Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Chinese Electric Cars Coming to Costco and Wal-Mart

Here's an interesting story via Digg.com. The CEO of GS Motors — Kathleen Ligocki — told the Hybrid Cars website that she thinks the US will follow in Mexico’s footsteps. GS Motors sold 4,000 China-made vehicles in Mexico last year at…Costco and Wal-Mart.

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Fire Rips Through Homeless Camp Leaving Dozens The Same

Officials are investigating a fire that ripped through a homeless camp along the Feather River in Sutter County.

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Daily Show: Auto Crisis Turns Obama into Car Salesman

Sure, he doesn't have a checkered suit. Sure, he doesn't have a "Crazy," a "Fast," or a "Bucks" appended to the front of his name. Sure, he's actually the president. But Barack Obama can have you behind the wheel of your very own certified pre-owned Sebring faster and cheaper than the best of them.

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America's 10 Healthiest Fast-Food Restaurants

Here's an article I ran across on Digg.com! I try to avoid fast food, but sometimes it is nearly impossible. Plus, admittedly, some of it can taste pretty good! Well this story tries to give you some insight into the fast food places with healthier options.



Eating out invariably raises a number of tricky questions: sit down or drive through? Burgers or pizza? Thin or stuffed crust? Choosing one over the other could mean saving hundreds of calories in a single meal, up to 50 pounds of flab in the course of a year, and countless health woes over the course of a lifetime. Here are the top 10.

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Bank of America Credit Card

Last week I received a letter stating that my credit limit would be reduced by $400 for going over one of my other cards limits.I know! I know! I have too many credit cards. I looked at my free credit report, courtesy of Experian for the negative action against me. My credit report was the same as always. All accounts were current and stated "never late, pays as agreed". With a closer look, I found that my Orchard Bank card had gone over the credit limit by less than a hundred dollars because of an issue with their accepting a payment on time(of course I was near the limit). I had called them as soon as I saw it and I called the company. The rep with customer service took the late charge off. I then made a payment with her and I promptly closed my account. I had that account for several years and they never increased my limit or cut my interest rate at all. But even in my credit report now it still shows as pays as agreed and never late because I didn't go no where close to 30 days late. A few days at most! But on my report it shows your highest balance and your credit limit. I guess this is where Bank of America got its grounds to decrease my limit.



Well I was a little mad at first. I have been working on my credit for a while now. I know that as long as you are not using the card, the more you have available credit, the better your credit score usually will be. I haven't used any of my B of America credit cards in a while. I cut them up over a year ago. Several months back they had sent me letters for my 3 cards stating that if I didn't respond back to them in a certain amount of time, they would raise my interest rates. My rates were already hovering around 15%. I thought enough is enough, and I sent three letters stating that I didn't agree with a rate hike--I have never done anything like this before! In fairness to B of A, I think it was the first time a letter was sent that was written large enough to know that a rate hike was coming.They said the rate would stay the same as long as I didn't use the cards again. So they are still open!



This brings me to a new issue that I had thought about posting about before. I am still unemployed, since the beginning of December . I need advice! I have worked so long and hard on building up my credit. However if you looked at my debt, you could see that I am pretty much to my limit on every card. I have a decent credit score, I just need income. Then I would be able to start paying them off again rather than using them to live on. My girlfriend's income is helping us to get by right now. Right now there is no debt snowball, we just pay the minimum! My girlfriend's credit is better than mine now. I helped establish her credit and we would continue to pay on her two cards. Well here is the question. Should I stop paying on my cards? I know the first step should be to call all of the credit card companies and see if they will work with me. I'm pretty sure they will laugh when I ask for 3 to 6 months of a deferment of payments. I have seen Dave Ramsey answer many questions telling the caller that they need to pay their rent or mortgage first and the utilities and worry about putting food on the table. Its still hard to "let go" of paying on the cards, because of ruining the infamous credit score. How will I ever buy a house? Dave says you don't need a score to buy a house. Basically he claims that cash is king! I do agree that it would be great to live only on cash. How many years will that take? I don't have a TV show, or have anyone to fall back on. Dave doesn't say not to ever pay them back, but to start when you can. I don't see us living on cash alone for a while. Plus about that credit score--they will ruin your credit for seven years. Usually seven years from your last activity--so if you pay them back in 3 years, you can still count on your credit being bad for seven years past that date. If you don't pay in full, you can guarantee that they will keep recycling your debt around way past that seven years to different creditors. All in an attempt to reclaim that original debt. It's all a mess I put myself in! What should I do??

Channel 8 -Deal or Dud?

The local news runs a segment called deal or dud. They take different products and try to test them to determine if they work. Have you ever had to throw out vegetables or fruit only after a few days because they have begun to rot? Well tonight they tested the green bags that claim to extend the shelf life of vegetables. There are many different brands of bags out now. They tested their bags over a month's time at a local farmer's market. They actually worked! Lettuce and tomatoes lasted the whole 30 days.

Next they tested the razor sharpener. I was interested in this one because the price of replacement blades have sky rocketed recently. I haven't been able to find a good electric razor that gives me a good , clean shave like a Gillette Mach 3(although I have only tried a few!) Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Anyway, three different people tried out this product. One girl and two guys determined that this one was a dud. One guy suggested that drying the razor would extend the blade's life more than the blade sharpener.

The Peticure was next. Its the product that claims that it is the humane way to cut your pet's nails. I was a curious about this one too because I do cut our dogs nails from time to time. My dogs are usually pretty good with the regular dog nail clippers. However, there is nothing worse than accidentally going too far and having them jump or yelp in pain. The news team went to a veterinarian for this test. He determined in his opinion that it worked great for cats and was a dud for dogs. Darn, I guess I'm out of luck on this one and the razor sharpener!

Harris Teeter Triple Coupons

Thanks to running across several coupon blogs, I had started to try using coupons. I blogged about my experience at a couple of grocery stores and a drugstore. This past week the grocery store Harris Teeter was running a triple coupon promo. I made sure I worked a stop into my routine to see if I could save some money. I have to say again that I don't know if all the stores in this chain are so expensive, but I know that some of the prices are a lot higher at this one than at Walmart. However, if you really look hard, you can still find some deals. I coupled a few of my tripled coupons with the store Vic card savings and a couple of buy one , get one free deals. I ended up spending $25.00. I saved altogether $23.00! Not too bad, almost half!