Friday, June 26, 2009

Haymarket in flight, Afternoon delight...

This message brought to you by the Starland Vocal Band...

It's Friday morning. For the hardworking vendors at Haymarket, it's time set up the tents and card tables, make a fancy pyramid out of the tomatoes, and try out your most colorful insults for those who touch said tomatoes without permission.

If you've never been before, Haymarket is a string of stalls and booths stretching along Blackstone Street near Quincy Market on Fridays and Saturdays. Vendors come with a huge range of fruits and vegetables, everything from white asparagus to napa cabbage to papaya, all at unbelievable prices. Last weekend, for example, I bought boxes of rasberries for $1 each, 13 limes for $1, and 6 green peppers for $1. I didn't even need 6 green peppers. I just couldn't resist.

There's also a variety of other vendors with more permanent stalls, including butchers, fishmongers (yes, that's the word), and exotic grocers. Look for olives, nuts, fresh herbs, wonderful spices, and always, always, pita and bagels. My personal favorite is the cheese guy who is generous with samples if you smile nicely and show a sincere interest in his product. Thankfully, I am seriously interested in cheese.

You need to be aware that this is not an upscale, organic farmers' market. It's crowded and insane. The sellers here buy up a bunch of cheap, grocery-store quality produce which is just reaching peak ripeness when it gets to you, and some deals really are to good to be true. For that reason, be careful what you buy. Here are a few tips to get you through unscathed:
  • It helps to arrive early, if you can manage it. The crowds will be more tolerable at 8am.
  • If you can't arrive early, come late Saturday when the vendors are desparate to unload stuff. Try out your haggling skills and see if you can get that $6 watermelon for $2.
  • When buying lettuce, spinach, and any other greens, plan to use them the day of.
  • Potatoes, carrots, apples, and citrus are usually safe bets to last for awhile.
  • Everything else, like cucumbers, berries, tomatoes, mushrooms... expect a slightly shorter shelf life than what you would buy at your regular grocery store.
  • Bring canvas bags a backpack to carry your goods. Vendors will give you plastic bags, but this can make a tree-hugger feel dirty and those are hard to manage on the T.
  • Don't touch anything unless the vendors give you permission. They will yell at you. Push up front, say, "I would like 2 lbs of plum tomatoes", and let them grab the goods for you. Sometimes the stuff up front is a carefully constructed display. But especially when shopping for tomatoes, check out what they give you, and make sure you weren't handed sub-par produce.
  • Make a list of stuff you need ahead of time. Take a cursory sweep along the stalls before your first purchase to compare prices and general quality, and make sure you're getting a good deal. No one vendor will have everything you want at the best price. Usually the stalls towards either end are more expensive, and the stalls towards the center are more reasonable.
  • Mind the seasons. Sometimes, they can't give the strawberries away fast enough. Sometimes there are none at all.
  • I've never bought fish from the portable stalls. It looks like they keep it on ice, but you know, fish...
Be forwarned: Haymarket can smell putrid by the end of a hot August day.

Haymarket, Blackstone Street near Quincy Market on Fridays and Saturdays from about 7am to dusk.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Travel Zoo Top 20

I have a travel addiction. There, I said it.

Perhaps one day they will develop a 12-step program for people like me, but until then, there are credit cards and Travel Zoo.

It's actually almost too dangerous to get the Travel Zoo Top 20 email every week, where Travel Zoo seeks out the twenty best travel deals out there in cyberland, compiles them, and sends them neatly to my inbox. These are solid bargains too, which might be hotels, flights, tours, or air/hotel packages. If you are interested you can even watch a video about their rigorous selection process. (Yes, I watched it).

I once got round trip, airfare to Belize City for $133 from NYC, including taxes and fees. And for the last few weeks they have been advertising flight & hotel packages to Dublin for New Years for under $500.

You can sign up to receive their weekly email on their home page, or just check into the site regularly and see what they've turned up.

Happy travels! I'm just about to head to London thanks to a ticket deal I found in the Top 20 email.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

If you're like most people, at some point in your life you've had a miserable customer service job. You know, the kind of thankless retail, telephone sales, or hospitality gig which basically guarantees that someone is going to yell at you about scrapbooking paper costing $0.08 instead of $0.06, as was advertised in the weekly flyer (AC Moore, personal experience). Or the fact that there is no black tea at breakfast for the second morning in a row (Elderhostel trip leader, personal experience). Or any number of silly things.

