Thieving Bastards

So, I am addicted to magazines. I have a huge pile of them, usually. The essentials: People and Entertainment Weekly, the grown-ups: Time and Newsweek and the fill-ins: Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, etc. Lately, I've been branching out: Vanity Fair, Domino, Home. Next to receiving a book in the mail. there's nothing better for me than to glimpse a new magazine patiently waiting for me in the mailbox.

The Mad Genius also gets magazines, boy stuff mostly: National Dragster, Maxim, all the car magazines, National Geographic.

So, we are always getting subscription notices. I have to admit, I am not the best at keeping track of them. Mostly because we get so many and so often. By accident one time, I let a subscription "lapse". I got a cancellation notice but the mailing label on the magazine stated two years in advance subscription.
(Do you know where to find that? On the mailing label, on the upper right hand corner. It should read something like "DEC 08")

Well, this is accurate only if paid in full. If you've simply ordered the magazine but not paid, it's isn't accurate. And also, you are usually subscribed for six months in advance, meaning there is a strange little grace period that I haven't quite figured out yet.

But the reason this is titled "Thieving Bastards" is this:
I went online today to attempt to determine which subscription is due & when for the MG's magazines. Usually, they are about $20 yearly. Imagine my shock and surprise and irritation, when I discover that if I order them online, they're half-price. And it's not a "Special Offer", it's the regular subscription. We've been paying the old subscription rates and *Gasp* they didn't offer us the lower available rates! Thieving Bastards.

So, I've let the "mail-in" subscription lapse and have ordered two years for the price of one online.

Check it out. Don't get ripped off like we did.

Also, if you belong to an organization or business of any kind, you may be eligible for "commercial rates" I ordered a subscription through the school I used to work at and got the magazine at a significantly lower rate. Just make sure that you're ordering through the actual publishing company and not a clearing house. You have to be careful!

Now that I've saved $20, I should be able to subscribe to two more magazines...I must search...

Oh, one caveat: Oprah's Magazine is apparently printed with ink derived from extinct mammals because her magazine is EXPENSIVE. And she graces every cover. If you can get over that, it's not a bad magazine, otherwise borrow it from the library.

Oh, and one more thing: I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint so I do recycle the magazines. I also donate them to different organizations. Someone is always looking for magazines: senior centers, preschools (for cutting out pictures, so no Cosmo or Maxim!)
libraries, etc. Even Value Village will accept magazines now. Just make sure you've taken off the mailing label.

This ends my rant about Thieving Bastards. You may resume your regular activities now.