By Colleen Rothe

There’s been a bit of a small – and I emphasize small – panic in my neck of the woods with the collapse of Washington Mutual and its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Within hours of the announcement of the buyout by JPMorgan Chase, my end-user website for WaMu already had JPMorgan Chase information on it.

No matter their calming announcements that WaMu customers could expect business as normal, my family pulled its funds from the freshly taken over financial institution, despite that our funds qualified for the federal insurance.

By Lee Spiro

I needed to come up with a romantic idea to surprise my girlfriend for our two-year anniversary, but the boring old dinner and flowers plan didn’t seem ambitious enough for the occasion. At a friend’s suggestion, I took my sea-loving gal aboard the Victoria Clipper at Pier 69 on the Seattle waterfront and cruised up to Victoria, BC for the evening. The online interface at www.clippervacations.com was easy to navigate, and I was able to book a package including two round-trip tickets and one night at the Queen Victoria Hotel for about $310.

I kept the whole trip a secret until we pulled up to the overnight parking garage on Alaskan Way downtown. We arrived promptly for a 2:15 p.m. check-in time, grabbed a coffee and waited around for the 3:15 p.m. departure. The Clipper itself is painted blue and red like a British flag. We boarded and settled in two seats in the front of the boat. The seats themselves were roomy enough, much better than a commercial airplane, and the 360-degree windows allowed for amazing views throughout the 2.5-hour trip.

By Linsey B. Knerl

Another week, another set of fresh class-action lawsuits. The first involves anyone who was billed for third party mobile content, like ringtones, games, graphics, wallpaper, news, and alerts, on their AT&T Mobility Account from January 1, 2004 to May 30, 2008. Read on to see what to do if you are certain you didn’t authorize purchase of that mysterious “Thong Song” ringtone…

AT&T is being accused of allowing “cramming” to occur on consumers’ cell accounts. Simply put, the plaintiffs say that cell users shouldn’t pay for content they didn’t OK, and AT&T is settling in order to keep litigation costs low. (Note: The settlement only covers unauthorized charges for content from providers outside of AT&T. Products purchased directly from AT&T are not covered in this action.)

By Gene Ayres

Well, now that the billionaires have been bailed out on Wall Street, we can all breathe easy in the financial sector. Right? Maybe just as soon as the rest of us get our own bailout. The last one got spent on gas and food price increases. Still, I'm not holding my breath. We are in uncharted waters.

One thing that is plainly clear to anybody with a budget: life is getting harder for most of us. We have a lot less than we used to, or our parents did, and there is no relief is sight. There’s one question I have yet to hear among all the rhetoric about people buying houses they can't afford (so it's all their fault). It's this: why couldn't they afford these houses in the first place? I'm not talking about McMansions or second homes either. I'm talking about basic 3 bedroom homes. And these buyers weren't welfare queens either (they, if they exist, probably will find a way anyway). Middleclass people with middleclass wages were being expected to pay ten or more times their annual wages for a home when historically this was totally out of proportion, and in fact, for most of America's history, one year's income was more than enough to acquire a home (granted, our pioneer ancestors got free land and built their own). It is this super-inflated cost of housing that is unsustainable. Especially when everyone was led to expect to earn a profit on their property investment to boot (hence all those speculators).

By Colleen Rothe

Believe it or not, you don’t have to wait for your W2 to arrive in the mail to start thinking about taxes, and well, how to keep as much of your own money as possible.

For those of you who are just getting your tax incentive check because you filed an extension, be advised, some of the best way to use that money is to pay off any tax debt you have. However, you don’t get to choose the year. Any tax incentive monies you have will be applied to any debt from the ’07 tax year. If there’s anything left over, it’s applied to your oldest debt.

By Linsey B. Knerl

Recalls are a daily occurrence in the States. Getting updates, unfortunately, isn’t. If you’re not already checking www.recalls.gov for up-to-the-minute info on what you shouldn’t be eating, you might want to consider adding it to your daily bookmarks. In the meantime, here are a few recalls that will be really important for the 2% of the population that might actually consume these little-known products.

