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Discount Gift Cards: How Much Can You Save?

Do you know where you shop regularly?

Would you be happy if the things you bought there were suddenly, magically discounted?

It could happen.

I don’t think the game store down the road is suddenly going to institute a “Jason Rocks” discount program, but some of the bigger chains I visit have an unofficial option that can save you money, and it’s not a five-finger discount.

You can buy discounted gift cards. You can find a gift card exchange being run on a number of websites. How does it work?

There are two kinds of card exchange.

The first simply connects buyers and sellers. If you want to buy a gift card, you browse the list of available cards until you find something you like. You place your order with the exchange, who then take a fee and pass the rest of the payment to the seller, who’s got the job of sending it to you. When you get the card, you get to find out if the balance still exists or if it’s going to expire in the morning. Most people don’t sell a lot of gift cards, so their reputation isn’t really at stake. Avoid these, unless you like gambling.

The second kind of exchange actually buys the cards from the sellers and verifies the balance and expiration date before posting them for sale. When you go shopping, you’re dealing with a company that is putting its reputation–both with its customers and its bank–on the line. If there’s a problem, you’ve got someone to contact who probably isn’t going to vanish.

You visit the site, find a business you want to visit, and buy a card at a discount. The discount ranges from around 3% up to around 30%, with most discounts hovering around 10%. That means–depending on the store–you can get a $100 gift card for $90. Not a bad deal, especially if it for a store you’d be visiting anyway.

Have you ever bought a second-hand gift card? How did it work for you?

Cut Your Business Costs with Eco-Friendly Energy

Business

This is a guest post.

Improving your carbon footprint can fall low on the list of professional priorities for many business owners. Yet, as we all become increasingly aware of the implications of ecological practices, opting to go green is an appropriate business decision.

As suppliers and business to business contractors tailor their products in favour of conservational customs, it is likely that adopting eco-friendly operations within your company will benefit both your books as well as the environment.

By making small, uncomplicated steps, government research proposes that, together, UK businesses could save in the region of £23 billion per annum. This proposed figure suggests that snubbing sustainable efforts is at an economic cost to owners individually, in addition to any ecological expense.

As the importance of your carbon footprint is established, deciding which areas within your company can be conveniently ecologically enhanced is a simple way to get started.

Speak With Your Energy Provider

Many energy providers now offer guidance to their customers surrounding any eco-friendly improvements that could be made.

Business electricity from British Gas comes complete with free energy efficiency advice to help ‘cut down your energy consumption and reduce your electricity bill’. The advantages of this initial consultation are augmented by the ongoing provisions incorporated in all business electricity from British Gas packages.

Select a supplier who is willing to help you and your business reduce the impact of your Climate Change Levy (CCL) and is eager to invest in renewable energy resources.

Say ‘Goodbye’ to Guesstimates

According to research completed by British Gas in 2011 ‘companies typically spend as much as 46 per cent of their energy usage outside of business hours’.

Although it is relatively easy to predict the periods when your business’ energy usage is at its greatest, monitoring your actual consumption may highlight any unexpected wastage.

A facility such as Business Energy Insight™ – available with business electricity from British Gas – does exactly what it says on the tin, giving consumers an awareness of their confirmed energy consumption.

Combined with accurate meter readings from Smart Metering or similar, energy insights eliminate any estimation and uncertainty. Through this perceptiveness, business consumers are able to monitor, measure and model their energy utilisation, saving money and resources.

Don’t Go It Alone

Being unsure of how to go green is one of the reasons many businesses choose to linger with standard systems. As well as expert assistance from energy advisory services, schemes are in place which can structure your steps into the world of energy efficiency.

The IEMA Acorn Scheme presents a progressive profile of six stages for business owners to accomplish. These stages ensure that legal requirements are covered and can be completed over a phased period to fit with other business demands.

On completion of the scheme, an IEMA Acorn Certificate is attained to confirm your businesses compliance with British Standard (BS) 8555. Your details are also entered onto the IEMA Acorn Register.

Organically Positive PR

Every organisation needs their Unique Selling Points. Though your services, products or facilities may speak for themselves, going green is the current way to enrich your business.

Clients and customers want to buy from those they trust and often those who follow an ethical ethos. Choosing to ‘go green’ and consistently demonstrating and delivering ecological practises will verify the concerned culture of your company.

While investing your time into employing eco-friendly systems may not reap instant rewards, the positive connotations surrounding conservation will always ensure that you are ahead of the game when in competition with a company that doesn’t deliver on these principles.

Whether you choose to be officially certified via IEMA Acorn or you simply state your environmental policies on your website and company literature, being ecologically aware can cause an upturn in capital as well as cutting resource costs.

Taking Things Further

When you are hoping to tackle more than the basics and want to do more to aid our environment, there is a myriad of informational services willing to help.

