These Folks Just Never Give Up!

Well, I see the crooks are still busy.

I received this little communiqué in the form of an email a few minutes ago.

Dear Customer,

American State Bank carrying out a major system upgrade. This upgrade became necessary following recent security threats. Consequently, in the next few days, you may notice temporary interruption when using online banking to access your account. To experience a smoother and more secure online banking, please update your information in our records. The link below will guide you through the process:http://secure-banking.online.com. Please note that this one time exercise is mandatory for all American State Bank customers. For security reasons, we may suspend your account if your information is not updated.We sincerely regret any inconvenience.

Susan Flinn
Head of Online Banking

My computer, rather intelligently, put this email in the Junk Mail folder. Unfortunately, it’s something a little more sinister than junk mail. It’s a scam, and a nasty one.

Clues? This thing is riddled with them.

First, I know what banks I have accounts at and American State Bank isn’t one of them. (By the way, there's a ASB logo graphic on the original email and it's meaningless. Anyone can swipe such a logo just by copying it off the real bank’s website.)

Then there’s the line about “recent security threats” designed to scare anyone who receives this email into responding immediately. Scammers love to scare people into acting without thinking, so this is boilerplate scam language.

Next, we have the call to update my “information” in their records, so that I can experience “more secure” (another scare phrase) online banking. I don’t do any online banking, (this kind of thing is one of the reasons why) so that’s another red flag. What kind of information do they want me to provide? I'm willing to bet it's exactly the kind they could use to steal my identity.

Then notice the link provided. (I’ve removed a few letters from the link to keep anyone from accidently clicking on it and going to the crook’s website.) The link itself doesn’t even have the “secure” https --note the s--prefix that real financial institutions use. (The use of the word “secure” in the link is meaningless.) I’m tempted to click on this thing—I’m sure this link will take me to a webpage where I’ll be asked for information that a thief could use—but I won’t because the webpage might also be armed with a virus or worm that could end up on my computer.

Finally, it says that going to that link and typing in—what? Name, address, social security number—is mandatory. If I don’t do it, they’ll suspend that fictional account of mine. Another classic scare tactic.

Sorry, Ms. Flinn. Ain’t gonna bite on your hook.

If you receive something like this, neither should you. (If it’s for a bank you actually use, call that bank first.)


P. S. I went to the real American State Bank website, and here’s the first thing you see. The red coloring is theirs.

EMAIL SCAM – URGENT

Some community residents have received an unauthorized email appearing to come from American State Bank. The message encourages readers to click on a link claiming to be secure and provide their bank-on-line password information. If you receive this email, please do not respond or click on the link. It is a fraudulent email and could allow for criminals to obtain your personal financial information. If you have already received this email and provided your personal information, please contact ASB Customer Service immediately at 1-800-531-1401. A representative will help you determine preventative steps such as closing your account, deactivating your debit/credit card and/or changing your Bank-on-line passwords.

Frugal and Flexible

One of my favorite mantras is “When in doubt, cheat.”

Not cheating in the sense of being dishonest or crooked. I’m talking about looking for other ways to do things when the usual, common, regular or “normal” methods don’t work.

Or, to put it in different words: “There’s always a way.”

If you need something and don’t have the necessary money, don’t give up. Look for another way to get what you want. See if you can find cheaper methods or materials to use. If you really look, it’s surprising how what seems unattainable is actually in reach.

Case in point? My new desk.

My office is in what was originally a 10 x 10 bedroom. I spend a lot of time there and was getting increasingly frustrated by what I had in the way of workspace, an old 3 ½’ x 5’ army surplus desk, a large desk, but still too small for my needs.

My printer was on a rickety little table off to one side and I had to slide between the desk and the wall to get at it. My binders sat stacked on another table in another corner, my file cabinet was off to one side and the desk itself was always covered with piles of paper and stacks of files. Since the desk’s height was made for pen-and-paper writing, it was too high to me to comfortably type on my laptop. To handle my monthly bills and check my bank statements, I had to go to a different desk in another room.

It. Drove. Me. Nuts.

I wanted one of those sleek, wrap-around corner desks. I actually wanted two, one in each corner, with a section in the middle to connect them, a lower section, for my laptop.

