Common cents

Coupons: How useful are they?

News reports have mentioned more consumers turning to coupons as the recession continues. Reuters reported in March that coupon redemptions jumped 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with 2007. It's not just supermarket clippers, either. Coupons from mass merchandisers have taken ...

A house for no money down

Yes, you can still buy a house for no money down. At least some people can. Sound like a middle-of-the-night infomercial? It’s not. At least two mortgage loan programs have money to loan without down payments. One is through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development ...

Avoid owing more income taxes next year

By April 1 most of the nation’s workers will find the amounts on their paychecks a little higher than they used to be. That’s the date for implementation of the federal tax break known as Making Work Pay. A few taxpayers, however, could find themselves owing more to the federal ...

Some companies are hiring

At least some employers in the Topeka and Kansas City metropolitan areas expect to be hiring workers during the second quarter of 2009, according to a Manpower Inc. survey. From April to June, 14 percent of companies surveyed in Topeka and 11 percent in Kansas City plan to hire more people, ...

A lesson learned

I learned a valuable lesson recently when taking my secondhand car to an area dealership for servicing: Always beware if the mechanic comes out smiling. It's even more frightening if the mechanic proceeds to say something like, "There's something very wrong with your car!" with barely ...

Identity theft grows; so does price of gold

Next week, March 1-7, is National Consumer Protection Week. Identity theft is at the top of the list when it comes to the need for consumer protection and caution. Consider the following information distributed by The Associated Press: The number of identity theft victims last year in the ...