates such as pasta, mashed potatoes, breads, and the like; these not only cause your body to direct more blood towards your abdomen and away from other organ systems, which will make you drowsy, but also result in some of the tryptophan hanging out in your body to actually get a chance to make it passed the blood-brain barrier to eventually produce some serotonin.

Dropping a Penny from the Top of the Empire State Building Isn’t Dangerous

     You’ve probably heard people say how if you drop a penny off the top of the Empire State Building, it will accelerate to such a speed that if it struck someone, it would kill them. This simply isn’t true at all, not by a long shot. The worst that would happen if you dropped a penny from this height is that it would sting a bit when it hit them.  In most cases, it wouldn’t even do that.  In fact, even if you dropped it from an airplane flying at 35,000 feet, it still wouldn’t do any real damage to the person it hit.
So let’s talk specifics.  The Empire State Building is about 1250 feet tall.  If there were no air resistance on the penny as it fell, that would mean it would reach a maximum velocity of around 190-ish miles per hour when it hit the ground, taking just shy of 9 second to do so.  That might sound really fast, but fortunately, it’s still not fast enough to kill someone.
     Somewhat surprisingly, that still likely wouldn’t be fast enough to penetrate a person’s skin, especially if it hit the flat side down, instead of the edge.  For reference, a relatively low-”powered” bullet (.22 caliber), which is about equivalent in mass to a penny, is shot out with an initial speed of around 600 miles per hour.  That obviously will penetrate your skin at close range, but it’s because the surface area that strikes your skin is much smaller. A penny, even at that speed, wouldn’t cause that much damage as demonstrated by Myth Busters when they shot a penny at over 700 mph at a gel “skull”.  The penny wasn’t even able to penetrate the gel at all at that speed, which was over three times the speed a penny would reach falling from the top of the Empire State Building with no air resistance.
     So what about in real life where there is air resistance?  That’s a little harder to calculate because a penny is going to be greatly affected by the wind.  The updraft next to the Empire State Building can even be sufficient to make it so the penny won’t ever reach the ground near the Empire State Building, rather being caught in the swells and flying about until it is free from them.
Let’s move away from a place that has such an updraft and windy environment.  What would the terminal velocity be then?  It turns out, pennies have a pretty low terminal velocity (just a bit faster than a ping-pong ball, which has a terminal velocity of around 20-ish mph).  In open air, with no real updraft or breeze, a penny’s terminal velocity is going to be around 30-50 miles per hour.  If there is a good wind, even without an updraft, that’s going to drop significantly.
     You can even test this near your home because a penny will reach its terminal velocity in only about 50 feet.  Find someplace where you can drop a penny 50 feet down and have someone waiting at the bottom to catch it (or time it to determine the velocity).  They’ll have a really hard time catching it, due to the fact that it will spin and flutter about like a knuckle-ball, particularly if it’s breezy out.  But if you do manage to hit them, I suspect they won’t complain.  Indeed, as you can read in one of my sources, someone conducted this very experiment, dropping some pennies from a height sufficient for it to reach its terminal velocity (they chose a couple hundred feet, which was more than sufficient) and trying to catch them.  One of the pennies hit a person in the chin and it didn’t even sting, it just felt like a bug had hit them.  Several other pennies hit them on various places on their bodies and weren’t really felt much at all through their clothes.
If you’ve got a decent throwing arm, a less nice way to test this out without even leaving the comfort of your own home, which I in no way recommend for legal reasons, is simply to take a penny and attempt to chuck it at someone standing near you.  If you’ve got a good arm at all, it’s going to reach much higher than its terminal velocity (assuming you stand close to them so it doesn’t have a chance to slow down) and you might even be able to get it to hit with the edge pointing forward for maximum speed and stinging power, which is something that isn’t likely dropped from a high height.  They’ll probably not be too happy with you, but even if it hits their bare skin, it’s only going to sting a bit.   Just tell them it’s !!!FOR SCIENCE!!! and try not hit them in the eye.  That would hurt even if you had a weak throwing arm.
     Of course, given all this, one shouldn’t take away from this that it is safe to drop all light objects from high heights.  It really has a lot to do with surface area to weight ratio and how aerodynamic the thing is.  Pennies will flutter about and are greatly affected by the wind.  Something like a decently weighted metal fountain pen, on the other hand, could cause serious damage if dropped from a high height.  It’s aerodynamically shaped and has a nice pointy end.  An object like that reaching even just a hundred miles an hour can easily puncture skin and much worse.  Heck, even bullets shot straight up in the air have been shown to be quite dangerous by the time they get back to the ground (not all bullets, but many).  Many of these aren’t much larger, mass wise, than a penny, just shaped right for traveling through the air.