I checked a few office supply stores and some catalogs. Just one of those desks would cost at least $250. To get what I really wanted, I’d need two, and even then, they wouldn’t reach the full length of the room.

I can't afford $500. So...."find a way.” Was there a way to get at least get 80% of what I wanted at 50% of the cost?

Of course.

The first thing I noticed about those desks was the basic shape…a square with one corner cut away in a curve. I sat down with some graph paper and started calculating what I could fit in my 10 x 10 room. (Tip: You’ll save a lot of money if you graph first and cut wood later.) A 4’ x 4’ piece would fit in each corner, leaving me with space for a two-foot wide central connecting section for my laptop. I could make those two corner sections out of a 4’ x 8’ piece of wood, yes?

Yes! A call down to Lowes, followed by a trip, and I’d bought and had Lowes saw in half (for free) a 4’ x 8’ length of that handy material, medium density fiberboard, or MDF. Cost? $26.

But before I turned my living room into a workshop, I had to solve a much tricker question. What the heck was I going to do for legs? There'd be lot of stuff sitting on this desk. Laptop, printer, TV, VCR, binders, a bill-paying station….I needed sturdy legs. I also wanted legs that I could easily remove, so I could disassemble the desk to store or ship if I needed to.

You can buy wooden legs that attach to plates screwed to the underside of the table surface. I looked at ‘em and wasn’t impressed. They seemed flimsy, unreliable and were nearly $12 apiece.
I needed eight legs. I didn’t want to pay $96 for them.

Here’s where the flexibility comes in.

I started wandering the aisles at Lowes. Was there anything I could adapt to use for legs?

Thick-walled 1” PVC pipe? Difficult to solidly attach, too hard to disassemble later. 2” dowels? Same problem. Pieces of wood? Too clunky and too expensive.

I found myself in the plumbing aisle, and suddenly pulled up short in front of the rows of 10’ lengths of galvanized pipe. Now those looked strong!

120” each. I needed 28” legs. I could get four legs cut from each pipe, at a price of $45 for eight legs.

But how to fasten them to the tabletop?

$2.65 each for round, four-screw flanges. One to attach each “leg” to the MDF, one on the other end to serve as a foot. Very solid. And Lowe's would cut the pipes and thread the ends for me, free.

I now had all the pieces. I got to work. Saw, drill, attach the flanges to the MDF, screw screw the pipes into the flanges, then four coats of enamel paint on the top. Add a piece of scrap wood in the center, bolted beneath the other pieces to give me a lower area for my laptop, and I have a new desk.

With more than 10 extra square feet of surface area, with my laptop sitting two inches lower, a lot more open space in the center of the room, it’s much more efficient and comfortable. The only thing I would change would be to cut the curves a little shallower, for even more surface area.

Cost? Less than $160.

I like it better than the desks I saw at the stores. (None of them is my favorite shade of green.) It’s bigger than those desks. And it cost almost two-thirds less. Win-win-win.

When you want something--and can't really afford it--look around. See if you can adapt something to your needs.

Keep your eyes and your mind open. You’d be surprised at the money problems a little flexibility can solve.

Do you have any stories of ways you've handled a problem like this by "repurposing" something? Leave a comment and share your ingenuity with others!

Maybe You CAN Buy a New Car....Soon!

If you’ve been wishing you had enough down-payment cash to take advantage of the current dip in car prices, wait just a little longer. Your old fuel gulper may soon be your ticket to a great deal.

Congress has just passed a “cash for clunkers” bill that provides incentives for people to replace their gas guzzlers with higher mpg cars. Trade in a car getting 18 mpg or less and you can obtain a rebate voucher for $3500 that you can use to buy a car that gets at least 22 mpg. Find a car that gets at least 10mpg more than the one you have now and you can get a voucher for $4500.

Do you own a SUV, minivan or a pickup truck? Get a voucher for $3500 if you trade it in for something that gets at least 2 mpg more than what you’re driving now, or $4500 for one with a rating at least 5 mpg higher.

(There are a few more conditions involved. First, your gas guzzler must be over five years old, in working condition and registered for at least the past 120 days. So buying a wreck for a few bucks and having it towed to a car dealership ain't gonna work.)

