Where to keep a spare key?

You see it all the time on television and in the movies. People hide a spare key to their apartment in a light fixture above the door or a potted plant in the hallway. The idea is if you lose yours or need a friend to get something at your apartment, there's the key.
What this does is leave you completely at the mercy of anyone who takes a minute to look in these areas. Burglars are the exact type of people that will take the minute to look. Doing this is no different than leaving your door unlocked.
If you want to keep a spare key somewhere, leave one at a friend's house. If you have a safety deposit box you can even put one in there, but never leave it outside your door.
If a burglar manages to pick or break the lock on your door and get in the apartment, an alarm system will often scare them away. They won't know the code to enter in the control panel and they won't know your password to give the monitoring company.
The easiest thing you can do is make it hard on criminals.

Tips for buying jewelery

Don't buy from credit jewelers or any jewelery store in the mall, like Zales or Daniel's. They are rip-offs. They peg you as a sucker just because you walked in the door. They know anyone with any knowledge of gold or diamonds wouldn't bother with them. Independent jewelery stores might seem more expensive, but you aren't getting garbage for your money. Some even make up their own diamond grading systems just to keep you fooled. You can also get the same stuff for half to a third of the price at your local pawn shop. Also, cash for gold companies are also big rip-offs. If you're looking to sell your gold, find a local smelter to sell it to. You'll get paid much closer to it's worth than you will with a mail in company. Furthermore, small diamonds can cost a fortune at the jewelery store, but on the scrap market, they only fetch $20-$60 per carat. Chances are your local pawnbroker is scrapping more than they sell retail. Use this to your advantage to haggle the price down tremendously. The pawnshop is also a great place to get a loose diamonds cheap for a piece that is missing a stone.

Avoid early termination fees

If you're being charged an early termination fee by an internet provider (or cellular telephone provider) one way to get around this is to tell them you're moving to an area they don't service. You'll want to do a little research first. Make sure to mention how satisfied with their service you've been, and that when you move back in a few months you'll be sure to sign back up with them (wink wink). This can save you a couple hundred dollars.

Free cable TV

If you have high speed cable internet, You can get a cable splitter and a length of coaxial cable, and hook it up to your tv. This works because cable tv and internet travel on the same signal. You'll only get basic, though.

This could save your life

If you live in a part of the country where snow is a regular thing during the winter, do yourself a favor and find a large, open parking lot the next time you get an inch or two. Drive up there, and practice inducing spins and then steering out of them. At minimum, half an hour of this is good, but ideally you should do it until it becomes second nature for either direction at most any speeds. It's a lot more helpful than reading a description of how to do so.

Free phone charger!

Next time you lose your phone charger, don't pay for a new one. Go to a hotel and say you think you lost it there. Phone chargers are the #1 most left behind item at hotels. Most have a big bin filled with them.

Grate idea

If you have a partial loaf of unsliced bread left over, dont toss it out. Instead put it in a paper bag for a few days until it's good and stale ( if you put it in a plastic bag it will get moldy). Grate the bread with a box grater, then use the crumbs to bread meat or fish or to thicken soups. It's best to season the crumbs before you use them.