Tag: Save Money

How do your shopping habits compare to others?

Post author By web gangsta
Post date November 12, 2012

Have you ever wondered how you are doing compared to others in your immediate circle?

Don’t pretend that conversation doesn’t happen between you and your significant other: “do you think they have more credit card debt than we do?” after leaving a dinner party. “How do you think they can afford all that and we can’t?”

Well, we can answer these types of questions now, at least in Australia, where one bank has decided to post a billion credit card transaction records online for you to compare and contrast your own habits against others.

Tags banking, credit cards, Privacy, Save Money, shopping, website

Gadgets shopping Websites

This is why we are broke

Post author By web gangsta
Post date October 25, 2012

Ever look at your bank account statement (or ATM balance) and wonder where all your money went?

Look around your house, and all you see is generic stuff that you really could live without?

Contemplate why you bother with that $5 daily coffee break when the free coffee in the office really isn’t that bad?

Tags 10 Things, gadget, Internet, Save Money, shopping, Toys, website

How To

How much money do kids make with allowance?

Post author By web gangsta
Post date August 29, 2012

A question for all the parents who read Web Watch: how much money do you pay your kids in an allowance?

One would think this would be a simply question to answer, but it’s really a bit more complicated than one would think.

Are you the type of parent who pays an allowance to their children, no matter what? Or do you only pay an allowance as payment for specific jobs being done around the house?

Tags 10 Things, budget, money, parenting, Save Money, survey

food shopping

Comparing grocery store prepared foods to homemade: which is better?

Post author By web gangsta
Post date June 18, 2012

Web Watch is a fan of supporting our local grocery stores and their prepared food sections.

Whether it be picking up a hot rotesserie chicken from Sam’s Club, Costco, or the local grocery store; a rack of ribs, freshly smoked; a dinner plate made to order right at the meat counter; or even the fish department steaming your purchase while you shop — grocery stores have discovered that providing ready-to-eat food is a great way to supplement their bottom line.

Why? Because Web Watch likes to eat, but doesn’t always have time to cook.

Sure, we know it’s more expensive to buy a chicken that’s already seasoned and heated for us over going through that process ourselves, but for now we’re okay with that.

To paraphrase Cookie Monster, “prepared, ready-to-eat foods are a sometimes meal”.

Tags food, groceries, Save Money, shopping

Gadgets How To

Want to save the environment? Use a “pee rag”

Post author By web gangsta
Post date June 5, 2012

Environmentalists are always looking for ways to save the planet.

Did you know that one of the biggest offenders for this earth’s destruction is our over-reliance on toilet paper?

Chances are, you’re not a “can you spare a square” kind of person. You’re more of a “let’s wrap our hand up a few layers, and then add a few more layers on for protection” sort. We know you. You’re the one who can go through one of those Ultra-Large rolls in three days, just because you can.

And then you have the gall to continually complain about the lack of flushing power in your toilet tank.

And don’t get us started on whether you use your hand to wipe or not when we’ve seen THIS hanging around your bathroom.

Hey buddy – it’s not the toilet that’s the problem. You’re throwing too much crap into the crapper.

Tags bathroom, clothing, Environment, How To, Save Money, shopping

10 Things Gadgets How To

4 things every car owner should do to make their car last forever

Post author By web gangsta
Post date May 26, 2012

When was the last time you got your car’s oil changed?

Do you rely on that little sticker on the windshield to remind you of when you need to bring your car into the shop next? Do you do it every 3,000 or 5,000 miles, whether you think you need an oil change or not? Does your car have a little computer system to remind you once you’ve reached a certain mileage threshold of these basic maintenance tasks?

Face it – not everyone is as diligent with their car maintenance as they should be, and that could be why most cars you see on the road today are woefully in need of some TLC.

So why should you care? Money experts say that the longer you can keep your car running and operational, the more money you’ll save over time for retirement. The tipping point seems to hover around 10 years — if you can keep every car that you’ll ever own for at least 10 years before getting a new one, think of all the extra money you’ll save over continually being behind in car payments.

And for all those years that you’re not making car payments, you should be setting aside a little bit of money each month as if you DID have a car payment…. so that when it comes time to buying a new car again, you’ll have a significant amount of cash available to put down as a down payment — and you may even have enough to buy the car with cash outright and have no monthly car payment at all!

So now that you have a car (and you’ve had it for a number of years, longer than your neighbors have had theirs), what should you do to keep that car in tip-top long-lasting shape?

Tags 10 Things, Cars, How To, Save Money, survey

food Science

There are 4 different cinnamons, 3 of them are fake, and tasters can’t tell the difference

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 25, 2012

A few years ago, Web Watch wrote about how ARTIFICIAL VANILLA CONTAINS COAL TAR.

It ends up that there are many different artificial food products that contain ingredients that we may or may not know about.

Take, for example, the simple cinnamon stick.

Did you know that there really are three different products that are commonly sold as “cinnamon sticks”?

Did you know that only one of them is actually really considered “cinnamon”?

Tags food, recipe, Save Money, science

10 Things How To shopping

How does the average American spend their paycheck?

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 1, 2012

Web Watch remembers the old adage when we were just starting out to be able to sustain ourselves on our own.

“When you make your budget, you should always devote 1/3 to housing, 1/3 to transportation, and 1/3 for everything else.”

Now, we may not have been able to follow that breakdown exactly, but it’s not necessarily that far from the truth of how AMERICANS ACTUALLY SPEND THEIR PAYCHECK. Especially if you take into account the need for saving some money for retirement or a rainy day, that ratio may be better split into quarters:

“devote 1/4 to housing, 1/4 to transportation, 1/4 put away in the bank/IRA/investments, 1/4 for everything else”

That seems to be closer to the truth. Let’s take a look at how the average 48-year-old spends their average $63,091 annual salary (before taxes):

Tags 10 Things, alcohol, budget, business, How To, money, Save Money, shopping