Save Your Money - Challenge That Ticket!

Under a New York City program introduced in 2005, people who go to court to challenge most parking or traffic tickets are automatically offered a chance to settle the ticket by paying a reduced fine.

A fine for parking at an expired meter, for example, will be reduced from $65 to $43.

This initiative was introduced and implemented without much buzz (the city never issued a single press release about it,) and the fact that only 20% of New Yorkers chose to challenge their tickets suggests that most are unaware of the opportunity for reductions.

The best part is how fast the process can be: since the city is allowing judicial clerks to handle many of the cases, following a "fine reduction schedule" as opposed to their own discretion, it's not necessary to wait for a hearing with the judge.

The motivation behind the program was, of course, to save city government dollars; it has allowed the city to cut in half the number of parking judges it employs and to eliminate $2 million in administrative costs.

A Recession Invention

Now this guy is thinking like a recessionista.

In times like these, it is simply not wise to waste food. Especially not food as delicious and nutritious as peanut butter. Especially not if you buy it at Whole Foods and it costs $10 a jar. Enter Sherwood Forlee, a former Princeton University engineering student who decided to put an end to the age-old frustration caused by poor jar design. He invented 'The Easy PB&J Jar,' which he describes as, "a jar with two lids that allows you to access all of your peanut butter easily without having to resort to breaking open the jar." Whoa there, Sherwood. Well, whether you are the type to shatter your jars in order to access the last serving of your well-deserved peanut butter or jelly, or you just throw the jar away serving un-served, (with a wistful sigh) you are sure to appreciate his invention.

With Forlee's jar, as access to your jarred condiment of choice starts to become difficult, simply flip the jar over and have a fresh go at the peanut butter stuck at the bottom. It's like you just cracked open a brand new jar! Plus "the straight and smooth internal walls" ensure that no peanut butter is stuck behind in one of those nooks that exist in the standard jar model.

Hyndai's Recession Deal: Return Your Car For Free if You Lose Your Job in 2009

While other car companies fly their private jets to a Congressional hearing where they will plead for a $25 million bailout from Congress, Hyundai is actually offering to adapt to the realities of its consumer in these tough economic times.


Hyundai's new deal allows its customer to return their car at no cost (within the first 12 months of the lease) if he or she finds it impossible to continue making payments because of a lay-off or other "misfortune outside of their control."

Is this a relevant and revolutionary new practice for capitalist america? Or is it a little too reminiscent of the mortage deals that encouraged consumers to buy something they couldn't afford, and got us into this mess in the first place?

Eat for Cheap in the New Year

You don't have to join in the American obesity trend just because you can't afford to get all your produce at the Greenmarket anymore.

Here are some foods that are cheap AND healthy, adapted from the website Divine Caroline and also reproduced in my very favorite food blog, Not Eating Out in New York.

1. Oats: High in fiber and good for cholesterol. A dollar buys you a week’s worth of breakfast. Also great for adding to chocolate chip cookies or using to bake oat bars.
2. Eggs: A cheap source of protein, at about a dollar for a half-dozen. Also, yolks have lots of Vitamin D, which is important and hard to get enough of without taking supplements.
3. Kale: At about a dollar a bunch, this is one of the cheapest greens you’ll find in the supermarket.
4. Potatoes. Been there, done that.
5. Nuts, especially when bought in the shell.
6. Bananas: Shop around for deals; DivineCaroline found them for 19 cents apiece at Trader Joe’s!
7. Garbanzo Beans: Also known as chickpeas, garbanzos are cheapeast in dry form, but even precooked beans will still only cost about a dollar. With a food processor, they can become hummus in a flash.
8. Broccoli.
9. Watermelon: The whole melon costs more than a dollar, but the per-serving cost is only about 20 cents, the site says.
10. Wild Rice or Brown Rice.
11. Beets: Roasted in the oven or shred into salads, beets are packed with nutrients. For extra value, buy them with greens on for stir fry or to toss in a salad. Beets have been a popular topic on the NYTimes Well blog: check out Pass the Beets, Again for several recipes that take beets beyond the can.
12. Butternut Squash: In season, the butternut squash costs less than a dollar a pound. It’s hearty and pretty easy to bake or prepare as a soup.
13. Whole Grain Pasta
14. Sardines: A little fish so low on the food chain it doesn’t accumulate mercury and packs tons of nutrition. Mash them with parsley, lemon juice and olive oil for a spread or toss into salads or on pizza.
15. Spinach: Cheap year-round and very nutritious.
16. Tofu: It is one of those "elitist" foods that a political candidate could get in trouble for liking, but its not really that expensive. Add to smoothies for a protein boost.
17. Milk: Per serving, milk and many milk products like yogurt are still under a dollar. Watch for a homemeade ice cream recipe in an upcoming Recipes for the Recession!
18. Pumpkin Seeds: Not the most practical item on the list because most of us aren’t carving pumpkins every day and they are expensive to buy on their own. Still, they are great on salads and as a snack, so it’s always worth saving pumpkin seeds when you have a pumpkin.
19. Coffee: may protect against disease, which is the best addiction-justifying news i've heard all recession.

