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Myfico.com is offering 20% off its FICO Credit Complete package of three credit scores from the three major credit companies.  Normally $47.85, this is $38.28 with the discount.  Use code SUMMER20. 

Unless you’re one of those rare folks who pays cash for everything, you need a good FICO score.  FICO is your credit rating.  It is a crucial piece of information that banks, mortgage companies, and others use to decide whether to approve you for loans and credit cards.  So be informed.

Here are some interesting FICO facts:

FICO® scores are your credit rating
They range from 300-850, higher is better
Most lenders base approval on them
Higher scores mean lower interest rates
FICO® scores are calculated based on your rating in five general categories:
Payment history - 35%
Amounts owed - 30%
Length of credit history - 15%
New credit - 10%
Types of credit used - 10%
The median FICO® score in the U.S. is 723

Mark writes:

This is great because I can check on my credit score and see if i can get that new car to cruise the town.  It’s better to be informed than left in the dark, especially when it deals with your money. 

Expiration Date: 7/31/2008

Coming to a location near you, The Skin Cancer Foundation partnered with Aveeno, Rite Aid, and Columbia Sportswear in sponsoring their ‘Road to Healthy Skin Tour’.  Starting this month, their 38-foot customized RV will stop at participating Rite Aid and various other locations to provide early skin cancer detection exams absolutely FREE.  Screenings are conducted by local board-certified dermatologists offering full body skin cancer screenings absolutely FREE of charge.
 
Having never had a sunburn and blessed with olive skin. I personally do not give sun screen or skin cancer a second thought.  But, that’s an ignorant way to think about the most common form of cancer in the United States today.  With the ozone layer getting thinner and the suns rays getting hotter, this is something that we all need to educate ourselves about.   

Expiration Date: 10/31/2008

I just joined this new group called Freecycle.  The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,369 groups with 5,119,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer.  Membership is free.  Basically Freecycle is a collection of many Yahoo groups.  Each group serves a local area such as a city or a suburban region.  I just joined my local group and found the free goods include furniture, baby supplies, and curtains, among other things.  You can also post messages if you are seeking an item.

Here’s the breakdown of what to do:

- Visit their website

- Enter your city name in the search box, and click "go"

- Find your nearest group, and click on the name - You will be taken to the group website.

- Under the GROUP INFO / POST menus, you should see links for the group name, number of members and Region for the group

-Click on the group name to go to the Yahoogroups website.  

Expiration Date: none

Angel Food Ministries helps people afford groceries.  They offer a monthly menu consisting of frozen meats, prepared meals, produce, dairy, grains, and dessert.  (Items, may or may not be available from month to month.) The cost to you is $30 for $60 (or more) worth of restaurant quality food. After you purchase the main monthly menu or "regular unit" you have the option of adding on to your order of 3 featured specials for $20 per special. 
 
My hairdresser was telling me of a family that she knew personally that was in need and that’s where they get their groceries every month. With the rising cost of food, fuel and everything else, it’s comforting to know that if you need an alternative to the bulk of your grocery needs, you have one.
 
Researching the site, items are not close-out, 2nd hand, expired, or poor quality foods. It is restaurant quality food at wholesale costs. There are no qualifying requirements to take part of their fantastic offerings. The site is very informative and upfront. Founded in 1994, Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization that provides food relief to over 500,000 families each month in 33 of 50 states. Spread the word, if you know of a family in need! 

Expiration Date: unknown

How about a way to give back to those in need?  It’s free but will cost you time and brain power.   Freerice.com is a sister site of www.poverty.com .  Freerice.com has 2 goals

1) provide English vocabulary for free to whomever uses the website and

2) help the UN end world hunger one small donation at a time. 

Your involvement is easy, no registrations, no commitments, just a fun way to expand your vocabulary.  Every answer you get right you have just donated 20 grains of rice.  20 grains doesn’t seem like much, but this morning I donated 2000 grains of rice in less than 10 minutes.  Rice is a staple amongst many countries and cultures, but a valuable luxury to hungry people thousands of miles away. 

I stumbled upon this site when looking to supplement my middle schoolers education at home.  We go on the sight at least 2-3 times a week.  It’s a fun way to expand and challenge your vocabulary plus you get to watch your rice bowl fill up and empty out as a donation.  You can also check out the monthly rice that have been donated.  Be apart of a good cause + exercise your brain + help those in need = warm fuzzies!
 
Expiration Date:  None

Starbucks recently announced that it will be ditching their current wireless provider T-Mobile and going with AT&T which will be offering free WiFi service.  Starbucks Card holders will now get 2 free hours of WiFi everyday.  AT&T Internet and Broadband subscribers score big time because they will now receive free unlimited WiFi at all 70,000 AT&T WiFi locations.

