Complete list of Leisure Tips articles

Gifts for economists, 2011
What would you get an economist as a gift? Each year on this blog I have tackled this question, and here are the three previous guides: –Gifts for economists, 2008 –Gifts for economists, 2009 –Gifts for economists, 2010 You should check out those lists, which are still full of good ideas that I do not ...

What’s the best place to sit in a movie theater?
In one sense, this question is simply answered. The best seat in a movie theater is the one that you enjoy the most. If you like to sit all the way in the front, or all the way in the back, then that's the best seat for you. I am ...

Is a calorie burned the same as a calorie eaten?
Suppose you are on a strict diet of eating 1700 calories per day. One day you relax and have a can of Coke, adding an extra 140 calories to your intake. A few hours later you feel guilty and hop on the treadmill. You run until the calories burned reads 140 calories. Will ...

A trick to getting more booze in bars
image by Kyle May This tip comes just in time for the weekend. I read about the trick on Bundle, a great personal finance site. This article points out how you can possibly get more alcoholic drinks in bars, if you say the right words. Here are the details:

How to visit a museum in one hour and still see the masterpieces
I love to check out museums when I travel. There is something special about viewing an art piece in person or admiring a historical document preserved over decades or centuries. I usually plan my museum visit in advance and then spend a few hours enjoying all the exhibits. But occasionally I am ...

Group birthday parties are unfair
Someone enjoyed my post about splitting the check and emailed me another interesting situation that arises in group meals. I would like to pose the following problem to you, a real life scenario. My wife participates in a "Birthday Lunch Group". Each month when it is someone's birthday, the "non-birthday" girls split ...

3 ways sleeping can help you get rich and save money
[Editorial note: I have posted the solution to the Monday puzzle in my comment here] At Stanford and in my office job, most people viewed sleep as wasted time. They would have preferred the time to be spent studying, exercising, or simply doing anything else. In fact, some people did just ...

8 interesting tip jars
When I go out to the bars, I happily to shell out a dollar or two per drink for tip. But I do appreciate when a place puts some effort into making its tip jar distinctive either by making me chuckle or having a good style. Here are pictures of 8 different ...

7 travel essentials for the bald man
I first shaved my head about four years ago, and I've been enjoying the sleek and clean look. The style is full of practical advantages. A few that come to mind are: I never have to pay for haircuts, I can take extremely quick showers, and I no longer rely on ...

How many pairs of underwear should you own?
Laugh it up. But I am sure you have thought about this very question at some point. Sure, you may not remember your reasons, and I doubt you wrote down the logic to derive an answer as I did. But since you own underwear, you must have had some reasons behind ...

If your term paper is too short, try this* (*um, on second thought, definitely DO NOT try this)
Have you ever had trouble meeting a page limit requirement? In high school, we all had some trouble with a well-known assignment. It was a 10-page research paper with an annotated bibliography. The research paper was a big deal as it accounted for 25 percent of our final grade. But the paper ...

8 interesting donation boxes
I have recently visited many museums and I've seen many of them have donation boxes. While most of them were plain and bland, a few of them were more interesting and caught my attention, making me more likely to donate. The lesson is a little bit of style can help a ...

Sorry, you cannot buy happiness with a $75,000 salary
There's an economics study about money and happiness that's getting a lot of attention. Here's a sampling of the headlines: The Perfect Salary for Happiness: $75,000 - The Wall Street Journal After $75000, Money Can't Buy Day-to-Day Happiness - BusinessWeek What does it take to be happy? About $75000 - Los Angeles Times These headlines ...

Bar game: place the last coaster
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here's a classic puzzle that works well as a bar game. The only thing you need is enough beer coasters to cover a table. You can ask a server for them or you can bring some from home (beer coasters are cheap) The rules Here is how ...

5 extra uses for shot glasses
I appreciate shot glasses. They are classy and inexpensive souvenirs. And they are ultimately practical for weekend parties when making drinks. I have amassed a decent collection of shot glasses. One day it bugged me that the shot glasses primarily got used on weekends. They simply occupied cabinet space on weekdays. In ...

What money cannot buy
Things can get difficult when money is tight. Less money often means going to fewer movies, passing on gourmet coffee, and delaying big ticket purchases like a new car or elective surgery. Less money means fewer options, and there is a real tension about being limited and feeling powerless. In such ...

3 ways to cut costs at happy hour
photo by pink sherbet Do you enjoy happy hour? I sure do. It's a fun way to get to know your co-workers and end a long day of work. That's why I wanted to make happy hour more affordable and I came up with these ideas. Before I get started, a word ...

News flash: We workers want to feel useful, not just appreciated
My friend received a promotion, a raise, and a big fat bonus, but in the end, he still chose to leave the company. His departure offended some older executives who asked questions like "Doesn't this kid realize how good he has it?" The truth is that my friend did appreciate ...

