Tips On Frugal Living in the Philadelphia region

Introduction

• You need to be informed about what you are buying.
• You need to know where and how to get information.
• You need to be able to identify common ripoffs.
• You ought to have a sense of whether particular retailers behave ethically.

Why Be Frugal?

It is also the case that being frugal is an enjoyable hobby.

What parts of the region does this cover?

Contents

Arts

Art centers

• Main Line Art Center in Haverford on the Main Line.
• Wayne Art Center also on the Main Line.
• Center for the Creative Arts in Yorklyn Delaware.

Art supplies

• Del Val Potters has clay at good prices. Phone 215-233-0655.

Banks

Generally speaking, credit unions offer a better deal with fewer fees than do regular banks. But watch out, even they can play fast and loose with the rules and hide nasty details in the fine print.

Bicycles

Big Box Stores

Walmart

That may be true, but that ignores the reality that

• Almost all big corporations oppress unskilled workers.
• Most big businesses bully small businesses in one way or another.
• It is certainly the case that many small businesses treat workers like garbage as well.

The obsession that some people have about Walmart is not unwarranted but if you think Kmart, Target, and other big-box stores are any better, you are kidding yourself.

Given that they are all bad, you have to either boycott all of them or go with the most consumer-friendly store. And in terms of prices, other stores are worse because they don't pass on to the consumer any of the savings derived from the exploitation of workers or cut-throat competition.

Read my extended essay on big box stores here.

Black Friday

I suspect most people go out on Black Friday more because they like the excitement or are lonely than out of a motivation to save money.

Black Friday Scam #1: the fake discount

Black Friday Scam #2: price gouging on non-sale items

Black Friday Scam #3: no stock to begin with

Black Friday Scam #4: appearance of deals without substance

Black Friday Scam #5: dumping junk products

Black Friday Scam #6: the ugly friend

Black Friday Scam #7: repackaging of junk

Black Friday Maxims

1. Buy not stuff you do not need just because you are in the store.
2. Know the true value of products.
3. Be not impressed by sales on stuff you do not need.
4. Travel not unto stores lest you are assured they have stock.
5. Know what the normal warranty length is for what you want to buy and do not accept anything shorter.
6. Buy not buy unknown or crappy brands.
7. Buy not go to stores that have no sales.

Summary

Always assume they think you can be conned. Caveat emptor.

Books

Regular books (not textbooks)

But most of the time, buying a new book isn't necessary at all. Nor even buying a new copy. Check out your local library instead. They probably have what you need or they can order it via Interlibrary Loan.

Some people complain that libraries impose a time limit on borrowing, but that is actually good, since it spurs you to read. You shouldn't become one of those people who collects books but never reads them.

Also check out your local used bookstore. These stores are struggling agains juggernauts such as Border's and Barnes and Boble. They are run by everyday people like you and when you buy from them, profits remain local instead of going to faraway, overpaid corporate CEOs.

Lastly, if you are a student, ask your college library when they will be having their yearly free book giveaway. You'd be surprised what you can get if you show up on the first day.

Particular bookstores

Borders

Examples of Border's committment to quality:

• In a certain state where the Health Department is lax and/or corrupt, I observed a bathroom that remained semi-flooded and stinking of urine for many weeks.
• At another Border's, I deduced based on careful observation that a cafe worker had deliberately placed gay paraphenalia in the men's bathroom in two places: in one stall, and on the counter that has the sinks -- clearly to be highly conspicuous.
• At another Border's, when I returned an item without a receipt I was told that I could have taken the item to a pawn shop.

Barnes and Noble

Textbooks

Websites

Used

Experiences

• I recently bought a 6th edition of a certain book from a neighbor for $5 instead of buying a new 9th edition for $150. I got an A in the course. Because of the subject, the topic matter had not changed much between the two editions.
• Similarly, for another text I recently bought the 8th edition of it via Craigslist for $25 (had to drive to get it, that was another $10) rather than buying a new 9th edition for $160.
• For a lab book that would have cost me $80, I made an in-person request at my college library that they buy it, and they indeed did.
• I just got another text online via Valore.com for $67 (international edition) that would have cost me $160 at school. The two books have the same number of pages, same content, and their ISBNs differ by only 1 digit.

Vulture salesmen

Others professors will not pressure you to buy. They may even tell you to avoid buying the textbook.

Here's the key fact: Professors are actually approached by book company salespeople, who come right onto campus to stalk their prey. Those salespeople even go to community college campuses. They show up and pressure lecturers to use and promote certain books and insist that students are encouraged to buy the new editions.

So, why do professors go along with it? It is entirely possible that bribes are involved. After all, it's not illegal. If bribes are not in the form of cash, there may be free plane tickets or vacations offered.

They may also be worried about their careers. Their department heads may have received bribes to pressure professors into using this or that book. The university dean may have put pressure on everyone since after all, the school makes money from bookstore sales.

As a consumer, you cannot know what pressuring and bribing take place behind the scenes. But you should realize that buying from the campus bookstore is always a ripoff and buying a new copy is often unnecessary.

The bottom line: Textbook publishers have no ethics. They have a racket that keeps them rich and unnecessarily makes you poorer. Screw them.

Peer pressure

International editions

Libraries

Sometimes they also have an older instructor's edition that you can check out and use for longer periods.

Boycotts

Bertucci's

At the Bryn Mawr restaurant, which -- it seems -- is run entirely by teenagers and perhaps a couple illegal immigrants, we received dirty silverware requiring immediate replacement. Red flag! We were served by a teenage waitress who was:

• insincere
• inarticulate
• uninterested
• unable to tell us what was good because she didn't know the menu.

Even her apology for the dirty silverware was fake and unfelt. Bertucci's is a restaurant that screams "bad management". I call it Ber-suck-ees.

Cosi (per-store boycott)

Some Cosi's are clean, others are amazingly dirty. I walked into the one in Bryn Mawr for example and immediately was struck by the presence of food and trash strewn all over the floor. You might think somebody just had a birthday party there, but that doesn't explain the fact that the workers looked like they hadn't showered in days and had their shirts hanging out. I walked out right after entering. On the other hand, I went to a Cosi in Philly that was new and very clean.

Trader Joes in Media

While the workers at this Trader Joes are generally OK, the management in my opinion is bad, bordering on creepy.

Home Depot in Broomall

Home Depot seems to have a policy of limiting returns by invading your privacy. See the section on Return limits.

Panera Bread in Ardmore

Managers keep this store so cold, and the music so loud, you have to wonder if they haven't taken an Abu Graib torture training course. On top of that the store attracts Main Line idiots who let their kids run amok throughout the restaurant.

Pep Boys

Immediately upon entering Pep Boys you notice the stink. Turns out, that stink is carcinogenic. There is in fact a sign on the wall of each Pep Boys stating that pregnant women should not spend any time in the store. Pep Boys has a policy of limiting returns by invading consumers' privacy. See the section on Return limits.

Radio Shack

For decades now, the people who work at Radio Shlock have proven themselves to be worthless dolts who know nothing about what they're selling, but who are nevertheless clearly instructed to say anything to make a sale while appearing oh-so confident. They can be condescending jerks, actually. If you don't buy something, some of them become visibly angry. Radio Shack has a policy of limiting returns. See the section on Return limits.

Sears Hardware

Sears Hardware has an obnoxious policy of limiting returns and invading consumers' privacy. See the section on Return limits.

