• INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone
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    1 hour ago

    There was a big freeway running over our city with a few exits which always backed up with traffic and didn’t go where I wanted. One of the exits led into a convention centre pay carpark, with ridiculous costs per hour.

    I realised I could pull in there and if you left within ten minutes they didn’t charge you.

    It was my personal freeway off ramp for years.

  • weirdboy@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    When I was in high school my friends and I were always finding creative ways to skip school and instead go out and do stuff. But, there was a limit of X days that you could be absent throughout the year, or else you’d have to make up the time by attending summer school.

    In a conversation with some school admin staff I discovered that if you attend just one class during the day, any absence for the rest of the day was counted as 0.5 days in the attendance system.

    So, we effectively doubled the number of days we could skip school by showing up for the first hour and then getting out to e.g. attend a dentist appointment.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    If you get married the tradition is for one partner to change their last name to match so both have the same last name.

    We didn’t do that, so we have different last names.

    So when you sign up for services that offer (x) months free or discounted cost per unique household, you use one name, cancel, and sign up under the other name. They don’t know you’re married, don’t know if it’s a rental, or don’t know if it’s a roommate thing. So when we were poor AF we could save a lot of $ on services at least for a few months or so. Usually cable tv that offered a 6-month discount.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      Where I live you can freely use your maiden name or your spouse’s name and switch between them whenever you want.

      We didn’t like either of our last names so before getting married I legally changed mine so my Spouse could adopt it after the wedding, instead of both of us legally changing it after the wedding.

    • DBT@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Even with the same last name they don’t know you’re married. We share a last name and have done this a few times before.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Eh, this was years ago we played this game. We tried to keep it on the DL by not changing immediately after the discount, usually several months later. We also had separate checking accounts and cards, so that probably helped. The policy may have updated since then, but I don’t see how they’d know if one person canceled the policy and another with an entirely different name and payment account opened a new one.

        • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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          3 hours ago

          yeah and actually if its a single family home I have gamed the system by putting apt 1a, 1b, etc but I have not tried it when I actually have an apt/unit/whatnot

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    11 hours ago

    I remember there was a time when you could use the self-serve kiosk at McDonald’s, order a bunch of plain cheeseburgers and remove everything so it was just a bun and it would credit back enough money that you could get a whole meal (plus a bunch of empty buns) for free.

  • irish_link@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Back in the day they were “selling” dollar coins through tv. It was legal tender so banks had to accept any deposit of it. The U.S. mint offered free shipping in the continental U.S.A.

    Some smart folks started buying them with their credit card that offered air travel miles as a reward. Then they took all the coins and depositing them in their bank and paid off their CC. Rinse and repeat.

    Yes they were out no money and had thousands of dollars worth airline miles.

      • irish_link@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Commemorative coins do cost more that is correct. However this was not those. This was when the US mint was essentially attempting to phase out the dollar bill and replace it with a coin.

        Keep in mind this was late 90s early 2000s.

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    Not sure if these are exactly loopholes, but whatever.

    Learning to shave with a straight razor will save you a fuckton of money on shaving products. Shaving soap makes each shave cost a cent at most. The downsides are the initial cost of the razor and strop, the initial learning curve, the upkeep, and the couple extra minutes necessary to shave with a straight razor (it’s not too much, but it does take a bit longer).

    Learning to roast coffee will cut your coffee costs by 50% if you enjoy high quality arabica beans. Some of the best coffee I’ve ever had I roasted and brewed myself. The extra time investment and clean up necessary is pretty intensive though, and yeah, there’s an initial learning curve and equipment cost (though not too bad, you just need a stovetop, an old school stovetop popcorn popper, and a burr grinder).

    • qantravon@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      You don’t have to go all the way to straight razor to get significant savings. Even just a safety razor basically cuts the cost per shave to nothing vs. modern cartridges. And it’s much easier to use.

  • phanto@lemmy.ca
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    20 hours ago

    You can’t cancel your reservation within 24 hours. You can rebook it. Okay, rebook it for one week out. Call back a day later, cancel.

  • waz@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    There was a burrito shop that had a frequent customer card that you could use to earn points towards a free menu item. You could register the card online and for whatever reason you could add multiple cards to the same account.

    A friend of mine realized that if you registered a new card they would give you a decent chunk of points just for signing up, then you could merge that account in with your existing account and get free points.

    Every chance he got he would grab handfuls of the cards, activate them all, and get tons of free food.

  • Mossy Feathers (She/They)
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    18 hours ago

    Alright, so, in Texas you’re not allowed to own an opossum as a pet. There is no license for owning a pet opossum (they’re “fur-bearing animals”). However, there is a license that’ll let you kill opossums for their fur. Furthermore, said license allows you to trap them. The interesting part is that there’s no legal requirement for you to actually kill the opossum if you trap one. You can trap the opossum and take possession of it for however long you like.

    So basically a hunting license (might have been a trapping license?) lets you effectively own an opossum as a pet in Texas!