Making this move doesn’t have to cost the earth, business grants are available to help you render these affirmative changes. Check online at www.grantsgreenmachine.com for any that may be applicable for your industry.

Locally, councils may be able to offer either erudition or funds specifically appropriate to your project within your region.

Conservation doesn’t have to be costly; check your books and you may find that going green could profit both your environment and your enterprise.

Counting Cards: How to Cheat At Blackjack

Finance

I don’t gamble much. I’ve got this boring kind of luck that let’s me gamble for a really long time on not much money, without ever winning big.

For example, when my wife was very pregnant with our first monster, we took a trip to visit my parents. It’s a 2 hour drive, and she needed a break halfway there. In the truck stop, we bought $5 worth of scratch-offs to pass some time. We turned in the winning tickets for more scratch-offs. And again. And again. Two hours later, we were out of winners, but had never accumulated more than $10.

Another time, we went to the casino to play slots. It took nearly 8 hours to spend $20. That sounds boring, but we had good conversation while we were playing.

I’ve never had a big win or a big loss from gambling, so I’ve always been kind of bored with the idea.

Now, cheating at blackjack, that’s a different matter. Pulling one over on the casino without getting caught…they make movies about that kind of stuff.

To be clear: counting cards in your head isn’t cheating. Legally, the worst that can happen is you can be asked to leave. To get a Hollywood-I-cheated-the-casino-and-got-caught-and-beat-by-the-mob kind of beating, you need to win a lot.

A lot.

To get started, there are a few things you need to know. One of those things is how to play blackjack, but I’m not going to get into the basics. If you don’t know how to hit, stand, or count to 21 without taking your clothes off, this guide may be too advanced for you. Come back later.

Super Basic Strategy

You don’t need to count cards to use this strategy. You will do better than most players if you follow along.

1. The dealer must hit, or take another card, if he has 16 points. If he has 17, he stands.

2. The hole card–the card you can’t see–is always worth 10. Of course, it’s not, but for the purposes of your strategy, assume it is.

That means, when the dealer is showing a 2, you’ll assume he’s got 12 points and will hit. If he’s showing a 7, you’ll assume he’s going to stand. If he’s showing an 8, your goal is to beat 18, not push for 21.

That’s it. If you do that, you’ll come within a couple of points of even odds against the house. Google “blackjack basic strategy” if you want to improve this.

Even odds isn’t good enough.

Card Counting

Counting cards sounds tough. Rain Man tough.

It’s not, but you’ll want to practice at home a bit before you try it in the really real world.

The rules are simple:

1. Cards 2-6 are worth 1 point.

2. The 10, jack, queen, king, and ace are worth -1.

3. For every card that is played, keep track of that score. This is a running score across multiple hands until the deck is replaced or shuffled, so don’t stop at a new deal.

4. Divide the running score by the number of decks remaining in the shoe. If there are approximated 150 cards in the dealer-thingy, that’s 3 decks, so divide by 3. If your running score is 18, that means the number your playing against is 6. If the casino is using a continuous-shuffling thingy, forget counting the cards.

That’s it. You’re never adding or subtracting more than a one, and you’re doing that against a number that tends to stay pretty low.

How do you use that, you ask? Easy.

When the score is up, bet higher. If it’s low or negative, bet lower. The higher the number, the higher your bets. If you’ve got a 5, a 6, or more, bet as much as you are comfortable with. If your playing score is low or negative, bet close to the table minimum.

Why does this work?

A higher score indicates that the main assumption of the super basic strategy is more likely to be true. When you’ve got a score of 10, you know a lot of lower-value cards have already hit the table, so it’s safer to assume that the dealer’s card is worth 10.

You don’t change anything about the way you play each hand, you just change the way you bet each hand. Counting cards doesn’t tell you specifically what’s going to happen during each hand, it just tackles the statistics of the game. It moves the odds in your favor, by up to 2 or 3 percent. Over one hand, this won’t help, so don’t sweat losing a hand here and there. Over an entire shoe of hands, you should be able to steadily win more than you lose.

And, as Brian Brushwood says, in the course of your life, very few things make a cooler story than getting kicked out of a casino for counting cards.

Do you play in casinos? Ever tried to cheat?

Sammy’s Story, Part 2

Business, Life

For those of you not following along, please read the previous installment of Sammy’s Story. The short version is that we’re thinking about helping someone launch a small business and put “at risk” teenagers and young adults to work.

Sammy called me a couple of days ago. He wanted to discuss working for some of the tools and toys he saw at my mother-in-law’s house and he said he had something to show us. When I picked him up, he had a leather portfolio-style notebook and looked excited.