Make a great deal on a new, high mpg car and that incentive could end up paying as much as one-third the cost. That could really shrink your monthly payments.

Now, if you want to pay a little more and effectively cut your gas costs in half, you might try one of these cars. Some of them boost ratings of 50 mpg or more.

Start by doing a little research now to determine what your needs are and what kind of car will meet them. But just make sure the President has signed this bill into law before you sign on the dotted line.

(Me? Though tempted, I’m not quite ready to trade in Quartermain. Yet.

Not...quite...yet.

Don't tell Quartermain I'm even thinking about it, or he'll wait until I'm on the most remote country road possible, in the middle of the night, when it's raining and I don't have my cell phone...and then he'll die on me. Just to teach me a lesson. Very touchy creatures, old cars.)

Big House, Small Comfort

If you’re visiting North Carolina, it’s almost obligatory to stop by Asheville, the trendy little city tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’m not a fan of “trendy” but I thought Asheville was certainly worth a look.

The setting is beautiful, but Asheville itself was a mild disappointment. Downtown seemed a little dim and run down to me. (I’m used to the clean, bright and tree-lined streets of downtown Fort Worth, which experienced a makeover back in the 80’s due to the leadership of the Bass family, bless their rich little hearts.)

Still, it seems a nice place, if you’re into Haight-Ashbury retro. I passed on the bars and art shops, but I did visit the locale’s main attraction, paying $50 for the privilege. (You read that right. Fifty. Bucks. Me!) If you’ve watched Lowe’s paint commercials on TV, you may have some idea of what I’m talking about—the “largest home in America"—the unique, magnificent and incredibly ostentatious Biltmore House.

The property consists of more than 8,000 acres (it boosts, among other things, its own herd of cows, its own herd of sheep and its own vineyards and winery) in an area where, even when it was first built, flat land was at a premium. You enter through a magnificent arched gate and drive perhaps a half-mile to the place where you buy your ticket, then approximately two miles more through the Biltmore Forest before you even reach the house.

That drive alone is almost worth the price of the ticket. Huge old trees, smooth-turfed glades, tiny streams, little stone bridges...it was magical. I kept expecting to see a unicorn drinking at one of the brooks, or see Frodo and Sam walking through one of the sun-dappled clearings. If you ever go, (and I suggest going in the spring) roll down your windows so you can listen to the birdsong. The only thing needed to make it pure bliss would have been making that drive in an elegant two-horse phaeton instead of a car. (You can take a carriage ride through the property, but I had neither the time nor the money to spare.)

At the end of the drive are parking lots surrounded by trees and flowers. Park, walk a hundred yards , pass through a high iron gate and there are the wide paved drives that lead to this immense house. For some reason, I’d imagined the front of Biltmore House surrounded by landscaping, but the huge stretch of emerald turf flanked by broad driveways is even more impressive. I couldn’t help but imagine a dozen carriages going down those drives when the house was first built, and a generation later, top-of-the-line Pontiacs and Packards making the same trip.

Biltmore House from the outside is a rather endearing mix of Victorian and Gothic, from the beautiful glass roof of the Conservatory to the gargoyles perched a various places on the roof, their heads cocked as though they are peering down at the tourists. The huge marble entry is flanked on the left by a magnificent marble staircase, four floors high, and on the right by the circular, sunken Conservatory, a sort of indoor garden filled with huge potted plants. From there you start the tour of the “public” rooms (much of the house is still being restored.) Everything is huge, magnificent and a bit overwhelming. I’m not going to describe every room in detail, but just to give you an idea of this house (which was built for a family of three—George Vanderbilt, his wife and their daughter Cornelia)—I’ll describe the dining room.

It’s like something out of a 18th century German prince’s castle. Nearly 40 feet high, the walls are hung with huge 15th century tapestries and boost an upper border consisting of nineteen stuffed stags heads, plus one rather lonely-looking moose. The marble fireplace, equally tall, has three openings, each large enough to roast a whole boar. High over the entry door are two life-size marble knights in full armor and the table itself is big enough to serve as a dance floor. Thirty people can sit at it without the slightest crowding, though cross table conversation might be difficult, since I estimated it to be at least ten feet wide.

