add insult to injury, v. 1. To make an intolerable situation even worse. 2. Having to pay a late fee on top of your credit card bill.
See also: ouch.
Here with a much-needed remedy is Manilla, a blissfully free service that wrangles all of your bills into one place and keeps track of due dates so you don’t have to.
The site pulls your accounts – including credit cards, cell phones, utilities, and loans – into a clean, easy-to-use interface that shows you what’s due when. Electronic copies of your bills are available for viewing, and Manilla even archives them for future reference.
And since the service only requires one password (which uses bank-level protection), gone are the days of logging into a dozen different sites just to check in on your finances.
The kicker? Manilla even tracks rewards programs (you know, the ones you’ve totally lost track of) as well as deal sites like LivingSocial and Groupon to assemble a comprehensive list of your coupons.
Which is the definition of convenience.
Protect Your Luggage From Loss, Theft, or Damage
Air travel these days is bad enough without having to spend three figures for the privilege of taking luggage, only to have the airlines lose it for you.
Enter Luggage Free, a service that ships luggage to anywhere in the world, saving you the, uh, baggage that often accompanies your baggage.
Simply fill out the online form and arrange for a Luggage Free representative to pick up your items from your home, office, hotel or cruise ship. (You don’t even have to be present when they arrive).
When you arrive at your destination, bypass baggage claim (and, for international travel, customs) and go straight to your hotel or home, where your bags will be waiting for you.
The service is priced based on a per-pound rate instead of a weight range, with priority overnight options available for most major cities. (The cost for standard overnight domestic shipping is $5.35 per pound, plus a $50 service fee).
A handy on-site feature estimates the cost of common items like bikes, skis and golf bags based on origin and destination points.
In terms of logistics, an in-house team tracks your bags along their route, alerting you by e-mail when your belongings arrive. When your trip is over, simply schedule a return pick up (if you haven’t done so already) and the entire process is reversed.
All shipments are insured for up to $1000, with additional coverage available up to any amount.
With service like this, the only stress during your travels will be whether or not the sales guy in the seat next to you will turn the pages of his Grisham novel too loudly.
Search & Destroy
Like it or not, we live in the Google Era. This means that your prospective employer is just as likely to Google your name as is your upcoming blind date.
Thankfully, you can limit what others learn about you with Vizibility, a free service that allows you to create a customized “Search Me” button highlighting your best web assets.
Start by entering your name, current and previous employers, and any keywords you want associated with your search. This flexibility allows you to make it as professional or casual as you’d like.
After creating a sample search based on your information, you can decide which search results you’d like to remove and which keywords you’d like to block. You can be concise and block certain keywords or go broad and banish entire sites from your results (which is handy for blocking embarrassing photos).
The service is also useful for people with common names who are un-Googleable. You’re given control to block out any other John or Jane Doe on the Internet with a few simple clicks.
Once you create an account you’re given a dedicated profile page with your tailored search and a “search me” button that you can add to your LinkedIn profile, Facebook page or online resume.
For a monthly fee of $2.95, you can add other search engines and get notifications when your results change. For a yearly fee of $29.95, you can receive notifications whenever you are searched.
It’s either this or become an anti-technology hermit living in a cabin in Montana.
Save Money Towards Your Goals with a Free Online Piggy Bank
Buying expensive things is fun. Saving the cash to do so, less so.
Thanks to SmartyPig, putting money aside for your discretionary purchases just got easier.
Sign up for a free account and outline your savings goal, be it a 3-D television, a new watch or a kitchen renovation.
If you’re not quite sure how much your dream purchase will cost you can use their interactive calculator to figure out your total planned expenses.
Once the site knows how much money you’ll need to sock away, it gives you a tailor-made list of ways to save. It uses the information in your profile—namely your average expenses on food, housing and other expenditures—to help you cut the fat.
Have some generous benefactors willing to help you along the way? Tell them to log onto Smarty Pig and enter your email address. When they plug in the amount of money they’re willing to contribute, Smarty Pig will alter your profile and your savings schedule accordingly.
It’s either this or rob a bank, which we can’t in good faith endorse.