budget

Checklist Your Way To Thanksgiving Success

Checklist Your Way To Thanksgiving Success

It’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving. Stay in budget and manage your time effectively with ShelterPop’s pre-Turkey Day checklist. What do you do around your house to prepare?

Ryder Refunds Customer $120 For Forcing Him Into U-Haul's Arms

Ryder Refunds Customer $120 For Forcing Him Into U-Haul's Arms

Jesse, who wrote to us last week to complain about Ryder’s broken guarantee, has contacted us again with a follow up. We also spoke with Ryder directly to ask how their “Guaranteed Availability” promise actually works, so that future customers know what to expect.

Save Money on Cable Television and TV Services

Save Money on Cable Television and TV Services

Given the state of the economy, it seems like everyone is looking for ways to save on non-discretionary expenses. Lucky for us, The Digerati Life offers some useful thoughts on how to cut back on TV services without turning off media completely. Their five suggestions include:

If You Save Too Much — You Might Regret It Later!

If You Save Too Much — You Might Regret It Later!

We’re always telling people to save their money — but that’s just because we’re overcompensating for a society that spends too much. It is possible to be too frugal and you risk regretting that you didn’t have a little more fun while you had the chance.

Do Electricity Monitors Like The "Kill A Watt" Really Work?

Do Electricity Monitors Like The "Kill A Watt" Really Work?

If you’re concerned about your electricity use you may have considered getting one of those energy monitoring devices like the “Kill a Watt” or the “Watts Up.” But do they really work?

Are You Actually Paying More Than $3 A Minute To Use Your Cellphone?

Are You Actually Paying More Than $3 A Minute To Use Your Cellphone?

The LA Times brings up an interesting point. You may think you are getting each cellphone minute for about $0.10… but are you really? Or are you paying for more minutes than you use?

Budget Slaps Customer With $500 Repair Fee Months Later

Budget Slaps Customer With $500 Repair Fee Months Later

When Sean returned a rented truck to Budget Truck Rental nearly a year ago, he went through the standard inspection with an employee, who then signed off on the return. Now the company has sent a $500 bill to collection for damage they refuse to provide evidence of.

Top 10 Most And Least Affordable Cities

Top 10 Most And Least Affordable Cities

The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo have put together an index of the most and least affordable metro areas. The index was created by calculating what percentage of a city’s residents making the median income can afford a house in that city.

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Build Your Own Home Gym For Under $100 Looking to cut costs? Working out at home isn’t as pricey as you might think. A home mini-gym can be an inexpensive way to exercise and keep up muscle strength. [CR Health]

$10 Check From Budget Secretly Signs You Up For Costly Club

$10 Check From Budget Secretly Signs You Up For Costly Club

If you’ve rented from Budget and get a $10, check in the mail, don’t sign it, reports Upgrade Travel Better. The fine print says doing so gives “Trilegiant” permission to sign you up in a monthly “discount” club with a monthly fee. Worse, it allows them to use the credit card you rented the car with to start charging the fees. Pretty sleazy.

Top 9 Good Habits For A Deep Recession

Top 9 Good Habits For A Deep Recession

For many of us, this is the first recession where we are responsible for our own financial well-being. How should we react? What habits are important during a long, deep recession?

Consumer 101: 3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills

Consumer 101: 3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills

How much to spend on cable, internet and telephone is something nobody had to worry about only a few generations ago. Today, the Pew Research Center says that after housing, cable and satellite TV service was most frequently cited as a regular household expense (78%), followed by cell phones (74%) and internet service (65%). By contrast, just four-in-ten adults (42%) say they make a car payment. If you’re looking for a way to cut the amount of money you spend on these “information age” expenses, we’ve got three of them to choose from.

Americans Stop Buying Appliances… Except For Freezers

Americans Stop Buying Appliances… Except For Freezers

Consumer Reports says that despite an overall downturn in appliance purchases, one category is up 13% from last year. Freezers!

Oil Prices May Go Down, But Don't Expect Your Grocery Bill To Shrink

Oil Prices May Go Down, But Don't Expect Your Grocery Bill To Shrink

Now that the price of oil has dropped — you should expect some of those skyrocketing grocery bills you’ve been paying to drop, right? Yeah… probably not.

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Yahoo! SmartMoney lists 9 sites that will help you manage your everyday budgeting. [Yahoo!]

Budget Gaming 101: Tips For The Broke Gamer

Budget Gaming 101: Tips For The Broke Gamer

Reader Ozzie points us to video game developer Ashley Cheng’s blog post about budget gaming. The tips are basic, but it’s good advice nonetheless.

What Else Can $700 Billion Buy?

What Else Can $700 Billion Buy?

A while back the New York Times was concerned about the cost of the Iraq War and published some estimates of what else we could have bought with that money. We didn’t find that very interesting at the time, but now, while trying to wrap our minds around just how effing huge the $700 billion proposed bailout of Wall Street really is, we decided to revisit that article. Here’s what you can buy for less than $700 billion, according to the New York Times.

Morning Deals

  • Apple: Refurbished iPod touches on sale, 8GB for $180, 16GB for $240, 32GB for $320
  • Amazon: Rewards points upgrade for existing Amazon.com Visa holders
  • Apple: Free Select iTunes TV Shows in HD (requires iTunes 8

Highlights From Dealnews

  • Travelocity: United Airlines Sale: Round-trip flights from $108
  • Amazon.com: Amazon.com Men’s Watch Deals: Timex, Marc Ecko, more from $40 + free shipping
  • Sears: Seven7 Women’s Jeans for $18 + $6 s&h, more

Highlights From Buxr

  • Budget Truck Rental: $50 Gift card when paying w/American Express
  • Reverie: T-Shirt Sale: Buy 1 TEE get 1 free TEE
  • BestBuy: Westinghouse 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV and portable DVD Player for $749.99 + shipping

Highlights From Dealhack

  • Drugstore.com: New Customers: Save $5 or $10 off First Order
  • Vann’s: Panasonic FZ28 10.2MP Digital Camera $340 Shipped
  • Amazon: Get Savings of up to 75% off Bargain Books