Starbucks (per-store boycott)

The sign that a cafe is not run by greedy, shady operators is that they allow civilized activities like studying and even reading. Unfortunately, in most Starbucks studying is discouraged as is indeed any post-purchase lingering at all. It appears to be a company policy, because I've seen it in other parts of the country. Even in Washington state, where Starbucks has to compete with far superior competition and they are a kind of a local joke and embarrassment, they discourage paying customers from staying more than a few minutes. They want maximal profits -- and screw the customer that dares get in the way. Welcome to the plantation called Starbucks. It you ain't one of their wage-slaves, you better move on.

Sterling Optical

Worse than unethical. Their salespeople are highly deceptive in my experience. A true abomination. Avoid them at all costs.

Target

Ever since Target upgraded its image and started calling itself "tar-zhay" and washing down their floors to get the grime off, their prices have much been much higher and yet they still sell precisely the same low-quality crap as before, but in fancier packaging. Their junk still breaks down almost right after you buy it. Truth is, Tar-zhay sells gar-baaazhe.

Cafés

Cafe culture is a term used to describe an ideal. This ideal seems to have reached its perfect form in Vienna, Austria specifically and Europe generally.

What is the idea? Firstly, it is almost 180 degrees in opposition to the American approach, and that is good.

• Cafes there are spacious with high ceilings.
• Cafes are naturally lit.
• The staff does not rush you.
• You do not go to the counter to buy a coffee. The waiter comes to you.
• Coffee is in ceramic cups and never paper.
• Coffee is usually served with a small cookie included for free.
• The waiter may even serve you coffee on a silver-plated tray.
• It is acceptable and normal that a person might read a novel; work on a writing project; or study for university -- even for hours on end while going through multiple coffees.
• In Austria they also include a glass of water because they recognize that caffiene is a diuretic.
• In Europe they even have cappuccino artwork: The barista uses a spoon to make a nice design in the foam such as a smiley-face.

In short, the consumer receives the cafe's charity, respect and good will, because cafes are islands of inexpensive high class.

Wikipedia article sums it up.

The point of my bringing up what the Europeans have accomplished is, of course, to say that by comparison most American cafes are loud stinking cesspools designed to attract obese and/or obnoxious reckless spenders.

American cafes are not about joie de vivre (joy in living). They're about profits. And not just Starbucks either, the small ones are greedy too.

The best that America has to offer is merely decent. You find many decent cafes in California and Washington state. Around Philly unfortunately there are very few decent ones.

I propose that good American cafes have these characteristics:

1. You can study there for several hours without annoyances.
2. There is a minimum of obnoxious guests or they are segregated in some way.
3. The cheap coffee actually tastes good.
4. They have free Wifi.
5. They have free live music a couple days a week.
6. Refills are either free or $0.50.
7. There is a discount for having your own mug.
8. Parking is not a problem.
9. They do not blast their music.

With all the pricey universities around Philly we hardly have anything like this. It's just pathetic that great cafes mostly doesn't exist here.

A few places come close:

The result is a tie between Panera and Burpap and Bean. The winner is Burlap & Bean, which is in Newtown Square on 252, just south of Gentile produce market (very good) and just north of DCCC. I consider Panera to be better however, since it's generally quieter.

For completeness' sake, let's consider what the shittier American cafes tend to be like:

1. They want customers to "move on" to maximize turnover and profits so they blast the music.
2. They want customers to buy more and more warm drinks to maximize profits so they turn down the temperature to near freezing.
3. The Wifi is not only not free it is a rip-off.
4. They are a corporate cafe with no loyalty to the local population so live music is out of the question.
5. Workers are underpaid so they do not want to bother with such things as customer service or sanitation.
6. Workers are overly medicated with caffeine and cannot keep their cool.
7. No local artwork on display.

Studying at cafes

1. The businesses do not want it to happen and will blast loud music or turn down the temperature or encourage bad behavior by employees to make studiers leave.
2. The average cafe customer in America is obnoxious and loud.

An American innovation

But in the Pacific Northwest, drive-up coffee stands are very popular. It helps that they have usually excellent espresso and are often staffed by attractive young women.

Now they've taken it a step further. Recently, one coffee stand faced a problem due to a change in vehicle turning rules, which cut the amount of business they got in half. Their solution? They got their baristas wear bikinis, which also made the local news. The idea caught on and several coffee stands are reportedly doing it. (A news video about the phenomenon was removed from YouTube.) Link.

Nothing like this exists near Philly that I know of nor probably ever will. The only drive-up coffee joint that I know of is the Swiss Farms drive-up convenience stores, whose employees breathe in far too much exhaust fumes and whose coffee doesn't even compare to Wawa's.

Best coffee flavor

You can buy green (unroasted) beans at Head Nut in Ardmore and at Burlap & Bean in Newtown Square.

Saving money

At the popular convenience store Wawa, they have an excellent "Kona" coffee despite their not being a cafe. If you bring your own mug, can be as little as $1. Caveat emptor: Their milk jugs are refilled with remnants of half-empty jugs and are not sanitary. Always seek out the yet-to-be-opened jug.

At Starbucks, get the short coffee in the Venti cup and add milk to it. It's easier on your stomach, it's maybe 10 cents cheaper, the milk is free, and milk is basically good for you. Save another 10 cents by bringing you own mug.

If you buy lattes more for the espresso flavor than for the temperature of the drink per se, you can save money by just buying an espresso in a large cup and then adding cold milk to it. In this way, you get a cold latte for as little as ½ the cost of the warm one.

Similarly, it you normally drink chocolate soy -- it may be good for the skin -- buy an espresso and add the chocolate soy to that to make a cheap espresso-mocha.

If you like cappuccino, save a few cents at Starbucks by getting the "short" cappuccino, which is the size served in Italy.

Some non-corporate cafes may have frequent-buyer cards. Always ask.

Panera bread and some smaller cafes have free wireless Internet. Starbucks, Borders, and B&N shamefully do not.

Caffeine content

Camping

Equipment

Check out the mail-order company Campmor, which seems to have better deals.

Car insurance

Out of curiosity I asked Erie what the bare-minimum insurance would cost me, and they said that for me, as a good driver, it's only $250 per year. I opted for the $520 per year coverage, which is basically normal coverage with low deductibles. With Erie, you should deal with the main corporate office for customer service issues. I got mine through Peterson's.

People say that no matter what company you buy car insurance from, never get Full Tort, it's a ripoff.

Cleaning supplies

Hand soap

Metals and glass

Laundry detergent

Lemon juice added to a load of clothing will supposedly whiten them in the washer.

You can also use no detergent, for two reasons. First, water and the mechanical force of the machine by themselves take out most dirt particles (but not oils), and second, if someone else used the washer before you there may be leftover detergent in the system. Especially at laundromats there is always extra detergent in the machine's compartments.

Here's a page by a guy who figured out how to make his own laundry detergent: Link.

Stains

• For carpet stains, e.g. strawberries. (I recently dropped a bowl of wet strawberries on a carpet and used vinegar to completely remove the stain.)
• Cleaning stains on metal -- use with baking soda and let it sit overnight.

Odors

Also check out the enzyme-based odor removal products at pet stores. They're cheap, natural, and they do the trick.

Toothpaste

Rather than buying expensive Tom's Of Maine toothpaste, which is great stuff, just get the $2 Trader Joe's brand.

Computers-Hardware

Buying

Defective equipment

• The best return policies that I have seen are those of:
  • Micro Center -- but not laptops which have a return period of only 7 days
• The worst return policy is that of Best Buy.

