Make Money By Letting Scientists Experiment On You

By MoneyBlueBook

During graduate school I roomed with a medical student, who's still a good friend of mine. Although he and all of his medical friends studied hard, they also partied hard - very hard. They were quite the rowdy bunch. Together with his medical and dental friends from other neighboring prestigious schools, they consumed alcohol and other things like you wouldn't believe. Although I could probably go on for days about the many weird things that happened in our apartment, the thing I wanted to talk about was one of the things he used to do for money (no he wasn't a drug dealer, if that's what you're thinking).

Make Money By Being a Human Guinea Pig

What my roommate used to do was answer advertisements in the newspaper or respond to requests through his medical school for open call patients who were interested in participating as subjects in scientific studies. The scientific studies he submitted himself for were for substance abuse related clinical research projects. His qualification for the studies involved his chronic prior and current usage of alcohol and illicit substances (party drug variety). The studies were always confidential and he was paid quite handsomely for his time. I think he agreed to be a paid guinea pig because he needed the extra money for further boozing.

Frequently this involved him showing up at the research center for a few hours at a time and allowing the researchers to put him through a series of mental and physical tests. Now you might be thinking, easy money

By MoneyBlueBook

Money is an important part of life but sometimes it can be very fleeting. Just look at the world stock markets recently. What was a high flying market has now come back down to earth and bottomed out. The market will eventually rebound, but it's a stark reminder that the accumulation of money should be a means to an end, and not become the goal itself.

I hope we can all learn to be extra generous during this Thanksgiving season and cherish the important family, friends, and loved ones in our lives. It's important to keep spending under reasonable control, but don't let it prevent you from sharing your generosity with others. Money can be replaced, but good friends and family cannot.

Have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving and remember to eat hearty (don't worry, you can work off the pounds later on the treadmill). Enjoy the Black Friday shopping festivities! :)

By MoneyBlueBook

The holiday season is a time for good memories and cheer. But it's also a time when people are looser with their wallets, more readily open to the idea of spending more money than usual on presents for family, friends, and loved ones. It's easy to take out the ole credit card, swipe it through and not worry about it until later. But that later time will ultimately arrive in less than a month. When you finally open up your next bill or when you log into your online account to check your statement balance, prepare to be stunned. Somebody's going to have to pay all that back to the credit company and I'm betting it's going to be you.

Don't Let Holiday Shopping Hype Force You To Make Bad Decisions

Just because it's the holiday shopping season doesn't mean you have to forget all the frugal living common sense you acquired throughout the year. Don't throw all that out of the window. Christmas and the other holidays are still a month away. You still have ample time to plan ahead to make sure you are making the most efficient use of your shopping budget. Don't panic and start hitting the department stores without doing your research first to make sure you are using all of the available coupons and discounts out there.

Here Are A Few Of My Thoughts and Common-Sensical Tips Regarding Holiday Shopping

By MoneyBlueBook

Well it's that time of the year again. The holiday shopping season is nearly upon us and consumers are starting to get all giddy like little schoolgirls. Although I try to keep my own giggling variation to a minimum, I must admit that I do get caught up the bargain hunting hoopla.

Black Friday Means Deals and Lots Of Them

For those of you who are not familiar with what it is, Black Friday is the crazy shopping frenzy that immediately follows Thanksgiving. It draws so much consumer and media attention because the day has traditionally signaled the start of the Christmas shopping season. It is called Black Friday because it always falls on a Friday and is the day when many retailers finally turn a profit - their balance sheets finally going into the black. Although Black Friday is not always the busiest shopping day of the year, many retailers frequently release their most lucrative deals and promotions on this day.

I Love The Hype and Excitement, But Participating Is Another Matter

I enjoy following the news and coverage that surrounds Black Friday events, but I've never actually gotten up early enough on Black Friday to take advantage of those one time a year deals. I think the closest I ever came to shopping on Black Friday was wakening up at noon on the day after Thanksgiving and strolling into a nearby Best Buy to see if there were any deals left. By then the store had already been picked clean by other crazy

By MoneyBlueBook

I'm always excited when I can get my hands on one of these free Starbucks gift cards Read the full article »

By MoneyBlueBook

J.D. Roth From Get Rich Slowly posted an entry today on his blog in which he drew attention to those popular Visa ads that promote the use of credit cards as the new trendy and speedy way to make everyday purchases. In case you've been living in a cave with your fingers stuck in your ears, or you just don't watch much television, here's the commercial we are talking about:

The message is pretty self evident - Using credit cards is fun, fast, and everyone is doing it, so don't get left out. Only those who aren't hip or "with it" use cash. The spinning shoppers in the commercial represent the gears of everyday commerce that grinds to a halt when someone like the lone, meekly man at the end attempts to use cash to make his purchase. The gesture causes everyone to drop everything in their hands in stunned shock - food, drinks, and all.

Using Credit and Debit Cards Is Much More Efficient

J.D. seems to really dislike the commercial as he sees it as a misguided attempted to demonize the usage of cash. I personally like the commercial and must disagree with his views on this one. I find that credit cards are almost always exponentially faster than using cash. Every time I go grocery shopping, I always dread following after someone in the checkout line who plans on using cash or even worse, checks. Cash is cumbersome and there is always the inevitable pause as the sales clerk and customer fumble