If two hours is not long enough for you then you can purchase an extra two hours for $3.99 which is pretty reasonable considering their old rate of $6 an hour (Are you kidding me?).  Even better you can purchase a monthly subscription for $19.95.  This new service will be available in Spring 2008.

I suspect you will see a lot more people at with laptops and wireless devices at Starbucks soon.  Personally I enjoy bringing my laptop to Starbucks once in a while to do some work and for a change of scenery but I find it hard to get a good seat sometimes.

With Howard Schultz now back as CEO of Starbucks you are see Starbucks becoming much more "Third Place" friendly.  He feels like the Starbucks brand was being watered down and is looking to build up the "Starbucks Experience" instead going for quick profits.

"Low Tech/High Tech at Starbucks", Photo Courtesy of StarbucksGuy

Free WiFi is awesome, but I wouldn’t mind see a bunch of other improvements to the make Starbucks even more "Third Place" friendly.

10 Things to Make Starbucks Even More "Third Place" Friendly

1. More Tables, Less Shelves - Get rid of those shelves with merchandise and replace them with more tables and chairs.  Many times I go in a Starbucks and there is no where to sit and I don’t see too many people actually buy those overpriced coffee mugs and coffee presses.
2. More Power Outlets - Anybody that has ever brought their computer to Starbucks knows that the table next to the power outlets are almost always taken.  It is also the best seat in the house.  Come on Starbucks give us some juice.
3. Cleaner Tables and Chairs - I don’t mean to be a germ freak but I would rather stand then sit at some of the Starbucks that I have been in.  It is the little things that matter and this is one thing could set them apart.
4. Cleaner Bathrooms - Again, it is the little things that matter.
5. Allow Customers to Queue Up Music - I think it would be cool if customers could queue up music to be played in the store.  I think this could be a fun and interactive thing that could easily be implemented on default WiFi portal web page.
6. Printing Services Anyone? - It would be awesome if I could print out documents to a print server for a fee.  Again, I think this could be implemented on default WiFi portal web page.
7. Web Cam & Traffic Meter - I think it would be cool to go online and see if a certain Starbucks is very busy or empty.  This would help people decide what time or which Starbucks they should meet or go to.  I don’t know what the privacy issues are with this but I think they could also provide some sort to tracking system to show how busy a certain store is.  Nobody likes to go to a store and wait 45 minutes to get a table or have to go to another store.
8. Less Round Tables - Anyone that has used a laptop on a round table will know my pain.  Rectangular or square table are much more laptop friendly.  Round tables have their advantages too but I would like to see less of them.
9. Free Premium Content - How about making deals with magazines publishers or sites like the Wall Street Journal Online and offering paid premium content online for free.  The back-end revenue would be from customers that stay longer and drink more overpriced coffee (gulp).  I believe Starbucks has already done a similar promotion offering free Apple iTunes songs at their stores.
10. Smarter Rewards - Since much more people will be using their Starbucks Card now they could use all that wonderfully evil statistical information to offer discounts and encourage customers to spend more.  Grocery stores already do this but I think Starbucks could go one step further by integrating this into their WiFi portal.

As you can see many of these ideas are win-win.  Free WiFi is a good start, Still a $3 coffee is still a $3 coffee.  I wonder if other retailers are going to up the ante.  What ideas do you have?

Photo Credits: mini K, 

I have just updated the look of the website. I have been meaning to do this for a while but the holiday season was extremely busy and I only recently have had the time to work on it. I tried to make it as functional and aesthetically pleasing as possible. Let me know if you have any problems as I am still try to fix any bugs in the new system. Also if you have any requests or question just send me a quick email.

This video shows you how you can easily save or conserve your printer ink by printing in draft mode.  This might be a no-brainer for most people, but many people drain their ink cartridges because they don’t know that they can use less ink by printing draft documents.

When you print in draft mode you use less ink but it is very much readable.  I almost always print document for myself in draft mode unless it is for a professional docucment.

Also if you are still buying brand name inkjet cartridges then give generic inkjet cartridges a try, they are about 70% cheaper.  I buy my inkjet cartridges for my Canon MP780 printer from 4inkjet.com.  They have a 10%-15% discount right now and offer free shipping.  My inkjet cartridges cost less than $4 bucks each.  If I went to Wal-Mart, Office Depot or Staples I would pay about $10-$12 for each name brand ink cartridge.  If you have a laser printer there is also generic laser printer toners.