Saving Money
How to hire a snow shoveler, avoid the flakes
Ron Dicker
Feb 9th 2010 at 2:00PM
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Saving Money, In the News
So you'd prefer to stay by the fire and let someone else clear your driveway and sidewalk during the next snowstorm?
Make sure you follow the WalletPop checklist from Mike Stevens, the owner of the industry newsletter Snowplow News, and Kevin Arroyo, the owner of R and A Cleaning snow removal in Staten Island, N.Y., so you don't get snowed.
Money College: Dump the 'Freshman 15' and fatten your wallet
Megan Cottrell
Feb 9th 2010 at 1:00PM
Filed under: Money College, Food, Saving Money, Health
It's sophomore year, and suddenly you're finding that your jeans don't fit like they used to? You're not alone. Although so-called "freshman 15" is an exaggeration, most students gain weight in college. Stress, a less-active life style, and those buffet-style cafeterias lead many students to pack on pounds. A Rutgers University study showed that if students keep up their freshman weight gain, they would gain 27 pounds by graduation.Dollar store clothing: Worth it or not? Readers write in
Marlene Alexander
Feb 5th 2010 at 9:00AM
Filed under: Saving Money, Shopping
Well, I asked for your opinions about the clothing found at dollar stores and, once again, you responded with enthusiasm and honesty. Impressions tended to be varied from one reader to the next, even getting into a debate over what constitutes a dollar store. It seems some of you don't consider Family Dollar or Dollar General to be "dollar stores" in the strictest sense of the word and that was my first impression. However, the majority of my readers seem to lump these discount stores in with dollar stores and I'm not here to pick nits, so I include them. After all, a bargain is a bargain, wherever you find it.
Whatever the topic, there will always be conflicting opinions and experiences. Such was the case with the issue of clothes in dollar stores. One reader said the clothes at her dollar store looked stiff and only came in extra large sizes, while another gentleman complained that he needed those sizes but the ones marked x-large seemed smaller at Family Dollar than at other retail stores.
Buy everything you see advertised during the Super Bowl for $163,827 ... or save
Tom Barlow
Feb 3rd 2010 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Bargains, Saving Money, Technology, As Seen on TV
The Super Bowl is the only football game many people watch, and they don't gather to watch sweaty bodies collide; they are there to watch the commercials. And while the merchants pay millions of dollars for a minute of your time, it's not coming out of your pocket, right? Wrong.If you bought one of every item advertised during this year's game that we could ascribe a dollar value to, you'd pay $163,827.25, which is $6,329.65 more than if you bought similar items from companies that don't advertise during the Super Bowl. Face it, dude; the money for the obscenely high salaries earned by the players comes right out of your pocket.
Granted, some of the difference in price between goods advertised during the Super Bowl and those that aren't could represent a difference in quality. However, I'm convinced that much of what we perceive as better quality is due to the brainwashing effect of incessant advertising.
Given that, here's how the frugal shopper can save some bucks when tempted by the Super Bowl ads to buy, buy, buy.
The products being advertised during the big game can be sorted into a few neat categories:
Free cellphone service for poor lowers rates
Aaron Crowe
Feb 3rd 2010 at 3:15PM
Filed under: Saving Money, Recession, Economizer
Assurance Wireless announced today that it is cutting its per-minute calling option in half in a program aimed at giving poor people cellphones.Call it a coincidence, but the move comes less than a week after WalletPop pointed out that after the 200 free monthly minutes are used, customers can buy more airtime at 20 cents a minute -- double what the company's sister program, Boost Mobile, was offering at 10 cents a minute.
Its text messages, however, remain extraordinarily high at 15 cents, making messaging more costly than a domestic phone call. Most prepaid plans charge less for texting. Whatever. At least the calling rate drops.
Don't pinch your pennies, change them in for bigger bills
Gina Roberts-Grey
Feb 3rd 2010 at 11:45AM
Filed under: Budgets, Saving Money, Economizer
Looking to hang onto your hard-earned cash a little longer? Instead of pinching pennies, research suggests converting them into big bills.Naked truth about nude Bud Light ad: We get cheap beer
Ron Dicker
Jan 28th 2010 at 2:30PM
Filed under: Saving Money, Shopping, Ad Rant
The new Bud Light commercial, introduced online Wednesday, features pudgy, naked male flesh. It is the latest in down-market brewing's glorious history of using nudity to sell beer. Only instead of buxom babes, we get 60 seconds of office drones stripping frantically because the company clothing drive is offering a Bud Light for every item donated.
But is Bud Light stripping scared? And will that benefit Joe Six-Pack at the cash register? Donald Lichtenstein, a marketing professor at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, believes the brand is perhaps acting out in fear of even cheaper beer horning in on its low-brau base.
"I'll bet some part of it is a reaction to the market share Pabst is getting," Lichtenstein told WalletPop.
Hearing 'voices' common for children
Amy Pyle
Jan 28th 2010 at 12:30PM
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Saving Money
When young children hear voices, many parents rush to the psychotherapist for an expensive battery of tests.While hearing voices can be a manifestation of schizophrenia, and so should not be ignored, a new survey out of the Netherlands indicates that while many children hear voices, few are bothered by them.
The study of 3,870 primary school Dutch primary school students, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that nearly one in 10 7- to 8-year-olds heard voices. But only 19% said the voices interfered with their thought process and 15% said they caused serious suffering and anxiety.