Rules of thumb

1. Watch the ads carefully week after week. Don't be in a hurry. Wait for a good deal and when it arrives, move fast.
2. Never buy a computer on Ebay, because often the people are scammers on Ebay, even the ones with very good feedbacks. You must understand that the scammers have learned how to boost one another's scores. Assume that whatever gets put on Ebay is damaged. Just because you are ethical and have sold good stuff on Ebay, this doesn't imply that other sellers are ethical.
3. Never buy a computer from a used computer store, because they will sell you junk and then try to ream you on repair work.
4. Never buy a refurbished, remanufactured, or open box item from a store.
5. If you must for financial reasons buy something that is used, buy it via Craigslist so that you can examine and test it in person. But remember, when you say "Yes I'll take it", it becomes your responsibility.
6. Never drive far out of your way to see an item. Always meet someone at a neutral location like a Starbucks.

Selling

1. In my experience, on Craigslist you can get about two thirds of what you paid new. Buyers will always haggle a lower price, so start a little high.
2. In my experience, on Ebay you get about ½ of what you paid new.
3. Never sell anything to a used computer store, for the same reason that you should never trade a car into a dealer: you'll get ripped off.
4. Never drive far out of your way to sell an item. Always meet someone at a neutral location like a Starbucks. Never divulge your home address because there really are crazy unreasonable people out there.

Renting

Forums

• SlickDeals.net

Computers-Software

But that's fine. There will always be newbies. The important thing is that you understand that programmer-activists have taken the time and effort to write "open source" free software that is safe to use and costs you no money. Why? In large part because companies like Microsoft, Adobe, and others have done very unethical things to people and to smaller companies. You wouldn't buy an apple from a farmer who beats his wife, would you? No. Same idea.

Bad software companies piss off programmers, who feel to do something about it so they write good computer programs and give them away for free.

Computers-Media

Which stores?

Consequently even big box stores have bad prices.

4.7 gig DVD-R / DVD+r discs:

Every other week or so a big electronics store has a deal like 25 discs for $10. Microcenter tends to have deals more often. Prices at Walmart and office supply stores tend to be higher.

Dual-layer DVD-R / DVD+R discs:

Microcenter has the cheapest blank dual-layer DVD-R discs costing less than $1 per disc. Look for the Windata brand.

DVD-RAM discs:

DVD-RAM discs are meant for long-term storage and typically have a gold coating. But they also happen to work quite well with Linux if you use that. One local store that I know of sells them:

• Micro Center sells five 5X discs for $13.

Which brands?

1. Open the package which makes returns less likely.
2. Put the disc in your computer and run a program to read the disc identifier code off the disc.
3. Look up that code at a website like VideoHelp where users report their experiences.

Copy centers

Prices:

Copying DVDs

• DVD Decryptor (click on Download link) rips an entire DVD, storing the original files to your hard drive. This retains the original quality. The program allows you to watch the files using a DVD viewing program or burn an image of the DVD to a blank dual-layer DVD.
• FairUse Wizard is free for basic use. It will create a 700 megabyte compressed version tht is "good enough". It costs about $15 to upgrade to a fully functional version that can create larger files.

Coupons

At Border's (bookstore), you can sign up for free to receive emails from them containing coupons that give you about 20% off books. During the sign-up process they may ask you for you address. Just make something up.

Never buy anything at Bed Bath & Beyond unless you bring their 20% off coupon with you. They are aggressively mailing those out as well as putting them in Sunday newspapers.

Culture (local)

DIY (do it yourself)

• How to make a weight-lifting bench out of wood
• How to make a sit-up bench out of wood
• How to make a book stand out of wood
• How to make a table out of wood
• How to make a wallet
• How to make a clothing rack out of wood

Downloading

YouTube

But note, these clips never have good video quality.

Usenet

I would not suggest downloading movies. Movies just aren't that important, despite all the Hollywood hype. You might watch any given movie once a year, at most, so there is really no need to possess a copy of it, be it bought or downloaded.

PirateBay

This is not to say that public domain or open-source files aren't also exchanged using torrent sites. But such things are usually easily obtained in other ways.

Education

4-year

That said, PA does have a system of reasonably-cheap state schools that includes for instance Millersville, and a half dozen others. Quality may vary, for instance it is said that at West Chester University, the English professors grade papers by throwing them down a flight of stairs and giving the ones at the top A's. I learned this from a local high school teacher.

You might also want to avoid Indiana University of Pennsylvania, since they are only a few miles downwind from count'em two coal-fired power plants that are massive polluters pumping out mercury. This matters because mercury erodes the brain. Kind of ironic, to have a college near those plants. Related page.

Community colleges

• Bucks county: known for its Fine Arts program.
• Community College of Philadelphia: known for recently raising tuition.
• Montgomery county

Night schools

• Haverford Adult School.
• There is one in Chester County for sure.

Art centers

Electronic gear

Rule of thumb: Best Buy has good deals on laptops every 3 weeks.

Energy

For a long list of ways to conserve energy, see my web page on that subject.

Fake IDs

Food

1. Know where the items that you buy most frequently can be found cheaply every day. For me this is:
   1. Produce Junction for veggies and fruits.
   2. Trader Joes for oils, cheeses, vitamins and peanut butter; also soap and toothpaste.
   3. Walmart for lunchmeat and perhaps whole wheat bread.
   4. Gentile for veggies, fruits and eggs.
   5. HeadNut for tea, sugar, cocoa and whole grains.
2. Watch closely where the sales are. Relatively expensive stores like Genuardi's can have surprising sales wherein their foods are very cheap. Check the weekly flyers on Sunday. Some flyers are available online e.g. Superfresh's. If you find the right deal, go and buy a bunch of the item and if appropriate freeze what you don't need.
3. Don't travel too far to specialty stores.
4. Never ever pay for convenience e.g. junkfood at Wawa. You can end up paying possibly several times the normal cost.
5. Buy in quantity when possible, especially during sales.
6. Don't buy pre-made meals if you can avoid it. Whether fresh or frozen, there's more expensive than making them yourself.
7. Notice how prices of items that are at chest-level are higher than items that aren't. That's not because they're worth more, it's because manufacturers pay more for product placement there, and they pass that cost on to you.
8. Avoid shopping during crowded times, since most people buy more while waiting. This is why supermarkets let the stores get crowded! You end up staring at things to buy, and inventing whims.
9. Don't go shopping for food when you're tired or hungry -- you will buy more.
10. Buy directly from farmers if they are near (and other producers e.g. get honey from beekeepers) to avoid the middlemen.
11. Always check your receipt for errors. Many stores "accidentally on purpose" mark up items on the hope that you'll never notice let alone head back and demand they fix it.
12. If you have skill and free time, you can save money by cooking and baking basic items. You can make your own basic items like bread, yogurt, salads, cheese, pizza sauce, etc.

Trader Joes

Trader Joe's has many unusual items that no other supermarkets carry, e.g.

• Really good imported Australian licorice.
• Whole-wheat Tuscan pane bread.
• Parmesian-cheese covered French baguettes.
• Affordable cheeses.
• Cheap microwaveable Indian dishes.
• Grape seed oil.
• Buffalo meat.
• Cheap, decent sushi.

Trader Joes is a little different locally than it is where it started, out West. TJ's stores out West sell:

• Cheap but good wine, as in you can get a $5 bottle that is quite decent. Due to the crazy liquor laws in Pennsylvania and Delaware, which benefit only business people and corrupt politicians at the expense of consumers, the PA and DE stores aren't allowed to sell wine.
• Cheap but decent sushi. Here it is $1-2 more.

Caveat: Trader Joe's vegetables and fruits are very overpriced. Find a local produce-only store for better prices. I usually go to Produce Junction for fruits and vegetables because their prices and selection are very good.

