“The only difference is the inside. Nobody can tell,” said Kimberly Aya, whose 3-month-old company also bakes real cakes.
The savings from a rented wedding cake could buy a wedding dress at Target. Is it worth it? Tell us in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
As if the American poor don’t suffer enough, now it turns out trying to get a leg up may only backfire. Yesterday, the National Center For Policy Analysis warned of catastrophic financial problems for poor people who save money. The Los Angeles Times story on the study explained that “each $1 saved by a single mother earning $15,000 a year would cost her $2.60 in higher taxes and lost government benefits.”
FreeMoneyFinance has six tips to keep your energy bill from overheating this summer:
Federal law mandates that banks can’t take your Social Security to pay debts, but some banks are doing exactly that, endangering the ability of sick and dying elderly to pay for their health costs. WSJ reports:
My Mint has three important banking regulations every banking customer should know about.
We doubt the part about the waitress being impressed by geometry skills, but the rest of it sounds about right. —MEGHANN MARCO
What tips do you have to grow a garden that doesn’t hurt the wallet? Tell us in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
• The very best free boxes: boxes liquor is shipped in. Go to your local liquor store or restaurant with a bar area and ask them if they will give you boxes. Sometimes you can catch them before the store breaks them down for recycling and you don’t even have to tape them back together. These boxes are usually the perfect size for heavy items like books and glassware. They’re also stronger than other types of boxes, usually.
There are more tips at Curbly, but they’re all pretty basic. Let’s hear what the Consumerists have to say. What are your tips for a quick, cheap move. Our tip? Don’t use U-haul. Sell your children first.
Smart kids start saving for retirement early.
Frucall upgraded its free instant comparison shopping service for cellphones so now all you have to do is send a text message. Simply text “fru” and the product barcode to a special number and get the results back by text.
The employee who provided us the Goofus and Gallant 19 point guide to banking has some answers to your questions and clarifications, inside…
A current employee in a big bank sent us a big list of banking do’s and don’ts that we know some people could stand to be reminded of [More]
Organizing the chargers for your cellphone, PDA, Nintendo DS, etc. can be hugely annoying and expensive. Why expensive? When you leave chargers plugged into the wall, they’re still drawing electricity—even when your phone isn’t plugged in.
As you get them, shove bags in the top hole; as you need them, pull them out of the bottom hole. (I fit 15 medium-sized bags in my bottle.) Having the plastic bags at hand-my keeper will be hanging by my back door-should encourage reusing them. Plus, they look a lot neater packed in that bottle.
Nifty! We think we’ll put ours under the bathroom sink because we use our Target bags as bathroom garbage bags. —MEGHANN MARCO
Fresh herbs are delicious, but they cost money. Money you’d be better off using for other things, because herbs can be grown in a pot and the Nintendo Wii cannot. You don’t even need a yard! The National Gardening Associations says “a simple container on a deck or patio can provide herbs all season, as you need them.”
If you’re going to be idling for more than 10 seconds, you can get 30 more miles per tank, according to the Canadian Office of Energy Efficiency and the Celias blog.
“Dave’s story is swift, proactive and in the end, he gets what he wants and needs out of his cable company: a functional product at an acceptable price. Of course, he has to, figuratively speaking, shove a fist in their love handles, rip out their gall bladder and eat it in front of them, but sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do to get his DVR…”
There’s been a raging “online savings account” debate going on at Get Rich Slowly, resulting in a valuable discussion in the comments.
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