Starbucks, Blockbuster and Friday Round Up June 25

By Kevin M

Random musings from this week…

Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks but you have to sign up 6700 Starbucks coffee shops are rolling out free Wi-Fi beginning July 1st. Don’t tell anybody, but you can sign up right now and get the free service immediately. I took advantage of the change late last week, and though the service is free, you do have to go through a fairly cumbersome sign up process. You have to purchase a Starbucks gift card (minimum $5) to get the card number and activation code, which become part of your permanent entry codes. A pamphlet is available to walk you through the process, which is establishing a Wi-Fi account through AT&T. One tail though—the free service is limited to two hours per session, after which charges will apply. Still, that’s a minor limitation in exchange for having access to free internet at thousands of outlets.

Healthy snacks. When we take our family to the movies, we stop at a store and buy any candy that we want, since the same stuff they sell for $3.50 to $6.00 at the movies can easily be had for about a dollar a box on the outside. Walgreens is offering a new and healthy twist: right there with the movie sized candy boxes are snack sized boxes of dried fruit.

Wow, snacks that look almost like junk food but are actually good for you. On my last trip in a got a box of raisins for a dollar—and somehow it just tastes better coming out of one of those candy sized boxes. Whoodda thought? I guess someone did—brilliant idea!

Is alternative energy impossible? In light of BP’s Gulf oil crisis…we often hear that alternative energy is impractical, unworkable, too costly, and too far into the future to help us now. Yet Denmark has been making quiet but steady progress in generating electricity from windmills, most of them privately owned. Despite being oil rich, Denmark now generates nearly 20% of its electric power from windmills. It’s something to think about as crude gushes into the Gulf of Mexico or the next time oil/gasoline prices spike to uncomfortable levels…

All good things come to an end, and so has Blockbusters No Late Fee policy This may not come as news to some people, but Blockbuster has quietly ended their much celebrated no-late fee policy. We don’t rent videos often, but did a week or so ago, and found that they’re back to their get-it-back-within-five-days-or-else policy. It was nice while it lasted, but we won’t be renting too many movies there from now on—once we’ve watched them a couple of times we kind of forget we have them…

Save your left over coffee! I left the following comment on a post at Provident Planning this week, but didn’t realize at the time that it might represent money saving advice:

“Any iced coffee drinkers out there? I save our left over coffee, refrigerate it, then mix with milk and an artificial sweetener and it’s superb! It’s also been recently reported to be an effective appetite suppressant–that never hurts.”

A heartfelt thanks to Len Penzo for inviting me to post on his site this week while he’s away on vacation (Behind the Green Curtain: An Insider’s View of the Millionaire Mind, Monday, June 21). Len is one of THE most creative writers in the blogosphere, and it was a real kick not only to do the post, but also to participate in the rich commentary that follows on his site.

The round-up…

Brad at Enemy of Debt created quite a stir this week with his on-the-edge post The Cold Hard Truth: Debt is STUPID and You Might Be Too!!