Quite a few TJ's items are cheaper than the sales prices at major supermarkets. Examples:

• Bag of fresh pizza dough $1 (enough for large pizza)
• Grated mozzarella cheese, 1 pound $4
• Marinara $1-$3.00
• Hummus $1.80
• Ghirardelli bulk chocolate $2 for a huge chunk
• Frozen Indian rice dish $2
• Several Indian meals, ready to heat and eat $2
• Grape seed oil 0.5 liter $3
• Olive oil 2 liter $7
• Peanut butter (100% peanuts) $1.80
• Natural tooth paste $2: it's as good as Tom's of Maine.
• Generic version of Airborne tablets $4
• Parmesian cheese 8 oz. $2.20
• One pound of tortilla chips $1.80
• Vitamins in general are cheap at TJ's.
• Various spices are around $2 each

One item that is usually much cheaper elsewhere is rice, because TJ's only sells it in small bags. However, their rice is very good quality. For cheap, good bulk rice, go to an Asian supermarket such as H Mart. There is an H Mart near the 69th St. terminal in Philly.

In summary, Trader Joes is often cheaper but you can find many deals elsewhere, too, and not everything there is cheap.

A BusinessWeek article about Trader Joes is here.

Walmart

Genuardis

Whole Foods

• Whole Foods is in general very expensive, although some items are cheap.
• Workers at some of their stores are unapologetically snobbish and occasionally condescending. Others are simply wary of non-rich customers. A few are regular nice people.

Pros:

• Many Whole Foods have an extensive and cheap bulk section. This is especially true of the store near the Art Museum in Philly. For example, their price on spelt flour is $1.40 per pound.
• They usually have an excellent fresh olives section, which is affordable when in season. (I have the impression that in October the prices were almost 2 times higher than in July.)
• They usually have excellent bulk coffee beans.

When visiting WF, be very careful to only buy what you went there to get. They get you on the endless "neat" food items that you don't even need or want. It's like the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life where the fat man is offered "one more thin little wafer". Don't be suckered into that.

In summary, Whole Foods is essentially a two-part store:

1. a traditional health food store
2. upscale food boutique.

Whole Foods recently sought to merge with Wild Oats, which is/was a more down to earth chain. The Federal Trader Commission didn't like the idea however.

Aldi

Although Aldi has some cheap food, be sure to look at the ingredients. I've seen trans fat (partially hydrogenated oils) in several items.

Food co-ops

• There is one in Media.
• There is one in Swarthmore, just south of Springfield Mall. I looked for it but didn't find it. Their website is here.
• There is one near U Penn, on Baltimore.

Specific food items

Vegetables & fruits

Some prices I paid in 2008 (from memory):

In Broomall, Gentile produce market has a good selection of fruits and vegetables. They're about 25% more expensive than Produce Junction, but easier to get to (just off Rt. 3) and they take credit cards whereas Produce Junction does not.

In the city, some say the Reading Terminal Market is good.

Pomegranate juice

Honey

Spring Run in Kennett Square has this brand.

Maple Syrup

Nuts; dried fruit; oats

• HeadNut in Ardmore (not on the main drag)
• Trader Joes
• Whole Foods

Bulk rice

Asia Supermarket at 143 N. 11th St in Center City has slightly lower prices than H Mart.

Buy brown rice, not white rice. White rice has been implicated in being a cause of diabetes in Asia.

Spices

Spring Run in Kennett Square has bulk spices.

Energy bars

GNC

Cliff bars

Sushi

Flour

It is far better to use whole wheat flours, which provides fiber, vitamins, and some protein.

Try experimenting with other kinds of flour, like whole spelt. They can be bought in bulk from health food stores and from Whole Foods. The Whole Foods price on spelt flour last I checked was $1.40 per pound.

Soy milk

Advantages of soy:

• Affordable.
• Basically healthy.
• May be good for protecting the skin from the harmful effects of too much sugar in the diet.

Disadvantages of soy:

• Soy contains small amounts of phytoestrogens, which mimic the influence of estrogen.
• Soy has an incomplete set of amino acids whereas milk has a complete set. It's not a replacement for milk.
• I've seen some mention that soy may also contain some lectins that are harmful.

Milk

Price comparison for organic milk by the gallon.

At Trader Joes you can get a gallon of non-organic milk without RGBH for $3.20. This is important, because RGBH is a hormone from Monsanto that farmers use to increases milk yield per cow but that may get passed on to humans and may damage men's prostates.

Turbinado Sugar

Coffee

Tea

Health benefits

• Most teas contain antioxidants that help prevent premature breakdown of tissues by free radical molecules.
• White tea supposedly has the highest concentration of a compound called EGCG, which helps prevent cancer.
• White tea and Pu'erh (red) tea have been shown to improve blood cholesterol (they lower LDL) and improve blood pressure.

Stores

Pu'erh normally comes in a round "cake" format. You can buy Pu'erh cakes for pretty cheap at Chung Wau supermarket near 11th Street in Philadelphia. They sell an excellent Pu'erh cake from Yunnan Tea Co. Ltd that's $7 for a 12 ounce cake.

More on Pu'erh tea

Cholesterol-Lowering Foods

I am going to list cholesterol-improving foods and do a price survey soon, as time permits...

Basically, anything with soluble fiber lowers your LDL. The soluble fiber gets into your bloodstream, binds with the LDL to mark it was waste, and thereby helps you excrete it.

Furthermore, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils lower LDL and raise HDL. For instance, olive oil and flax oil.

Lastly, Pu'erh tea has been shown to lower LDL. Possibly other teas do as well.

Free Stuff / Barter & / Skills-Sharing

Getting

I once heard there is a skills-bartering group near Phoenixville but I don't know the name or whether it ever took off.

For skills-sharing, check out the "Activity Partners" section of Craigslist.

In addition, Meetup.com has volunteering groups.

Giving

1. Avoid actually meeting the person to whom you are giving free stuff.
2. Put your stuff on your porch or lawn and tell them "first come first serve". That way they cannot blame you if they show up and it is already gone.
3. Do NOT agree to give any specific item to a specific person. Why? Because if you tell that to someone who has a false sense of entitlement then they will be disrespectful.
4. If you are trying to give things away to help poor people then state that in the ad. Do not assume that rich people avoid free stuff. The ones who do have a huge sense of entitlement.

Glasses

Tip 2
To find the best frame shape for you, bring a digital camera with you to the store and photograph yourself with a large number of frames, maybe writing down which ones you looked at. Then go home and compare them on your computer. Ask other people to judge how you look. Never make a quick decision in the store.

Boycott
Caveat: Avoid Sterling Optical like the plague. They're crooks. It's not just me saying that.

Gyms

In the long run, buying some free-weights and perhaps a weightlifting bench is far cheaper than joining a gym. You can even use scrap lumber to make your own weightlifting bench, as I did (see here).

If you are single and you're thinking you can meet sexy people at gyms, know this: Most people eventually realize this is Quixotic wishful thinking. Even "meat market" gyms are good for little besides looking.

Instead of gyms, go exercise at

• Valley Forge park
• Ridley Creek park
• Fairmount park (Kelly Drive) near the Art Museum

Once a month, Critical Mass has bike rides in the city.

Haircuts

For Men

Health care

Hospitals a la Cosa Nostra

• Sources say that hospitals charge uninsured people up to 12 times what they charge insurance companies of insured patients for the same services. (PBS story)
• Some hospitals deliberately trick uninsured people into thinking they will get free coverage due to their poverty and only later send out a barrage of huge bills.
• When you enter a hospital as an uninsured person and sign on the dotted line they have got you by the balls and they exploit it. You effectively sign them a blank check because they insist they cannot estimate the cost of service beforehand and of course they will never offer to stop offering service just because the price gets too high.
• It is said that in Florida some hospitals will physically detain you until you pay them one way or another. This is probably illegal but locals there say it happens.