The other rooms—the billiard room, the tapestry room, the generous bedrooms, (one each for both Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt, since it was considered a bit bourgeois for married folk of that class to actually sleep in the same bed) the dozen or so guest rooms, the basement’s indoor bowling alley and swimming pool, the huge kitchens and laundry rooms, the tiny servants’ rooms –were all part of the tour. You climb up and down a bewildering array of staircases and go through so many passages and halls that only by peering through the occasional outside window can you keep your bearings.

The mention of those windows brings me to the point of this post. I, and judging from their comments, a lot of the other visitors, noticed that many of the rooms were dark. I mean gloomy. Even with all the desk and table lamps and candelabras switched on, they were full of shadows, especially in the interior rooms of the house. “Not much natural light,” was the frequent comment.

And the beds, for all their velvet-hung magnificence, were small. Even the beds of Mr. Vanderbilt and his wife looked to be no larger than a full, while the single beds in some of the guests bedrooms were hardly wider than cots. I found myself wondering how comfortable the mattresses might be compared to modern versions. Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bedroom was a lovely combination of gilt and plum, but it was also a bit dim, with the same gorgeously-draped, but small bed. The basement swimming pool, which had no windows at all, had underwater lights, but even with those lit, it still felt like you were trapped in a cave.

No central heating either (although almost every room had a fireplace) or air conditioning. I found myself wondering how comfortable the house would be in a hot North Carolina summer or a chilly mountain night. In an era where most house maids slept two or three to a bed in an unheated attic, the servant’s rooms we saw were very small but pleasant, with narrow individual beds covered with white spreads and even a small table and chair each—but I couldn’t help notice that each also came with a chamber pot. (I was told by one of the docents that there was a bathroom at that level, but people preferred using chamber pots because it got so cold at night.)

So—cold in the winter, hot in the summer, small beds, rooms so dark you couldn’t see details of the magnificent tapestries on the walls….

My point?

Most of us, even those of modest means, live much more comfortable lives than the super rich of even 100 years ago, and infinitely better than kings and queens who lived 1000 years ago. No, we don’t wear (and sweat or shiver in) silks and velvets, but we can buy, for modest prices, light, comfortable, colorful clothes that are easy to wash, light, comfortable footwear and very light and comfortable outerwear to keep us warm. Our beds may not be draped in scarlet hangings, but ours are bigger, our mattresses less lumpy, our blankets both lighter and warmer, our sheets softer and smoother.

Most of us don’t huddle next to fireplaces trying to keep warm or sweat through the heat of a summer. We may not have original art by the finest painters of the day, but we can buy beautiful prints at low prices that, if we don’t pine over what we can’t have, give us just as much visual pleasure. We can pick up a phone and hear our loved ones voices almost instantly, and we travel, not in carriages, but in smoothly moving, air conditioned vehicles. We don’t have to go to a concert hall to listen to a symphony, we can carry our own orchestras in our pockets for $20. We don’t have to go to a theater to see drama, we just have to press a button on a remote.

In short, we should appreciate those material comforts we have and do a little less pining after those we don’t. I think it was Andrew Tobias who once pointed out that although Bill Gates can afford to pay 1000 times more than you or I for a mattress, it’s doubtful he’ll experience 1000 times the comfort. And is a $150 meal at a trendy restaurant really ten times better than a $15 meal at a great barbecue place? Does your happiness really depend on driving, a car with all the latest bells and whistles, or should you appreciate a car that’s simply reliable and comfortable?

And here’s the kicker. We should really compare ourselves with the people of the Biltmore House who weren’t rich: the servants, the grooms, the gardeners and the hundreds of workmen who built it. Compared to the life they led, most of us live in a paradise of comfort and convenience.

Learn to appreciate that. Learn to enjoy it. Count your comforts as well as your blessings. You’ll enjoy life much more if you do.

More Travel Tips

I just got back from my vacation in North Carolina and I have a few more tips on saving money when you fly or drive.

