{"id":41628,"date":"2023-11-09T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=41628"},"modified":"2023-11-08T17:08:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T00:08:16","slug":"lodging-price-differences-reducing-atm-fees-cheap-sink-stopper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/lodging-price-differences-reducing-atm-fees-cheap-sink-stopper\/","title":{"rendered":"Lodging Price Differences\/Reducing ATM Fees\/Cheap Sink Stopper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of\u00a0A Better Life for Half the Price<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The World\u2019s Cheapest Destinations<\/em>. See\u00a0past editions here,<\/a>\u00a0where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Lodging Price Differences<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a reminder of how dramatic the difference in lodging prices can be between cities, it was interesting to see the side notes in this WalletHub report<\/a> on the most popular winter getaway destinations for Americans. \u201cAmong cold destinations, Chicago, Illinois, has the lowest price for a three-star hotel room, $39, which is 3.5 times lower than Worcester, Massachusetts, the city with the highest at $135. Among warm destinations, San Antonio has the lowest price for a three-star hotel room, $50, which is 3.9 times lower than Honolulu, the city with the highest at $196. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ATM Fee Differences<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of variable costs, on two different continents this year I\u2019ve experienced ATM fees that varied from a pittance to a fortune, sometimes within a block or two. In Sarande, Albania the highest fee was 9 euros, while at the second bank it was 4.5 euros, then at the one we ended up using, zero (admittedly a rare occurrence that was probably a mistake). In multiple locations in Mexico this year, my favorite bank has been less than US$1, while one down the street routinely charges $9. If your card doesn\u2019t reimburse local ATM fees, it can pay to hit the \u201ccancel\u201d button and move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remote Work vs. Poverty<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After I read this interesting article about how remote work could shift the world\u2019s GDP map over time<\/a>, I went and looked at my last few years of Fiverr<\/a> payouts for various tech and graphics jobs I\u2019ve needed to get done. Almost none of that money has gone to people in the richest countries and it turns out I\u2019ve paid workers in 14 nations. That includes some that don\u2019t normally come up in these outsourcing discussions, like Panama, Sri Lanka, Moravia, and Egypt. Multiply that times thousands of just Fiverr\/Upwork customers and then add in big companies recruiting abroad to get a hint of the potential. It starts looking a whole lot better for raising family standards of living than IMF loans and siphoned-off NGO aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheap and Useful Sink Laundry Item<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Part 2 of \u201cWhat I should have packed in my carry-on,\u201d on this last month-long trip, I neglected to bring a flat rubber sink drain stopper, even though there was a good chance I\u2019d need to do some sink washing of clothes along the way. You can usually find one locally in a dollar store or kitchen store, or get a two-pack in a variety of colors for less than $6 on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomadico issue #77<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2385],"tags":[2386],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41629,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41628\/revisions\/41629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}