Search results for consumer guide
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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 25 2009, 03:28 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from "vh" at Funny about Money.
Why, when we're confronted, do we tend to blurt out the truth, even when it works to our disadvantage to do so? Chaucer had it right when he said that "truth is the highest thing that Man may keep." Sometimes we should keep it to ourselves.
Asked in the right way, we'll often reveal private, sensitive information that's strictly none of anyone's business, that's valuable to people trying to manipulate us into buying products and services, and that can be used to pester or even harass us. Warranty cards with long lists of personal questions are especially egregious: What about your favorite sporting event and the magazines you read is needed to guarantee a flashlight's performance? And how often do you give your phone number to companies that have no need to know it?
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 04:14 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Jon Hood at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
Dannon has settled a consumer class-action lawsuit alleging that ads for certain brands of its yogurt overstate their claimed health benefits. The settlement will shell out $35 million to affected consumers.
The suit alleged that ads for both Activia and DanActive yogurt exaggerated their beneficial effects on human health. The ads promote the yogurt as improving digestion and have become well known for their goofiness; a recent Activia iteration features actress Jamie Lee Curtis, seated on a couch, noting that "our busy lives sometimes force us to eat the wrong things at the wrong times," and promoting Activia as the solution to "digestive issues."
A voiceover in the ad claims that Activia is "clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in two weeks" if eaten every day.
The ads credit Bifidus Regularis, a Dannon-created name for bacteria found in mammals' large intestines, with Activia's positive effects on digestion.
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 01:13 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The jack-o'-lantern outlook in New England and parts of the Midwest looks a fright. A combination of wet and cold ruined a bunch of the pumpkin crop, and what's left in some fields is taking its own sweet time to ripen.
Not to worry, Halloween fans. The crop in most of the country's pumpkin patch looks fine, The Associated Press reports.
What's aggravating people is a shortage of canned pumpkin on store shelves.
"Holy smokes. Our stores have big empty shelves where the canned pumpkin should be. What's going on?" "CarolynF" wrote at lowcarbfriends.com.
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Posted
Sep 17 2009, 04:37 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Here's good news for many sports and concert fans: Ticketmaster has found a way to sidestep the scalpers and control the price of ticket resales.
How does it work? It's made possible by Ticketmaster's paperless ticket option. Limited now in application, you can expect that more and more ticket sales will become paper-free.
Our Smart Spending colleague Teresa Mears explained how paperless ticketing worked when she did a most unfrugal thing by attending a concert by the Boss, who likes the paper-free approach. (I am extremely jealous.) Teresa said:
To get into Sunday's Bruce Springsteen concert in South Florida, concertgoers had to swipe the credit cards with which they had bought the tickets. The handheld machine then printed out paper tickets with their seat numbers on them. If one person had bought the tickets for a group, they all had to enter at once.
Venues also require a separate photo ID.
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Posted
Sep 14 2009, 05:04 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Truman Lewis at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
For years, health researchers have expressed concerns about the widespread use of cell phones, especially by children. Finally, more than a decade after a test funded by the cell phone industry showed a possible link between cell phones and cancer, the U.S. Senate held hearings on the question.
"I will still use my cell phone after the hearing ends," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said, but added in a more serious moment that he did not want to overlook the nation's experience with cigarettes, which were touted as harmless and even helpful for decades after the first indications that they might cause health problems.
The saving grace for the cell phone industry -- for now anyway -- is that the devices have been in widespread use for only the last 10 years or so, which researchers say may not be long enough to get a complete picture of their health effects.
But with an estimated 270 million Americans using cell phones, National Institutes of Health associate director John Bucher said the nation faces a "potentially significant health problem." Studies so far have been inconclusive, partly because of the time element and partly because they rely on users' memories of when and how often they used their wireless devices.
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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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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
Sep 09 2009, 11:10 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Daniel at Casual Kitchen gave up fast-food burgers for life after working for one summer at a Burger King. The experience of making thousands of burgers -- and that was 20 years ago -- ensured that he just couldn't face another one. (He can still eat french fries.)
"Being around this food so much cured me of this ‘cuisine' for the rest of my life," he wrote in a post called "Scarred for life by a food industry job."
Dan asked: Do readers have similar experiences to share? That question opened up a mini floodgate. (Our thanks to Kris at Cheap Healthy Good for the link.)
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Posted
Sep 09 2009, 10:18 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
Since the dawning of the Internet age, scammers have increasingly relied on the Web to ensnare their victims. With the Internet, one pitch can be sent to millions of potential victims for almost no cost.
Most experienced Internet users have learned to spot the scams in their e-mail inboxes, but a surprising number of people each year fall for the most seemingly transparent hoaxes. So dwelling on what might seem to be the obvious is not exactly a waste of time.
When one of these blatant scam e-mails was sent to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, his staff took the time to analyze and deconstruct the document, coming up with seven obvious tip-offs the message was a scam.
First, here is the message in its entirety:
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