Consumerism Archives - One Cent At A Time

Buying your First Car

April 22, 2022 3 Comments

Regardless of how it is approached, getting your first car is a time-consuming, frustrating but thrilling experience. After all, with a vehicle, you can suddenly cross great distances in a matter of minutes and no longer will be at the mercy of public transportation.

However, with great power comes great responsibility – cars require upkeep, parking fees and a hefty chunk of cash to buy. Before you hurriedly run out to make your purchase, there are a few things to be aware of before you buy.

How I Got my Faulty New HP Laptop Replaced

April 20, 2020 48 Comments

This is my experience with HP laptop computer replacement. I always had HP laptops, some fascination with HP you may say. The previous one was dying after 6 years. All tricks to speed up failed.

I needed another one as the blog wouldn’t have otherwise survived.

I don’t blog from work laptop so I was desperate about a new personal computer.

10 Reasons Online Shopping is better

September 11, 2019 8 Comments

Being able to shop online is the best thing that ever happened to the Internet. Forget about Facebook or Google for a moment and picture the wonderful benefits you get shopping in your favorite online store. You know they are many, right? But let’s look at why online shopping is better than shopping physically at stores.

10 Reasons Online Shopping better than InStore Shopping

We go shopping occasionally mainly because there’s nothing else to do and we live 5 mins to an outlet mall. So, mostly our in-store shopping is mainly window shopping, except for groceries and home depot stuff. We are recent homeowners so we like to spend at least a few hours every week at Home Depot. Because that’s what you got to do when you buy home!

Becoming a Responsible Online Shopper

June 1, 2015 4 Comments

Nowadays, nearly as many people have a credit card as own a mobile phone, and whether we are purchasing online or from a physical store we will probably be paying with a card of some sort. Whilst cards are often a safer alternative than carrying cash, using your card to shop online carries its own risks.

Responsible Online SHopping

If our card or wallet gets stolen we notice immediately and can notify our banks to cancel them and stop the further fraudulent activity. However on the internet, our information can get into the wrong hands without us even knowing it. As recent cases have shown, this can also happen with reputable websites who have highly secure systems, thus it’s important that everyone checks their credit card statement regularly.

The Advantages of Coupons You Never Knew

June 24, 2013 22 Comments

Most of us use coupons. Coupons help us spend less. We previously posted How to Effectively use Vouchers and Coupons here. Sometimes the use of coupons does increase spending. Basically, manufacturers and distributors use a coupon to lure customers into shopping. I wrote about this in the article How Online Coupons Increased our Spending. This post covers the same subject with a different perspective.

The little dollars you see in discount coupons may not be something much to talk about; it might seem so on a cursory look. The truth is otherwise. Once a coupon is exhausted shoppers tend to forget about it altogether. To understand how your family has benefitted from using coupons, you need to keep track of the savings. You should take time off and get your numbers right.

Budget Ticket Airlines are Often Rip Offs

April 15, 2013 8 Comments

SMB and I were returning from Boston on Spirit airline. We didn’t know the intricacies of traveling in a budget airline. Not at the time of booking. As soon as I started booking our seats, I realized there’s a charge for selecting seats. Being frugal I decided not to book out seats and waited for the airline employee at the check-in. To our surprise we were allocated seats at two extremes of the aircraft. There was a charge for the preferred seat allocation!

Read through this customer grievance forum for Spirit airlines and be amazed to learn their dirty tricks. Needless to say, we will never again travel with Spirit.

Some Hidden Charges and How to Stop Them

March 12, 2013 5 Comments

Unexpected charges being taken out of our accounts is always a nasty shock. With tough financial times for many, most of us have been keeping a much closer eye on our spending lately and this has led to increasing interest into what exact techniques companies are using to squeeze all this extra cash out of us.

For example, here’s one NYT article about the hidden charges we are dealing with everyday. Perhaps even more so, there is hope that being aware of what is waiting out there to surprise us will help lead to ways of stopping businesses from continuing to charge us for things we do not need nor want in the future.

Consumer is King, Believe It or Not. Now Act Like One

January 9, 2012 28 Comments

Ever heard the line “Consumer is the king”? When I was growing up and was in middle school, I saw my dad’s company slogan on his car. It said, “Customer First”.

This leads to my early childhood belief that big companies do think about their customers and are not solely engaged in profit making. Now, in my late mid-thirties, I better understand the dynamics of the corporate world. It’s about the balance between keeping customer satisfied and increasing profit.

Those top 1% income earners get paid for doing just that, managing money and resources to keep customers and shareholders happy.

Buying your First Car

How I Got my Faulty New HP Laptop Replaced

10 Reasons Online Shopping is better

Becoming a Responsible Online Shopper

The Advantages of Coupons You Never Knew

Budget Ticket Airlines are Often Rip Offs

Some Hidden Charges and How to Stop Them

Consumer is King, Believe It or Not. Now Act Like One

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