Bonus Factoid:

• As stated, a penny’s terminal velocity is going to be around 30-50 mph.  For reference, the terminal velocity of a sky diver is going to be around 130-ish mph (like all these examples, that varies depending on a lot of factors, but that’s a good ballpark number).  Speaking of ballparks, the terminal velocity of a baseball is around 100 mph; for a tennis ball it’s around 60 mph; a ping pong ball is going to be around 20 miles per hour; and a raindrop is going to be around 15 mph.

The Men Behind the Masks

by Ethan Trex

Chewbacca, Sloth, and Big Bird are all iconic roles, but could you pick any of the actors who played them out of a lineup? Probably not. Let’s take a look at the unheralded men behind the mask, under the makeup, or in the suit for a handful of memorable roles in movies and TV shows.

1. John Matuszak as Sloth

A generation of kids grew up cheering for Matuszak as Lotney “Sloth” Fratelli in The Goonies, but they probably didn’t know that just a few years earlier “Tooz” had heard the cheers of thousands of Oakland Raiders fans. Before he ever became an actor, Matuszak was a heck of a football player; as a 6’8”, 280-pound defensive end he was even the first overall pick in the 1973 NFL Draft.

Matuszak won two Super Bowl rings with the Raiders before retiring after the 1981 season, but he’s most remembered for his madcap personality. “Tooz” would throw back a “breakfast of champions” that consisted of vodka and Valium, brawl with teammates and coaches, and generally wreak havoc on and off the field. No wonder Sports Illustrated named him one of the NFL’s top five bad boys of all time in 2005.

2. Kevin Peter Hall as Harry and the Predator

The late Kevin Peter Hall had quite a bit of range once he got inside a suit. He could play a gentle giant like the Bigfoot Harry in Harry and the Hendersons, or he could kick some butt as a bloodthirsty alien like he did in the first two Predator movies. The 7’2” Hall had previously excelled as a basketball player for George Washington University, and he also had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom 227. The gig on 227 proved to be particularly fruitful for the former Predator; he married star Alaina Reed, who had previously risen to fame as Olivia on Sesame Street.

3. Warwick Davis as Wicket W. Warrick

Movie buffs probably recognize Davis as the title character in Willow and the Leprechaun series, but they might not have known that he broke into acting as an Ewok. When George Lucas was casting Return of the Jedi he put out a series of radio ads looking for people under four feet tall to play the Ewoks. Davis’ grandmother heard the spot and took Davis, who was 2’11” and a rabid Star Wars fan, to audition. After Lucas’s original choice to play Wicket fell ill, Davis nabbed the role of lead Ewok and launched a successful film career.

Interestingly, Davis was only 17 years old when he played the title role in Willow. Although he had to take lessons in sword fighting and horseback riding to prepare for the fantasy film, Davis later said that the toughest part of the role was learning how to act like a parent to his infant co-star. He said on the DVD commentary, “I had to learn parenting skills, which taught me how to hold a baby correctly, how to feed a baby, and worst of all, how to change a nappy, or diaper.”

4. Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca

Like the much shorter Davis, Mayhew found his way into films thanks to George Lucas. When Lucas was first casting the Star Wars series, he wanted English bodybuilder David Prowse to play Chewbacca. Prowse wasn’t interested in being a Wookiee, though; he asked to be the man in the Darth Vader suit. Lucas agreed and in turn asked 7’3” hospital worker Mayhew to play Chewie.

An anecdote from the production of The Empire Strikes Back accentuates just how indispensable these costumed actors can be. Mayhew fell ill during one day of filming, and since the producers didn’t want to lose a whole day of work, they put another very tall actor in the Chewie suit. After all, it’s just a suit, right? Turns out it’s not that simple. Mayhew had crafted all of Chewbacca’s mannerisms and his gait based on careful observations of large animals, but the stand-in couldn’t match them. The shots just didn’t look like the real Chewbacca. Eventually Lucas scrapped all of the footage of the impostor Chewie and reshot it with Mayhew in the suit.

