12 things we should stop buying now.

[theoldwolf]

From Time's Moneyland Click the link for the full article - here you get the executive summary without having to page through the slide show.
 
 
 
 

1. Homeopathic Flu Remedies: The CDC says there is no benefit.
   
2. Credit Card Payment Insurance: Largely a scam, with so many conditions and exclusions that you may never see a dime.
   
3. Dirt-Cheap Paper Towels: Non-absorbent, cancelling your savings.
   
4. Bottled Water: Expensive, non-ecological. Exception: If you're in a place where the water can't be trusted. See more here.
   
5. Premium Gasoline: 99% of cars don't need it. Edit: (From the comments below, it appears that many people still use premium or a mixture to get optimal performance in various vehicles.)
   
6. Super-High SPF Sunscreen: Expensive hype - SPF 30 blocks 97% of UVB rays. Exception: If you're very fair-skinned or have a history of skin cancer.
   
7. Auto Service Warranties: Scams - "92 percent of consumers called the companies’ sales tactics misleading or improper." Note: These are not the "prepaid service plans" offered by many dealerships, but the aftermarket solicitations you get in your junk mail.
   
8. 100-Calorie Packs of Snack Foods: Make your own. Exception: If you're a binge-eater who can't stop from eating the whole pack, paying more is still better for you than the alternative.
   
9. Lottery tickets: A tax on people who are bad at math.
   
10. Unlimited Cell Phone Minutes: Most of us don't yak enough to make such plans worthwhile.
    
11. Brand-new college texts: Do everything you can to find or borrow used or electronic versions.
    
12. Extended warranties: Usually duplicate manufacturer's coverage and are not needed. Exception: Laptops (especially for students and frequent travellers).
    

Comments

[dhlawrence.livejournal.com]

The over-30 SPF sunblocks were just canned by the FDA a couple of months ago, I believe. No more pretending that they might work.

The brand-new college text scam is probably the most offensive one. Not only do they only sell some materials with new texts, but they will often rewrite them just enough that you can't use the previous one. I wonder if Pearson and Prentice Hall are owned by the mob and we don't know it.

[carlfoxmarten]

I have seen far, far too many textbooks that are in their tenth-and-up revisions, and the only changes are actually cosmetic rearrangements, with only a little tweak here and there to bring it up-to-date.
(example: Film Art: An Introduction by Bordwell and Thompson. I've heard that one of them has a fairly large mansion due solely to this book...)

[dhlawrence.livejournal.com]

My professors tended to subvert the arrangement; many of my mega-classes had homework assigned with two page ranges, one for the current version and one for the previous two. Others just photocopied journal articles and book extracts and made up a 'textbook' through the print shop. And some (my calculus teacher) wrote their own textbooks and charged you through the nose.

[carlfoxmarten]

Some of my classes had "custom courseware", where the instructors got permission to copy lots information from several sources, from newspapers to other books, and it was cheaply printed and bound, and generally sold for less than $40.
(the only drawback being that they couldn't buy it back, due to the licensing)

Then the university library helps by offering a book buyback program, where they'll buy your used books in good shape for up to ~40% of the original price.
I sold back as much as $300 in one semester's buyback.