Almost exactly a year after IKEA announced it would raise the hourly starting wage for employees from $9.17 to $10.76, the furniture retailer says it will give workers another 10% pay boost. [More]
cost of living
Residents In Most-Affordable U.S. City Would Have To Pay 15 Times Their Income To Buy In NYC
By 5.21.14
A lot goes into choosing a city to live in. Is it close to your family? Are there job opportunities available? And maybe most importantly will you be able to live conformably within that city’s cost of living? [More]
Expenses That Mortgage Calculators Don't Tell You About
By 4.3.12
When you’re shopping for houses, you can get giddy when you plug your numbers into a mortgage calculator and discover your dream home has a surprisingly low monthly payment. It’s lying to you. Mortgage payments are only part of the myriad costs home ownership heaps upon you. [More]
Reasons To Retire To A Foreign Country
By 12.21.11
Maybe you’ve always seen yourself running out the clock in Scottsdale or Miami, but if you want to make your retirement dollar stretch, you may want to expand your horizons. Some foreign countries cater to retirees with friendly tax rates and low cost of living, making them attractive alternatives to American retirement havens. [More]
Costco Will Expand Food Stamp Program Nationwide
By 10.28.09
It turns out more Costco customers use food stamps than CEO James D. Sinegal originally thought, because after a test run earlier this year the company has decided to roll out the program nationwide.
Lower Cost Of Living Means Less Income For Some
By 10.17.09
The good news: the cost of living is decreasing, or at least isn’t increasing. The bad news: Colorado is the first state to actually decrease its minimum wage, from $7.28 to $7.24, and Social Security recipients will not be receiving their routine cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA for 2010.
These Places Are So Cheap They May Actually Allow You To Retire There
By 9.30.09
U.S. News & World Report names the 10 “Best Affordable Places To Retire.”
Couple Attempts To Stretch Half A Year's Pay Into A Full Year
By 9.18.09
CNN profiles a young family living in a Chicago suburb who have decided to carry out an experiment in frugal living—they want to see if they can reduce their expenses enough to get by on about half of what they made before the wife and sole breadwinner was laid off earlier this summer.
Costco Now Accepting Food Stamps, Sort Of
By 5.27.09
Finally following the lead of its competitors, Costco will accept food stamp cards. For core food items, not other merchandise. Two New York City stores, in Astoria, Queens, and in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, will serve as test sites because of the high numbers of food stamp recipients nearby. If the program is successful, Costco will expand it to all other New York City stores, but there are no plans to expand the program to other cities or states.
Which Parts Of The Country Are Carrying The Most Credit Card Debt?
By 5.25.09
Forbes wanted to know which states had the highest average balances per household in May, so they took the total amount of debt in 50 major metropolitan areas, divided that by the number of households, then divided that by the median household income for that area for May. Here are some of their results.
This Dollar Store Taunts You With The Past
By 8.28.08
Can there be any sadder indication of our toilet-water economy than a dollar store that references its own happier, cheaper past? This New York City dollar store has pulled down its old sign, “Everything 99¢ Or Less,” and rebranded.
Get Ready For More Supermarket Price Hikes
By 7.23.08
The notorious Grocery Shrink Ray was supposed to help prevent this, or so we were told by apologists for it, but Datamonitor is reporting that Kraft Foods, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, Sara Lee, and Tyson “are all expected to announce a hike in the prices of their products” in the near future. Here are some of the hikes you can expect, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
By 7.14.08
../..//2008/07/14/tv-stations-looking-to-save/
TV stations looking to save money can do so by interviewing guests remotely over Skype, as WTVT in Tampa did, live, with me this morning. No more paying for car service or bottled water!
By 6.9.08
../..//2008/06/09/consumers-are-responding-to-higher/
Consumers are responding to higher priced goods buy buying more private label items, says a Citibank analyst. The increase in market share is small—private labels occupy less than 12%—but significant enough to note for investors. Are you buying more private labels at the grocery store? [Reuters]
Food Companies Threaten Higher Prices If FDA Increases Safety Oversight
By 4.28.08
Last week, the Grocery Manufacturers Association told lawmakers that if the FDA doubled its safety oversight budget by increasing fees from food companies, they’d have to raise prices to make up the cost. That’s right: affordable food or safe food. Choose one!
Shipping Is Getting Expensive
By 4.7.08
Emily noticed that the weird puppet crap she was thinking of buying on Ebay would make her PayPal account explode:
I know shipping products can be expensive, what with the rising fuel costs and all, but this shipping charge from the UK to Utah is ridiculous! Maybe the seller’s just padding the fee, I don’t know. 🙂
The 12 Days Of Christmas Will Cost You $19,507 This Year
By 11.26.07
Every year since 1984 PNC has been calculating the cost of the items mentioned in the 12 days of Christmas, resulting in a pointless, but highly amusing version of the Consumer Price Index.
