Articles on Consumer Affairs

How to get your car stolen

Every 26.4 seconds, a vehicle is stolen in the U.S.* If you want yours to be one of those vehicles, just follow these simple guidelines and the thief will be driving away in your n

90% off is not a deal if you don’t need it.

I found myself in a strange battle of wills last week. My favorite store, Target, was having another one of those spectacular sales. Red tags featuring the 75% off, and the rare 90

Do you trust ads from radio DJs?

The US radio airwaves are filled with endorsements from radio DJs, and the list of things they hawk is mind-blowing.  Coming from a country that doesn’t have these pai

Is daylight-saving time a complete waste of energy?

This weekend the clocks “spring forward.” I’m not a huge fan of DST . In fact, I’m not a fan of anything that steals

The stuff I try never to buy new

I don't like buying new. It's not that I consider myself to be some kind of Scrooge. I just have a hard time paying more for something than I need to, and often we take tha

419 baiting – keeping online scammers running in circles

How many of you have received an email telling you that you’ve one a lottery that you never even entered? Or, that a rich widow wants help distributing millions of dollars to the p

5 Sleek Marketing Ploys Aimed at Getting More of Your Grocery Money

The cost of food isn’t going down, and for some, it is making the task of feeding a family more painful than ever. It doesn’t help that ad agencies and PR compani

Sound advice for winning on a game show

I've been a closet fan of game shows for years; most likely because I love the idea of getting something for nothing (hey, this is a frugal writer after all). I recently stumbl

I'll take a slice of lemon with fecal bacteria please.

I’ve never thought twice about the humble lemon slice. I’m sure most of you haven’t either. And as I’m partial to a slice of lemon in my water or iced tea, for added flavor, I usua

So you bought an HD DVD player. Now what?

It’s gone. HD DVD lost the war, Blu-Ray is the winner. Toshiba has admitted defeat and will discontinue all of its HD DVD products. No more players, no more recorders, no more disc

Papa Murphy’s update: nice save.

As some of you are aware, I experienced the wait of all waits at Papa Murphy’s recently. Over one hour for a phone order, which left me fuming (partly at my own politeness for not

Take back St. Valentine’s Day from Hallmark and Hershey’s.

Today is St. Valentine’s Day. Delivery vans filled with flowers are passing each other on the highways; the supermarket aisles filled with pink and red cards are chock full of men

Explaining Away the Green M&M

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the company behind M&M’s has decided to let the urban legend run wild. No longer will the impotent and un

Great idea for Papa Murphy’s – make the pizzas in order.

What do you get if you cross a bunch of hungry people with an ineffective ordering system? You get the riot that almost happened at my local Papa Murphy’s on Friday. And if they do

Should You be Ashamed to be on Public Assistance?

Government assistance such as the Food Stamp Program and cash welfare payments are sticky topics of discussion. What exactly is frugal about us

UK banks are blocking customers' credit cards. Will the USA be next?

It was bound to happen. I just thought it would happen over here first. Today

What would you do with the F.U. money?

One of my close friends at work can often be heard saying “man, if only I had the F.U. money.” By that, of course, he means that if he had enough money to not care about losing his

Blergh! Could you eat these strange canned foods?

I was raised on canned food. We never had much money, so my folks bought food in cans because it lasted forever, it was cheap and, if dented or without a label, really really cheap

Multi-Level Marketing: The Future or Folly?

Multi Level Marketing (MLM). Also known as Network Marketing or Direct Marketing, and even commonly (incorrectly) referred to as Pyramid Schemes, this type of business entity

It Broke? Check for a Recall

Recalls aren't just for toys. If something breaks, especially earlyish in the product's life, check it out and you may just get a free replacement.