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Tweaking Ingredients to Save Big
Tweet Share on Facebook April 18, 2008 Comment (1)A story I wrote this week offers six ways to eat better for less. The cooks and bloggers I spoke with offered great advice, from making better use of eggs to creatively reinventing leftovers. My own techniques involve making small changes to recipes to make them more affordable without sacrificing taste. Here are my three favorite inexpensive recipes, all slight variations on the Barefoot Contessa originals:
- Herbed baked eggs Ina Garten may not agree, but substituting dried herbs for the fresh ones she recommends, skipping the parsley altogether, and using English muffins instead of gourmet bread cuts down on costs without undermining flavor. Best for: romantic evening for two.
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Debunking the Money Myth
Tweet Share on Facebook April 17, 2008 Comment (5)Are women really worse with money than men are?
This question has been hanging over me as personal finance books for women pile up on my desk. There's Suze Orman's Women & Money, Lois Frankel's Nice Girls Don't Get Rich, Jean Chatzky's Make Money, Not Excuses, and David Bach's Smart Women Finish Rich, to name a few.
They've all proved to be extremely popular, judging from their Amazon rankings. But why? Is it because we women really do need special help with money, or do we just like reading about it more than men do?
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Popcorn and Soda? That's $10
Tweet Share on Facebook April 17, 2008 Comment (1)Here's another reason to hate going to the movies: The prices for popcorn and other "frill" items are inflated to enable movie theaters to offer cheaper tickets. (Not that the tickets are all that cheap, either.) According to research from the University of California-Santa Cruz and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, it makes sense for movie theaters to gouge us on those Milk Duds, because if they charge more for tickets instead, they'll get fewer customers. "If you want to bring more consumers into the market, you need to keep ticket prices lower to attract them," says Wesley Hartmann, associate professor of marketing at the Stanford B-school.
Of course, to avoid emptying your wallet at the concession stand each time you have a movie date, you could just hold on to your bag for months to get free refills. (That's not a method I would recommend, especially for anyone trying to impress his date.)
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Prepaid College Tuition Isn't for Everyone
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2008 CommentDear Alpha Consumer,
My son has been accepted at an Ivy League school that offers a tuition prepayment plan. We have the money to pay in advance ($100,000 in a 529 and $47,000 in liquid assets), but I'm wondering if that's a good idea.
I figure that tuition rates increase at roughly 4 to 5 percent a year and that if we are not earning 4 to 5 percent a year on our money, then it's best to pay in advance.
Many colleges now offer tuition prepayment plans, which, as you describe, give parents and students the option of locking in tuition rates. But they also come with some risks, the biggest one being depleting a large amount of savings that could be earning a return if it were invested elsewhere.
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The Student Loan 'Un-Ad'
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2008 Comment (1)This week's magazine contains a package of articles on paying for college, including one I wrote on the potentially deceptive ways loans are marketed to students. During my reporting, I came across several creative ads that didn't make it into the story, including one from the Student Loan Network that parodied a Super Bowl ad. When I spoke to the creator, Chief Technology Officer Christopher Penn, he called it an "un-ad," and if you watch it below, you'll see why.
So far, over 17,000 people have viewed the ad, which took Penn about half an hour to make. Pretty clever, huh?
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Why More Expensive Wine Tastes Better
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2008 Comment (3)The next time you pick out wine to go with dinner, consider this: You may enjoy the pricier bottle more, for reasons other than quality.
A study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology found that when people were given two different bottles of wine and told that one cost $5 and the other $45 (in reality, both bottles were identical), the pleasure-center part of the brain became more active when the participants were drinking what they believed to be the more expensive bottle. They also reported that the wine they believed to be more expensive tasted better.
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Audio: The Financial Risks of Online Dating
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2008 CommentFor more on the perils of online dating, download my talk with WTOP on how to avoid wasting money on useless services. Listen now, download in iTunes, or subscribe to the RSS feed.
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Quiz: Are You a Smart Consumer?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2008 CommentHigh schoolers are gathered in Minneapolis for the 2008 National LifeSmarts Championship, a test of consumer-related knowledge. The contest, sponsored by the National Consumers League, encourages teens to learn how to be smart consumers. (You can see who is winning at the contest's official blog.) Test how well you measure up on these sample questions, courtesy of the NCL:
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Answers to Consumer Quiz
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2008 Comment (5)After testing yourself on consumer and personal finance questions from the National Consumers League, click below to see the answers.
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Bloggers Offer Money Tips
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2008 CommentThis week's Carnival of Personal Finance contains some really creative ideas, from writing down goals on credit cards to creating multiple streams of income. My personal favorite: a list of products, ranging from a salad spinner to a digital camera, that can help you save money in the long run.