Health insurance companies

Pharmacies

Collections

Local cheap clinics

Cheap alternatives in Philadelphia County

Cheap alternatives in Delaware County

Cheap alternatives in Chester County

The Clinic in Phoenixville offers pay-what-you-can assistance. They don't ask for proof of income.

Free care at hospitals

You can sign up at some hospitals, Phoenixville Hospital being one of them (possibly also Jennersville) for free outpatient health care if your income and savings are low enough. In the case of Phoenixville Hospital, you do not need to live in Chester County, but your income needs to be less than $30k or so. Caveat: They have outsourced income verification to a private company and that company demands huge amounts of personal information before they will give you a break.

Health food stores

Ones that I know of:

• Trader Joes (Valley Forge, Ardmore, Philly, Media) -- many organic items at decent prices
• Essene Market downtown Philly -- said to be good.
• Spring Run in Kennett Square -- small store with some good deals e.g. bulk flours, spices, sesame crunchies. Very good bulk coffee.
• Great Pumpkin in West Chester -- expensive.
• There's a health food store in Bryn Mawr that's very expensive. I can't recall the name.

Health risks to avoid

You already know the obvious risks, which have been pounded into your skull by the mass media:

• Smoking
• Drinking
• Lack of exercise
• Drugs

Here are some that you may not know about:

Sodium benzoate

This preservative converts to benzene after you ingest and absorb it, which is a major carcinogen found in gasoline. Sodium benzoate is found in Dr. Pepper and numerous other foods such as soy sauce. It's easily avoided if you know to look for it. So far, shopping at Trader Joe's frequently, I have not seen it in their products but then they are known for not using preservatives.

Trans fat

Many people know that trans fat messes with your cholesterol levels. But many don't know that

1. It causes the inner lining of the heart and blood vessels (the endothelium) to become inflamed, which damages it.
2. Just because a food label labels says 0 grams trans fat, it can still have some. The regulation says less than 0.5 grams can be called zero. But even that amount is unhealthy. Always look for "partially hydrogenatized vegetable oil", which contains trans fat.

Any of the petrochemicals in shampoo and some soaps

They're just bad. The huge number of chemicals and their side effects makes it hard to list them all. You should buy all-natural shampoo such as Aubrey's, available at Vitamin Shop, and 100% vegetable-based soap. Trader Joe's has some reasonably safe soaps.

Sun-tanning

Sun-tanning outdoors or at salons damages fair skin causing it to age faster (read: a skanky appearance) and results in a specific kind of DNA damage, called "thymine dimers". That DNA damage can lead to cancer and death. Alternatives:

1. You could avoid direct sunlight and use safe suntan lotions when outdoors (see below).
2. If you like dark skin, you might consider breeding with someone with dark skin so that your kids will benefit from having more melanin.
3. Or, you can wait until a certain company in Arizona eventually comes out with "the patch" that contains MSM (melanin stimulating hormone), which will cause a healthy temporary tan. Such a product is probably in the works, because they're able to make the hormone.

About 95% of suntan lotions and sunscreens

Research has shown that suntan lotions that use common petrochemicals do not block half of the UV light that damages the skin. These petrochemicals seem to actually accelerate skin aging. You need to use the kind of lotion that blocks sunlight with either zinc oxide or titanium oxide, which block both UV-A and UV-B.
However your skin also needs a certain amount of UV-B light to convert cholesterol to Vitamin D. How much depends on how fair-skinned you are. So it is OK to be outside without sunscreen part of the time.

Electrical cables

Most electrical cables contain lead in the plastic covering. Touching cables results in acute lead poisoning. Only Calfornia requires a warning label on electronics mentioning this fact. As a rule, always wash your hands after touching cables.

Nonfat milk [men only]

Recent research suggests that nonfat milk increases the risk of prostate cancer, whereas either whole milk or green tea decreases it. Sources:
Reuters story re nonfat milk
Reuters story re green tea

Women's make-up

It can be readily observed that women who use make-up have worse skin than those who don't. This is also true of TV news anchors and actors (men and women). Why? Companies put materials in make-up that simultaneously damages the skin while creating the appearance of improved skin. Substances like clay and talc.
Thus people get caught in a viscious cycle of damaging their skin with make-up followed by covering up that damage with make-up, which then damages the skin more.

Home remedies

Use the following ideas at your own risk. This information is provided without any guarantee.

• Some people say that hot sauce helps with joint pain and stomach pain, when used in small amounts.
• Some say that red peppers cure a sore throat.
• Some say that lemon juice is a good disinfectant for wounds.
• A study recently found that licking a cut in your skin helps to heal it.
• Recent research has shown that caffeine, applied to the scalp, helps prevent hair loss. So, rather than spend money on Rogaine make up a pot of tea, let it cool and store it in a plastic bottle for use in the shower.
• Don't add milk to tea: Doing so reduces the health benefits of it.
• To help prevent tooth decay and diabetes, consume no sugar nor fructose whatsoever. Replace these whenever possible instead with either Stevia, which is not too expensive, or Xylitol. The latter actively protects against tooth decay by starving bacteria, who think it is sugar but can't eat it.
• Avoid caffeine. When you consume it, it causes your body to respond by producing stress hormones. In this early morning this may be helpful, but don't overdo it.
• If you must have caffeine, let it be in a form that is healthy such as:
  • Twig tea (naturally low in caffeine)
  • White tea
  • Puerh tea
• Got a skin rash? Try not washing it, and not itching it. Washing removes layers of deal skin cells and gives a pathogen what it wants: access to your live cells. Itching is even worse. The itch you feel is the pathogen saying "let me inside". When you scrape away layers of skin cells by itching you are giving the pathogen its wish.
• Some people believe that cheap Epsom salt added to your bathwater will ease muscle pain.
• If you have a bacterial infection in your nose, it may help to squirt some salt water into your nostrils using an eye dropper.
• If you don't like the pain of a bee sting, which is caused by the injection of an acid, put a base on the wound site. Technically, ammonia will work but I wouldn't use it. Maybe baking soda?
• Tip: If you have a cold or flu, rather than buy Airborne for $6+, go to Trader Joes and get their equivalent for $4.

Housing

Areas

Areas of the Philadelphia region that are safe and not too ugly include:

• A few square blocks near the University of Pennsylvania.
• A few square blocks near the Art Museum
• Havertown -- congested but convenient
• Swarthmore
• Drexel Hill -- next to where the shitty Philadelphia part begins
• Springfield -- next to where the shitty Philadelphia part begins
• Conshohocken
• Most places west of the 476 or north of the 276 excluding areas very close to the Main Line.

Speaking of the Main Line, it is a congested and highly compacted area adjacent to the Route 30 that is frustrating to drive in and near. When local people rave about it they do so because it is thought to be an affluent area, which is a bit like raving about an ugly woman because she happens to be rich. It takes a special sort of stupidity to do that.

The corporate takeover

As in other parts of the country, merciless mega-companies are taking over numerous rental properties here. It's a disturbing trend because it is yet another factor preventing the region from flourishing.

Examples:

• Media Real Estate controls most of the rental properties in the town of Media. They own more in other cities. The principal owner seems to be Walter Strine. He is an attorney who likes to donate to political campaigns of Republicans.
• Westover Companies of King of Prussia controls numerous apartment companies throughout the region. They have also built shopping centers and office buildings. They are owned by Austrian immigrants Guntram and Eva Maria Weissenberger. Guntam has donated to the National Apartment Association Political Action Committee.

