Money for the Rest of Us

For some reason I get all of the Consumer Reports “Free Samples.” I’ve gotten a free sample of their main magazine, their health magazine, and now their money magazine. (Trust me, I’m not complaining here, but it just strikes me as odd seeing as how I’ve never subscribed.)

I like Consumer Reports and was very curious about the advice they would give in their new “Money Adviser.” I’ll run my review of this “sample Money Adviser” in 2 parts each time ranting and raving about different pieces of advice.

First, the raves: On the cover they have “21 ways to cut your bills.” They only list 7 of the ways in the sample but I liked two of them:

1. “Save on Gas: Fill up Early in the Week.” I have long known that Monday-Wednesday are the best days to buy cheap gas, but I never seem to remember to do this. Yes, it’s only a couple of dimes per tank that I would save, but those dimes could be going elsewhere.
2. Another good tip was “Save $30 on a Dozen Long-Stemmed Roses.” Money Adviser says that by buying roses directly from a grower’s website like montereyrose.com you can save $30 compared to 1-800Flowers.com

My advice on buying flowers one is to buy them on the street. In DC there are always people on the street corners selling flowers. Last year on Valentines Day I bought 12 roses for $12. (Usually you can get 12 for $10, but they were playing the holiday mark-up.)

Now for the ranting: Tip 7 and the entirety of page 5 was about how you can save money by applying for credit cards. They recommend signing up for a store card in order to get the 10% discount when buying a lot of clothes or major appliances.

I think this is a terrible idea. Consumer Reports Money Adviser should not be encouraging anyone to apply for a large number of credit cards just to get a 10% discount. This only promotes overspending. Honestly, a half of a page is “How the Cards Stack Up.” If you can’t afford to buy something without the 10% discount, you shouldn’t be buying it at all. I would agree that it is fine to apply for a credit card every once in awhile if you will save a lot of money (more than $50 or $100) and you will be able to pay off the bill at the end of the month. CR needs to warn their readers that applying for all of these cards could actually cause their credit scores to go down.

Thus far, I wouldn’t buy a subscription based on the pages I have reviewed. I’ll let you know what my final verdict is next time.