green living, smart spending
Small enough to fit in your hand, but powerful enough to provide nearly 600 million rural villagers in Africa with light, and it costs just $5. This brilliant little gadget was designed and developed by solar company Yingli Europe and a UK industrial design agency for SolarAid, a charity which combats poverty and climate change
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It’s August, which means heat and humidity, and back-to-school shopping. This year, 16 states are participating in tax-free weekends, when there’s no sales tax on school supplies, which includes computers in some states. The tax free weekends begin one minute after midnight on Saturday, and end at midnight on Sunday. In addition to the 16
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Money matters. Nearly half of us give or get gift cards for the holidays, birthdays and other anniversaries. If you don’t like the store, restaurant or movie theater, you can sell that gift card for cash, and get anywhere from 65 to 95 cents on the dollar. Even losing up to 20 percent or more
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Shop smarter and save money by knowing what’s on sale each month. Here’s the sale calendar for January: Computers, electronics and cameras: The world’s biggest electronics show, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is always the first week of January. As soon as new models are introduced, the ones they are replacing go
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Are you frugal, or are you cheap? There’s a difference. Change one letter of the word ‘cheap’ and it becomes ‘cheat’, but frugal doesn’t cheat anybody. Cheap is a negative and undignified way to save money, while frugal is fashionable, even necessary. Cheap doesn’t brag about it. Frugal does. Examples of frugal vs. cheap: Frugal
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National restaurant chains are offering Mother’s Day freebies that include a free dessert or free entree. Here’s a list, alphabetically, of more than 60 US restaurant chains offering meal deals to give mom the chance to avoid cooking and cleaning on Mother’s Day. NOTE This list is from 2014. See the 2017 list of Mother’s
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Buyer’s remorse, or shopper’s guilt, is when you get the feeling you’ve paid to much for something. Get rid of those second-thoughts by using one of these free price comparison apps that will help you save time, money and stress. Price Check by Amazon – Scan a product’s bar code, snap a photo, or say
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Hotels are inventing new discount gimmicks to lure budget-minded travelers. My favorite of the moment is from Starwood, which lets you pay your birth date. This discount deal favors seniors and boomers, who can pay $43 for a room if they were born in 1943, $53 if they were born in 1953, and so on.
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The impending mandated federal budget cuts, also known as sequestration, are a disaster for US national parks, wildlife, and for those of us who love the outdoors. The impending mandated federal budget cuts, also known as sequestration, are a disaster for US national parks, wildlife, and for those of us who love the outdoors. Sequestration
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