5. Caroll Spinney as Big Bird

Spinney has been the man behind Sesame Street’s most iconic resident since the show’s first episode aired in 1969. Although Big Bird is 8’2”, Spinney isn’t as towering as many of the other actors on this list; he’s only 5’10”. Spinney has played Big Bird in the White House for a number of Presidents (his only complaint from these gigs is that Nancy Reagan was rude), and he’s also played another signature Sesame Street role: Oscar the Grouch.

6. Bolaji Badejo as the Alien

Bolaji Badejo was just a Nigerian design student when Ridley Scott put him into millions of audience members’ nightmares in Alien. Scott wanted his extraterrestrial monster to look like no human could possibly be inside the costume, so he sought out an actor who was extremely tall and impossibly lanky. Badejo fit the bill. At 7’2” and incredibly thin, Badejo brought his unique body type to the terrifying role, then never appeared in another film.

7. Dick Durock as Swamp Thing

If not for an NFL trade, we may never have seen Swamp Thing as we know him. Former Marine Dick Durock was living in Pittsburgh with his older sister and her husband, Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Frank Varrichione, when four-time Pro Bowler Varrichione found himself traded to the Los Angeles Rams in 1961.

The trade worked out well for the Rams – Varrichione made another Pro Bowl with the team – but it panned out even better for Durock. He followed his family to Los Angeles and began working out in a gym frequented by a number of stuntmen. Eventually he became a stuntman himself, and in 1982 he took on the role of Swamp Thing for the first of two movies and then 71 episodes of the subsequent television series.

Misconception Junction Presents.....

[Source: Misconception Junction]

Consumer Pays Off $14,330 In 20 Months With Our Tips

     Stuck in a $14,300 debt hole, reader Trixare4kids was able to dig herself out using tips she learned about on Consumerist.com. Let's learn how she attacked her personal finances and learned to live frugally, and did it all in 20 months.
     She writes: "This morning I made my very last payment on $14,300 in credit card debt and a personal line of credit for a home improvement project that was completed a few years ago. I paid it off over the last 20 months thanks to applying some of the stuff I learned at consumerist.com. It was tough. It took discipline, but I did it!
     Instead of making a bunch of changes at once, I did things a little over time. It looked something like this. It's maybe not in the order that makes the most sense to a financial planner or in the order that someone else would do things; I just know that it worked for me.

MONTH 1: NEGOTIATING BETTER CREDIT CARDS RATES:
     I called every single credit card company and tried to negotiate for a lower rate. I was successful with a lot of them. In once case the rate went from 14% to 7.99%. If they would not lower the interest rate, I politely thanked them and then transferred those balances onto lower rate cards. I canceled each card as it was paid off.

MONTH 2: GO CASH-ONLY:
     I cut up every single card except one for emergencies. I actually put my remaining credit card in a big plastic cup full of water and stuck it in the freezer. That way, I'd really have to work at it to get that card. Cash only was the rule. If I did not have the cash, I did not need it. It's still in the freezer 20 months later.

MONTH 3: START DEBT-SNOWBALL:
     It really works. I first heard about this method on consumerist and set myself up to pay off the lowest balances first. I used an Excel spreadsheet I downloaded here. I liked this one because it was easy to add extra one-time payments. I know that it would probably save me more money to pay off the higher interest rates first, but it was very, very satisfying to get stuff paid and DONE with. I cannot even begin to explain how highly motivating it was to finally pay something off. It was worth whatever little amount extra it cost me extra to pay the smallest balances off first. It makes for that good "light at the end of the tunnel" feeling. I also set up automatic payments on payday through the online bill pay to make this a seamless process. For the first couple of months, I just started off with just $50 extra because that's all I could afford. Once I started living more frugally, I applied more to the snowball.
     Make extra payments to the snowball. They really do help, no matter how small. Every single extra penny that came my way went toward paying down the debt. At the end of the month, if I had anything left over in any of the budget categories, I immediately applied that as an extra payment. The nice thing about online bill pay is that it's just so easy to make as many payments as you want. Sometimes it was $100, sometimes it was $10 or even $3 one month, but every little bit helps. I purchased a printer that was almost free after rebate and applied the rebate to the debt. I did a few side jobs helping a caterer do some prep work; I sold some books on half.com, cleaned out my garage and made $300 from a yard sale, grandma sent me money for my birthday and Christmas, you get the idea. The point is, every single extra penny went right to the debt.

