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Posted
Dec 28 2007, 01:16 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Philip Brewer of partner blog Wise Bread has a lasting memory of a poor family he encountered many years ago. Their clothes were worn, their car was old, and they were skinny. "It's unusual to see that now," he writes. "The new face of poverty is fat." The fact is that poor people buy the least expensive source of calories they can find, Brewer says. As we've noted here before, it's often junk food. If you eat packaged, high-calorie food until you're satisfied, you are going to be fat, Brewer adds -- and, we might add, prone to diabetes and other health problems associated with obesity. He offers some possible solutions.
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Posted
Feb 25 2008, 04:20 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from David Wood at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. Waiting in line at the grocery store is a guaranteed way to see the covers of magazines targeting women. It's a real challenge to find a checkout tabloid that doesn't have blaring headlines about weight loss or the most recent diet sensation. "Better than gastric bypass!" "Kim lost 200 lbs in 11 months!" "Christin lost 100 lbs in 5 months!" Those very comments appeared on the cover of the June 12, 2007, issue of Woman's World magazine. The story was a fascinating look at a weight-loss diet known as Kimkins, created by Kim Drake, also known as "Kimmer." The Woman's World story begins by saying the magazine sent out spies to gather intelligence about Kimkins. The Kimkins Web site included numerous before-and-after pictures of not only Kimmer, but also happy members who had shed massive amounts of weight. Woman's World describes Kim as "smiling" when responding to questions. This implies that the Woman's World interviewer was personally watching the response of Drake. So, you would think that Woman's World would have noticed that "Kim" was in fact a 300-pound woman.
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Posted
Apr 08 2008, 05:02 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you're tired of taking the heat from your spendthrift (and obnoxious) friends who say you're cheap, Jennifer Derrick at Saving Advice has some ammunition for you -- "32 reasons to be frugal besides saving money." This post beautifully expresses what frugal people know in their hearts: Frugality is freedom from the many shackles of a consumer-based culture. Jennifer says she initially adopted a frugal lifestyle to save money, but now calls that "a nice side effect." Among the benefits of frugality: gratitude and contentment. "Frugal living makes you appreciate what you have and helps you to realize that you are blessed to have it, even if it's not the newest luxury what-not," she writes.
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Posted
Mar 07 2008, 09:18 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I made $15 for filling a prescription last night. That is, the medication cost me a $10 co-pay but I received a $25 gift card for trying a different pharmacy.
This was a Safeway pharmacy, so I had my choice of more than 60 gift cards ranging from bookstores to ice cream to spa treatments. I chose a Safeway card, for future groceries.
Drugstores want your business, and sometimes they're willing to bribe you to get it. Prescription transfers can be a pretty simple way to stretch your dollars.
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Posted
Mar 05 2009, 02:05 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The average woman spends about $120 a year on feminine-hygiene products. (We bet the male readers who ignored the headline have now moved on to another page. Bye-bye.)
There's an alternative called the menstrual cup, available in brands like the DivaCup, The Keeper and Moon Cup. This device, hugely recommended by female bloggers, usually costs less than $30 -- we saw one online for about 17 bucks -- and eliminates the need to spend any more money on pads and tampons.
We'd been skeptical because it sounded too good to be true.
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Posted
Jul 08 2008, 07:37 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you've lived in Florida, you know about flea infestations, dive-bombing palmetto bugs, tarantula-size spiders, and other creepy-crawlies you wish would go belly up in the night. Whether you're facing super-sized bugs or standard household invaders, you'll welcome some pet- and child-safe frugal pest-control measures. Two posts on the subject were featured in this week's Festival of Frugality.
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Posted
May 15 2009, 11:07 AM
by
Joan Melcher
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
How’s your indoor air? Surprisingly, scientists have found it can be more polluted than the air you breathe outside your door. Plants, which are natural air purifiers, help both indoors and out. So it’s appropriate that bamboo, one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, has been chosen as the “poster boy” for a sweepstakes giveaway sponsored by 3M’s Filtrete home-filtration products. Every week through July 30, the company is giving away 50 bamboo plants to people who join its Clean Air Club.
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Posted
Sep 10 2009, 03:39 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Remember that peanut butter scare? We wondered whether the flavored dog treats we'd bought were on the recall list, but finding the latest information seemed difficult.
Or maybe you have a general question about the safety of food: Will that package of hot dogs you opened stay good for a week or a month? (One week.) How about bacon? Is it indestructible? (No.)
A new government Web site can help us out.
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Posted
Nov 13 2008, 12:15 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Anyone who has worked in a grocery store will tell you to look for the date on the package (and it's amazing how many shoppers don't). But what do terms like "sell by," "use by" and "expiration" mean about a product's freshness and safety? They're not interchangeable, writes "vh" at Funny about Money in a post called "Is that bargain food safe to eat?" She adds that no matter what the date says, "If in doubt, throw it out."
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Posted
Jul 25 2008, 07:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We remember powdered milk from our college days, and we don't do it fondly. It was thin in consistency and unappealing in taste. We've never bought it again, despite the cost savings. We're going to give this versatile product another try, thanks to Canadian blogger "Mr. Cheap" at Quest for Four Pillars and "The Great Powdered Milk Experiment." Besides, other bloggers put the cost of instant milk in the $2- to $3-a-gallon range.
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