For years, I had credit card debt. As a single woman, the expenses of running and maintaining a household, plus some travel to visit my daughter in Spain, were more than I could manage on my salary. However, when I paid off my house early, I was able to pay off my credit cards quickly. Read more →

If you’re going to buy a car, be sure to find out if it’s been part of a recall. Only 75 percent of vehicles involved in a recall are actually repaired, according to NHTSA. Car dealers and other companies that sell cars may not let you know about recalled cars that haven’t had repairs made.  Read more →

Comcast is one of the companies that I dislike the most. I’m using polite language here because it’s best thing for bloggers to do. I’ve had poor customer service many, many times, and one customer service manager used abusive language, calling me derogatory names. Another thing that irks me about Comcast is mandatory fees. Read more →

Before the pandemic, I had several small businesses I liked to shop at downtown. But, like many consumers, I’ve turned to the internet to do a lot of my shopping as covid surged. I need to get back in the habit of giving small businesses some of my economic dollar votes. Today is Small Business Saturday. Read more →

Fortunately, I was able to get a great deal on Black Friday. I need a new Apple iMac because I can no longer get updates for mine. It’s 12 years old. I’ve been watching the prices for the Apple 27” iMac with Retina 5K display for months. Finally, for Black Friday, Apple reduced the price $600. Read more →

It’s important for parents, grandparents, and child care providers to keep up on the latest about infant loungers. Just because a product, especially one for baby sleep, is being sold doesn’t mean it’s safe. Dock-A-Tot recently received a violation notice from the CPSC for importing an infant sleeper that didn’t meet the agency’s new rule. Read more →

If you’re going to shop for deals on Black Friday – the sales are now available earlier, stick around longer, and are increasingly moving online – be sure to keep comparing prices. Sometimes prices are marked way up then marked way down. During my journalism career, I’ve written articles on items likely to be on sale each month during the year. Read more →

If you read my newsletter (sign up here if you haven’t seen it yet), you know I advised consumers to start their Black Friday shopping for several weeks ago. My advice today is to keep comparison shopping and add some of the stores that WalletHub.com recommends as the best, and of course, leave those at the bottom of its list until last. Read more →

It’s great progress that 40 state attorneys general have reached a $391.5 million settlement with Google over its location tracking practices. The Big Four – Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook – have tremendous power over our personal information and more needs to be done to rein them in. Read more →

I just wanted to write and let you know today about what's going on with my newsletter. I scour personal finance websites every week to find the best tips for people to use in their personal finance lives. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on it. Recently, J. Money of Budgets Sexy took a look at my newsletter. Read more →