Credit/Debt Recovery

Biggest ID Theft Bust Ever

When I saw the headlines about hacker who made off with 130 million credit card numbers, I thought, "any thief that successful should be in government." Sure enough, Albert Gonzalez, the man in question, was a former government informant. 

This story isn't anything to get too excited about. Yes, it's record-breaking, but that's what it takes to even get the feds to pay attention to identity theft. I've heard of cases of $50,000 worth of theft where no law enforcement agency was willing to even get up from their desks. 

And if you did happen to own one of the 130,000,000 credit card accounts that was hacked, you're probably not going lose any money in all of this. This is a case of the authorities bragging about how they're out working to protect you from identity theft. That's only true if you're one of the millions of victims in one of these huge ID Theft rings. If you have a more personal case of identity theft, you're going to have a much harder time getting law enforcement interested. 

Consider criminal identity theft. One of the worst kinds of identity theft, it involves a criminal providing your information to the police. Once they have your name listed as an alias for a known criminal, they'll never remove it from their records. Any time you get pulled over for any minor infraction after that, expect to wind up in handcuffs.  Here's an article about criminal identity theft that offers some further resources.

$10 Dinners on Food Network

Several years ago, I reviewed "Good Deal with Dave Lieberman," a Food Network show that promised to help viewers save money on their home-prepared meals.

This weekend a new show with a similar theme premiered: $10 Dinners. The host is Melissa d'Arabian, the winner of this season's "Next Food Network Star". Each week, she plans to prepare a meal for four people that costs less than $10 to make.

This is a show I can certainly recommend, though I'm a bit skeptical of the $10 promise. The first episode has drawn some criticism from viewers who don't think they can replicate the meal prepared in the show and still stay under budget. I'd be happier with the show if they talked more directly about what each ingredient costs. They should start in the grocery store, and have the host show us what she's buying and how much it costs. For instance, the first two recipes used things like dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar. As the expert, I want Melissa d'Arabian to tell me how much I should spend on these kinds of things: when is the higher-priced product worth the money, and when is the generic version perfectly sufficient?

And I'd like to see a ticker in the corner of the screen that counts up the cost of each ingredient as she throws it in the pot. For now, the $10 theme, while a brilliant idea for a show, doesn't seem as vital as it should be. 

But the show is engaging and the recipes have been accessible so far. If you're looking for meal ideas that aren't too expensive or time-consuming to prepare, $10 Dinners is worth a look.

While I'm talking television, let me acknowledge that yes, cable is a want and not a need. If you are struggling to pay your bills, cable should probably be one of the first things to go. But I know a lot of people will choose to keep cable and sacrifice other things to make their budgets work. If you're one of those people, this show can help your cable TV subscription pay for itself. If you stop going out to eat expensive meals and instead prepare something that costs around $10, you'll pay for your cable subscription and then some. 

Here are a couple more articles that can help you control your food spending:

6 Steps to Avoid Overspending at the Grocery Store

BBQ on a Budget

Dining Out on a Tight Budget

"Hacking" your credit report

This article from Wired discusses "credit hacking," techniques to obtain a lot of low-interest credit or to remove the hard inquiries from one's credit report. An interesting concept, but I wouldn't recommend trying it yourself.