When we got to the house, he opened up his notebook and handed me two pieces of paper. He said that the idea of being able to launch his business had him so excited that he couldn’t not do anything. He had handed me a landscaping plan and materials list for fixing my mother-in-law’s yard.

We talked about the landscape plan, the business plan, and my wife’s old skateboard, then he had to go. Last night was one of the nights he met “his” kids at a community center.

On the way to the community center, we stopped by his apartment, because he wanted to show me pictures of his kids, and his grandkids, and his foster mother. He told me about his mother dying when he was 13 and his father dropping him with an aunt before disappearing. He was nearly in tears when he asked how some strange white guy could see more in him than his own family did.

He told me about how the money he made working with me had put food on the table of the 14 year old he brought with–a 14 year old who is eager to work more. It paid the weekly rent for one of the other workers and contributed to the rehab of Sammy’s ex. The little bit we’ve done has already touched the lives of dozens of people.

We talked about the way he hates rap. Not because of it’s musical value, but because it’s building a culture that considers women to be nothing but “bitches and hoes” while convincing kids that the only way they can improve their situation is to land a recording contract. Those are the kids he wants to teach to take care of themselves and build their own lives.

Finally, he asked me for my honest opinion about his landscaping plan.

I said, “Sammy, that clinched the deal. I was leaning towards helping you, but now it’s definite. I know you’re serious, so we’re going to make this happen.”

He’s got no idea how to handle taxes, payroll, or insurance, and he has no tools, but we’re going to jump in with both feet.

Mortgage Race

Finance

I spent last week at the Financial Blogger Conference. Saturday night was the big debauch, a 90s themed hip-hop dance party.

Yeah.

Instead, Crystal, Suba, and I hosted a super-secret pizza party to let some of the less “dance party” inclined attendees discuss things like the sanitary concerns of group body shots, sex toys, and horror movies.

During the course of the party, Crystal and I decided to race to pay off our mortgages.

Her balance is just under $25,000.

My balance is $26,266.40.

We both technically have the cash to pay off the balances right now, but we are both dealing with secondary housing issues. She’s building a new one, and I’m updating an inherited house. Neither of us is willing to use our cash reserves to pay off the balance right this moment.

Now that my credit card is paid off, I’ve moved that money to an extra interest-only payment on my mortgage, effectively doubling my mortgage payment, which puts my projected payoff date as about the end of next year. Crystal’s aiming for June, so I’ll have to hurry.

We do have tenants lined up for February, and all of the non-expense related rent will go to the mortgage.

I think I can win.

Update:

I forgot to mention the terms of the bet. The loser has to go visit the winner. When I win, Crystal’s going to fly to Minnesota to experience snow.

Comfort Zone

Life

Even though some people disagree, I am an introvert.

Crowds, strangers, and activities I don’t understand are all things that make me uncomfortable.

A couple of weeks ago, my business partner forwarded an invitation to me. One of our clients invited us to his annual “Giant-Ass Poker Tournament.”

I haven’t played more than a hand or two of poker in more than 20 years. If you do the math, that’s junior high school or earlier. I’ve never played Texas Hold ‘Em at all. Thirty to forty people were expected to be there.

Crowds? Check.

Strangers? Check.

An activity I don’t understand? Check.

I was planning to blow it off. My partner could handle the social niceties, I could stay home and watch Dexter. Win/win.

Saturday, I got a text telling me that our client wants to talk business at the tournament.

Cue four letter words.

I tried to get out of it. I tried to play sick. My partner–also my best friend and designated extrovert–wouldn’t hear of it.

So I walk into this tournament full of people I don’t know. I was late. I thought that would make a good compromise. I’ll deal with the crowd, and ignore the activity I don’t understand.

First words out of the client’s mouth? “Jason! Great to see you, we just started, so let’s buy you in!”

Crap.

I sat out the first game, and talked the business that needed to be talked. Mission accomplished.

Half an hour into it, my friend sends me a text telling me to do a quick wiki search.

Teach myself to play poker using wikipedia while watching a $50 buy-in game played by experienced players? That’s effen nuts.

I knew the hands, I was already familiar with the bet/call/raise process in general. I was really just missing a few details and the mechanics of Hold ‘Em.

What the hell, it’s only $50.

I went out to the living room/bar area and pulled up wikipedia. After reading everything I could, plus a few terms that had never previously registered (A check isn’t what happens when you bet more than you have. Who knew?), I went back to the game and watched with a bit of understanding about what I was seeing.

When the second game started, I bought in and played until almost 2AM. I had a great time and went home $150 richer than I arrived.

Leaving your comfort zone is, by definition, uncomfortable. Sometimes, it’s downright painful. Without it, you can’t grow as a person. Find yourself someone who is willing to obnoxiously drag you into situations that push your limits. It really can be fun.

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Super Basic Strategy

Card Counting

Why does this work?