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March, 2011

  1. T-Mobile: Why Don’t You Want My Money?

    March 31, 2011 by Jill

    With the exception of a brief, very unsuccessful, experiment with Straight Talk, I’ve been a loyal T Mobile customer for years now. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that it’s been all smooth sailing.

    It all started when my boyfriend and I decided to separate our family plan and get new, separate plans that would also give us new, fancy phones. This meant we had to cancel our old plan completely and get new individual plans. The company was able to transfer our old numbers onto our new phones, so everything was going smoothly, until our last family plan bill was due.

    Unfortunately, T Mobile’s online site uses your phone number as your user log in id, so as soon as the company canceled our old plan, we could no longer access our old bill online. To make matters worse, I was on their paperless billing system, so they didn’t send me a paper version of the bill either.

    I call them on the phone and ask if they can send me a copy of the bill, but they have their system set up in a way that prevents them from changing an account’s settings after the account is closed. Essentially, if you have paperless billing, you continue to have it, even after you can’t access your account. The customer service rep tells me she absolutely can’t send me a paper bill.

    Instead, she tells me to visit a T Mobile store in person and have an associate print it out for me. This is already getting to be a pain in the ass, but I just want to pay my last bill and get this over with, so I head to the store and the associate quickly prints out my bill. Only then do I realize that I canceled four days after the billing cycle ended and they haven’t added those four days of charges to the bill she just handed me. Instead, I have to drive to their store in order to get another printout, this time for my bill of four days worth of service. I ask the associate if she can arrange the final bill to be mailed to me or if she can just tell me what it will cost, but she says no on both accounts. Like the woman on the phone said, they can’t change account settings and mail bills after accounts are closed so if your a paperless customer, your bill ends up in paperless limbo.

    I just want to be able to pay off my bill, but don’t want to spend more money gas driving to their store to get the bill than the partial bill total. But that seems like it’s way too much to ask for here.

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    Category Bad Company Experiences, Reviews | Tags: ,,,,,,, | No Comments

  2. Pat & Oscar’s Carmel Mountain Ranch: Tasty, Tasty Value

    March 30, 2011 by Jill

    Reviewed by Jill Harness on March 29, 2011 . 

    Whether feeding a family or grabbing a quick lunch by yourself, Pat & Oscar’s is always a great value for the price, but the one in Carmel Mountain Ranch puts the other locations to shame. Their breadsticks taste fresher and are covered in even more buttery garlic than those at other places and their lemon chicken tastes even fresher and more flavorful.

    The prices (while the same at all locations) are unbeatable as well. For only $6.50 you can get a quarter of a chicken, fries, salad and breadsticks. I personally prefer the lemon chicken and Greek salad (with their delicious house dressing), but the barbecue chicken and Caesar salad are also tasty. For $3 more, you can also have meaty, juicy ribs with the meal. Or, step up to the family meals and enjoy half a chicken, a massive bowl of pasta, eight breadsticks and a large salad for only $19.

     

    Whatever you get, you’re certain to enjoy amazing food for an unbeatable price.
    I would certainly give Pat & Oscars a 5 out of five.

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    Category Guide To San Diego, Travel Guides | Tags: ,,,,, | No Comments

  3. Flour Power’s Beautiful Delights

    March 25, 2011 by Jill

    Reviewed by Jill Harness on March 25, 2011 . 

    Since moving to La Mesa I’ve been telling myself that I was going to visit the local bakery, Flour Power. A year later I finally made it and I have one regret…not coming sooner.

    The prices are fairly average for a bakery, averaging around $3 for a cupcake and $2.75 for a pastry, so they’re sure to not break the bank. While I found the red velvet to be a little flavorless, the strawberry cupcake was filled with bits of real strawberry and held a perfect balance of sweetness and natural fruit flavor. Both of the cupcakes looked absolutely gorgeous too, covered in two inch mounds of frosting with just a few edible decorations on top.

    The pastries were the highlight of the experience though. The bear claw was sweet, flakey and perfectly delicate as was the cheese danish. Both had just the right amount of sugar to make them delicious, but not enough to make them seem like more of a dessert than a breakfast.

    If you do make a trip to Flour Power, be sure to check out their cake showroom, filled with amazingly decorated cakes of all sizes.

    In the end, I would think Flour Power deserves a strong 4.5.

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    Category Guide To San Diego, Travel Guides | Tags: ,,, | No Comments

  4. Losing Weight? There’s An App For That

    March 20, 2011 by Jill

    Reviewed by Jill Harness on March 20, 2011.

    Everyone knows it’s hard to lose weight (if it weren’t, America wouldn’t have an obesity problem). The trick is to find what works for you. What works for me, and may benefit you as well, is the Calorie Counter app on my Windows phone. In fact, it’s working so well that I lost six pounds in my first week.

    The app was created by FatSecret and is available on all of the major smartphone operating systems, but if you don’t have a smartphone, you can always go ahead and use the FatSecret webpage instead.

    Essentially, all you have to do is track what you eat every day and how much you exercise. The system will be able to tell you how many calories, carbs, etc. you’re taking in and compare your calorie intake to the amount you should be consuming if you want to lose weight. If you slip up one day, it’s easy to stay motivated, because the diet calendar can still show you how many calories you have lost in an average day since you started using the program. There are a handful of foods and restaurants that aren’t on the list, but you can always look them up online and add them to the app where it will be available from there on out.

    And of course, the service is one of the Cheapskate’s favorite adjectives -free!

    I give the Calorie Counter app 4.5 out of 5.

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    Category Freebies, Reviews | Tags: ,,,,,,, | No Comments

  5. The New And Improved CH

    March 18, 2011 by Jill

    Hello readers new and old. I’m happy to announce the release of a new and much improved Cheapskates Handbook. Aside from a shiny new layout, we also will be improving the content and post regularity here. Expect lots of traditional delicious recipes, tons of links to fun food articles, regular wacky recipe ideas and more.

    You may also notice that the local restaurant reviews and other localized travel advice will no longer be appearing on the homepage. These articles will still appear in your feeds and can now be found under the travel guides category. I figured it was best not to muddy up the site with too many local articles that may not apply to some of our readers, but if you are still interested in reading these, there are still plenty of ways to find them.

    I hope you like the new site and, as always, if you have any questions, comments, complaints or article suggestions, please feel free to email me at admin@cheapskateshandbook.com.

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    Category Travel Guides | Tags: ,, | No Comments