economizer

Santa's sick of cookies. At least that's the excuse Store Brand Scorecard's Old Man used every Christmas Eve when it came time to bake a snack for St. Nick. The rationale made sense at the time. Santa's got a lot of houses to go to and a bunch of cookies to eat, so the guy could benefit from at...

Baby, it's cold outside. Bitterly cold. All the holiday cheer in the world can't change that. But hot cocoa can. A steaming cup goes down smooth and keeps you warm, whether you opt for marshmallows, whipped cream, both or neither. It's a nice little luxury at a time like this. Your budget may not...

It was practically yesterday when we gobbled up our Thanksgiving turkeys and more holiday cooking is just ahead. And if money wasn't tight in November, it's tight now, with all the gifts to get. December is not a great month for the college kid's wallet. That's why buying store brands is...

There's plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving -- except how much it may cost you. Consumers will spend millions of dollars bulking up on Turkey Day staples, the first wave of many burdensome financial commitments this holiday season, happening at a time when the economy, to put it mildly,...

Of all the columns Store Brand Scorecard has done, tasting different brands of food for you, the dear people, this was one of our most anticipated -- we were sampling pumpkin pie! For the last few weeks we've been trying out different brands of classic Thanksgiving sides such as cornbread stuffing...

We're in August now people, the dog days of summer, typically the hottest month of the year. And to make matters worse, school starts up for many students in the next couple of weeks. Bummer circumstances all around. So take the sizzling heat off with a little frozen treat. And one of our favorite...

Target has put out many great collections on its way to becoming the cheap-chic mothership, but few have ever been as high-concept, highly anticipated and perfectly timed as the one that drops Sunday: Zac Posen for Target. As a longtime chronicler of the retailer's forays into fashion, I think this...

If you have a clunker of an appliance you'd like to replace in this year, the good news is that the government is offering an attractive rebate that can pay you up to $250 for upgrading to a more efficient model. But the bad news is that with this latest version of "Cash for Clunkers" incentives,...

Friend or foe? Banks hope you'll think of them more kindly this year by offering a slew of new products aimed at making life easier for customers. But that convenience, along with pretty much everything else your bank offers, will likely come at a price. In fact, consumers should expect to spend a...

Remember the giddy year of 1999, when many of us were convinced we were entering the new millennium and everyone was panicking about the Y2K bug? During the subsequent decade, the stock market made us rich as kings, then poor as church mice. We've taken a look back to see how the years have...