"Mention "cancel" and the AOL rep on the other side of the phone suddenly develops a hearing loss."

"Now I feel dumb. I was just talking to my friend, who recently moved to New York in the same situation as I was: She'll be there for a few months and didn't want to open a bank account, but instead of just shrugging and saying "Damn that" she actually called her bank. She just asked them if they would waive the ATM fees while she was there. "No problem," they said, and she's going to save $100+ just for making a phone call."

"Go to a realtor and ask to see the house that has been on the market the longest. The seller either has a really bad house, is getting divorced, is dead, or is overpriced. Figure out if you want to live there, figure out how much it will take to make it livable, figure out what you can afford and then make a low ball offer. It works and you will make a lot of money when you sell it. Or you will live it in for 20 plus years and still make a lot of money."