Looking to get the best culinary experience out of your frozen pizza? That’s not an oxymoron. The smell of tomato sauce and cheese is drifting down the hall from our colleagues at Consumer Reports, who compared the same pizza when cooked in a conventional oven and a microwave oven. Their goal was to figure out the optimal way to cook frozen pizzas for optimal texture and tastiness. [More]
‘Children Are Just Plain Scared Of Santa’: A Former Mall Santa Tells All
By December 21, 2012
Disappointed because your children became hysterical once they were seated on Santa’s lap and the cameras came out? In this post, you will learn how to prevent Santa meltdowns. One winter, Brandon was unemployed and ended up working at the local mall, seated in the Santa throne. So if you take your kids to have their photos taken with Santa and file their last-minute gift requests this weekend, keep these tips in mind. [More]
Hide Your Valuables Where No One Will Ever Look
By November 14, 2012
The best way to keep baddies from stealing your valuables is to not own anything valuable in the first place, but that’s no fun. Instead, consider hiding your valuables in places no one will look. Jewelry box? The obvious place to keep your grandmother’s pearls. An aspirin bottle in the medicine cabinet? Not so much! And who would look for a wad of cash wrapped in foil in an old Gardenburger box in your freezer? [More]
It's Easy To Pay A Semester's Tuition If You Just Amass Thousands Of Dollars In Mail-Rebates
By September 13, 2012
File this one under “Why didn’t I think of that?”: A student attending Auburn University to get his PhD figured out a way to cut way down on his tuition expenses by amassing thousands of dollars in rebate checks and prepaid debit cards. After punching in the numbers on anywhere from 200 to 250 debit cards he received as rebate payments along with $1,000 in rebate checks, he’ll only have to pay $450 out of pocket for this semester’s $4,500 tuition. [More]
The Secretly Awesome Design Of The Ordinary Tic-Tac Box
By August 28, 2012
We roll our eyes at instructions on totally mundane objects. “I’m an adult,” a hypothetical person might say. “I know how to strike a match.” Or inflate a balloon. Or apply shampoo to my head. Maybe the ordinary person isn’t as smart as we’d like to think, though. There are millions of boxes of Tic-Tacs circulating out there right this minute, but most people have no idea how to actually dispense the tiny torpedoes of freshness. [More]
Use The Clock And Google Voice To Actually Reach The IRS
By August 8, 2012
Sure, it’s not peak IRS season right now, but there is quite a variety of reasons that you might have to deal with the ever-present government agency anyway. Tax Cat is out of the office, vacationing at his offshore kitty condo in the Cayman Islands, so it’s up to reader Christopher, a tax preparer, to serve us up with handy tax advice. See, sometimes you have to call the IRS. You can’t avoid it. But so does everyone else in the country. What Christopher figured out is that the IRS call center doesn’t have fixed hours like most. Its open hours depend on what time zone you live in. His solution? Use a Google Voice number to fudge what time zone he’s in, and call late in the evening when the business day is done for most of the continental U.S. [More]
Washing Your Clothes Now Involves Complicated Flow Chart, Credit Cards
By May 15, 2012
Darren’s New York City apartment building just got a new set of laundry machines. Which is all well and good, but the instructions that come with said equipment? Let’s just say the “3 Easy Steps” touted on the in-depth flow-chart appear to be neither three in number, nor easy. Whatever happened to sticking some quarters in a machine and popping your whites and darks in? [More]
10 Signs Your Used Car Is Really A Rebuilt Wreck
By May 3, 2012
We often hear from readers horrified to discover that their perfectly lovely used car was once another owner’s total loss. They only find out much later, once something goes horribly wrong due to the previous damage. But once the vehicle is all fixed up and shiny, how is the average car buyer to know the difference? It turns out that there are distinctive signs that a car was previously in a crash or flood. Some you might notice yourself, and others require a mechanic’s eye. [More]
A Rebuttal To Important News Regarding How Much Money Is In Scrooge McDuck's Vault
By April 25, 2012
Here at Consumerist, we don’t take vaults filled with riches lightly. So when a recent story claimed to have finally calculated how much money it would take to fill Scrooge McDuck’s swimmable vault of gold, our childhood selves were all atwitter. But then, we started talking about it amongst ourselves. [More]
How Being Too Competent Can Get You Fired
By April 18, 2012
Being the weakest performer in the company or performing a service that’s utterly dispensable is dangerous to your continued employment, especially in a weak job market. But working hard and being good at what you do is potentially dangerous as well, especially if your bosses are insecure, paranoid, and just not a good as you are. To people who think this way, having a bright future within the company makes you a threat. Your future endangers theirs. [More]
A 4-Page Paper Arguing Your Case With Physics Will Get You Out Of A Ticket
By April 16, 2012
Trying to argue your way out of a traffic ticket is one thing. But presenting a four-page letter that presents the physical impossibility of the situation described in said ticket is something that could only be done by an expert physicist. So if you don’t want to pay $400 and happen to know such a person, it might turn out handy. [More]
5 Situations Where You Shouldn't Use A Debit Card
By April 12, 2012
Debit cards can help you manage your budget without sacrificing the convenience of credit cards. But there are just some cases where you absolutely should not use debit for credit. [More]
CFPB Rolls Out Tool To Help Students Comparison Shop For Financial Aid
By April 12, 2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in its infancy, but already it’s taking steps to create tools that can help people in a very real way. It rolled out a beta version of a cost comparison shopping tool, aimed at guiding students and their families through the process of researching financial aid options. [More]
If Earth Day Is Too Much To Handle, Just Turn Off The Lights For Earth Hour Tomorrow
By March 30, 2012
We know, you’re too addicted to keeping your phone/tablet/laptop charged to go for an entire day without using any electricity, but how about for just 60 minutes during Earth Hour tomorrow? Come on, you can do it. We believe in you, and the world will be ever so grateful. [More]
Even Knowing The Winningest Lottery Numbers Won't Help You Score The Mega Millions
By March 30, 2012
Sure, there are numbers that have been drawn a few times in the Mega Millions lottery, and it’s fun to know what they are and dream about the dollar sign-shaped pool you’d put in your yard, but odds are, you’re probably not going to win. But hey, dare to dream, and trying out some common numbers can’t hurt. [More]
So You Won A Bajillion Dollars In The Lottery — Now What?
By March 29, 2012
Sure, only like, one in a zillion of you might need this information — but what exactly do you do when you win the mega jackpot lottery? Before you run off with your millions of dollars to fill a pool with gold coins so as to swim through it, Scrooge McDuck style, there are some very important things to consider. Why not prepare yourself for your future filthy rich state? [More]
CFPB Now Answering Your Finance Questions
By March 23, 2012
Want to know who you need to call when disputing an error on your credit report? Are you curious about what a “reverse mortgage” is? Well, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just launched a new interactive service that fields questions like these and provides answers without all the usual fancy finance jargon. [More]
Comment Of The Day: Dishwasher, Clean Thyself
We’re reviving an old-school Consumerist feature last seen circa 2008: the Comment of the Day. On this morning’s post about cleaning ‘taters and cooking salmon in the dishwasher, commenter Pasketti observed that only a dishwasher that is itself clean can clean your potatoes properly. [More]