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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 02:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A whole year's worth of food for one person for only $799.99? And that's after a $200 discount. Is this too good to be true, or should we order?
Well, there is one small catch. The offer is for 78 one-gallon cans of dehydrated and freeze-dried food, plus a wheat grinder. Now, that's an emergency fund you can eat.
Actually, the ad exposed us to a movement we weren't very familiar with. Called "food storage," it's about amassing enough food on hand to survive common disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, or "economic crisis" or for "religious reasons," according to a Web site called Food Storage Made Easy.
While most people would consider enough food for a few days or a few weeks to be a sufficient emergency supply, these folks think in terms of a complete year.
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 10:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We're all for dollar stores. They can provide savings, many people agree. At last count, 55% of about 423,000 people who have participated in an MSN Money online poll said they sometimes shop at dollar stores, and 36% said they frequently do. (Another 3% chose "I'd never set foot in one.")
But there are some products "rutgerskevin" of The Red Stapler Chronicles recommends you avoid, via his post called "The 10 dumbest things to buy at a dollar store." First on his list are home pregnancy tests.
Find on Bing: Dollar stores thriving in recession
Pregnancy test from the dollar store? That's a product you'd want to spend more on for a result you can trust. "I almost bought this just to see what it looked like, but the girlfriend vetoed this idea in disgust," Kevin said.
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Posted
Sep 24 2009, 04:11 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Toys R Us released its list of prospective hot toys for the holidays, and guess what: Most retail for less than $100.
The toy getting the most media attention is the Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster, which retails for a very attractive $9.99. "With more than 40 different sound effects and artificial intelligence, these pets will dart around the house, play in hamster tubes, run on wheels and more," Toys R Us said. This sounds fun.
Among those on the higher end, The Associated Press reports, are "Mattel's Mindflex, about $90, which measures brain activity through a helmet and uses it to move a ball through an obstacle course." Great. We'll bring that one out whenever anyone questions our brain power.
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Posted
Sep 24 2009, 10:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We have decided not to dye our hair again, and all of our women friends have an opinion about it.
Strong opinions -- ranging from enthusiastic support to this comment from an older friend: "If you go gray, you will be a granola. Still interesting to me -- but invisible to others. Don't do it -- savor your youth!"
That comment nearly stopped us in our tracks, but we're going ahead with this. It's not just the expense -- we color at home once a month for about $8.50, but if you have it done professionally, it's $40, $75 or even more depending on where you live. It's also the time, the handling of harsh chemicals (get that stuff in your eyes and you can go blind), the damage to our hair -- and the suspicion that we're denying the realities of age in a way that's not healthy or helpful.
At some point, this charade has to stop (I'm nearly 55), so why not now? (Plus, it's not like losing a limb. If we don't like what we see, we can always dye it again.)
What's the best way to proceed?
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Posted
Sep 24 2009, 05:50 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
We have little kids. Kids are messy. Our daughter spills milk or juice on almost a nightly basis. Our son, who's a bit older, doesn't make messes as often, but when he does, they tend to be even more disastrous, such as a full jar of salsa knocked off the counter and shattered all over the floor.
For years, our solution to this problem has been a big roll of paper towels. It's simply what we're familiar with and, like many simple and familiar things in life, it's almost an automatic thing to have on hand. We simply have paper towels in the kitchen.
A few weeks ago, though, after we bought another batch of them at Sam's Club, I began to really question that purchase. Sure, we have a lot of messes, but did we really need to be dropping $5 or more a month on paper that we wind up throwing into the landfill? Probably not.
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Posted
Sep 23 2009, 02:13 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Here's a small victory for consumers:
Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are planning to overhaul their debit card programs, changing the way they credit transactions and allowing customers to opt out of overdraft protection.
We'd like to think they're doing it because that's what the customers want, but they might have been just a teeny bit influenced by moves in Congress to crack down on overdraft fees.
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 05:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
The October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports contains an article extolling the virtues of generic store-brand products. While shoppers used to sacrifice quality when choosing generic, that's no longer the case. From the article:
If concern about taste has kept you from trying store-brand foods, hesitate no more. In blind tests, our trained tasters compared a big national brand with a store brand in 29 food categories. Store and national brands tasted about equally good 19 times. Four times, the store brand won; six times, the national brand won.
In other words, store brands offer roughly the same quality as national brands, but at a much-reduced cost. How much reduced? Consumer Reports says the store brands they tested cost on average 27% less than the name-brand equivalents.
How much can you save?
Sometimes theory is one thing and reality another. It's nice that Consumer Reports can score great deals on store brands. But could I? Last week, I walked to two local grocery stores to do my own research. First I looked at Safeway, where Kris and I shop most often. Next, I walked across the street to Fred Meyer, a store we usually try to avoid. (The store is huge and its layout makes little sense to me.)
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Posted
Sep 17 2009, 06:00 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
One of my favorite ways to trim my spending is to find simple substitutes for my regular expenses. If I can trim a few bucks from the cost of household supplies and other routine purchases, over the long run that can add up to a lot of money with virtually no change in my life.
Here are 12 of my favorites (not including my "infamous" homemade laundry detergent).
Vinegar instead of fabric softener. Instead of buying expensive fabric softener, just use half a cup of white vinegar in the softener cup in your washing machine. It accomplishes the same effect as softener -- it makes your clothes really soft -- plus it breaks down the laundry detergent, making the clothes much better for people with sensitive skin or allergies. What about the smell? Once the clothes are dried, you smell nothing at all. You can buy four gallons of vinegar for $6, meaning the cost per load is about 5 cents, while a load's worth of Downy costs about 15 ccents. You save a dime per load and your clothes are less chemical-laden.
Bing: More uses for vinegar
Reusable containers instead of Ziplocs. Ziplocs -- especially the small ones -- usually wind up in the trash after one use. On the other hand, a reusable container can last for years. Because a typical Ziploc costs about 10 cents and you can get a reusable Rubbermaid container for about $1, you break even on the container after about 12 uses (the cost of washing the container in the dishwasher is estimated there) and everything thereafter is pure savings.
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Posted
Sep 16 2009, 05:15 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Alex Wayne at partner blog Wise Bread.
Looking for more money-saving ideas during these tough economic times? Dig that food dehydrator out of storage. This is a frugal living tip that almost everyone can act on. Just by reducing or eliminating food waste, you can save quite a bit of money.
Don't have a dehydrator? These days, you can buy a brand new one for less than the cost of a PlayStation game. Or, visit the flea market or yard sales around the neighborhood. Still can't find one? Try Craigslist. Don't have any money for another kitchen appliance? Alton Brown will show you how to make one.
Bing: Choosing a food dehydrator
Here are nine ways a dehydrator can help you stretch your budget:
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Posted
Sep 11 2009, 06:45 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
It's great to clear out stuff you no longer use and give it to charity. But, as one unidentified Miami investment firm learned, you should make sure you know what you're giving away.
When the investment firm was renovating its offices last May, they donated a quantity of items to Goodwill, including a 2.5-ton bronze statue of a young ballerina. For months, the statue sat in a warehouse, until Goodwill employees did a little investigating before setting a price.
It turned out the sculpture was one of 10 created in 1985 by famed artist Sterett-Gittings Kelsey and is valued at $500,000. Goodwill decided the honorable course of action was to offer to return the statue, The Miami Herald reported. The investment firm took it back.
It's unlikely any of us have sculptures worth $500,000 lurking in our homes (though I'm going to check the garage this weekend just to be sure), but it does pay to do some research before donating items you no longer want. We've all seen Antiques Roadshow, where Aunt Mavis' ugly table turned out to be worth $3,000.
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