Daily Dose of Common Sense

This is an example of smartness:

Bank of America will no longer let you spend what you don’t have. Revolutionary, I know. The bank is not allowing customers using accounts linked to debit cards to spend more than in their checking accounts.

Customers making a purchase without sufficient funds will be rejected at the cash register, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said today. Those seeking to withdraw more than their balance from automated teller machines must agree to a $35 fee before they can get the money, spokesman Don Vecchiarello said.

$35 is pricey, but at least you can’t spend yourself (and us) into debt. Living within your means can be hard (who are we kidding–it sucks!) but, it’s a good way to avoid financial disaster down the road.

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Thanks to George P. for the link!

A couple in California had a new baby on the way and they needed to find ways to save money. So, in 2008, they removed their front lawn and replaced the grass with wood chips. This saved the city thousands of gallons of water and slashed the homeowner’s water bill. Sounds like a win-win, right?

Wrong. Cities want you to keep your lawn for aesthetic reasons. The green looks pretty, even though it takes a whole lot more maintenance and resources than other options. Lawns help to keep property values up. In this particular case, the couple lives in a town that requires homeowners to have at least 40% live landscaping in their front yards. So, they are being taken to court for not having enough green. (And, this is in Southern California, where some cities fine overzealous lawn waterers.)

A neighbor of the couple says,

“It’s their yard, it’s not overgrown with weeds, it’s not an eyesore,” said Cleek, whose own yard boasts fruit and avocado trees. “We should be able to have our yards look the way we want them to.”

Even more disturbing than the draconian landscaping rules is the way this has played out. The couple has made several changes to the front lawn in order to comply with the 40% rule. And, in an example of local government efficiency, the homeowners heard nothing from the city in return until the misdemeanor charge. Way to work together on a compromise, Orange County.

“It’s just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,” Quan Ha said. “Doesn’t it waste funds to go back and fourth in court, rather than sending pictures, e-mails and having phone conversations?”

Sounds like common sense to me.

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Waiting in line sucks. We all hate it, yet most of us do it every day. At the grocery, post office, drug store, restaurant, Target…. we’re in line waiting to pay. Well, here’s a gripe: Why isn’t everyone READY to pay when the time comes? You were in line. You knew money would be exchanged soon. You had the time to get your credit card or cash ready while standing in line. So, why are you fumbling around in your wallet once the cashier gives you the total? The rest of us are behind you and we’re READY to pay.

While in line, get your finances ready, people. That way, the line moves faster!

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As flying gets increasingly more laborious, expensive (hello, outrageous extra baggage fees!), and just downright miserable, at least one regional airline knows what consumers want–less hassle.

SeaPort Airlines, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, offers regional flights within the Pacific Northwest and also within the Mid-South region. Started in 2008, their goal is simple: Provide quick and easy commuter flights at a reasonable cost.

A quick flight cost comparison with another major airline showed one standard SeaPort fare to be about $200.00 less expensive than its competitor. They also offer free airport parking and suggest you need only arrive 15 minutes before your flight–even with check-in bags.

Best of all? They tout themselves as a “TSA free airline.” Yep, you read that right. Since they are a regional airline and fly into smaller terminals they are exempt from full-scale Transportation Security Administration screening.

Now that’s how I want to fly.

Ok, not really. But, two clever guys did illustrate the ink usage of different typefaces and Garamond proved to use the least amount of ink.

In this quirky demonstration they drew enlarged versions of eight fonts with eight ball point pens and used the remaining ink in each pen to create a telling bar chart. The results are here:

http://flowingdata.com/2010/01/29/save-pens-use-garamond-font

Frankly, it never occurred to me that fonts had an ink footprint, but I know I’m not only one who thinks the price of ink cartridges is ridiculous.

And, who doesn’t want a way to stick it to the printer cartridge industry? I see a whole lot more Garamond in my future.

It’s water-proof, flexible, self-adhesive and dishwasher safe. And it’s taking the world by storm. In fact, many folks are calling it the best invention since Duct tape or Blu tack. It’s called Sugru.

Sugru is the brain child of Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh, a former product design student, who thought one day, “I don’t want to buy new stuff all the time. I want to hack the stuff I already have so it works better for me.” Aside from unleashing your inner inventor (C’mon, we’ve all had the “I could’ve made that better” thought), Sugru is the ultimate reduce-reuse-recycle tool.

