For decades, Nabisco's Wheat Thins and Honey Maid Grahams reigned as some of the healthiest choices in the snack aisle. But in the past few years, consumers have begun to sling around the words "processed foods" and "refined flours" as if they were curses, and embraced new offerings from upstarts like Kashi, a company so committed to whole grains, wheat berries are its logo. New on the list of foods that parents worry about their children eating: Ritz crackers, and the Lunchables that feature the high-calorie, low-nutrient munchable.

On Monday, Kraft announced that this was about to change. In the next three years, it said its signature crackers will enjoy a "significant" increase in their whole grain content.

Wendy's new line of salads is reminiscent of something you'd find in a far more upscale restaurant: lolla rossa lettuce, red and green romaine, spinach, and chard. But all that fancy green is going to cost you, well, some fancy green.

Denny Lynch, a Wendy's spokesman, says these greens and other vegetables, nuts, fruits, cheeses and meats are " ... ingredients salad lovers want to see in their salads," and proudly states, "we felt that if we could raise the bar on salads, we might attract customers that [would otherwise] go into the restaurant cafes and casual dining sector, as well as providing something that our existing customers like, too."

The prices, up about 25% from the chain's existing Garden Sensations line, $5.99 for a salad, wouldn't be out of place in an upscale restaurant, either.

For older Americans surveyed by Allianz Life Insurance Co., death is not such a big deal. Not, that is, when it compares to the spectre of a dwindling bank account. In a poll of people between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.

With a couple of banking crises under our belts, we've become almost entirely focused on the monetary aspect of advanced age. The context is important. The poll of 3,257 people, released last month, found that a whopping 92% of respondents agreed that "the United States is facing a crisis in its retirement system," the AARP wrote about the report.

Early Sunday, suspicious activity in the Apple App Store prompted customer complaints and technology sleuths to discover an inexplicable rise in sales of Vietnamese-language books, seemingly pirated, in both the App and Apple iTunes stores. The hackers, burned customers reported, were hijacking their accounts and purchasing a large number of these apps, resulting in charges between $40 and $600 to their accounts. Those whose accounts were linked to prepaid Apple gift cards got off the easiest; many with accounts linked to debit or credit cards were left without immediate recourse.

As the Apple customer support phone lines were closed for the holiday weekend, customers who reported fraudulent activity were left sending emails to the company in frustration. Technology sites reporting the hack reports began recommending customers take protective action, including checking iTunes previous purchases for unauthorized activity; changing iTunes account passwords; and finally, disabling bank account information from your account. For iTunes accounts, until Apple follows up with some public comment to address this issue, the safest approach seems to be using only prepaid iTunes gift cards, which will limit exposure.

Some customers who reported hacks before the holiday weekend said they were told by Apple customer support that they must take fraudulent purchases up with their bank; in many cases, when purchases are approved via debit card, customers will first suffer the repercussions of the money clearing the account, and possibly overdraft fees or bounced checks, before the charges are reversed. In addition, because the app developers all appear to be in Asian countries, it is unlikely U.S. or British law enforcement will have the ability to prosecute the suspected fraudsters. For now, the very safest route seems to be to choose "none" as payment method under your iTunes account.

My parents are brilliant at personal finance. When they see or hear an advertisement trumpeting how much money they'll save if they just buy this, that or the other thing, they're smart enough to say, "I know how to save even more money!" How? By not buying that money-saving "miracle" product being advertised in the first place! While this may sound obvious, it's nonetheless a hurdle that many of us keep stumbling over.

How can you avoid the "spend money to save money" trap? Read on, as we outline nine "deals" that really aren't.

Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Honey Smacks and Corn Pops cereals are among the 28 million boxes being recalled by Kellogg due to a "waxy" smell coming from the package liners. The company is voluntarily recalling the cereals, saying the smell could make people sick.

While the company says the potential for serious health problems is very low, about 20 people have complained about the cereals' smell throughout the United States, including five who, company spokeswoman J. Adaire Putnam told us, reacted with "temporary symptoms of vomiting, nausea, or diarrhea, and reported that they recovered quickly."

Cooking in my mother's kitchen can sometimes be a chore: She and I just don't think the same way when it comes to food, despite the many years I spent as a student under her tutelage. As a child of the Great Depression, she represents the commitment to thrift mixed with an often-blind love for the technological wonders of the last century so common in her generation (her frequent use of powdered milk is just one example). But there are times in her kitchen when I remember my roots and thank her silently for bequeathing to me a love for, and skills with, some low-tech tools that are both useful and low-cost.

Want to use your kitchen better without spending a lot? Here are six gadgets from Grandma's kitchen that should be in yours:

What could a mother of small children offer to the U.S. military? Some feedback, perhaps, about how badly hook-and-pile tape -- the generic term for Velcro -- holds up in a sandbox. In 2004, the Army switched to hook-and-pile tape for a number of the things formerly secured by the ancient technology of buttons and needle-and-thread, including pocket and pants closures, name patches, rank insignia, and (in a decision that always baffled me), the little U.S. flag patch.

In Afghanistan and other sandy places where so many U.S. troops are now stationed, however, there is a problem with hook-and-pile tape: it's highly ineffective when filled with sand. Pants falling off and important items falling out of pockets makes for an Army that is hard to take seriously. And if the soldiers have figured out how to clear the hooks and piles with creative solutions -- a small weapons cleaning brush works very well, says the Army's website -- it's also noisy. This can be, well, inconvenient in battle situations.

Annually-released statistics such as the Agricultural Department's "cost of raising a child" report are the sort of thing that make a frugal woman shake her head. The cost of raising a child from birth to age 17, says the USDA, is $222,360 for those born in 2009; this takes into account the expenses for housing, transportation, food, clothing, health care, child care and education, and "other" (toothbrushes, iPods, and kidlit, evidently). It's a hard number to believe, especially given my possession of three hale-and-hearty boys, ages two to seven. But there was an interesting tidbit in this year's survey: as you have more than two children, your incremental costs decrease.

While it may seem like a fortuitous turn of events, ethically and, in some cases, legally, financial errors made in your favor shouldn't be accepted and can, in fact, be considered theft. Instances of banks erroneously depositing large amounts of money in consumers' accounts, for example, did not result in early retirements on a tropical island for the consumers. Or when a staff member accidentally gets paid at the CEO rate instead of the Lowly Line Worker rate, they have had to give the money back. While disappointing, most people understand why that "found" money has to be returned.

But things get a little blurrier when it comes to less dollar-intensive purchases at a grocery or department store. Consumers often rationalize the error as if it was a Monopoly maneuver: "Bank error in your favor! Collect $75!"