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Everyday Cheapskate: Make It Yourself: Copper Cleaner, Aluminum Cleaner and Dishwasher Detergent

Consumer / Everyday Cheapskate /

There are so many good reasons to make your own household cleaners. It's cheaper, healthier and greener, too. The homemade household cleaners I share with you from time to time do not contain chemicals. That means you can always count on them to be nontoxic.

Dear Cheapskate: The copper post tops on my deck are becoming tarnished. Do you know of...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Sorry your house burned down. Here's a $23,000 HOA bill -- due next month

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

LOS ANGELES — All things considered, La Vina’s fire recovery is going fairly well.

The luxury community on the northwest tip of Altadena lost 52 of its 272 homes in the Eaton fire last year, but more than 70% are currently being rebuilt, and repairs to communal spaces are well underway.

But behind closed gates, a battle has been brewing ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

5 ways to use your brokerage like a savings account

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The line between brokerage accounts and savings accounts is blurring as financial companies compete for your deposits. You don’t have to move money between different institutions to get competitive returns on your cash. Your brokerage account can act as both an investment platform and a high-yield savings alternative.

As brokerage accounts ...Read more

Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Warning: If someone says the government wants you to buy gold, it's a scam

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

SAN DIEGO — Do not trust anybody who says your money is not safe in the bank and it needs to be converted to cash or gold bars and moved to another location.

These instructions might seem simple to heed, but San Diego County crime victims are falling prey to a trending crime where people hand their life savings to criminals in the form of ...Read more

Everyday Cheapskate: The Cheapest Way to Freshen a House After Winter

Consumer / Everyday Cheapskate /

By the time winter finally loosens its grip, our houses tend to feel a little tired. The air is stale, the light feels dimmer than it should be, and no candle -- no matter how pine-scented -- can convince you it's actually spring.

The good news is that freshening your home after winter doesn't require a shopping spree or a cart full of "spring ...Read more

Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Acorns giving away thousands in cash from a Chicago vending machine during three-day investment promotion

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

CHICAGO – As banking giveaways go, fintech company Acorns is offering Chicagoans something a little more valuable than the traditional pens and calendars.

Acorns is handing out cold, hard cash.

On Thursday, Acorns debuted its compounding vending machine at Big Star Wrigleyville, an out-of-the-box promotion that replaces potato chips with ...Read more

Jon Cherry/Getty Images North America/TNS

Mark Gongloff: The home insurance crisis could use a public assist

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

At a moment when America’s home insurance crisis has become bad enough to turn conservatives into socialists, a possible solution may just involve — you guessed it — big government. And contra Ronald Reagan, in this case there’s reason to think the government truly can help.

To address soaring insurance premiums and coverage gaps in an ...Read more

Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times/TNS

Developers want rollback of Seattle affordability program as construction stalls

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

SEATTLE — A push to temporarily roll back Seattle’s defining housing policy of the late 2010s is gaining traction in City Hall as both developers and lawmakers look to plummeting permit applications with growing fear and search for ways to inject new supply into the city’s housing stock.

The Mandatory Housing Affordability program was the...Read more

Leila Navidi/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Many Twin Cities offices are sitting empty. Rents are rising anyway

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

MINNEAPOLIS — The Twin Cities office market is a paradox: There’s a glut of empty space but rents keep rising.

“It’s opposite of what you’d think,” said Tom DeSautel, a commercial broker with Cushman & Wakefield. “No one is in the office. … How could my rent possibly be going up?”

New data shows that during February, the ...Read more

Everyday Cheapskate: For the Love of a Good Iron

Consumer / Everyday Cheapskate /

While it's true that life is uncertain, there's at least one thing of which I am very sure: I will never be held hostage for refusing to iron.

Unlike Billie Jo Tyrrell, whose son Robert held her at gunpoint for six hours because she refused to iron his clothes, I love to iron. I'm not saying that I would be that thrilled to do it for a 29-year-...Read more

HUD launches investigation into WA's Covenant Homeownership Program

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

SEATTLE — In the Trump administration’s latest attack on Washington’s housing programs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched an investigation into Washington's Covenant Homeownership Program.

HUD claims the down payment assistance program, intended to redress past housing discrimination, violates the Fair Housing ...Read more

Everyday Cheapskate: Don't Be Scared; Be Prepared

Consumer / Everyday Cheapskate /

If there is one thing most people take for granted, it is food. U.S. supermarkets are always well stocked, and we don't think much about how all that food gets there. When pushed to consider it, I wager most of us assume there are huge warehouses somewhere filled with enough food to feed the nation for some unknown period of time.

The truth is,...Read more

Foster + Partners PRESS RELEASE/TNS

One Beverly Hills developer raises $4.3 billion to finish the massive luxury project

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

LOS ANGELES — The developers of One Beverly Hills have secured $4.3 billion in financing to complete the project, another milestone for one of the largest real estate projects underway in the country.

Work on the high-end residential and hotel complex, which will include the tallest buildings in Beverly Hills, began in 2024 and went vertical ...Read more

Everyday Cheapskate: Careful! The Kids Are Watching

Consumer / Everyday Cheapskate /

If you speak English in your home, your kids are not likely to come out speaking Italian. Kids learn through observation and imitation. And they don't miss a thing. Children are shaped from the very beginning of life by the way their parents live. They are ever-attentive witnesses of grown-up behaviors. They take their cues from what they see ...Read more

Taras Vykhopen/Dreamstime.com/TNS

Allison Schrager: Why are young people taking so many unwise financial risks?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

There are at least two conflicting narratives about Gen Z and young millennials. One is that they are extremely risk averse — afraid even to go out of the house, much less on a date. Another is that they are extremely risk inclined — always betting on sports or speculating on exotic assets.

Both of these theories can be true. In fact, they ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

The 'attorney model' loophole: How debt relief companies scam people seeking help

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Debt settlement companies technically aren’t allowed to charge fees until after lowering a consumer’s debt. But a loophole in the Telemarketing Sales Rule — and a mish-mash of federal and state laws — allows predatory firms the opportunity for exploitation.

A growing corner of the $23 billion debt relief industry has used a workaround ...Read more

Video

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

No body

Video

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

No body

Video

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

No body

The Chair You Don’t Sit In: How Every House Develops Its Own Quiet No-Man’s-Land

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Every home has a chair that no one uses. It may be well-placed, well-made and even visually appealing. It may have been purchased with intention, selected to complete a room or provide additional seating. And yet, it remains empty.

Over time, it becomes something else — a place for folded laundry, a temporary resting spot for bags, a surface ...Read more

 

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