The Chronic Consumer

Here’s a pretty useful article from MainStreet about how not to use your credit cards. The author cleverly tied the “don’ts” in with the 7 deadly sins to come up with the following list:

1. Gluttony (bumping up against your credit limit)
2. Pride (not checking your credit score regularly)
3. Lust (applying for too much credit)
4. Greed (getting a cash advance)
5. Envy (applying for a card that’s way out of your league, like a Black card or something)
6. Wrath (shutting down all your cc accounts)
7. Sloth (not checking monthly statements)

Yeah, most of these are common sense, I guess, but some people (especially younger folks with their first credit cards) can benefit from the advice. Be sure to click through and read the entire article if you want more info!

Do you know what would be a great holiday present for a small business owner? Helping them get a nice looking website set up so they can develop their online presence and gain new customers.

Instead of sending a fruit gift basket or something like that, why not offer to pay for web design? For example, if your friend runs his business out of Texas, you can pay for Houston web design from Softway Solutions. That way, a local firm can come in, talk to the owner, and design a site that meets the owner’s business goals.

To me, that would be a far more useful present than the usual bottle of booze or Walmart gift card!

With Christmas coming up, millions of parents are beginning to shop for toys for their kids. Before buying anything, however, be sure to read through this list of the Worst Kids Toys of 2011. The list was compiled by a consumer organization and is based on toys that are deemed unsafe. The full article can be found on Shine, but here’s a quick copy and paste of the top offenders:

A wooden Twist n’ Sort toy for toddlers
Power Rangers Samurai Mega Blade sword
Fold & Go miniature portable trampoline
Pulling Animal Duck
Schylling toy school bus
Z-Curve Bow
Stepper “Low Rise” Stilts
Sword Fighting Jack Sparrow action figure
The Incredible Shrinky Dinks Maker oven
“Gigan” Godzilla Creature 12-inch action figure

I obviously shop a lot, which means I’m constantly bringing more and more stuff into my house. This poses a storage problem after a while, particularly since I hardly ever toss out old stuff.

Well, that’s got to change. I am tired of the clutter around my home, so I’m making a concerted effort to organize my closets. I need to head buy a bunch of boxes and bins from the Container Store, purchase one of those metal step stools that I’ve had my eye on for a while, and just get to work. I know my closet space isn’t being used efficiently. If I can organize what I want to keep and get rid of what I don’t need, I’ll be in good shape!

The first time I ordered flowers online, I went with the website that published the lowest price for a nice arrangement. Imagine my surprise when I completed the order form and saw that an extra $20 in “service fees” had been added to my total! I wasn’t expecting that, and felt ripped off. But I had already spent so much time on everything that I didn’t have the energy to start over on another site.

Anyway, the experience made me a bit wiser when it comes to ordering a custom flower delivery online. From now on, I know to stick with a place that doesn’t charge any extra fees at all. For example, EZBloomers.com cuts out the middleman and deals directly with florists. That means there are no service fees or surprise additions to the total price at checkout. That means I’ll get more flowers for my money, which is precisely what I want.

I know who I’m using the next time I need to send flowers!

Hello fellow consumers,

I just want to remind you to make sure you take advantage of the government’s offer to review your credit report for free once a year. You can fill out the electronic form at Annual Credit Report and receive a printable copy from TransUnion, Equifax, or the other place (I forget the name at the moment) within minutes.

This is not your credit score, but a report. It will show you the loans and credit card accounts in your name in the past 10 years and will say how many late payments you’ve had in that time.

I’m happy to say that my report was 100% clean, with a total of zero late payments in the last decade (or ever, really). Maybe I should celebrate by getting a new credit card or something!!

It’s August now, which means we’re getting into the dog days of summer. There’s absolutely nothing that I like about this time of the year — except maybe the fact that the pro football season is just a month away. I hate the heat, humidity, and lack of any compelling sports (baseball certainly doesn’t count) or original programming on television.

I don’t know about you, but I always use August to start thinking about holiday gifts. Even though it’s about a hundred degrees out every day, the Christmas shopping season is right around the corner, as are some family birthdays, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. I need to buy presents for all those holidays, so this is as good a time as any to start mapping out my strategy.

Towards that end, I’ve been checking out helpful lists like this girlfriend gifts for valentines day and other guides for ideas. I also check technology and gadget news to see what the most anticipated products are, and take note of any summer apparel, toys, or sporting goods that my family might possibly want as gifts, then I pounce when the items go on sale.

This approach might not work for everyone, but it sure beats waiting until the last minute!

Consumer Reports has published another article about common financial and retail scams that people need to be aware of. It’s important to read up on this stuff from time to time as con artists are always changing their methods in an effort to stay a step ahead of the game. Sure, most of this sounds like common sense to people who are computer and Internet savvy, but I know a lot of older folks that would fall for these ruses.

Anyway, just be aware of what’s happening out there!