Do it yourself auto maintenance

When I turned 16 and started driving, I didn't know a tie rod from a leaf spring, but I was fortunate enough to have a shade tree mechanic neighbor who, along with my Chilton's manual, taught me the basics. I've done my own car maintenance ever since. If you don't have a handy neighbor, you're in luck... and don't even have to leave your PC to learn things like how to change your oil.

With my 11 year old Ford Explorer hitting 158,000 miles, I know I need to be more diligent about its maintenance. So this morning at the crack of dawn I picked up new oil, air, and transmission filters along with a case of Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

What would have cost $150 and taken several hours of my time at an auto repair shop was only $67.67 and took only an hour. I also have the peace of mind in knowing the job was done right. And if I can do it, anyone can.

Saving on prescription drugs

Working for a Fortune 500 company, I have a good health plan along with prescription coverage. While my doctor co-pays have remained steady over the last several years, I've noticed that my prescription co-pays have risen dramatically.

The area of greatest expense is with formulary prescription drugs (i.e., brand-name medications or those for which there is no generic equivalent). FDA guidelines require generic medications to contain within 20% the active medication of its non-generic counterpart. So while generic medications could potentially have 20% more active ingredient, would you presume drug companies would actually provide more for less?

When my wife was recently written a prescription for a medication she has used in the past, she knew that the efficacy of the generic was poor compared to that of its formulary counterpart. Since our prescription coverage only pays for a percentage of the cost of formulary medications, we know to shop around, despite having insurance. After calling all of the major local pharmacies, we found that the least expensive one was Sam's Club. At the bottom of the pack and 45% more expensive than Sam's Club was Eckerd Drugs. Others such as Kroger, Publix, Costco, Walgreens, and CVS all fell somewhere in between. It once again reinforced the old adage that it pays to shop around.

Disconnect to connect

I enjoyed several well-deserved vacation days this week where I disconnected from technology as best as I could and stayed home. What I long for is a long sabbatical, but that won't be happening anytime soon. I had several home-related projects to do and actually accomplished more than I expected. On top of it, I got to spend some quality time with my girls. It's helped me mentally refresh & recharge.

How to buy Super Bowl tickets

Some day I may want to see the Super Bowl live, but until then, I'll continue submitting my request to purchase tickets for the ultimate arbitrage opportunity. The NFL does not sell tickets to travel agents or ticket brokers; the way they get their tickets is by purchasing them from individuals. And one such individual sold his pair of tickets for $9,200 for this last Super Bowl in Miami.

To have the opportunity to purchase Super Bowl tickets at face value, follow these instructions from the NFL website:

Entries for the random drawing are accepted between Feb. 1 and June 1 of the year preceding the game in question. All ticket requests must be sent via certified or registered mail. Those selected in the random drawing will have the opportunity to purchase two tickets.

Requests for Super Bowl XLII, to be played Feb. 3, 2008 in Glendale, Ariz., will be accepted beginning Feb. 1, 2007. They should be sent to:

Super Bowl Random Drawing
P.O. Box 49140
Strongsville, OH 44149-0140

Please note that only one request per address is accepted. All duplicate requests will be disregarded.

If your name is drawn, you'll need to pony up the estimated $700 per ticket, but you'll easily be able to double your money. For an interesting article on the secondary market for Super Bowl tickets, read Howard Bloom's "Countdown to Kickoff".

19" LCD Monitor for $100 from Office Depot after rebate

I've been looking for a cheap LCD monitor to replace my wife's huge CRT monitor, and tonite I found it. Office Depot has the Norcent 19" Widescreen LDC monitor for $149.99 online with a $50 mail-in rebate and free delivery.

I'm still waiting for a deal on Turbo Tax Premier (most of the specials are for Turbo Tax Deluxe).

Free disposable telephone number

My parents had a Hot Springs hot tub that stopped working after years of repairs. Rather than fix it (again) or try and sell it, they decided to list it for free in their local newspaper, and in doing so provided their home telephone number for some lucky individual to arrange pickup. The day it was listed, an early-bird called at some God-awful hour of the morning asking to stop by. The problem was that the phone calls kept coming. The ad only ran once, but weeks later they still received calls asking if the hot tub was still available. What they needed was a disposable telephone number.

And that is exactly what Craigsnumber offers--a free disposable telephone number! If you live in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, or Washington, D.C., the telephone number is from a local area code. You can configure this telephone number to expire in one hour, one day, one week, or one month depending on your need.

If you're looking for a similar service for email, try KasMail which gives you up to 25 disposable email addresses at a time.

Last day for free $10 from Google

Save $10 on your first purchase of $10 or more when using Google Checkout.

Note: You don't need to make a purchase today; you just need to sign up by the end of the day today (February 14, 2007). Purchase must be made by March 31, 2007.

Profiting on Foreclosures

There was a great article in Saturday's print edition of The Wall Street Journal on making money in foreclosures, and I was glad to see this article make its way to Yahoo's Personal Finance section where you can read it for free!