First, travel light. The airlines are now charging for every check-in bag when you fly Economy. In my case, the hit was $15 for one bag each way or an extra $30 total. (I did mention in my initial post that you should always allow for extra expenses, right?) Even though I only took one check-in bag , that was one bag too many. I took a complete change of clothing for all six days, which was overkill since I wasn’t heading for the Arctic Circle or the wilds of Borneo; even in North Carolina, they do have these places called LAUNDROMATS. Actually, four of the five Motel 6s I stayed in boosted coin-operated washers and dryers. I ended up relaxing with a book for 30 minutes while washing three days worth of dirty clothes; if I’d only bought that much to start with, I could have fitted it in a single carry-on and saved myself both money and effort. (Check online with any airline to find their dimensions for carry-on bags.)

Second, if it’s going to be a long flight, bring along a bag of nuts, an apple, a banana or some other snack. Paying $6 for a bag of airline almonds is not my idea of frugal, so I was happy I had a banana in my handbag when the hungries hit halfway through the two-hour flight.

Third, as I also mentioned in my previous post, allow for extra fees, taxes, etc. I’d booked a rental car for $181 for the week, but somehow a few previously unmentioned charges hiked that nearly $40.

Fourth –a word of warning—the rental car company may try to convince you that your best value on gas is their “prepaid” fill-up. The pitch to me was that if I paid $36 up front, they’d fill up my car when I got back, at a bargain rate of $1.70 a gallon, and I wouldn’t have to waste time tanking up. Since gas in NC at the time was running about $1.99, this sounded like a good deal, but here’s the catch….my car had an 18 gallon tank. (I asked.) My filling up an almost empty tank ( you have to top it off within ten miles of the dropoff point) would have cost only $33.84, even at $1.99, and if I’d still had a gallon or two in the tank, it would be even less than that. So prepaying $36 would have cost me extra.

Fifth, (shameless plug!) Golden Corral is my favorite fast-in, fast-out restaurant of all time. For the same $7.50 I paid for a sandwich and a pile of fries at Chili’s, I happily ate lunch at GC three of my six days, browsing through a dozen types of meat, a comprehensive fruit and salad bar and more types of chocolate deserts than is really good for me. (If you don’t want to pack on pounds eating at GC, don’t pile your plate high. Go for variety, not quantity.) Plus, you don't have to wait ten minutes for a waiter, ten minutes to get your food, or ten minutes to get your check. I found myself looking for GC signs every time I drove the highway. (By the way, a week’s worth of nothing but fast-food burgers and burritos will not make your innards happy, and few things are as miserable as getting sick when you’re traveling. So be sure to include fruits and vegetables in your travel diet, even if it means stopping at a grocery store to buy apples, bananas and snack-packs of raisins.) Also, unless you can handle huge portions, look for half-serving options whereever you eat. It will help save you money and keep you from coming home ten pounds heavier than when you left.

Sixth, remember to allow for tips. Yes, I was not eating or staying at expensive restaurants or hotels, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t tip. Someone has to serve the food and clean the room; so be classy as well as frugal and leave a tip.

Next....some thoughts on my visit to the largest private home in the country...the Biltmore House!

Save Money While Traveling By Using the Internet

I'm going on vacation for the first time in a long time in a few weeks, and being frugal, I wanted to get the very best value for my money.

So I got on the internet. Four hours later, I looked up and realized it was 1am. However, in those four hours, I'd managed to book a discount flight, reserve a car at half the rate I'd initially found and reserve rooms in five different motels. (I'm going to drive all over North Carolina.)

What I should have done first, though, was check the weather in Asheville, NC before starting any of this. I did that at 1am and found that there is still snow on the ground in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm not fond of snow. I want to see green when I go on my vacation, not white and certainly not the brown of early spring mud.

So the next day, I called the two people who'll be talking care of my critters, asked if they could take Emma and Jewel and Cloud and Twilight a week later (when, hopefully, Spring will honest-to-God have come to the North Carolina mountains) got an affirmative from both people, got back on the internet and an hour later, had rebooked everything and cancelled all my earlier reservations.

I'd also learned a lot about the process, which I'll share with you.

