Concoct your own cola
Spend a fortune on fizzy drinks? You’re not alone. The average family of four consumes 2,400 sodas annually-totaling nearly $1,080. With a home fountain machine, you can save money and have fun making everything from soda water to diet root beer. After purchasing a startup kit, you buy refill canisters of CO2 and syrup. A liter of sparkling water is 21 cents, compared with $1.50 or more for the store-bought variety, and flavored soda costs roughly 25 cents per 12 ounces.

Save about $720 per year for a family of four (you’ll also produce less household waste). SodaStream Fountain Jet starter kit, $100.

South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state.

As the Palmetto Scoop first reported, Pitts, a Republican, introduced legislation this month banning “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina.

Amid high unemployment and sliding home prices, a growing number of struggling consumers are doing what was once considered unthinkable: paying their credit card bills instead of their mortgages. A recent study developed by TransUnion found the percentage of Americans who were current on their credit cards but behind on their mortgage increased to 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, up from 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, the share of consumers making mortgage payments on time but behind on their credit cards moved in the opposite direction, sliding from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent over the same time period.

The data reflects a “fundamental paradigm shift” in the way consumers prioritize payment of debt obligations, says Ezra Becker, of TransUnion. “This is dramatically different,” he says. “It is a clear manifestation of the dynamics that lead up to the recession and the recession itself.”

While no one has a crystal ball to know exactly what is coming in the future, there are some trends we confidently anticipate will impact the financial industry in 2010.

For example, we anticipate continued regulatory activity to impact the way that the financial industry does business. In 2009, legislators and federal regulatory agencies began to focus on consumer protection initiatives, and we expect that attention to continue. Those efforts in 2009 resulted in revisions to existing regulations and creation of new legislation, the impact of which is still rolling out. And, of course, there is the potential for additional new legislation to be introduced this year. These regulatory actions aim to protect consumers from abusive credit card, overdraft and other practices characteristic of some financial institutions.

Rob Arango was wondering if he remembered the cost of the daily paper. If you get daily home delivery of a newspaper, how much would it be at the newsstand?
How much is the toll on the Triboro Bridge? Or the Henry Hudson Bridge? When was the last increase?
What is the initial drop when a taxi starts its meter? What is the rate of increase? What are the different surcharges? (Not a fair question – I doubt event the TLC commissioner can keep track of that.)