Smallist

Earlier this year, The US Defense department issued a warning that Canadian coins might have miniature spy devices on them. It turned out to be spectacularly untrue. The Poppy coins were designed as a remembrance of Canadian war dead, and is the world’s first colored circulation coin. It has a protective coating on the red color to keep it from rubbing off.

But this didn’t stop American military contractors from putting it under the microscope:

“It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source,” wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. “Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Via Metafilter.

On the heels of quitting shopping altogether, here’s a few ways to save some money if you get hornswaggled into showing up at the S-mart. And in Smallist fashion, here’s my abridged list:

• The more important the item, the farther away from the entrance.
• Roomy, plentiful, enticing shopping carts.
• Impulse items near checkouts. (Gum wouldn’t exist without this rule. Think about it, it’s a piece of sweetened rubber.)
• Tags that look like they say “on sale” but really say something like “everyday low price” or “not not not on sale!”

Bankrate, of all places, has this article on a group of granola-types in California who found a great way to save: They stopped buying stuff! Not everything of course, but anything beyond the basics. From the article:

The thrifty bunch called themselves “The Compact,” a group of friends in the San Francisco area who agreed not to buy anything new for one year except for food, medical necessities and toiletry items. Buying secondhand was OK since battling consumerism was the point, not saving money.

But they did save money. “I actually had a lot of credit card debt and paid off quite a bit of that,” Rosenmoss says.

A few helpful tips from the article include:

• Don’t deprive yourself, just figure out ways to get what you want without buying something new.
• Do a trial run, a few weeks or so. It’ll teach you how much you can potentially save, then you can come up with a longer term plan that you can live with. In other words, think of it like kick-starting a diet with a one-day fast.
• Listen to the Stones: Wants and needs are different things. Figure that out.

Some of the couples saved a few hundred dollars per month. One couple with a combined income of 65,000 a year eliminated 30,000 of credit card debt in 15 months.

Via consumerist.

Via Consumerist, the perfect way to reduce your expenses. Imagine your money is an adorable kitten, to be protected at all costs. Honestly, there’s not much more to it than that, but visit www.wisebread.com anyway; if they’re this neurotic, clearly they’re not going to blow their advertising revenue on shoes.