Selling Your Body: It's Not Just For Prostitutes Anymore

As unemployment rates continue to rise, thousands of people are left desperate for cash. Luckily, they are also left with a lot more free time. Some will spend this time obsessively monitoring craigslist or monster.com, and sending out a form letter to each new post that appears. Others have already given up on that well-worn path to a paycheck, and chosen to pursue alternative means of income until they land their dream job.

Once only popular among starving artists, musicians, and sometimes students, compensated participation in experimental drug trials is becoming an attractive opportunity to a wider (and growing) group of newly unemployed. Just yesterday WNYC's Brian Lehrer interviewed several listeners who were involved in such trials. The perks can include not only a fat check at the end of the experiment, but also free medical care for the span of the trial (a big plus for the uninsured.) The latest issue of Psychology Today also includes an article about the growing number of "normal, healthy research volunteers."

Hopefully, with this expansion of the demographic of pharmaceutical guinea pigs, the stigma of desperation around voluntering for this trials will erode. Perhaps eventually this will mitigate the drug companies' tradition of exploiting the truly desperate or defenseless, including children and undocumented immigrants.

Recipe for the Recession #1: Potato Casserole

Welcome to the first installment of Recipes for the Recession, where I will prove that cheap and delicious CAN coexist.

My first experiment? Potato casserole, appropriate to recession times not only for its affordability but also for its comfort quotient - an important factor when you're facing layoffs, deflation and the general economic demise of your nation.

There isn't much that's more budget-friendly than the potato. At a dollar a pound, we can all afford to indulge in the steamy, starchy spud.

And a casserole is its perfect recession-era vessel. Creamy, hot and simple, casserole is the ultimate comfort food. This explains why since the fifties it's been one of the most popular choices as a gift of condolence and congratulation - for example after a death or a birth.

But most importantly, they are cheap. Casseroles first became popular in the U.S. during the 1930s when cash was tight and plenty of foods were rationed, and they provided a way to stretch leftovers into another meal, adding a can of Campbells on the way. In the 1950s to the 1970s, their popularity evolved to be mostly based on convenience, as more women started to leave the kitchen for the workplace. Somewhere in there was a lot of aggressive promotion of canned foods and soups aimed to convince those mothers and wives that canned foods were wholesome and nutritious enough to replace more traditional and time-consuming protein sources like, say, meatloaf.


So, without further ado, my own potato casserole recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb boiling potatoes
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

Equipment:

• Casserole Dish
• Knife
• Potato peeler

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.
• Peel potatoes and thinly slice (about 1/16 inch thick), then toss with butter, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Spread evenly in a 2-quart shallow baking dish and add broth. Cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is well-browned and most of stock is absorbed, 30 to 35 minutes more.

Cost Calculation:

2 lbs potatoes: $1.38

1/2 cup chicken broth: $.25 (at $1 a can)

5 tablespoons butter: $.50

Total cost of the meal: $2.13 (!!!)

It's no "chicken in every pot," but Obama has so far avoided the type of grand promises made by Mr. Hoover in 1928. So until he does, let them eat potatoes.

*Although casserole is a french word, the dish as we know it is distinctly American. To the french, casserole simply refers to any deep cookware. However, in France the cooking utensil doesn't necessarily come to the dinner table along with its contents as it does in an americanized casserole. Also (as I found out post-bake,) the french usually cook their "casseroles" on the stove as opposed to in the oven, to save on fuel use. Something to consider for next time!