Consumer Reports

The magazine and web site provide the best independent expert advice for consumers in North America -- from money to health care to cars to consumer products. Their articles are not always perfect but they are far, far better than advice from just about any source (especially better than random anecdotes from friends). And when they make a mistake, they admit it and publish a correction.

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Zero Waste Restaurant Takeout

Take out food containers are mostly trash and cannot be recycled due to mixed materials and contamination. The good news is that it is legal and super easy to get zero waste takeout from most ANY restaurant in California that can serve onto its own reusable plates!! This way you can get your food to eat at home on real plates with real cutlery and not create any trash. Read on to learn how! In the picture above I am picking up a pizza in as Zero Waste way as possible from Jake's of Sunnyvale -- the pizza goes into an aluminum pizza container I made from two 20" pizza pans. The paired set of aluminum pans then goes into a reusable pizza bag that keeps the pizza warm -- watch out, a fresh pizza makes the aluminum pans very hot (and sterile)! I bike it all home in my covered all purpose bike trailer. I use a clean sheet to line the inside when carrying food. Here is a sequence of pictures I took at a different pizzeria that show off the pans I use. I tried to find ...

Would you like to be $2 Million Richer?

How would you like to be a millionaire? One way to help you get there is to save money. If you are a couple who is thinking of having 2 kids and 2 cars here are two big ways to reduce your costs. The USDA recently calculated that the average child in the US would cost $233,610 to raise from 0 to age 17. This does not include college costs. College costs can vary widely (community colleges are a great deal) but if you send your kid to a private college this can easily cost $50,000 to $70.000 a year or $200,000 to $280,000 for 4 years. So if a young couple chooses NOT to have two children, they could save roughly $1 million! Now on the car front, AAA recently calculated that the average cost of car ownership in the US is $9282 per year . That comes to $557,000 per car over a lifetime of car ownership (say about 60 years). So if a young couple decides to forgo owning two cars and use bicycles to get around instead they will save about $1.1 million! Combine the savings from deciding not t...

34 Reasons Why

We all like to accomplish more for less thus the popularity of “Kill 2 Birds With One Stone”. What if there was a simple action you could take to accomplish 34 things all at the same time (and save dozens of birds)? Would you jump at the chance? I hope so! You can accomplish 34 beneficial things just by bicycling (instead of using a motor vehicle): Increase happiness - it’s fun! Reduce climate change from fossil fuel C02 AND fossil methane. Reduce road congestion. Reduce road repair. Reduce space needed for roads. Reduce space needed for parking. Reduce your taxes. Reduce other people’s taxes. Reduce insurance costs. Reduce transportation purchase costs. Reduce transportation maintenance costs. Reduce transportation fuel costs. Reduce registration & licensing costs. Reduce obesity & waistlines. Reduce health care costs. Reduce health insurance costs. Reduce people dying from motor vehicle crashes. Reduce animals (and birds!) dying from motor v...

Good Economic/Ecological Practices for Consumers

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