Main Street Dollars

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Fireworks, toys, garden umbrellas and Christmas ornaments made in China are on a list of 77 U.S. tariff lines that Washington and Beijing have recommended for lower duties, covering roughly $30 billion of trade each way. The list came out of a board that President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping set up in May.…

T-Mobile customers will pay $2.60 a month on each tablet or hotspot line starting Oct. 12, up 50 cents

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T-Mobile is raising the monthly fee it charges on data-only lines. Starting Oct. 12, the Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery Fee on mobile internet lines, the category that covers tablets and hotspot devices, goes from $2.10 to $2.60 a month per line, an increase of 50 cents. Voice lines take a larger jump, from $4.49…

Aldi’s Honeycrisp apples drop to $1.99 for a 2-pound bag, and chicken breast family packs to $1.99 a pound

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A 2-pound bag of Honeycrisp apples at Aldi now carries a $1.99 price tag, and family packs of Kirkwood chicken breast are $1.99 a pound. Both prices come from Aldi’s Sept. 23 fall price announcement, and the chain says they run through at least Nov. 3. Each is a claim by Aldi about its own…

Aldi says its fall price cuts at 2,600-plus stores will save shoppers $86 million

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Aldi has attached a dollar figure to its autumn markdowns: $86 million in shopper savings, across more than 2,600 U.S. stores, from Sept. 23 through at least Nov. 3. The grocer announced the round in a Sept. 23 press release. The number is Aldi’s own estimate, and the release does not lay out how it…

Minnesota’s Cold Weather Rule starts Oct. 1, capping lower-income households’ utility payment plans at 10% of income

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Ten percent is the number at the center of Minnesota’s Cold Weather Rule, and it describes a ceiling on a payment plan rather than a cut to the bill. The rule runs from Oct. 1 to April 30, and the ceiling reaches lower-income households that ask their utility for an agreement. The Cold Weather Rule’s…

Winter shutoff protections start Oct. 1 in Minnesota, Nov. 15 in New Jersey and Massachusetts, and Dec. 1 in Pennsylvania

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Minnesota’s winter shutoff protection begins Oct. 1, New Jersey’s and Massachusetts’s begin Nov. 15, and Pennsylvania’s begins Dec. 1. Four separate state rules set those dates, and each carries its own income test and its own way of being triggered. In most of them, a household behind on a heating bill has to reach the…

Amazon Prime members can save 20 cents a gallon on Fridays at bp, Amoco and ampm stations through Jan. 29

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Amazon is doubling the fuel discount it gives Prime members on Fridays. From Oct. 2 through Jan. 29, members who have switched the offer on can take 20 cents off each gallon on one fill-up per Friday at more than 7,500 bp, Amoco, ampm and participating Thorntons stations, up from the usual 10 cents. Amazon…

Newsom lets California stations sell cheaper winter-blend gas a month early, citing an estimated $428 hit per household

Sep 29, 2026

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California gas stations can start selling winter-blend gasoline right away, a little over a month ahead of the usual Nov. 1 switch, under an action Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Sept. 28. His office paired the announcement with an estimated $428 hit per California household from fuel costs over seven months. The release does not say…

The poorest fifth of households spends nearly 10% of income on home energy bills

Sep 29, 2026

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The lowest-income fifth of U.S. households spent 9.86% of income on electricity and natural gas in 2025, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA). That is nearly 10 cents of every dollar, up from 9.38% the year before. The figure appears in NEADA’s winter heating report, released September 14, ahead of a heating…

Domestic airfares averaged $436 in the second quarter, up 9% in a year

Sep 29, 2026

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