Boys and girls were equally likely to hear voices, but girls were more bothered by them. Urban children were less likely to hear voices than those who lived in rural areas, but the city dwellers were more likely to be disturbed by the voices and they were more likely to hear multiple voices speaking at once, a finding that concerned the researchers.
Savings Experiment: Get the best of pests for less?
Lou Carlozo
Jan 26th 2010 at 12:30PM
Filed under: Home, Saving Money, Health
New Year's weight-loss crowd looks for budget-friendly options
Zac Bissonnette
Jan 26th 2010 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Saving Money, Health
As the New Year's Resolution crowd looks to lose weight once again, many people are combining it with another recession-inspired resolution: managing money better.WalletPOP's Geoff Williams has been chronicling his efforts to lose weight while saving money, and I recently looked at how exercise videos can offer an affordable alternative to the gym for fitness newcomers. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports on (subscription required) a few other possibilities: walking around the mall in groups, participating in free or ultra low-cost yoga classes, and bike paths.
Time Magazine covered the rise of mall-walking way back in 1985, and About.com recommends checking with the information desk at your local mall to find out about mall walking programs. Alternatively, you could just go to the mall and walk around on your own without the structure and motivation of companions there to talk you out of ducking into the Godiva store for refreshments.
You could also go vintage and buy this Suzanne Somers Thighmaster on eBay -- complete with the instructional VHS! Or you could go really vintage -- as in practically antique -- and work out with Jack Lalanne, who has uploaded some of his vintage exercise programs onto his website so you can watch them on your laptop while you work out. He's 95 years old, and he's in better shape than most 20-year-olds. So clearly he knows of what he speaks.
The bottom line is that lack of money is never an excuse for not getting in shape. There are tons of alternatives to gym memberships that cost little or nothing.
Ask the Dolans: Do I really need life insurance?
Ken Dolan
Jan 22nd 2010 at 2:30PM
Filed under: Saving Money, The Dolans, Video, Insurance - Life Insurance
Ken and Daria Dolan of Dolans.com, America's first family of personal finance, answer your questions every Friday.
Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.
Dear Ken and Daria,
I'm retired and 70 years old. Do I really need life insurance?
--Ed
Find out how much life insurance you really need with our simple worksheet at Dolans.com.
Savings guru Elisabeth Leamy offers tips on saving big
Martha C. White
Jan 22nd 2010 at 10:00AM
Filed under: Saving Money
So you're brown-bagging it, making your own coffee and clipping coupons. Sound familiar? It's what a lot of us are doing these days in order to save money. It's also what Elisabeth Leamy used to do before she realized it wasn't really getting her family's finances very far. Instead, Leamy attacked her big-ticket expenses and, by doing so, saved her family a whopping $160,000 over the past ten years. In her new book, Save Big, Leamy doles out some saving advice that may not seem so conventional. For instance, she says to go ahead and keep that daily latte (though we still say skip it and embrace the Mr. Coffee machine instead.) Leamy believes that the only way consumers can truly save cash is to tackle larger chunks of wasteful spending, particularly when it comes to your house, your car and other key areas.
But can Leamy's ways help us save tens of thousands of dollar, too? WalletPop got her advice firsthand. Here's what she had to say about five key spending areas.
Online coupons: print, buy, and swap
Julia Scott
Jan 21st 2010 at 2:15PM
Filed under: Saving Money, Shopping, Economizer, Bargain Babe
I read in a news story weeks ago that people get 90% of their coupons from the newspaper, which is crazy because there are SO MANY COUPONS ONLINE. If it sounds like I'm shouting it's because I am.If you only clip the Sunday newspaper, or are holding back because you don't get a paper or don't own scissors, you are missing out! And I don't want you to miss out.
There are three main ways to get coupons online. With the way newspapers are struggling, I wonder if Web sites will soon be the preeminent place to get coupons. You can print them from coupon sites, buy them, or trade for them.
Financial fast: So that's what I've been doing!
Sarah Gilbert
Jan 20th 2010 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Budgets, Saving Money, Shopping, Credit Cards
I was washing dishes and listening to NPR when Michelle Singletary came on to introduce a "21-day financial fast." At first I was excited with the idea, tinged as it was with the overtones of spirituality (my dad, an ordained minister, is a big lover of the food sort of fasting) and the whole concept of living within one's means. Singletary's rules go like this: except for food and medicine (and of course, utilities and contracted housing costs and other monthly non-negotiables), no purchasing. No plastic, not even a debit card. No purchases at all, unless it's keeping you alive and out of debtor's prison, not even gifts. Much like the alcoholic who's banned from bars when she joins AA, you may not go to malls. You may not window shop. Not even Marshall's! (I made up that last part, but it seems right.)New Economics of Marriage --The rise of the wives
Barbara Bartlein
Jan 20th 2010 at 3:30PM
Filed under: Budgets, Home, Saving Money, Career
A larger share of men in 2007, as compared to 1970, are married to women whose education and income exceed their own, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of demographic and economic trend data. A larger share of women are married to men with less education and income.From an economic perspective this is a role reversal from the past. A generation ago, when relatively few wives worked, marriage enhanced the economic status of women more than that of men. Most men got married assuming little or no help financially in supporting their families.
In recent decades, however, the economic gains associated with marriage have been greater for men than for women. It looks like women have become "the sugar mommies."