MONTH 4: SET UP BUDGET:
     I made a budget and figured out where exactly my money was going.

MONTH 5: CUT BACK EXPENSES:
     I figured out what I could cut back on or go without. Not only did I figure out what I was giving up would save me I also diligently applied that amount to the snowball. It also really helps to figure out what something is costing you per year. I had no idea I was spending $600 a year just on manicures!

Here's what I gave up:
Cable TV. Got a cheap netflix plan and a roku player instead. Savings: $17/month, $204 a year
Land line phone. Savings: $27/month, $324/year
Gardener. Savings: $40/month, $480/year
Got slower DSL. Savings: $10/month, $120/year
Manicures. Did my own. Savings: $50/month, $600/year
Public Radio Membership. Sorry KQED and KALW, but I have to come first right now. I'll continue to support you later. Savings: $11/month, $132/year
Gym Membership. Savings: $30/month, $360/year
Lunches at work. Savings: $120 month, $1440/year
Starbucks. Savings: $60/month, $720/year

Total extra towards snowball: $365/month, $4,380/year.
Just like that.

MONTH 6:
     I worked on cutting my spending in other ways.
I am an avid reader and I realized one of my biggest expenditures was new books. I gave up my Amazon habit and switched to the library. My local library allows you to browse the catalog online and request books be sent to the branch of your choice. I work 2 blocks from a branch so I just picked up things there. I also used paperbackswap.com, bookmooch.com and swaptree.com to give books I no longer wanted and in return get books I wanted. It only cost me the price of shipping books to other users via media mail. I saved unknown hundreds and hundreds of dollars by making this simple switch.
     For example, in September, I spent $36 on postage to send out used books, books that would otherwise just be sitting around and in return I received about $300 worth of books had I bought them new at retail price. For those who are into DVDs and CDs, swapadvd.com and swapacd.com are also awesome sites. (Other than being a member, I'm not affiliated with any of those sites)
     I stopped buying anything new. If I really, really needed something, I would ask first on freecycle http://www.freecycle.org/ and search craigslist for used items for sale. For example, my hairdryer stopped working about 6 months ago. Instead of running out to buy a new one, I posted an "Item Wanted" listing on the yahoo group and had a new and FREE hair dryer within 24 hours.

Food Budget: I ate the kind of things I normally eat; I just made some simple substitutions. I ate at home instead of eating out. I brought my lunch to work instead of eating out, but I did let myself eat out on Payday Friday. I used coupons and only bought very small amounts of perishable items so there was no waste. I stocked up on items like toilet paper when there was a really good sale, but was careful not to buy too many perishables. Nothing went to waste. I gave up paper towels and used rags instead. I shopped at the grocery outlet instead of Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck)
     Instead of buying new clothes (except for bras, panties and socks) I shopped for things at thrift and consignment stores.
     I know it sounds like I gave a lot of stuff up, but I don't see it that way - I kept thinking about what I was GETTING instead, which is freedom from debt. I still gave myself a small budget for entertainment and frugal dining out once in awhile, and please, nothing could induce me to give up my hairdresser!
You'd be surprised how much you can actually do for FREE if you just look around.
Free Theatre: Lots of theatres need volunteer ushers. You work in the theatre for an hour or so before the show, maybe stuffing envelopes or something. You help seat people before the show and then you get to see the show for free. You often get good seats too. I saw 3 or 4 free show a month this way. You often have to wear black slacks or skirt and a white shirt, but that's a small price to pay for free theatre.

Artist's receptions: You get to mingle and talk with people, see some (hopefully) lovely and interesting art, plus get fed wine and cheese.
I also used squidlist to find cheap and free things to do.

HOW IT FEELS
     I was disciplined and determined and I did it! Thank you consumerist! As of today I am debt free (except for my thankfully low fixed-rate mortgage) and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my mind. My spirit feels lighter. I am FREE. I am doing a happy dance! My plan is to continue to live frugally and start building up a savings now. I will never, ever be in that much debt again. I never want to feel the stress an anxiety of owing so much.
     Oh yeah, all during this time, I also put just $40 per month away into a savings account (ING) which I set up as an automatic $20 deduction every payday. I now have $800 to spend guilt-free and after 20 months I'm ready for a vacation. So, as my prize for getting debt free, I just booked a $295 flight to Cancun a bit later in October. I really deserve this vacation for a job well done and best of all? It's NOT going on a credit card.

originally posted on consumerist.com