Easy Shop DropConsumer Shopping Reviews

Gone are the days when cash-out refinancing fueled kitchen renovations with glitzy granite countertops and state-of-the-art appliances. (This also seems to be the era of "phasing" projects.) As covered in our brand-new "Top Kitchen and Bath Values" report, part of the August 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, two-thirds of homeowners surveyed said they'll be spending less, doing more of the work themselves, and buying more-efficient appliances.

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Learn a lesson from Mildred Jones.

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If you have infants, toddlers, or young children between the ages of 6 and 24 months at home or who visit you on a regular basisthat's all you grandparents and other family members out thereit's crucial to get the right type of safety gate for the different locations in your home. For instance, at the top of stairs indoors or outside, you must use only hardware-mounted safety gates. At the bottom of stairs and between rooms, it's okay to use pressure-mounted models like the one shown.

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Card companies don’t nickel and dime you. It’s more like $10 or $30.

Bankrate.com released its first Credit Card Study that looks at the terms offered by major credit card issuers.

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The recent election in Iran and the tumultuous events that have ensued inevitably remind me of 1979, a year when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country and Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after a long exile; the hostage crisis started that November. That year holds many other memories for me, including:
Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died in a plane crash. A diehard Yankees fan, I was also a Little League catcher and had always worn Munson's number 15, so the news of his passing was devastating for me.
One of my favorite films, Apocalypse Now, came out.
Eleven fans of The Who were crushed to death trying to get into a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. I had seen the same tour several weeks earlier.
ESPN launched. How did we sports fanatics survive before this network came on the air?

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Take $5 off online Target purchases of $50 or more with coupon via momsview.com. Valid through Saturday, June 27.

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In some of its ads and infomercials, vacuum maker Oreck calls its $600 Oreck Halo the "world's only UV-C germ-killing vacuum." Other spots feature families with small children lying on a carpeted floor, crawling across the kitchen, or scurrying in from the outdoors. "The MRSA is very alarming," says a concerned father in one TV ad, after the potentially deadly bacterium is discovered in his home.

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Whoa, summer temperatures are definitely here. A few simple steps will help keep your air conditioner working at its peak so you can keep cool without sweating too much over your bills.

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Get ready! A new eco-friendly beauty line called Glory for Girls will hit Target stores this July. This line has it all: it is made from 100% vegan formulas that are clinically and allergy tested,
the products are biodegradable and even the packaging is made of recyclable plastics. That is as eco-friendly as it gets, people. Leave it up to Target to provide us with yet another fabulous, environmentally safe beauty buy.

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What it means. In the context of home improvement, phasing occurs when you take a piecemeal approach to renovation. You might apply the strategy across several areas of the home, for example redoing the kitchen this year but replacing a dated, inefficient air-conditioning system at a later date. Or you can implement phasing for a single space, say refinishing kitchen cabinets now and installing new counters and appliances down the line.

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