Background checks

Several apartments complex companies are now using the service SafeRent from First Advantage. The purpose of this service seems to be to reject anyone with an imperfect credit history.

Their customer service rep told me they do not attempt to assist victims of identity fraud or people who have been tricked into debt, e.g. while ill or injured. In fact, if all you've done is place an alert on your credit report to protect yourself from identity theft, that alone is reason for a conditional rejection!

It is inevitable that SafeRent will victimize some people who are already victims. Companies that use it can fairly be called anti-consumer and inhumane.

Rules for the renter

1. Always get a receipt for payment of rent immediately if possible. Never give cash as rent unless you get a receipt immediately.
2. Especially if you are sharing a place with your landlord do not tell your landlord your personal views about politics or religion.
3. Do not let defective items remain unrepaired or unreported. They can be blamed on you and taken out of your deposit.
4. Never kind-of sort-of give your 30 days notice. Always make it firm.

Internet access

At home

I've been subscribed to both Comcast and Verizon.

With Comcast, you must buy cable TV in addition to Internet, and unless you take advantage of a limited-time deal like I did ($30 per month or so), you will find yourself paying $60/month or more. I do not watch TV except via the Web, so cable TV is a burden for me.

With Verizon DSL, the cost is $25 per month for their lowest access speed, which is more than sufficient. I find that it's the speed of the servers that I access that determines how fast of a response I get. Verizon is more than fast enough.

Verizon sometimes blocks VOIP phone calls.

Piggybacking

Many people, rather than buying into Internet service, first check if their neighbors' wireless box is within range of their laptop and if so, if it has security enabled. If it doesn't, they just piggyback onto their service, unannounced. I don't suggest you do that however.

Incidentally, there are programs that can easily snoop on data being transferred over unencrypted wireless and do things like steal Yahoo passwords and snag image files.

Elsewhere

Some cafes offer free Internet access with a wireless connection. Panera in particular does, as does Burlap and Bean just off Route 3 in Newtown Square.

Places that do not include Starbucks, Borders, and Barnes & Noble.

Many universities have free wireless access, but you have to sign up for it or learn the common password.

Some public libraries have free Wifi access.

Kitchen wares

Ripoff stores

Avoid expensive retail ripoff kitchen stores. They prefer suckers. They prefer the easy kill. They have to: They're run by morons.

And witness the un-frugal soon-to-be-married types, out there setting up wedding accounts at fancy kitchen crap stores, so that their friends and kin can buy junk for them as expensive gifts. It's a foolish ritual of conspicuous consumption. It's a pathetic waste.

Frugal options

You can find good deals at a restaurant supply store. There you can buy decent quality durable cookware that lasts for a respectable number of years and yet is inexpensive. Even a used restaurant-equipment store sells decent stuff.

In this region, I found one store so far that sells quality restaurant quality cookware to the public, in West Chester, but it closed recently (Restaurant Equipment Sales).

For newlyweds, go on your honeymoon in Europe and see what's available there. For instance in Paris there are a couple good restaurant supply stores (Mora being the one I like) that have durable, nice-looking equipment.

Rolling pin

I decided that rather than buy a fancy rolling pin, I would go to Home Depot and by a 2 foot long piece of 1 inch dowel. Of course, I bought the virgin wood. Never use treated wood for anything -- it has arsenic on it. The dowel functions just fine.

Manual coffee making cone

This is the plastic cone that sits on top of a coffee cup and holds a paper filter. They are hard to find, but Kitchen Kapers has them for $4. Call first to make sure it's in stock.

Wok

Don't buy the $15 wok at Walmart, it's covered with some kind of toxic paint. It's junk.

Consider buying a round-bottom steel wok at a Chinese supermarket. It sits on top of a metal ring. I am told this even works with an electric stove.

Trivia: in Mandarin, wok is "chao-guo".

Crepe pan

Kitchen Kapers sells a pan for making crepes. It's about $20. That's actually a pretty good deal, although it doesn't include the traditional, narrow wooden spatula. For that, go to Lowe's hardware and buy a 1" wide, 1/4" thick piece of wood and just sand down the sides, then cover it in a decent oil like walnut.

My guide on how to make crepes is here.

Tea ball

Places like RiteAid have doodads like these for cheap.

Head Nut has a few for around $4-5.

There is a health food store on Main street in Newark, Delaware that sells huge mesh tea balls for less than $4.

Copper-plated wares

Expensive, therefore to be avoided.

It's worth pointing out that the fancy copper-plated pans that some people pay serious coin for are not a miracle or anything. Copper plating using electrolysis is a very simple, everyday process. You just need some CuSO₄ (copper-II-sulfate) and a big battery. However you do have to have a responsible plan for dealing with the remaining waste chemicals, which precludes people from doing electroplating at home.

Risk from nonstick (Teflon) cookware

To prevent future health costs, avoid anything nonstick. Using nonstick gear results in Dupont's C8 chemical getting embedded throughout your body. C8 is considered the next "ticking timebomb" chemical like DDT and Dioxin, a disaster waiting to happen. DailyNewsCentral story. WeitzLux page. Note, C8 is even used on the inside of paper coffee cups such as those used at Starbucks.

Mattresses

• Avoid mattress stores where items do not have a visible fixed price.
• Avoid high-pressure mattress stores (like Sleepys) where salesmen haggle and act like arrogant dicks.

Regular mattresses

Verlo has very decent hand-made mattresses. I bought one of the cheaper ones and have been very pleased.

Futons

Pearl of The East in Philadelphia and in Berwyn on Rt. 30 seems to have good deals on futon mattresses, and will even sell you a cotton-only futon if you so desire. I got mine from the Berwyn store.

Latex foam

There are two kinds:

• Natural i.e. made from latex rubber tree sap.
• Synthetic i.e. man-made from petroleum; also called memory foam.

If you win the lottery sometime soon, you should definitely buy a 100% natural, organic latex foam mattress, which is chemical-free and comfortable. There is a store near Bethlemen (perhaps called Organic Mattress Store) that sells these. They cost perhaps $1200 for 100% latex.

But a little sprite has told me that you haven't won the lottery just yet, and that for you even man-made latex, like they sell at Ikea for $500 or so, is expensive.

Conventional Foam

In general, I do not suggest that you buy raw foam. The chemicals used to manufacture it are numerous and you simply cannot be sure that they are safe unless is it pretty well aired out. In the USA, which is overly business-friendly, there is no regulation requiring that foam mattresses be aired out. In Europe however, because they care more about their citizens, there is such a regulation.

Risks from fire retardant chemicals

Because the whores in Congress keep selling their souls to the corporations (the "johns") it turns out that chemical companies have gotten passed new regulations that say that all mattresses must contain toxic boric acid and an antimony compound. Previously mattresses contained PBDE, which has been linked to ADD. Either way, the chemical companies are using Americans as disposable pawns in their scam to boost profits by selling chemicals that no one really needs. Sources:

Washington state page.
People for clean beds website.

Movies

From the Internet

You can watch many TV shows and documentaries on the Internet these days. It's a wonderful resource. You can also download any film clip from within Firefox 2 web browser if you first install RealPlayer. There are other Firefox extensions as well that allow video download from YouTube and the like.

• Google Video (lets you search many movie sites at once)
• Apple's movie trailers site
• YouTube (personal clips, TV shows, documentaries)
• Revver (personal clips mostly)
• LiveLeak

Rentals

Libraries are the place to go for cheap movie rentals. Here is the price comparison. Notice what a ripoff the video stores are.