But what exactly is it? Essentially, it’s a silicone based play-dough for adults that you can adhere to surfaces to improve, repair or hack them.  Scissor handles pinching? Use Sugru and mold a fix. Wish your mobile phone had a bigger volume control button? Make one.

Still a little confused? The Sugru website and blog do a beautiful job demonstrating its many uses. And as Jane says herself on the website “People are natural hackers, we’ve just gotten out of the habit of it.”

Watch more about Sugru here:

Here are some of our favorite brief Web stories from this week.

Some people had common sense.

• The city of Boston dismissed thousands of tickets and tow fines for people who were issued violations while preparing for a storm that never came. The city had declared a snow emergency in expectation of the big storm cutting up the eastern seaboard. Stay classy, Boston.
• A 5-year old girl in Indiana called 911 when her dad experienced chest pains. She remained calm and stayed on the line for nearly ten minutes. She is now credited with saving her dad’s life.

And, some did not.

• Southwest Airlines kicked Kevin Smith off a flight for being too fat. Smith claims he fits between the two arm rests, which is the test of whether a person is too large for their seat. Huge PR nightmare for Southwest Airlines because Smith is a celebrity. I ask why the airlines even let him board in the first place, instead of kicking him off once on the plane?
• New toy: Fisher Price’s Bigfoot the Monster. It’s cute in a Muppet-gone-bad kind of way, but do we really want to encourage children to believe in this nonsense?

In economic downturns, it seems like everyone is looking for a way to stretch a buck. Whether it’s cutting back on luxury expenditures or simply getting back to budgeting, we all appreciate a little more green in our pockets.

Enter AltUse.com. A relatively new website fueled by user-generated content, their purpose is to provide alternative uses for everyday products you most likely already have in your house. Suggestions range from using dryer lint to make firestarters (I’ve actually done this and it works!) to smelling coffee ground to alleviate car sickness.

While I won’t be wasting my Vodka stash to help my cut flowers stay fresh anytime soon, I might try the hangover cure.

So whether your goal is to go green, save green or simply experiment, AltUse is worth checking out.

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AdFreak has a great graphic of what you could buy instead of a Super Bowl commercial. While I don’t like some of the suggestions, the point remains clear: Super Bowl ads are a giant waste of money.

Yes, I know some of them are iconic and some of them are wildly popular. And, the ads are a main reason that people tune into the game. Agencies know the audience numbers are unbeatable on any other day in the modern television landscape. So, the ad dollars makes sense to some companies. (How else would GoDaddy be a household word?) But, most of the ads we’ll see on Super Bowl Sunday will only end up as a blip on our busy, over-programmed, short-attention-span radar.

I don’t begrudge the network for charging the amount they do for the airtime. I’m a firm believer that the free market should decide what the going rate is. If there are companies willing to pay it, then the network should reap the benefits. But, in this recession, does it really seem wise from the company’s perspective to pay $2.6 million for a 30-second spot during the game? Yes, that is over two and a half million dollars!

That’s why Pepsi’s decision to not place Super Bowl ads this year is so great. After almost 25 years of placing ads during the Super Bowl, they have decided to put the money towards a social media campaign. Pepsi usually purchases many 30-second spots during the game, so this is a huge chunk of change the company can use throughout 2010 and beyond. Plus, the announcement has been so startling that Pepsi is now getting more Super Bowl buzz than its rival Coke.

We’ll have to wait until next year to see what effect Pepsi’s pull-out will have on the ad rates. Could this be a trend other companies will follow? Until the economy bounces back and people have jobs again, I sure hope so.

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CNN is doing a week-long series on surprising ways your stimulus dollars are being spent. Not hard to imagine that most of what will be uncovered won’t make the taxpayers happy.

For example, in Ohio, $1 million of their stimulus dollars (that you gave them) is being spent just to tell you that they are spending stimulus dollars.

Ohio was given nearly $1 billion of stimulus money for roadwork. The money used for the signs is only about one-tenth of 1 percent of that money.

But critics argue that stimulus money — all of it — was designed to finance projects, not advertise them.

It’s crazy. And, Ohio isn’t the only state creating signs to let citizens know that stimulus money is being used for certain projects. It’s estimated that $3.8 million will be spent on signs nationwide. (Guess we should all be in the sign business.)

There are some 16 states, however, who are doing it right and skipping the signs. Vermont, for example, allows taxpayers to track their state’s stimulus funds via a Web site.

Some of these politicians don’t get it. Who needs signs? We want jobs and a strong economy. Stop wasting our money!

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[Via Consumerist.com]