Notice: I’ll keep updating this post as long as people keep alerting me of more sources.

Websites

The best site to go to is blackfriday.info. They’ve currently got around 25 ads up, with even more waiting to be published. There’s also a section for Hot Deals and Coupons. This should be your primary source this year as it’s got a ton of info.

There’s also slickdeals.net, which is a year-round place to find hot deals, coupons, and more. They also have a dedicated Black Friday section that’s got deals being constantly updated. This site can be intimidating in the amount of info that passes through, so use the search function to find what you’re looking for.

Another resource is bfads.net, which I think has been around for a few years now. BFAds claims to be the “Official Black Friday 2008 Website”, just like many others claim. Nevertheless, a good resource.

You can also theck out theblackfriday.com, which is also another “official” site. Seriously, who determines what the official site is?

More

black-friday.net – Added 11/16

blackfday.com – Added 11/16

blackfriday.fm – Added 11/16

blackfridayads.com – Added 11/16

On Twitter

@bfads – run by bfads.net

@blackfriday – News about Black Friday and Cyber Monday provided by shoppingblog.com

search.twitter.com

Have another favorite source? Leave a comment and share the wealth.

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Some of you may have heard of this fantastic site called The Consumerist. The site is all about being a good consumer, knowing how to stand up for yourself, and being a resource for those who’ve been screwed or seek advice. I’ve been reading The Consumerist for a little over a year (I think) and have seen many tales of success.

One of the biggest advantages to being a reader is that I know where to look for hard to find information like executives names and phone numbers. I can also find posts about how certain people went about things and can then “play my cards” based on that to either save money or avoid an ETF. The cool thing about being a reader is seeing a post about someone who’s been taken, only to be contacted by the offending company because they too read The Consumerist.

Today’s tale of success was from a reader who was stranded by Verizon’s Roadside Assistance Program (yes, they have one). Long story short, the plaintiff was left stranded 20 miles from civilization with an empty gas tank and a dead cell phone. He had to wait for someone to drive by and take him to town, then get his car towed to town to get gas.

Is this what it takes to get reasonable customer service? Should people really have to complain to the whole world in order to get action taken by a company? If that’s the case, this site is your best bet. In particularly difficult economic times, the Consumerist is a valuable resource for knowin’ when to hold ‘em and knowin’ when to fold ‘em.

If you choose to submit your story to the site, do so with a level head and give all the information you can. Don’t do this as a first resort, but as a last resort. Once you’ve compiled your story, email it to tips@consumerist.com and hope for the best.

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I recently caved in to the desire to purchase songs from iTunes. I fired up the bloatware application and entered the Store, seeking out some new tunes I’d recently heard on Sirius. My wife spotted my activity and asked if the songs I purchased would work with her computer. The simple answer is no, but the complicated answer is yes.

For background, there are three computers in my home – my wife’s laptop, my laptop, and my desktop.

iTunes sells music at two prices: the spine-curving $0.99 version that’s stricken with DRM, and the $1.29 version that is DRM-free. I’m of the school of thought that a CD purchase is no different than a digital music purchase in terms of ownership, so I have no qualms over sharing the tunes within my household. But alas, iTunes won’t let me do that for $0.99 per track.

Amazon will. You can purchase DRM-free tunes from the Amazon MP3 store for $0.99 (or in some cases less) per track. As is the case with iTunes, you can also buy a whole “CD” for a reduced rate. Amazon’s store isn’t as fully stocked as the iTunes store is, but I don’t listen to really off-the-wall stuff so I don’t have any problems finding what I like. Sure, there’s no “genius” telling me what to listen to and buy… but I don’t need someone to do that. Sirius is my music discovery vehicle, not a complex process of determing my likes whilst harvesting other users’ souls and firstborns… I mean, musical preferences.

The Big Picture

Aside from the price discrepancy, my real question is why is Apple still tainting their wares with DRM? How many other music vendors have already ditched it? I don’t have an exact number, but I know it’s enough that there’s no reason why iTunes should be selling as many tunes as they do. What it boils down to is that most everyone who owns an iPod or iPhone (and that is a shitload of people) use iTunes to sync their computer to their device. How convenient that the software you use to push songs to your ‘pod also has a store built in. And, how convenient is it that iTunes is arguably the only way to sync those two? Hello, convenience, it’s always nice to see you around!

Or is it? Try passing that song you just bought to your significant other. Can’t, can you? Unless you forked over the extra $0.30 per song, you’re up the proverbial creek and Steve Jobs has your paddle.

Convenience vs. Common Sense

Not two days ago I “bought” a free song from Amazon and added it to the iTunes library. It was an easy drag and drop operation. It was an extra step, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make in the name of fair use. I avoid DRM at any opportunity, and so should every music lover. Don’t pay extra for what you should be getting for free. Even though the $1.29 version of Mmm Bop (not the song I got, by the way) has a higher bitrate than the $0.99 version, you’re probably not going to notice. Do yourself a favor and buy it from Amazon and roll that extra 30 cents over to your next purchase.