    Edit: also, yes, opossums are as soft as they look, which is why people used to hunt them for their fur. I got a chance to pet one and it was about as soft, if not softer, than a cat. Also very boney, like cats.

      • AppaYipYip@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I grew up in FL and had a “pet” opossum for a while. Her mom was hit by car when she was a baby and she crawled up to our front door during a rain storm. My mom was heart broken when she realized what happened so she let us keep her till she was old enough to be released. She was super cuddly and would crawl up on your neck and lick your hair. We partially potty trained her using dog pee pads. The only down side is she liked to borough in our couch so we had to move the couch often and clean it out.

        Once she was an adult we would let her out at night when other opossums in the neighborhood were around. She usually came back in the morning and would eat a bunch of food. One day she didn’t come back so I hope she integrated with the local opossums and lived a happy life.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        My friend has one and nope, no biting! He pretends he’s a raccoon (she had a herd of raccoons as well)

      • Mossy Feathers (She/They)
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        9 hours ago

        Nope, they’re mostly all bark, no bite. You have to actually harass them to get them to bite you, even if they’re showing their teeth. Their bite strength is one of the lowest among mammals too. That said, supposedly their teeth are actually really sharp.

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        I’ve never hung out with one, but they were common in my neighborhood growing up and they were honestly pretty nonviolent. They just play dead instead of aggressing , but I also never pushed them to interact

  • spongebue@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    My brother-in-law didn’t want to carry his jacket around at Disney World, and he didn’t want to get a locker for it, so he had his dad turn it in to lost and found. At the end of the day, before leaving the park, he picked it back up.

    • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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      19 hours ago

      Somebody else could’ve taken that.

      The lost and found at my school sometimes gathers interest on some items. Umbrella on a rainy day got 4 people claiming it’s theirs. But a golden chain is still winning at 8 people claiming it as theirs.

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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    14 hours ago

    The ROTH IRA (USA) requires earned income to be allowed to deposit (add) money. There is no rule that the money earned is the money deposed. If your kid has a job, and you have extra money, look into opening a ROTH with them. Kid spends their money (or not), and deposits your money in their account. Bingo setting kid up for old age.

    I am not a tax accountant.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    18 hours ago

    In the USA the FASFA is used to determine how much financial aid (grants, or zero interest loans) someone can get for university

    Unfortunately it looks at parents assets as well as the adult students assets.

    Unless

    • over the age of 25
    • military veteran
    • married

    So the loop hole here is obvious, two students should get married, then their financial need will be totally unmet and get the highest level of benefits

    • qantravon@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I know someone who had to do this. Her parents were abusive and were refusing to do the FASFA paperwork, holding it over her head for something. She had already been in college a couple of years at this point. So, she found a friend she trusted and they got married, allowing her to get the funding she needed to continue to attend college.

    • BigLime@lemmy.ml
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      17 hours ago

      I’m fr curious if this can work. If it does, it seems beyond impossible to find a 25 year old college woman who would even want to marry

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        17 hours ago

        Two 18 year old students about to start university get married. I think it can even be same sex, marriage is marriage.

        Remember Marriage isn’t for life! You and your partner could get married with the understanding this is just a college marriage.

        • Asetru@feddit.org
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          15 hours ago

          “Hey, let’s just get married to be eligible for benefits. Yeah, we’ll just pinky promise that we won’t ever abuse the hell out of our ‘partner’ who we now share every single responsibility with. I also took out a huge loan to buy a boat, why are you asking, dear? Half of it is technically yours, why aren’t you happy?”

          • jet@hackertalks.com
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            15 hours ago

            two penniless students are judgement proof, so even in this scenario when they divorced there wouldn’t be anything to recover. As a 18 year old with nothing, as long as you don’t have kids, there is almost nothing to lose.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          16 hours ago

          That’s a whole abuse of the purpose of marriage, though

          • jet@hackertalks.com
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            16 hours ago

            A loop hole that is technically correct is still correct.

            What is the purpose of marriage?

            • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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              14 hours ago

              Legally it is a shortcut to establishment of a number of implied contracts, tells the courts how to unwind those contracts, and rights. In some cases the implied contracts are more effective than written ones. Medical decisions and visitation rights being first ones I can think of.

              I sm not a lawyer.

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              14 hours ago

              Two people bound together for life for the purposes of creating a family

              • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                1 hour ago

                “You shouldn’t use marriage to stop yourself being legally chained to your parents. The purpose of marriage is to legally chain you to your spouse.”

                If people could “divorce” their parents you wouldn’t have to worry about this.

              • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                Yeah, you can miss me with the religious bullshit. This is a legal loophole in a legal system.

                • Flax@feddit.uk
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                  8 hours ago

                  If it was for religious reasons, I would have specified it as a “man and a woman”

                • Flax@feddit.uk
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                  11 hours ago

                  Only as a last resort. You shouldn’t get married without intending to stay together for life.

          • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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            14 hours ago

            You’re thinking about this all wrong. The age of marriage and childbearing have been going up. Think of the kids who would just decide fuck it might as well just stay married and do this. This could be the arranged marriage of the future.