While the east coast has been going through an unusually warm winter, I just know that it won’t last forever. That’s why I was glad to find this article on 6 Ways To Shrink Your Heating Bill (thanks to LinkTipIdea for the tip). One thing I would add to this list is that contrary to popular belief, you can wear a long sleeved shirt or sweatshirt in your house. I’m not saying you have to freeze to save a few bucks, but if you can throw on a sweatshirt and be comfortable, go for it.

Yes, it’s true, I’m bringing the Tip of the Day back from the grave. After a few months of hiatus, I’m going to start trying to post a new one everyday. I can’t guarantee it, but I’ll give it my best shot. With that being said, here’s today tip:

If you’re like me, then you crave your daily dose of caffeine in the morning, every morning. However, I’ve noticed that on Mondays, the Safeway that I go to restocks their soda right before I usually go down there. This is no beuno simply because that means I have to drink warm soda, right? Not exactly. I’ve found that the sodas right in front of the registers usually are much colder than in the ones in the main fridge on Monday’s, probably because they weren’t rotated in and they’ve been there all weekend. So if you can, try to grab the ones near the register at the beginning of the week. At least take the time to do a comparison, as a warm soda in the morning can be worse than no soda at all.

I saw this article over at LinkTipIdea and thought it was a great reminder on how to save money. It is my opinion that not enough people take advantage of the fact that there are literally thousands of coupons available on the internet for almost any product that you can imagine. Most of the time it just takes a few minutes to search and then print out these coupons, no strings attached.

Remember, next time you are looking to buy anything, take a few minutes and search Google to see if there’s a coupon for it. You might just end up saving yourself a nice chunk of change.

I’m not sure how many of you actually travel by train anymore, but I do it at least five to six times a year. I like it, and I think it is a very underused way to get around, especially with gas prices and plane tickets being so expensive. However, it never fails that when I get a regular ticket (not a fancy Accela ticket), I always seem to pick a busy time. This compounds the problem that for some reason, most people think that if they don’t get on the train right away it’s going to leave without them. This means that they rush to board the first train they can jam themselves into.

Read the rest of this entry »

Probably one of the hardest pieces of information to keep track of in business is someone’s name, especially if you don’t’ work with them very often. Also, at meetings, conventions, and other corporate gatherings you are usually introduced to tons of people, and it can be quite hard to remember everyone’s name two weeks down the road. However, just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it isn’t absolutely necessary. Remembering someone’s name automatically puts you in their good graces. It shows that you are on top of your game and interested in their business or what they do. The question is, how do you make sure you do remember their name?

There’s an interesting article over at 43 Folders discussing various tricks to remember somebody’s name. It’s a collage of name remembering tricks that the author has scoured from Google, and I think they are pretty good. In particular, I like the one about repeating a persons name in conversation multiple times after you meet them, as this trick seems to work very well for me. A word of caution though: You don’t’ want to be too overbearing when doing this, just slip the name in when you can. Don’t force it.

Do you have any special tricks you use to remember a name? Let us know in the comments section.

Thanks to Link Tip Idea for the heads up on this one.

With the price of gas rising pretty close the national deficit per gallon, owning a fuel efficient car has become more important than ever. The question is, what are the most fuel efficient cars? Luckily, the J.D Power Consumer Center has done the research for you. They’ve put together a list of the Top 10 Fuel Efficient Cars.

Unfortunately for me, I don’t own any of them. While I’m not in the market for a new car at the moment, fuel efficiency will definitely be at the top of my list of things to consider when I am.

Thanks to LinkTipIdea for this tip.

Getting directions today has never been easier. With the advent of Map Quest and Google Maps, accurate (for the most part) directions are but a click away. However, one big mistake that many people make when getting directions off of the internet is throwing away the accompanying map that comes with them. Sure, everybody keeps the actual step by step directions, but how many actually keep the map with their route drawn on it?

Why keep this map? Well, as we all know, sometimes these directions can be a bit confusing. Even worse, when following these directions you can even find yourself getting lost. This is where the map comes in. Although not super detailed, these maps can usually provide you with at least some semblance of the direction you should be going in. Also, if the way you are taking has heavy traffic or construction, you can sometimes use these maps to find a quicker way around it.

Remember: Next time you print out directions, keep the map. You never know when it might come in handy.

Impossible you say? Not according to Dr. Gourmet. While he states that he would much rather eat a homemade meal (who wouldn’t), he provides a list of the healthier menu items for a number of popular fast food joints. Most of the meals on his list are under 400 calories and 15 grams of fat, which is a pretty amazing feat when you think about it.

Unfortunately for me, my favorite meals seem to be missing from the list, but next time I go to one of these places I’m going to keep the suggested selections in mind. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Here is the article: Eating Healthy at Fast Food Restaurants”.

Thanks to LinkTipIdea for the heads up on this one!

Do you travel for your job? Most likely you have at some point or another. When you travel for work, do you collect frequent flyer miles? Hotel points? Surprisingly, many people would answer “No” to this question. Usually, they just haven’t taken the time to sign up for any of these programs. This is a huge mistake, as you are missing out on a potentially tremendous amount of personal savings by not participating in these programs.

Think of this way: If you need to travel for work, you have to go regardless of whether or not you get anything out of it, so why not bank some rewards points? Now, some companies don’t allow some of the programs (usually frequent flyer miles), but there should be something that you can take advantage of.

Personally, I’ve had great success with various hotel rewards programs. Take a look at your company’s policies, I think you’ll be surprised at how much leeway you have when signing up for some of these programs.

This is a bit of sneaky tip, so use it at your own risk. With that being said, how many of you enjoy waiting in line to check your bags? Nobody? Not surprising. This is especially true if you have only one bag to check and it is pretty close to carry on size. This is where this tip comes into play. Instead of waiting in line, check in as if you only have carry on items (via the virtually abandoned kiosks that say “Only carry on bags”). When you get to the plane, try to fit your bag into the overhead compartments. If you can’t, they’ll just check that bag for you right on the plane, and you can pick it up when you land. No hassle, no fuss.

I know, it’s a bit dishonest. However, if you are feeling adventurous and you don’t want to spend two hours in line behind the guy flying with an e-ticket for the first time, you may want to give it a shot.