Where	Cost
Colleges	Often free for students & employees
Free Library of Philadelphia	Free for 7 days
Delaware County Library System	$1-2 for 3-7 days - varies by library
Chester County Library System	$2 for 7 days
Hollywood Video	$4.23 for new titles & ~$3.20 for old
MovieGallery	$4.23
Blockbusters (AKA Ballbusters)	$4.55 for 2 for 7 days

Some libraries have frequent-renter cards so that you can get the nth video for $0.

Movie Theaters

I have found the Yahoo Movies listings to be fairly reliable.

Artsy theaters

Philadelphia has a number of eclectic movies theaters, such as

• The Ritz theaters, which are downtown.
• The theater in Narberth.
• The Roxy.

Regarding the Ritz, beware downtown parking! The city and parking lots conspire to take your money any way they can. The parking meters in Center City run until 10pm. If you're able to choose between going downtown or elsewhere, choose elsewhere.

Are there free places to park downtown? Yes. But you will walk perhaps 8 blocks to get to the theaters.

In the suburbs, eclectic theaters are harder to find. I know of three:

• Ambler Theater
• Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville.
• Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Mainstream theaters

I don't know of many conventional movie theaters in Philly.

In the suburbs, AMC's rules for cheap matinee tickets recently changed ... again. Shows before noon are now $5, and shows before 4pm are $7.

Avoid Regal Cinemas:
The prices there are simply far too high, unless you have a rare and harm to find coupon. They pretend that $8 is a "bargain" matinee price and that $10 is an acceptable normal ticket price. Shame on them their greed and heinous exploitation of the public.

IMAX

IMAX theaters are expensive, but they may be worth it once a year. I know of two IMAXes:

• United Artists King of Prussia at the theater next to Best Buy. Tickets are pricey for IMAX, maybe around $13. Theater info.
• At the Franklin Institute, called the Tuttleman IMAX.

Museums

• Rodin museum, $3, which has a better selection of Rodin's works than does the Rodin museum in Paris, is near the Art Museum.
• Philadelphia Art Museum, $0.25 on Sunday, which is "give what you can" day. On other days the entrance fee is over $10. Sunday parking is free in the big parking area just north of the museum. Or just park on Kelly drive.
• University of Penna. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, free on Sundays from 1pm to 5pm. (I'm not sure about the parking situation.)
• Mutter Museum. Minimum $8 to enter (students and seniors) but worth it. This museum presents a fascinating array of body parts, with terse and occassionally missing descriptions. Note, you are officially prohibited from taking photos inside the Mutter.
• Franklin Institute: Forget saving money on this one. It's $13.75. FYI, volunteering to get free entry is not a viable option.

Office products

Staples

I find that Staples is either heaven or hell: It's the place to go if you need their "loss leaders", i.e. items sold at cost. However if you need something that is not on sale, forget them. They will charge 2 or 3 times what even a supermarket charges.

Example: 100 index cards

• At Staples these are $2.50
• At Superfresh these are $1.00

Therefore you have to go to Staples when they have sales.

An example of a Staples loss leader:

• I bought a six-pack of 8.5x11 70-page writing tablets for $0.70 when they were the loss leader.
• But the next week when parents were buying for school kids they were on "sale" for $2.
• Recently I saw the same 6-pack on sale "buy one get one free" at $6.40!

Needless to say the cost to manufacture these tablets was probably closer to $0.70 for all six.

Office Depot

Caveat:
I discovered recently that Office Depot plays bait-and-switch. They advertised an item online as 69 cents in store, but when I got to the store it was $1.70. Turns out the same item had two SKU numbers, and the saleswoman didn't honor the lower price.

Personal hygiene

Toothpaste

To save some money, brush your teeth with baking soda. It's inexpensive and really does a good job. The whole point of brushing is to remove the film of bacteria (called plaque, consisting mostly of Streptococcus and Actinomyces) and baking soda is a perfect abrasive for that purpose. As for fluoride, it's a poison and it is only in toothpaste because chemical companies needed a way to get rid of an industrial waste i.e. fluoride. No, really. Watch the film Fluoride Deception for free online.

Shampoo

For hair care, I hate to say it but 99.9% of the inexpensive hair care products out there are nasty petrochemical crap that you shouldn't put on your body let alone on your head. Many of them have a certain chemical called methylisothiazolinone, which is a neurotoxin that crosses the blood-brain barrier and kills brain cells. (Source.)

The only truly safe line of shampoos and conditioners that I have found are by Aubrey Organics, priced at $8 per bottle, which you can get at Vitamin Shoppe as well as Whole Foods.

A cheaper and mostly nontoxic shampoo can be bought at Trader Joes.

Restaurants

I'm more the "cook at home type", but I have been to a few good restaurants, and a few bad ones.

Good

• Silk Cuisine: one of the best Thai places I've gone to, would go again.
• Yokohama in Exton, PA. Very good, would go again.
• Italian restaurant in Broomall, forget the name. Provides good restaurant-grade pizza. Employs at least one actual Italian from Italy. Restaurant feels cramped.
• Shogun in Havertown: decent. It is possible to spend less here if you are crafty about it.

Bad

• P.F. Chang: It's a fake Chinese chain restaurant run by disinterested non-Asian Americans. I went to the one in Glen Mills: So-so food & shitty service.

Ugly

• Bertucci's: Italian-themed place run by disinterested American teenagers in Bryn Mawr: very shitty service, so-so food. They provided dirty utensils.

Unknown

On Washington Ave. in Philly there are four or five Vietnamese noodle houses as well as a Vietnamese supermarket. Word has it they're cheap and good.

Example:

Ten Lua One?

Return limits

You may have noticed that several chain stores in the area demand that in order to process a return, even with receipt, and even if the item is unopened, they now demand to get your name and address and may require that you show an ID.

A normal consumer who has their wits about them will wonder, What the hell? It's an injustice. In America after all, the customer is king. Why would they need to get an address even if you have a receipt and the item is unused?

It turns out this is a way for stores to limit the number of returns that you can make. They keep track of your returns and if you make too many they refuse to take the item back. I suggest boycotting stores an that engage in this outrageous behavior.

I was told at one store that the chain has a belief that some customers are repeatedly buying and returning items. However this is basically mentally ill, because the stores that are most obnoxious with such policies are not the ones you would expect.

I'm not talking about Best Buy, for example, where it is true that back in the day customers would buy a video camera to record a wedding for a day or two, then return it the day after.

No, actually the perpetrators include:

• Radio Shack
• Sears Hardware
• Pep Boys
• Home Depot in Broomall
• Walmart

At these stores, even the tinyest return results in a demand for name and address. They are as afraid about the return of a 10-cent hex nut as they are a $100 appliance. Typical brain-dead American management, one might surmise.

But in my opinion, this is entirely about profit and about conditioning consumers through pain, fear, possible humiliation and invasion of privacy to behave in ways that corporate weasels prefer.

You see, all these stores sell stuff that people don't really need, but buy anyway. They mostly sell items that have to do with projects and we all know that people often start a project and then decide not to finish it.

Therefore I deduce that these companies have been profiting for years off of consumers' tendency to "gear up" for projects that never get completed. When the customer comes to their wits and realizes they should return the item, they're subjected to this strange punishment by customer service.

Skin products

If you're going to put something on your skin, you should make sure it is as health-giving and non-toxic as possible. Three items that fit that profile that I know of are:

• Olive oil for skin protection, preferably stale since that blocks more UV.
• Raw shea butter for skin protection and possibly repair.
• Aloe vera for any burns, preferably directly from the leaf.

