Watching the Grizzly football team's first round playoff win with Dad. Sitting in the company seats meant entertaining a few of his customers in between touchdowns but that's well worth it, and something else we're good at doing together. :)

Ramit’s been a tip-posting fiend lately and I’m almost 10 tips behind, so let be blow through a few of these, hitting the highlights:

Day 12: Save on eating out by buying ahead.
Using services like Restaurant.com you can buy dining gift cards at ridiculous discounts. I looked through it, and it’s mostly pretty fancy restaurants, the kind I never go to; the teriyaki place across the street from work wasn’t in there. ;) But I’ll file it away for a future life where I explore the city’s culinary treasures with abandon.

Day 13: Negotiate your car insurance.

I don’t negotiate my car insurance. I don’t even talk to them – that’s what I have an agent for. I call up Dave at DeFranco-Merrill every year or so, or when I buy something insurable, and we revisit my policy. He helps me understand what coverages I should and should not care about, he checks rates from his collection of underwriters, and emails me a fantastic quote. No quote I’ve ever compared myself, no matter what crazy discount it offered, has come close to the rates he gets me. And I spend less of my valuable time dealing with insurance companies.

Day 14: Self-persuasion.

The premise here is that, in explaining the benefits of something to someone else, you identify the benefits for yourself, and further convince yourself. So that’s why I’m blogging about it. Ta da! Check out my mad psychology skillz.

Day 15: Host parties at home instead of going to bars.
I like this idea, especially because I now have a place that is actually big enough to have people mingle around in. The problem right now is that it won’t really save me any money – it’ll cost me money. I don’t go to bars or clubs other than rarely, and if I do it’s because I’m on the DJ’s list and I’m buying one drink to listen to the music, so I’m not saving anything by partying at home. Maybe when i’ve saved a little more from some of the other things, I’ll feel like I can spend the money to host.

Day 16: Hold off on large purchases this month.

This is another psychology one. If you can live without it for this month, it becomes easier to live without it next month, and eventually you convince yourself you didn’t need it at all. I’ve been doing that with a backup hard drive I want for my photos, music, etc. – putting it off as the price keeps dropping and I keep going another day without it. But with the rate at which my stuff keeps breaking lately, I’m getting pretty nervous about this and will probably pull the trigger on that one after thanksgiving. In general, though, this is a great idea. Every time I think I need a new projector for the basement home theater, I vow to wait at least 3 more months… and it’s been 6 months already. I haven’t spent it, and I haven’t keeled over dead for lack of a 7-foot HD wall o’ television.

Day 17: Buy generics when it doesn’t matter, name-brand when it does.
Preaching to the choir here, Ramit, buddy. I used store-brand organic peanut butter to make my lunch this morning. But I never buy off-brand gin. Neither of those decisions has been regrettable.

Day 18: No Christmas gifts this year.
That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think? I mean, why are we saving money all year if it’s not to spend it on the people we care about? Within reason, or course. Regardless of how cruel it is, I’ve kind of fallen into this anyway, as my family had planned a Christmas in Vegas together, with show tickets and entertainment our gifts to each other. Then, to give ourselves extra time to save for it, we moved the trip to March 2009. And that is how I accidentally weaseled out of needing to buy any Christmas gifts. I’ll still do a few small things, but the shopping list is pretty short this year and that’s both a financial relief and a personal disappointment, as I love buying gifts for people, especially when I find something I think they’ll really enjoy. I did decide to compensate by going overboard on my Christmas-gift-tree-charity kids, which makes me feel better about ‘auditing’ my favorite holiday.

Day 19: Shop online.
Let me sum this one up for you as there’s good nuggets in here, but some of them are repeats. Don’t pay retail. You can still have nice stuff, as long as you don’t pay retail. Buy name brand stuff when it counts (that includes clothes) but don’t pay retail. Compare prices. You don’t have to live in walmart sweatpants just because you’re being thrifty, nor do you have to paw through bins of one-armed designer shirts at Ross. (Although, guys, Nordstrom Rack mens’ stuff is much less combed-through than womens’ and not at all a nightmare). Use the internet (it’s like magic!) and services like ShopItToMe (which I’ve already mentioned) to chase the sales, and consider “non-traditional” vendors for things – like Amazon for groceries. Use the internet to be an informed consumer, and prioritize your purchases.

Day 20: Change the date of Christmas.
In case you missed it above, my family is taking our Christmas vacation in March. If you’re someone who goes to Disneyland or flies across the country for the holidays, this might be just the ticket for you. (Haha – a travel pun!) The same trip can cost significantly less at another time of year. Use FareCompare’s “Best Time To Buy” feature to pick an off-peak period for your destination. For example, nonstop tickets to London are $1200 starting in May, but I can be there for less than $500 if I travel from December to March. Spiffy!

Alright then. I’m off to Amazon to find food for dinner!

Revived another dependable old friend tonight. The clamps have to stay on until tmrw to let the epoxy dry, but i'll have my laptop back! I'm really on a roll tonight – maybe next i'll hook up my old vcr. :)

New starter: $119

New battery: $86

Trip to exchange battery for one that was actually new: $5

Hearing that sweet engine note for the first time in weeks: Priceless.

You have until 6pm today to get your free 20oz Dr. Pepper in one of the weirdest promotions I can think of. Apparently the Doc himself is a huge fan of Guns N’ Roses (go fig). I’m not sure if it was meant to motivate the band to finally finish their latest album, get fans excited about the release early, or just milk that GNR fame to push a little sugarwater, but the Dr. Pepper folks promised a free 20oz bottle for everyone in America when the latest GNR album, “Chinese Democracy”, finally hit the shelves. Is that the most illogical-yet-fantastic product tie-in ever, or what?

That was back in March, and the album is burned, boxed and stamped, headed to record stores everywhere for a sunday release, so click here to get your prescription straight from the Doctor!

Thanks to Bargainist for the word.