dollarish's Dollarish

Knockoffs: "Why Would Anyone Pay More For This?"

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:33:00 GMT

Whether it's changing that Coach C to a G or making a Payless version of a pair of Steve Madden pumps, people are always making knockoffs. And sometimes I'm completely satisfied with my less-than-authentic purchases. Other times, though, I think you get what you pay for.

For me, I suppose there are three stages of knockoff enlightenment: More Here...

Dollarish Digest: T Minus 7 Days to Black Friday

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:17:00 GMT

It's Friday! Which means, more significantly, that Black Friday is only a week away. And, if we can manage to find time between tryptophan and football, we're going to spend it preparing—that means itineraries, shopping lists, and maybe a pair of steel-toed boots.

Between now and then, though, here's a list of our most popular posts of the week, in case you missed them:

Ten Ways to Pay for College, a controversial list that caused quite the comment frenzy.
Phone Wars: AT&T Sues Verizon, featuring video-embedded awesomeness.
Debit Card Don'ts For The Holidays. As in, don't forget to send us a present!
Experts Discuss the College Question,which got a lot of us talking about the where's and why's of higher education.
New Life for Old Gadgets. Maquariums. Enough said.

And now, to the steel-toed boots!

Do you have any Black Friday plans?

Let us know with a submission for Dollarish's front page, or just drop us a comment.

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Credit Unions: A Main Street Investment

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:24:00 GMT

I was reading another article by Nicholas Carroll (who taught us how to downgrade our resumes), and he mentioned credit unions, something I know very little about. But here goes:

Credit unions are not-for-profit institutions, and many of them give out debit cards, which make them a sort of friendly alternative to big banks and credit card providers, although they don't provide rewards. Credit unions tend to offer reasonable rates and loans, and might even be more understanding and forgiving of late payments. Nick also pointed out that credit unions tend to loan money to local businesses, so your money will help invest in Main Street, not Wall Street. More Here...

Online Vendors Make $792 Million on Scam

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:11:00 GMT

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Dan@xang a clued us in on a horrible online scam that occurs on the checkout pages of some suprisingly legit websites. Priceline, Fandango, Pizza Hut, Victoria's Secret, you name it—the scam involves 88 well-known companies, according to The Consumerist.

How it works is, after you buy movie tickets (or calzones, or boy shorts), a little window pops up offering you a $10 coupon if you enter your email address. But somehow, when you click "OK," you're actually allowing the main website to pass along your credit card information to an insidious partner site. From here, you'll be billed about $9 every month for a bogus "discount buyers club." The problem is, you might not even realize you signed up for anything until the charges start to show up on your credit card bill. And you probably won't get any $10 coupon. More Here...

Let These College Dropouts Help You Pick a College

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:03:00 GMT

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The New York Times' "You're The Boss" blog had an inspiring post about two former undergrads who dropped out to pursue their start-up website, MyFit.com, a service which—ironically—helps high school students find the perfect college for them. The site uses criteria that goes beyond such standards as the SATS, like looking at students' long-term goals and passions.

To be fair, the two students-turned-businessmen already had a promising website on their hands when they made the decision to drop. The service was a runner-up in two start-up competitions at Duke and North Carolina State, which won its creators about $60,000 in investments. More Here...

Saving Money Online

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:42:00 GMT

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The Associated Press recently released an article full of advice on holiday shopping, and many of the items dealt with frugal-friendly resources available online.

My favorite is RetailMeNot.com, a website that keeps track of tons of shopping coupons, which you can browse by retailer or item type (like shoes, jewelry). More Here...

I Can't Get a Job, Because I've Never Had a Job

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:21:00 GMT

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I've never really had a job.

I've been an intern, camp counselor, teaching assistant, and grader, but it's all been very seasonal, very temporary. I've never worked anywhere real, like a restaurant, clothing store, or movie theater. And sometimes I think I never will.

Why? I don't have any experience. More Here...

Tweets-to-Riches: Don't Count On It

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:59:00 GMT

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Gawker posted a while ago about how CBS is going to adapt the "Sh*t My Dad Says" Twitter account into a sitcom. The author is a 29-year-old guy living with his 73-year-old father, a man full of comments both hilarious and disparaging, perfect for Twitter's bite-size format. So I mean, good for that guy.

But this is only one of many Twitter/blog-inspired moneymakers from the past several years, like the guy who got paid to create a book out of other people's clever Tweets. And, as Gawker points out, such success stories—although pretty sweet for the parties involved—might be giving false hope to the unshowered masses, those Internet enthusiasts who live in their parents' basements and are just waiting for their big online breaks. More Here...

Office Romances: Either Really Good or Really Bad

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:09:00 GMT

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CNN reported yesterday on a new survey about relationships among coworkers. After polling 8,000 people, CareerBuilder found that 40 percent of responders had engaged in an office romance, and 31 percent of said 40 percent had turned that cubicle fling into full-on matrimony. Which means, of course, that 9 percent did not. More Here...

Errors Abound on Recovery.gov

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:07:00 GMT

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So Recovery.gov, a government website created to track the progress of the Recovery Act—and, ahem, its $787 billion—is riddled with errors, which can be chalked up to sloppiness, ignorance, or super-secret government conspiracy. The choice is yours.

ABC news reported on Monday that many of the site's created and saved jobs were listed in nonexistent state districts. For example, the website said that $760,000 in stimulus buckage supported 30 jobs in the 15th congressional district of Arizona. Unfortunately, there isn't one. More Here...