Stop wasting your damn money!

If I watch one more co-worker walk into this office with a $5 latte I am going to scream. I don’t care if they purchased the smaller size and it really cost $3.

We are in a recession. Don’t you think it’s time that we get wise about our money?

Consider these tips and keep some change in your pockets, please!

Buy a reusable water bottle and fill it with filtered water. Hell. Buy five reusable water bottles, fill them with filtered water and grab one each morning when you head to the office. While you’re at it, brew your own coffee and steep your own tea. You can use a travel mug. And you shouldn’t even be drinking carbonated soft drinks, so that takes care of the beverages.

Entertain yourself for free with your library card and the Internet. There are web sites that offer films, documentaries and television shows for free (get it while it lasts). There’s SnagFilms, Hulu, Joost (to name a few), and many of your favorite network shows will have full episodes on their web sites of all the shows that you missed while you were wasting your money on that latte. And since we’re heading into summer, look for (free) theater or concerts in the park.

Re-gift with pride. You can always give a book without ever feeling guilty that it's used, because it's new to the recipient. Just make sure that the pages are not filled with highlighting, that every other word isn’t underlined and that the margins are not decorated with your thoughts.

Skip the valet. Not only will you save money by actually parking your car yourself, you will also get some exercise.

Cook. Buy real food at a store or farmers market, bring it home and cook it. If you’re feeling really ambitious, plant some food.

What are your money-saving tips? Share them here.

An unwelcome welcome center

Capitol Hill's new visitor center opens today in DC almost four years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. Yes, hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. The initial cost was estimated to be $71 million. The final price: $621 million.

Are you kidding me? $621 million for a welcome center? Does this welcome center include universal healthcare? Can I include one more question mark in this paragraph before it gets annoying?

Apparently, since 9/11, the scope of the project changed due to an increase in security measures, says Spokesperson Sharon Gang. But according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the outrageous costs were also due to, surprise surprise, wasteful contracts and a lack of congressional oversight. Sounds familiar.

It reminds me of how awkward I feel when I see grand, ornate churches that were built by the poor, for a religion that is supposed to take care of the poor. Is that what god really wants? Would Jesus care if the nails in his hands are made of gold? He might prefer some sort of foam, actually.

Recently, I visited the NASA Goddard Space & Flight Center in Maryland and I was initially shocked the campus was so ugly and drab. I felt like I was at the Los Angeles Community College or something. I expected NASA to look really futuristic and sleek, with bathroom faucets that turn on when you put your hands under it. Wait, that's not that cool. They have those at the movie theaters now. But then I actually felt relieved that our tax dollars weren't going to expensive, beautiful buildings or marble floors imported from some remote village in Italy where only donkeys can carry the marble from the top of the mountain to the lowlands.

A $621 million Capitol Hill visitor center is the kind of thing that makes an ordinary tax payer feel confused and hopeless. Oh, and by the way, the opening ceremony? Closed to the public.