Multivitamins come in an array of packages like “Silver,” “Kids Chewables,” and “Schwarzenegger,” but it’s all marketing. Just buy the cheapest. They’re all the same, just in different colored boxes. That’s the advice Consumer Reports is dishing out after it tested 21 different kinds of multivitamins, and finding most were indistinguishable from one another, with two exceptions. [More]
how-to
Make Cash As A Lab Rat
By 10.1.10
A guy who worked full time for three years just by signing up to be a human test subject for paid clinical research studies tells you how you can make good money doing it. [More]
Deduct Costs Of Stinky Chinese Drywall From Your Taxes
By 10.1.10
You can get some money if your home was ruined by defective Chinese drywall that emitted nasty-ass sulfuric fumes. The IRS yesterday said that homeowners could treat the damages to both their homes and appliances as a casualty loss and deduct it from their taxes. [More]
Start A Co-Op Preschool
By 9.29.10
Preschools can be a giant chunk of change, so some parents are banding together and forming their own unofficial co-op preschools. Tuition is minimal and mainly goes to paying the teacher (that they get to choose), and they save on overhead by rotating the location between different family’s homes. There are definitely some considerations to figure out. People who’ve done it before advise: [More]
Tell The FCC To Nix The NBC Comcast Deal
By 9.28.10
If you don’t want Comcast to own NBC, you can use this handy dandy online petition Consumers Union put together for you to tell the FCC. As the agency continue to mull over the deal, perhaps your opinion may help sway theirs. But why might Kabletown owning the peacock be bad for consumers? [More]
Make A Fruit Fly Death Trap With Apple Cider Vinegar And Dish Soap
By 9.27.10
Fruit flies can be an annoyance but you can get rid of them using stuff right from your kitchen, no tools required. One method is to pour apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a glass along with some dish soap. Come back after leaving it out for a few hours and you’ll have yourself a nice cup of dead fruit flies. [More]
Track And Recover A Stolen Laptop With Prey
By 9.24.10
Lifehacker has a great tutorial on how to use the free software called “Prey” to track and recover your stolen laptop or Android. What’s cool is that the program can silently locate the laptop via triangulation and take pictures and screenshots, or you can more aggressively lock the computer down and send whoever is using it various warning messages. [More]
Lauren's Quick And Easy Excel Budgeter
By 9.24.10
It’s hard to beat an excel spreadsheet for quickly shifting between a granular and top-level view of your personal finance situation. Here’s reader Lauren’s account balance spreadsheet she made to keep track of her expenditures, past, present, and future, and itemize her budget. [More]
Got Until 9/27 To Cancel Sprint Without Fee
By 9.23.10
You have until September 27th to cancel your Sprint contract without early termination fee. Sprint recently made it so employer discounts don’t apply beyond the first two lines on the account. Because this is a material change in the service contract, you can cancel the contract without penalty. [More]
Saved $99.48 With Coupons, Bought 51 Items For $45.46
By 9.15.10
Consumerist reader LadySiren, married with 5 kids, is a coupon ninja by necessity. “My kids go through a box and a half of Pop-Tarts each time they eat them for breakfast,” she writes by way of explanation. Here’s how, in exhaustive detail, she bought 51 items at the supermarket this week using coupons, super double coupons, and catalinas, for only $45.56, saving $99.48. Her haul is pictured. [More]
Pack Like A Pro
By 9.15.10
This guy show off a cool “clown-car” technique for packing a lot of clothes into your luggage. [More]
What's The Best Way To Help Manage A Relative's Finances Without Jeopardizing Your Own?
By 9.14.10
A tipster wants to know whether adding his name to his mother’s accounts will open him up to credit issues should something go wrong. [More]
Install iTunes 10 Minus The Bloatware (PC)
By 9.13.10
Like previous versions, iTunes 10 is a hefty hunk of software that actually contains within it 6 different Windows Installer programs that you don’t always need or want. Apple doesn’t let you customize the install, but this guide shows you how to install only the slimmest iTunes footprint you need for your purposes. [More]
Turn Store Financing Offers Into Interest-Earning Free Loans
By 9.9.10
Store financing offers like 0% down, pay nothing for 6 months, etc, can be a way to lure those who really shouldn’t be buying stuff into purchasing, but if you actually have the cash in hand already, you can leverage them into the equivalent of an interest-earning free loan. [More]
Simplify Your Life
By 9.2.10
For a guide to simplifying your life, this 7-step, multi-bulleted guide looks a little complex. So pick one tip to get inspired by, like getting some unnecessary possessions out of the house. Feeling overwhelmed is a catalyst for emotional spending and other unwise activities, and the little things building up can be little seeds of unraveling. Sometimes the best way to take care of frayed ends is to snip them. [More]
Choose The Best Airplane Seat
By 8.31.10
Here’s a cheery chart that purports to show you how to choose the best seat on an airplane. Bulkheads give you more legroom, but they also attract parents with babies. Seems seats in the back seem the best bet, you’re more likely to be able to store your luggage in the overhead, as well as survive a crash. [More]
Erase Yourself From The Internet
By 8.31.10
Need to escape from a stalker or clean up your online identity before a potential or current employer finds out that you have a personality? Here’s instructions on how to delete yourself from the internet, everything from erasing your profile from Facebook to “unGoogling” yourself. [More]
3 Ways To Ineffectively Complain
By 8.26.10
When you call up customer service, would you like to hang up with your issue not fixed at all? How about leaving the conversation angrier than when you started it? Here are three excellent tips for not getting what you want whatsoever when you complain to a company: [More]