By Gene Ayres

We've all been inundated by so much political spin, so many rants and raves, so much negativity as of late, that some of us, namely yours truly, needed to take a break.

Several weeks ago my wife and I took a spin over to the Washington coast to have a look-see. We'd imagined something like maybe the Sonoma Coast in California, or coastal Maine or Oregon: tidy little fishing villages with art galleries, seafood shanties on piers, cozy bed and breakfasts, and the like. Instead, we encountered mile after mile of devastation. “Why are they clearcutting a whole national forest?” my wife wanted to know. I myself had been naïve enough to assume that a national forest meant a beautiful old growth forest, not piles of rubble left over from mass deforestation. Nor were there any cozy fishing villages or nifty bed and breakfasts or art galleries and cozy cafes.

By Colleen Rothe

For most of my adult life, I’ve had to commute to my job. And it seems the older I get, the longer my commute. But I’m not alone. Just look at all the other people on I-90 or I-5 the same time I am.

According to a recent ABC News poll, the average American’s commute time is 26 minutes, with 47 minutes on a bad day. I tend to be on the maximum end of that scale. My commute is about 47 minutes on average, with 55 minutes on a bad day. But I live 41 miles away from my work. In a few months time I have to move another five miles further. Of course for two-thirds of my commute, I get to look at natural greenery and mountain views that what make it more tolerable. That and books on tape. However, most consumers are spending more and more just getting to work – gas prices aside. We pay in our time, in our nerves, and wear-&-tear on our vehicles and other not so immediately evident costs.

By Linsey B. Knerl

Patients who have had injections of popular drugs at their physician's office may be eligible for payment in a recent class-action lawsuit. Over 200 drugs (including those for cancer, HIV, allergies, asthma, and inflammation) are covered and the outcome will mean more money in the pockets of patients who may have overpaid for these drugs.

By Gene Ayres

Well, now that the Olympics and political conventions are over we can all breathe easier, knowing that Beijing has clean air again and that the Republicans have vowed to throw out the Republicans and replace them with Republicans. No doubt in the nick of time.

Those of us still left with the messier, less convenient realities of living in the real world can now get back to the business of making a living, and, at least for most of us, making ends meet. Being a consumer these days is an increasingly challenging proposition. But then anyone who owns a wallet already knows that. So...back to the vital business of consumer advocacy, i.e. getting value for money, and, if we're smart and lucky, even saving a little along the way.

By Colleen Rothe

I’ve worked in a professional environment for nearly 20 years. Monkey suit and commute aside, the biggest hassle of having to “dress to impress” is the dry cleaning bill.

Having a suit that is dry clean only can end up being quite costly. But in the business world, sometimes there’s no way around it. When was the last time you found a suit that wasn’t dry clean only? But that’s the first step to saving money at the dry cleaners – don’t buy dry clean only clothing.

By Linsey B. Knerl

Frugality is becoming more than a not-quite-sexy pastime. In fact, for many it's just another necessary tactic of adapting to the changing economic climate. As we see food packaging morph into tinier portions at sky-rocketing prices, it would be safe to assume that gourmet food items are following the lead. Not so, says a recent report on lobster prices in the U.S. So what's going on, and how can you get in on this deal?

By Gene Ayres

When, exactly, did Orwell's Big Lie (saying the opposite of truth often enough until people believe it) supplant Truth in Advertising as the way things were done in the business and marketing world? Interestingly, politics have always been exempt. In fact, while there are laws on the books against false advertising (meaning deliberately wrongful or misleading information), political advertising has had a free ride. Small wonder we get the messages we do, and little else. I can remember imprinted messages from my childhood equating Marlboros with manliness, Benson & Hedges with the opposite, and a certain cigarette brand that managed to align itself with women's sports, implying that the top women athletes got that way by smoking brand x.