cost-of-living
(tobo)
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>U.S. News & World Report names the 10 "Best Affordable Places To Retire." More »
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
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! More »
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] More »
—>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! More »
—>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. :)More »
—>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. More »
—>According to a new study cited by the San Francisco Chronicle, a family of 4 needs to make $77,069 in order to "get by" in San Francisco. More »
—> Consumer goods manufacturer Kimberly-Clark announced today that it was raising prices on a variety of products from Huggies diapers to Scott and Cottonelle bathroom tissue. More »
—> The Center for American Progress has a article explaining how costs have risen since the last minimum wage increase. According to their numbers, "dinner" has gone up 39.72%, electricity is up 25.02%, and gasoline up 135.20%. More »
—>With all this talk about the new minimum wage we thought we'd take a look at the state minimum wage rates from across the country. More »