For example, let’s say I were to buy 4 songs a month from iTunes (1 per week). Since I hate DRM, that transaction would total $5.16. The same purchase over at Amazon would run me $3.96, a difference of $1.20 in favor of Amazon. That’s a free song and then some per month. Extrapolate that over a full calendar year and you’ll realize a savings of $16.07 per year. It may not sound like much, but it grows linearly depending how many songs you buy.

If you’re a savvy consumer, you’ll see my point.

What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment below.

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Edmunds has a gas mileage savings calculator where the user can enter their current car, their desired car, the number of miles driven monthly, and the price of gasoline. The calculator will figure out how long it will take to recoup the cost based on those factors. For instance, to trade in my 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix GT for a 2006 Toyota Prius would cost around $10,000 and take 83 months (7 years) to recover the cost from savings. Chances are I won’t even have my current car in 83 months, so it’s clearly not worth the cost of trading in. On the other hand, trading in a 2006 Chevy Tahoe for the same Prius would only take 18 months to recover the cost.

Consumerist offers three questions when deliberating a trade-in:

• What’s the true cost of a trade in?
• Is a small(er) car practical?
• Are you thinking with your brain or with your gut?

Original Article

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A major player in production of both food and gasoline is corn. Corn is a staple ingredient that can be used in countless food products, from cereals to soft drinks. The there’s corn syrup, which is an ingredient in a ridiculous number of products. Not only do consumer products contain some variety of corn product, but it also directly impacts feed prices for livestock. Feed price and the end product that comes as a result of that livestock are directly correlated. It’s pretty easy to see why a rise in corn prices impacts the food market.

Corn prices also impact the ethanol market. Corn currently sells on average for about $7.50 a bushel, up 119% from last year. The Renewable Fuel Standard calls for increased ethanol product incrementally until 2016. The EPA requires 7.76% of gas products to be blended with ethanol. This drive to increase ethanol production will make corn a more valuable and attractive resource. Its main competitor, however, is the food market. Increasing ethanol production will raise food prices, just as decreasing ethanol production will raise gas prices but keep food prices from rising unexpectedly.

Food prices have increased 5% in the last year, and the USDA projects they’ll rise another 5.5% in 2008. Gasoline has increased around 30%, depending on which grade of gasoline you consider. Decreased yields will put further economic stress on families as they try to stretch their dollar as far as possible. If crop damage is as bad as it is estimated, the government could see another spike on its hands – the number of people on welfare. With baby boomers cashing in on social security soon, we cannot afford to have another resource depleted. As a country, we’re at a breaking point where changes need to be made to protect the economic future of young workers as well as the elderly.

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Industry figures show that 8.8 billion gallons of bottled water was consumed in 2007, which is up nearly 7 per cent from 2006. The only beverage that Americans drink more is soft drinks. With this quantity of beverage being bought, one can only imagine the number of empty bottles this would leave behind. Redemption centers won’t take these bottles, and not nearly enough people recycle or having recycling available to them. The only other option is the landfill. Millions of recyclable plastic bottles head there every year from bottled water.

It’s senseless to spend that much on water you can get for very little money. Assuming you use less than 5,000 gallons of water per day, you can get 1,000 gallons of water in the city of Des Moines for $2.35. That means you can run 5 gallons of water from your tap for one penny. If we assume a 20 oz bottle of water is $1.20 (not sure of the going rate there), 20 oz of tap water would cost you $0.000375. That means bottled water is 3,200 times more expensive than tap water. You could buy almost 500 gallons of tap water for that same $1.20 you spent on 20 oz of bottled water.

When I do drink water, it’s from the tap. I have a PUR water filter installed directly to the faucet in the kitchen. Believe it or not, it does change the taste of the water, but not much. It’s more a peace of mind thing for me. Water filtration devices for the home are relatively inexpensive. I repurpose my empty Gatorade bottles into water bottles that I can use for a while before I get rid of it (it’s gross to use it for too long).

For big water drinkers, think of the savings. If you drink the “recommended” half gallon of water per day, you’d save a couple dollars each day. Fill up a couple bottles every night and they’ll be nice and cold by morning. You could even put in a few ice cubes if you would like, since they’re practically free too.

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It’s very hard to spot if you aren’t looking for it, but notice the difference on the shelf tag and the item itself. The difference is a full ounce of chips less for the same price. Other items get hit harder than chips, such as milk. Some milk producers are deliberating selling milk in 3/4 gallon sizes instead of the full gallon.

The unit price on the above sticker shows 21.8c/oz, but it’s actually 23.8c/oz at the new size. Producers are reducing the size of the good instead of increasing the price due to customer sensitivity. The businesses are trying to recover some of the higher cost of production. Two reasons behind the drop in quantity are producers staying competitive and surviving the “recession”. This is a common practice that’s been around since the 1800s known as downsizing or shrinkage.

Some of the more common products to be hit by the Ray are cereals, chips, and cleaners (soap, detergent, etc). If you’re not aware of what’s going on, you’re getting taken. So what can you do about this shrink ray? Probably not a whole lot more than to be aware of what quantity you think you’re buying vs what quantity you’re actually buying. Part of being a good consumer is knowing what you’re buying, so beware of the shrink ray.

View more stories from the Consumerist about the Shrink Ray.

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