Well guess what. You can do it too!

This is not to suggest that you should be a totally unreasonable b*tch. I hope you've learned some humility over the years in those crappy customer service jobs. This is simply to say, stick up for yourself. And if you feel like you've been legitimitely wronged over $0.02 of scrapbooking paper or something much bigger, let the company know. Any decent business will want to make their customer happy. A happy customer is a repeat customer. And an unhappy customer is often a very mean blogger.

Let me give you an example. I recently booked a flight through vayama.com under the impression that I was going to get $25 off the total upon check-out, thanks to a Memorial Day sale on international flights. When I looked at my credit card statement, it hadn't happened. I went through two telephone customer service reps who both gave me different answers (15 minutes on hold in one case), two emails to customer service where the respondant obviously hadn't read my original email and blew me off, and finally one triumphant email to feedback@vayama.com. And thank you to Jessica S! Success! I will be getting that $25 credited to my visa in 7 - 10 business days. No, it's not a lot of money, but it is the principal of the thing.

Whether your entree showed up cold at a restaurant or your credit card was charged the wrong amount, don't take it sitting down. Here are some tips to get the refund, or at least the apology, you deserve.
  • Don't give up. If you don't like the answer you get from one person, call back and try someone else or ask for a manager. Try to find a person's direct e-mail addresses rather than info@company.com or customerservice@company.com
  • Get people's names. It makes them accountable for what they tell you (I confess, in previous jobs I've lied to people on the phone to appease them). It also helps if you have to bring your problem to a manager.
  • Leverage whatever you can. I was complaining to a travel company, so I used my work email address and mentioned that I could potentially send many future guests through vayama.com if they made me happy. It worked.
And after all that, even though dealing with their customer service was a pain, I want to give a shout out to Vayama anyway. This site may actually be better than kayak.com for finding international flights. They are hooked up to the same databases that travel agents use, which means that they can find you a flight on KLM one way, and on Kenya Airways on the return, all for a very reasonable round-trip price. Someday I'll do a full comparison of Vayama, Kayak, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, and their various pros/cons. But not today. I'm going to AFRICA on a ticket I bought through Vayama and I need to pack!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Pour House - Half Price Nights

I can't believe that in the two years that I have known my friend Bryan, an Illinois transplant, I have only today brought him to the Pour House to experience a half price night. He was amazed when he looked at the menu.

"Burgers and fries for $5? Awesome!"
"No, grasshopper," I replied. "Burgers and fries for $2.50."
"No!"
"Yes!"
"This is AWESOME."

You too can have this revelatory experience at the Pour House on Boylston St. (Another clever play on words: Like Poor House, but they spelled it Pour because they serve beer. As in they pour it from a tap. What we cheapies lack in wealth, we make up for in puns.)

So it's not the best food in town by a mile, but it's certainly not the worst. You can check out their solid pub menu here. And you simply can't beat their half price nights if you're in the neighborhood.

Wednesday: Half-price chicken sandwiches
Thursday: Half-price Mexican!
Saturday: Half-price burgers (You can substitute a veggie burger for $1)

*Just a note. In case you've never worked in food service, it's polite to tip your server based on the FULL price of the items you order. Even for the frugal amongst us, a $0.50 tip on a $2.50 check is just tacky.

The Pour House, 907 Boylston St. , 617-236-1767
. Take the Green Line to Hynes.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Brookline's Rose Garden Serenade on Jun 14th

I didn't even know that Brookline had a rose garden (what else have these crafty doctors/lawyers hiding been hiding from me?), but apparently they do and it's large enough for the entire Brookline Community Chorus to perform in. I am not sure what the musical program is but it will most likely be classical. Complimentary refreshments will be served. The sights and scents of blooming roses will abound. It all sounds so incredibly civilized, and like I should be wearing a very big hat.

Be forwarned: I have learned from previous ventures into the Brookline free classical concert scene that you may or may not be the youngest whippersnapper there.

June 14th, 2009 (rain date June 28) 1 pm - 2:30 pm, The corner of Browne & St. Paul Streets

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Jazz Lunch at Prudential

A perfect way to impress your crush in the next cubicle with your culture and general sophistication. (I struggle to make these off-the-cuff office references--I work from home. Sometimes I go to the Coolidge Fedex/Kinkos and purposely jam the copier just to have some human interaction.) The Prudential Center is offering free live jazz in the South Garden from 12pm - 1pm on Wednesdays in June and July.