If you find a small amount of money, what do you do?
Recently I found 50 cents at my supermarket. It's not a lot of money, but it got me thinking about found money in general. What's the proper thing to do? I've talked to many people and it seems the exact circumstances are important. Here are some of my favorite reactions. I'd ...

How Do You Deal with Money Jealousy?
My friend liked his $3,000 bonus until he learned someone else got $7,000. His resentment illustrates a common issue: adversity is often not a question of "why me?" but rather of "why not me?" Jealousy is the culprit and we could all enjoy life more by ignoring it. Jealousy is a ...

Job Interviews: You don’t have to be Perfect
During interview season, many of us frugal people magically become spendaholics. Nevertheless, we maintain we are still rational because the end goal of a higher-paying job can justify virtually any purchase. In college, my friend spent $10 for high-quality resume paper. I myself managed to shell out $25 for a ...

40 Things To Do Before You Are Rich
Being rich is not all it's cracked up to be. Yes, we all know money is great. But that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. We forget there actually are some things rich people can't do. Take Indian tycoon Azim Premji of Wipro. He's amassed $17.1 billion so you ...

3 Activities Where It’s Best to Take Your Time
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it." --Ferris Bueller "You can microwave a Pop-Tart. That just blew me away that you could do that. How long does it take to toast a Pop-Tart? A minute and a half if ...

The Real Cost of Late Night Work
A thought-provoking poster from timeday.org: [for a full-size pdf, click here or on the picture] For more on how we push ourselves to work too long: Pondering the American work ethic How sports illustrate the American work ethic

My “Secret” to Feeling like a Million Bucks
Update: This article is an editor's pick in the 162nd Carnival of Personal Finance at Taking Charge Some highlights of my "secret:" It costs nothing. Most of us can do it naturally. We willingly ignore it to our own detriment. Though when we occasionally do it, we feel like a million bucks. My "secret" is something ...

Smart People Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
photo from Exfordy Today's advice: don't get too busy. It's foolish to cut back on something as pleasurable or healthful as sleep. It's equally misguided to pack the hours in your waking life. The happiest people I know live very simple lives. Some of them don't use email, if you can believe ...

What is the Best Time to Go to Work?
source: Rich Moffitt via flickr Bob Slydell: You see, what we're actually trying to do here is, we're trying to get a feel for how people spend their day at work... so, if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you? Peter Gibbons: Yeah. Bob Slydell: Great. Peter Gibbons: Well, ...

Take Fewer, Not More Risks with Your Money
image source: szlea via flickr Financial people often tell you to take more risks, especially when you're young. Why is that, and is the advice any good? The usual reasons I hear to take risks early are (1) you can't do it later (2) it's easier to recover from failure. But by ...

What’s More Important than Your Career? The Answer is Right Under Your Nose
Image source: Jason D' Great via flickr People do a lot of things for their career, perhaps because they are told it's their most important asset. At Stanford, I once met someone who was simultaneously studying for finals, preparing for a business trip to Japan, and drafting a book. But some things ...

Make Saving Enjoyable, or How You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Image via evan at flickr When I talk to college graduates, they tell me they save to pay off loans, to buy a house, and to invest for retirement. These responses are good, but perhaps they confuse the goals of saving with the reasons for saving. For example, saving for a birthday ...

Why We’re Not Designed to Follow Budgets–There’s More to Life
image source: Rubyran via flickr In many ways, following a budget is like adhering to a portion controlled diet. In both cases, you create elaborate plans to limit unhealthy consumption. If you mess up, as you are likely to do, you can compensate the next day or week by working ...

Fast and Frugal Late Night Snacks
The consulting grind encouraged my night owl tendencies. When I retired to my quarters, I found myself snacking on delicious and fattening restaurant leftovers. I was new to the job, but I quickly understood the saying "fat consultant." While I still work late at night, I've drastically improved my ...

Line Etiquette Pays: How I Accidentally Saved Money at the Grocery Store
image source: Jimmy_Joe's via flickr Recently, the supermarket gods have rewarded me twice with free food. I would like to say I planned this, but it really came about by accident. It happened because I was practicing good etiquette, and I like to think that no good deed goes unrewarded. What are ...

Want to Win? Try Relaxing
My previous boss told me I was among the best consultants he'd ever worked with. This came as a bit of a surprise to me. I wasn't the smartest person he worked with, nor was I the hardest working, nor was I the most efficient. But I had one competitive advantage in ...

The Calculating Guru: Time is More Valuable than You Think
I hate waiting for a table at restaurants. If a place has more than a 15 minute wait, I try to find another place. This limitation means I never go to the Cheesecake Factory on a busy night. Oh well, I think I can live without it. Some of my friends ...

Book reaction to The No Asshole Rule
I've always felt being friendly gives results than being a jerk. On that note, I enjoyed reading Robert Sutton's book The No Asshole Rule, which argues that businesses can be more successful if they avoid hiring assholes. Sutton defines assholes in the first chapter as people who (1) make a target ...