First, I suggest that you use a site like igougo.com (I-go-you-go, get it?) or bookingbuddy.com to check the main travel discounters such as Ortibitz, Travelocity, Kayak, Priceline, etc. At igougo.com, you can just type in what you want in the way of flights, hotels and car rentals, list which discounters you want to search, and with one click, igougo.com will open a pop-up window from each discounter, which is a lot easier than checking each individually. (The one problem I found is that if you change your parameters in any way, the site opens up more pop-up windows. You end up with a dozen or more on your desktop which can be hugely confusing. So I suggest you close each group of popups before you ask to see different flight dates, check in times, pickup times for car rentals, etc.)

When dealing with discounters, do check for any fees a site may charge. Orbitz, for example, charges a non-refundable fee of up to $11.99 for its service, and if you make changes or cancel, they may tack on another $30.

Which is why you may not want to actually book through the discounters, especially when it comes to flights. I found the best price on Orbitz, $259 for a round-trip to Columbia, SC (I'll explain why I decided to fly into SC in a minute) on American Airlines. Being incurably curious, I opened up a new window and checked directly with American. They would give me the same price and I could put a 24-hour "hold" on the reservation without actually booking, which I did. That came in handy when I decided to change my dates, since I could cancel without incurring the Orbitz fees.

When it comes to airlines, I also suggest that you look into getting e-tickets for your flights, if they're available. A check of American's fee schedule, for example, shows that if they have to issue a paper ticket, they'll charge an extra $50.

As to flying to SC instead of NC....you can save a lot if you're flexible. I checked car rental prices at the Charlotte, NC airport and at Raleigh-Durham and was horrified to find that the cheapest price was $381 a week for an "economy" car. Ouch!

Could I do better? It occurred to me to see if prices were less outside the airport and they were, by a good 30% at rental locations downtown, but a quick check of taxi prices in Charlotte indicated it would cost me nearly $50 to get from the airport to downtown and back. (If I'd been staying at a downtown hotel, I could have used a shuttle to get downtown for free.)

What about another airport? I went to Google Maps, looked for nearby airports and found that I could fly into Columbia, SC for even less than the best rate I'd found for Charlotte and I could rent a car for $181! I certainly didn't mind seeing a bit of SC on my vacation, especially if it saved me $200. If you have that kind of flexibility in your travel plans, use the "check nearby airports" option when you search the booking sites.

Lodging? All I want is someplace clean, safe and quiet. I've found that the primary difference between places like La Quinta, Holiday Inn and my choice, Motel6, is that at Motel6, you have to walk across the parking lot to eat (they build 'em next to places like Denney's) but you pay $30 to $40 a night less. I also needed a chain, since I'd be traveling all over the state, so I worked out a route, checked the very easy-to-use Motel6 website and took about 30 minutes to make my reservations. (And about 45 minutes to make new ones and cancel the old the next day.) One thing to take into account, whever you stay....the local sales taxes charged on rooms. In North Carolina, they seem to run between 10 and 13% a day and are not included in the quoted price.

If, unlike me, you're staying at the same place for your whole vacation, do check the discounters for package flight, car and hotel deals. I did see some good ones, but they were unworkable for my kind of trip.

Finally, double check all your dates and times. After I'd finished booking everything, I realized that I'd listed the pickup time on my car as 11:30 pm instead of 11:30 am. (My flight arrives in the morning.) When I went to the Alamo site to change it, I found that Alamo was now claiming that I'd have to pay $203 for my rental instead of $181.

Well, an extra $20 isn't that bad, but being the frugal fanatic that I am, I went back to where I'd found the original price, carrentals.com, entered the new time and--guess what?--on that site, my $181 rate was still available. I spent two minutes and saved $20. Deal!

Also, if you're planning to rent a car, check with your credit card issuer. Some cards will provide collision insurance when you pay for your rental using that card, a service that could save you $12 to $25 extra per day, the cost for an insurance waiver from the car rental company.

When you total up your basic estimates, add at least an additional 10 to 15%, since there will be extra fees, taxes and charges to pay along the line.

Finally, make sure you take all your paperwork with you, especially the codes that identify your reservations. Putting everything in an envelope that you can hand-carry could save a huge amount of time, money and hassle at check in counters.