Raw shea butter

The benefits of raw shea seem to be:

1. It contains anti-oxidants.
2. It contains Vitamin A.
3. It contains substances that block some UV.

There is an African-paraphenalia store on South Street, whose name I forget, that sells the raw shea butter, for something like $10-$15 per pound.

Shipping

As you know, UPS and Fedex are expensive. I don't suggest using USPS. They offer no guarantees and no accountability.

Moisture in packaging

You're surely seen those small packets that are included in boxes to soak up moisture. Typically they say on them "do not ingest" or the like, because they contain silica.

A simple cheap alternative to moisture control in packaging or in a storage container is to include a small amount of rice instead. Rice is known for soaking up moisture.

Telephones

As for cellular companies, I've had bad experiences with Verizon, AT&T Wireless (now Cingular) and Sprint. Each tried to rip me off in one way or another. Verizon's customer service was particularly abusive, and I ultimately had to contact the Federal Trade Commision and FCC to complain about them, as I did for AT&T. Only then did they show some respect.

T-Mobile

I currently use T-Mobile prepaid minutes. They sell 1000 minutes for $100, good for a year, or fewer minutes good for fewer months. T-Mobile is compatible with any GSM phone, such as:

• The $120 Sciphone i68+ iPhone clone
• The $120 CECT P168 phone
• The $250 Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Virgin

I have not tried this company. One thing I know about them is that there is no roll-over of unused minutes.

Skype

I have made phone calls using Skype at a cost of about 2 cents per minute. You make the calls from your PC using a headset, so it works from home or from an Internet cafe like Panera Bread. There are two types of calls:

1. To landline and cellphones it costs about 2 cents per minute plus something like 5 cents connection fee. If you call overseas e.g. China the connection fee is more like 10 cents.
2. To other Skype users which costs nothing (free).

There is no monthly fee or activation charge, but you've got to buy a headset of some type. I got one for $8.

Warning about Skype:

Make sure you turn off the annoying feature that lets anyone on the Internet to start a chat session with you. It's on by default.

Transportation

Not Owning

Renting by the hour

Car ownership is damn expensive. If you live in the city, you might consider not owning a car at all, or using Philly CarShare for running errands. You rent their cars by the hour.

My expenses

Here are my car expenses at the moment, noting that my vehicle is paid off.

Item	Cost
Fuel	$100/month = $1200 per year
Insurance	$530/year (Erie Insurance)
Maintenance	Maybe $200/year average
Total	Roughly $2000/year

Chinatown bus

If you need to go to New York City or Boston, consider taking a Chinatown bus. They're cheap. Their stations seem to be located on 11th St. downtown. I haven't taken it but others claim it has worked out for them. Best thing to do is to google for it, since there are several bus companies and they do have websites.

Vehicle Maintenance

Keeping your vehicle in good running order is important for saving money by avoiding avoidable maintenance issues.

It is also important for achieving fuel efficiency. For instance, check your tire pressure regularly. Note:

• Check the pressure when the tires have not been driven on for a few hours.
• Adjust for differences in outdoor temperature from 'normal' by using the following rule of thumb: 10 degrees difference Fahrenheit means 1 psi of tire pressure.

Vehicle accessories

Truck bedliner

If you own a truck, here's how you can prevent scratching: Put a piece of cloth upon the truck bed, then on top of that put a piece of veneer, i.e. very thin plywood 1/4 inch thick. Doing this costs a lot less than a molded plastic bed-liner or the spray-on plastic coating.

Fancy stick shift knob

If you have a stick shift, rather than buy a fancy shifter handle, go to Home Depot and buy a $5 bed post knob. Remove the bolt and drill the hole and put it on the stick shift shaft. If I recall, the drill bit size required is something like 7/16".

Driving Techniques

My truck is rated to get 25 mpg. By being careful however I have achieved as high as 32 mpg.

Speed

The first rule to getting good fuel efficiency is to drive at 55 mph. Yeah, it seems boring at first, but remember the rule that the wind resistance against your car is 40% greater at 65 mph than it is at 55 mph, yet your engine is most efficient at 55. And your engine at 70 mph is pushing against 62% more wind resistance than at 55.

Hills

The hilliness of this region means you can use up a lot of gasoline by just going a few miles. This is less of a problem in the city of Philadelphia, which is fairly flat, but in the suburbs it can be quite hilly. The only way to avoid the inefficiency of the hills is to get going fast on major roads such as the I-95 or I-76 to build up some momentum.

Rush Hour

It's best to avoid rush hour entirely if possible. Major arteries such the I-76 become blocked at these times. You will end up using a lot of gasoline just waiting.

The trick to driving during rush hour is: learn the back roads. You may be surprised that some are virtual straight shots and yet are barely used during rush hour. Most people perhaps assume back roads take longer, or perhaps are too lazy or too tired to learn the back roads. Regardless, what they don't know is to your advantage. But obviously on snowy days you should avoid back roads.

Public transportation

One solution to the problems of driving is to use public transportation, which here is called Septa -- the name sounds like septicemia.

It happens that the Septa bus system has buses that go pretty far, e.g. from downtown all the way out to King of Prussia mall or to West Chester. If you use the buses, buy the tokens since they're cheaper. Septa buses have not been a problem for me, but I don't use them very much, either.

Many of Septa's commuter trains seem to suck. The R5 and R6 are very much complained about. Why? Some possibilities:

• I have myself seen 40-minute rides turn into 2 or 3 hour nightmares because trains break down, or the power lines fail, or various control systems malfunction.
• Septa is often very slow to fix problems when they occur. If you get stuck on the tracks, you will usually wait a long time to get going again.
• There are no bathrooms on Septa trains, so if you get stuck on a train and need to use the toilet, too bad.
• Septa avoids taking responsibility for anything. No matter how tragically late they made you, there's no redress. Maybe if you beg they will give you a voucher. But I've heard they even reject their own vouchers.
• Septa trains often sway violently left and right. This makes reading on the train a pain, and makes computer work nearly impossible.
• When Septa trains break down, and they will, it will be at some random point on the track and may necessitate waiting for a replacement train to come so that you can change trains.

People unfamiliar with public transportation may not know that in other cities, both in the US and internationally, most trolleys and trains are nowhere near as bad as Septa's. Take San Francisco, where people laud the BART system as a proof of the Bay Area's higher civilization. Almost all cities' trolleys and trains are better than Septa. The exception, I have heard, is New York which is supposedly worse. Still, Septa's perpetual incompetence is outrageous and unacceptable.

Trivia:
The company that makes the trains is called Bombadier. They're based in Quebec. They also make trolleys for several European cities and I have ridden on a couple of them. Those trolleys, for instance the system in Strasbourg, France, are really quite good. Despite all that, Septa's trains suck.

Trivia

Malls

• Some time ago there was a suicide in King of Prussia mall. A distraught woman jumped from above the food court and fell to the foot near eaters.
• Springfield Mall was the site of a shooting spree by a crazy woman named Silvia Seegrist in the 1980's. CrimeLibrary story.
• Mall rents locally are said to be insanely high. Mall owners can be very fickle about rents, raising or lowering them on a whim or to make way for a cousin's new shop. Rents even at decrepit malls are said to be $6000 to $9000 per month.

Websites

You can find deals all over the Web, however one website has stood out recently that offers sweet deals on a few novel electronic items, called DealExtreme:

Wood

Home Depot has cheaper, lighter wood than Lowes. I find that Lowes' wood is stronger and better quality.

Beware all green-tinted wood. It's treated with arsenic and just by touching it you can poison yourself. California and Europe have banned arsenic-treated wood.

Contact

plutarch aaat comcast dottt net

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