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Everyday Cheapskate: How to Clean Gunk and Grime From Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets are for storing dishes, not grease. Unfortunately, wood cabinets, whether painted or natural with a clear finish, are prone to all sorts of grease, grime and gunk from simply being in the kitchen.
Depending on just how much grease and grime you're looking at and the supplies you have available, here are several options for your...Read more

How 'unretiring' to go back to work can affect your Social Security benefits
Retirement is a goal that most Americans strive for, but sometimes the reality doesn’t match what you’d imagined. You may find that you miss work and the sense of purpose it gave you, or your financial situation may change and you need to earn additional money to support your lifestyle. Returning to the workforce after retiring may make ...Read more

When you lose your home to fire, you wonder: Who am I now?
You might think a house is just a house, and the stuff inside is just stuff — but you’d think differently if it were yours and it vanished in an instant, as happened to so many in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in the January wildfires. All of those material possessions are a part of who you are; you shape your home and your home shapes you....Read more

Despite political promises, Californians are stressed about their finances
After voters in November sent a clear message that the rising cost of living remained a top concern, California lawmakers came to the state Capitol vowing to take decisive action.
"Our task this session is urgent and clear," Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) told lawmakers at the start of the 2024-2025 legislative session in early ...Read more
Real estate Q&A: Are the renters next door breaking the rules to control their dogs?
Q: A family recently rented the house next to ours in our community association. They have several dogs and attached a temporary fence to our permitted wooden fence to form a corral for their dogs to stay outside all day and bark. Are they allowed to attach to our fence without permission? Is there anything we can do about the noise? —Caroline...Read more

Zillow forecasts San Diego home values to drop for the first time in years
Zillow has broken from the pack to say San Diego County home values could decrease over the next year.
Home values in San Diego County will drop 1.1% by March 2026, Zillow said in its latest Home Value Index. While the decrease is small, it’s notable because no other major forecasters have said home prices, or values, would drop, and it’s ...Read more

Is Las Vegas becoming Los Angeles 2.0?
By 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, Las Vegas-based luxury real estate broker Ivan Sher started noticing a distinct migration pattern from California’s affluent neighborhoods to Las Vegas.
“What I think pushed people over the edge” in California was government mandates that impacted them and their children in school,...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: Haggling for Dollars
By a show of hands, let me see how many of you have a credit card in your name. Uh-huh, I see those hands. It appears that my audience falls right in line with national averages: About 70% of you have at least one credit card. And how would you categorize your relationship with your card issuer?
If you are carrying credit card debt, it really ...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: More Kitchen Hacks You'll Wish You'd Known Sooner
Here is a wonderfully creative collection of tips that spotlight my readers' resourcefulness and intelligence in the kitchen and pantry. From clever tricks involving coffee filters, kitchen mallets and shower caps (yes, shower caps!) to simple storage solutions for sugars and spices -- get ready to take conventional wisdom to an unconventional ...Read more

United Wholesale Mortgage reports loss for first quarter, increase in loan volume
United Wholesale Mortgage reported a first-quarter net loss of $247 million on total revenue of $613.5 million, down from a profit of $180.5 million during the same period last year. A $388 million reduction in the fair value of its mortgage servicing rights portfolio impacted the results, the Pontiac, Michigan-based lender said Tuesday.
The ...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: Simple Organization and Storage Tips
"Sorry my place is such a mess!" If you have to pull out that one every time you welcome friends or family into your house, it might be time to get organized. Marla Cilley, also known as the FlyLady, calls that CHAOS: Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome!
Organization is an important aspect of any home. And we're quite familiar with the rule: a ...Read more

Warren Buffett to step down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO: 5 takeaways from the annual meeting
Warren Buffett told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that he plans to step down as CEO at the end of 2025 and recommended to the company’s board that his previously identified successor, Greg Abel, take over at that time, ending a 60-year career that created one of the greatest investment records of all time.
Buffett made the dramatic ...Read more

May Fed meeting preview: Trump wants lower interest rates, but for now, his tariffs are keeping the Fed on hold
When the Federal Reserve decides what to do with interest rates to manage the economy, the data usually speaks for itself. Policymakers, for instance, knew they needed to rush to cut interest rates in 2020 as the gears of commerce came to a screeching halt at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Two years later, when inflation surged to a 40-...Read more

Should you handle debt or build an emergency fund first?
There’s a reason financial advisers keep recommending you save money for emergencies. More than one in three Americans needed to tap their emergency savings in the past year, according to Bankrate’s 2025 Annual Emergency Savings Report. But when you’re juggling debt, putting money toward savings can feel overwhelming. Many feel paying down...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: Six Ways to Cut Health Care Costs
I'll be honest -- I'm just as surprised as you are to be wading into the murky waters of U.S. health care. Specifically? Health insurance. It's a tangled mess. Even if your coverage comes neatly wrapped in your job's benefits package, it's still messy. Premiums keep climbing, deductibles are sky-high, and somehow we're paying more for less.
And...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: River Cruise Provides a Bounty of History, Nature and Fun
By Victor Block
In the winter of 1805, a group of men constructed a rustic fort near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. They stayed there until the following spring, then returned to their homes.
These men were members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Their exploration of uncharted areas of the country had been commissioned by ...Read more

Amid tariff turmoil, these warehouses are in big demand in LA
As steep tariffs on imports throw Los Angeles-area ports into turmoil and chill industrial property leasing, one rare type of building is suddenly in hot demand — bonded warehouses where goods can be stored without paying tariffs until they are removed.
Key personnel at bonded warehouses have to undergo background checks and the operator must...Read more

Salary to afford a typical Bay Area home has increased 54% since 2019
The salary needed to afford a typical home in the Bay Area just keeps climbing higher.
A homebuyer hoping to afford a median-priced home in the San Jose metro region must earn 54% more than was needed six years ago — an income of $370,000, versus $240,000 in 2019, according to a new study by Realtor.com.
That means that a buyer hoping to ...Read more

Jonathan Lansner: California home sales tumble below Great Recession low for 21 months
Call it what you want, but California’s homebuying pace remains below the Great Recession’s bottom.
My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a new set of home sales figures created for the Southern California News Group by real estate tracker Attom. These broad-based statistics track closed transactions by month and include existing and newly built ...Read more
Real estate Q&A: Can I install an EV charger at my condo's assigned parking spot?
Q: My wife and I bought a condo a few years ago. Last year, we bought an electric car, only to learn that the building limits personal chargers to 14, along with the three shared chargers, for the nearly 200 parking spaces. The board informed me that the limit is due to the electrical service to the building, and upgrading the service would ...Read more
Inside Consumer
Popular Stories
- How 'unretiring' to go back to work can affect your Social Security benefits
- Real estate Q&A: Are the renters next door breaking the rules to control their dogs?
- Despite political promises, Californians are stressed about their finances
- Zillow forecasts San Diego home values to drop for the first time in years
- Should you handle debt or build an emergency fund first?