You can see the full schedule of jazz concerts here. Mark your calendar: On July 29th the Beantown Swing Orchestra will play with Jon Stevens of American Idol fame (OMG! OMG!).

Today (in 1 hour and 33 minutes) you can see/hear the Dave Neves Quartet. Naturally, the Pru would like you to hit the shops and purchase some of their food court's culinary delights in return for the free music, but this cheapskate recommends that you brown-bag it. OR you could bring several disguises and cruise by the Panda Express teriyaki chicken sample girl as many times as you can get away with.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Get your Groupon!

A clever idea started by those sensible midwesterners (and they say Yankees are frugal). Groupon delivers one massive coupon to your email inbox each morning. If enough people sign up to buy it that day, then everyone gets it. The idea started in Chicago, and has now spread to Boston, New York, DC, San Francisco, LA, and Atlanta.

The deals are decidedly hit or miss (today's offer -- 50% off a segway tour of Boston? Dubious... ), but they keep it local and occasionally they'll send you some gems. My favorites so far include $20 for 24 classes at Healthworks (an even better value once I realized that no one cared if I took two classes in a row or used the equipment), and $35 for the sign up fee, the annual fee, and $50 of driving credit with Zipcar (expect a future post on the cost-saving glories of being carless).

So sign up, and let the savings roll in (on a segway, or otherwise).

P.S. My brother knows the guy who invented segway.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Scooper Bowl! June 9 - 11, 2009

Alright, so it doesn't touch Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day for general frugality, but at $8 the Jimmy Fund's annual Scooper Bowl is still a pretty good value. It also has a clever name which incorporates at least two puns. But despite linguistic similarities to a certain annual NFL event, there will be no showdown between the vendors. Just a harmonious celebration of sweet, sweet all-you-can eat ice-cream.

Baskin' Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, Bryer's, Brigham's, Edy's, Gifford's, Häagen-Dazs, Hood, and Spasso have all sponsored the event and will be supplying the goods. Take a gander at the available flavors here. There is musical entertainment planned, though I can't vouch for its quality.

You can also get a $15 Scooper Pass which lets you attend up to three times! That's kind of gross, but kind of wonderful. Event proceeds benefit the Jimmy Fund, which supports cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

June 9 - 11, 2009, 12pm - 8pm each day in City Hall Plaza, Boston

Contact: Sarah Neukom
Phone: (617) 632-5008
Or toll-free: (800) 52-JIMMY
E-mail: sarah_neukom@dfci.harvard.edu

Something I wish I'd Done Today: Harpoon Brewery 5-Miler Race Volunteers

Running always seems like such a good idea, until I actually start moving and struggle to breath after a block or two. I am definitely better suited to this sort of opportunity: Volunteer at the Harpoon 5-Miler to Help Fight ALS.

As part of their June Harpoon Summer Session activities, Harpoon Brewery was seeking volunteers to register runners, pass out water, and other easy tasks this Saturday morning. In return, volunteers received a haute couture Harpoon Helps t-shirt, an invitation to the post-race party (free beer & food!), and a warm-fuzzy feeling-- The run raised money for Lou Gehrig's disease research.

So I missed this event, but Harpoon Helps regularly offers similar opportunities for the 21+ crowd. On June 14th, from 11am - 1pm, you can volunteer to help clean up Salisbury Beach. Salisbury Beach is near the NH border, so you'll probably need a car or a friend with a car. You'll help clean up the beach and get the area ready for the throngs of summer visitors. When you're done Harpoon and SurfSide5 will treat you to a BBQ beach party with free food and, yes, beer.

**A friendly reminder: If you drive there-- drink responsibly.

Innaugural Post

Break a bottle of Trader Joe's champagne (or inexpensive sparkling wine) on the bow of this blog-ship-- this is my first post!

May "My [Last] Two Cents" be an ever-changing, ever-useful resource for you in our efforts to navigate city life on a budget. This blog isn't about tightening your belt for 2009 and hoping 2010 is a better year. It's about bucking the trend of conspicuous consumption, and learning to live well within your means. Look forward to posts on cheap eats, free music, volunteer opportunities, travel deals, inexpensive date suggestions, sales, coupons, personal finance tips, and many more ideas to help you live the good life in Boston and beyond.