Consumer issues: April 2008 Archives

For the past month, my wife and I have been doing what we can to save money. We've stopped eating out, are taking leftovers for lunch and have started going to the park with our dogs instead of heading to the movie theater. Coupon clipping has helped, but high gas and food prices remain are many obstacles to padding our saving's account. What tips can you offer to further save cash?

Happy Hump Day York.

I feel remiss because I wasn't here to give you your weekly outlook on Monday morning, but that's because I was in Baltimore at a conference for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers learning all about how to write better business stories.

Stimulus rebate deposits start today

Those long-promised tax rebates are now on their way to U.S. taxpayers. People who chose to have their rebates directly deposited into their bank accounts will see the money there beginning today.

Are you going to spend it or save it?

Is the money going to fill your tank or buy a new couch?

Hello, hello happy people. It's almost 5 p.m. on Friday and that minutes we're minutes away from celebrating the weekend.

But before you head out, here's your round-up of what happened this week in the business world. It deals a lot with gas and oil.

Oil prices rose.

People are cashing in their grocery points to save money.

The Pres. says the rebates checks will boost economy (I'll believe it when I see it.)

They ran some drills to make sure people knew what to do in case of an emergency at Peach Bottom. For results see tomorrow's paper. (I hope they did well, I can imagine a nuclear meltdown would not be fun.)

And in kind of random news, the owners of Arby's bought Wendy's. I'm not sure what that means for the fast food industry, I just thought it was interesting.

Also this week was Earth Day and Hillary won the primary.

One of the good things about York is that it's a relatively short drive from a lot of places: Baltimore, Harrisburg, D.C., Philly, etc. And probably more than most people realize, the same is true for good trout fishing.

Some things you do so often they are burned in your memory. For me, it's the amount of money I've paid for a big coffee and two bagels at my corner store for the past year or so: $4.21. This morning, it was $4.31. Could be worse, I guess. Other than gas, what else have you watched go up in price in the past few weeks?

I didn't think it would happen this fast. But, I was wrong. While driving on Route 74 today, I glanced up at a gas station's sign and saw that the price for a gallon of regular gas had hit $3.55. Other stations that I passed this afternoon advertised the same price. To me, gas used to be something I would pick up on my way to work and not major expense. Now, I find myself budgeting about $50 a week for gas. Have you started budgeting for fuel? What have you given up to fill your tank?

Both of the Democratic presidential candidates have made improving the economy a central issue of their campaigns.

Here's links to both of their Web sites where you can read about their plans for fixing things so you can make an informed decision tomorrow.

What Hillary has to say.

Obama's plan for reform.

Well people we've just about made it through another work week, which means it's time to update you on the great happenings in the business world this week.

Stating the obvious, Tuesday was tax day.

Gas is the root of all evil.

Harley employees weren't thrilled about almost 300 jobs being cut in Springettsbury Township.

Gold dropped because the dollar gained.

Being corrupt is costly.

Remember the other day when I said gas prices would hit $3.45 by next week.

Turns out I was wrong. They're $3.45 today.

I need to get a bike.

Just wanted to follow up with you all and get you two quick links to the stories about the Harley-Davidson job cuts and employee reactions that ran in this morning's paper.

As always continue to check the Daily Record and Mind Your Own Business for more updates as we get them.

According to Brent Burkey's article on the Daily Record Web site: Harley-Davidson is reducing its workforce by about 370 unionized employees and about 360 non-production employees, the company said this morning.

More information will be coming in throughout the day. Make sure to check the Daily Record and Mind Your Own Business for updates as they come in.

Today was going to be an awesome day.

I got to sleep in a little bit, the sun was shining when I left the house and I was jamming to my country music on the way to work this morning. Everything was fabulous.

Then I drove passed the gas station and saw the new price of $3.39 per gallon.

Just got back from my honeymoon and some things struck me as odd about Europe. Not like it was all bad - the only thing I really disliked about the continent was restaurants not serving free water with meals. But I digress.

It's Friday afternoon, and that means it's time to catch you up on what you've missed this week in business.

And trust me, there's been a lot going on.

It seems tough to keep cash in my wallet these days. Between gas prices and the higher cost of food, there doesn't seem to be much money left at the end of the day.
I've managed to cut down on most discretioniary spending, including clothes and entertainment. And, it seems, I'm not the only one.
For March, The Bon-Ton Stores reported a 4.9 percent drop in total sales from $288 million a year ago to $274 million.
Many analysts have stated that people have started to shun higher-end retailers in favor of discounters like Wal-Mart and Target.
Instead of clothes and electronics, more people have been focused on buying necessities like food.
Are you shopping at more discount stores? What have you cut down on in order to keep your budget afloat?

The results of the 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey were released today and showed the people ages 25 and older who were surveyed had very little faith they would be financially secure in retirement.

In fact, they were so unsure, the study showed the biggest drop in confidence that it ever has in the 18 years it's been conducted.

Is it sad that I wasn't surprised to hear that?

With the way the economy is going, there are a lot of people who aren't even sure they'll be financially secure at the end of the month or year, much less when they reach the magical age of 65.

Yesterday's conference call was definitely interesting. The first half focused on the squeeze members of the middle class are feeling as a result of the current economic situation. The second half focused on affordable housing and its affect on the welfare of children.

To briefly sum up the first half, it was a lot of bad news bears. Families aren't just thinking they have less money because so many people are throwing the word recession around. They actually have less money.