Gerri we begin with a story the impacts were bottom line. As summer heats up Many Americans are upgrading their old airconditioners, shelling out a pretty penny for energy star appliances. A score of lawsuits against manufacturers have said the energy star steel hasnt lived up to their expectations and now there is legislation in the works that would silence these class action lawsuits altogether. We are looking out for consumers tonight with john six and im an advocate for the consumer watchdog. I want to start if you have been shopping in the last 20 years for an appliance you seen the energy star label. What does it mean . It means the appliance you are buying ranking from refrigerators to airconditioners, even televisions havent met Certain Energy efficiency rules and regulations and standards i should say. Therefore, you will save money on electricity you pay. Gerri currently the epas website says its a voluntary purpose to help save and protect our climate. Save money and protect our climate through secure your energy efficiency. And yet, we have seen lots of problems over the years. Let a give you just one example here, energy star failing to save money and this is a Consumer Reports evaluation back in 2010. Showing refrigerators in that year just didnt do what they were supposed to do. When you look at this, do you think that energy star is failing . Isnt living up to its namesake . I think it has to definitely be improved and initially the fundamental flaw was the company self certified, so they got to say yes, we are meeting standards when quite likely they were not. Gerri not not to anymore, john. Thats right. Exactly. It now has to be tested by a thirdparty independent laboratory and that came about precisely because of the audit that sort of said wait a minute a certifies bogus things including a gas powered lock and said this is it working which should be working. So, there have been reforms, but part of the problem is that some of the real world conditions are not what our tested. For instance, there will be a situation where you have an ice cube maker and they are allowed to test that without the been turned on, so that is why consumers reports has come up with a much more accurate picture of what the Actual Energy is. Gerri i have to tell you when you go to the store look for the energy star label and you see right here on our screen its on every thing. It like there is no distinction between appliances or effect very little. Do you think this is a good mechanism for figured out the most energy efficients appliances . Does it make distinction between brands . I think it helps you know the students standards are being met, supposedly. Thats where the class action suit comes in. If a concern if an Organization Claims something that is proved not to be true then you have the class action suit to hold the coming at hannibal, is an important thing in which this penny legislation would do away with. Gerri so, congressman peter welch, both republicans, want to eliminate classaction lawsuits as a way of complaining about this. Let me tell you, i think what should happen is possibly an overhaul of energy star for spending 50 million on this thing and that is what the budget was reported 13. Lawsuits, whatever, i think it needs to live up to the standards to give consumers the information we want. This is a Government Program and maybe we are better off with Consumer Reports labeling. It certainly is true the Consumer Reports have held the appliance very fractures to a higher standard than energy star has been able to do, but i think a Government Program is important and one that works well. This has been greatly improved over the years and i think that this doing away with the class action suits would seriously undermine the teeth it does now have. I would oppose that, but i would agree with you that the program could be made better and clearer in terms of the amounts of energy that are actually used. Gerri i tell you the company uses it as a marketing gimmick. Its in all of their advertising when the advertise products they tell you they have this designation. John, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. Gerri another hit to your wallet, airfare just got pricier. Effective today the transportation security ministration increased its security fees at the height of the thomas Summer Travel season. George, lets talk about this increase. How much my looking at . Jerry, the standard is a oneway fee was 2. 50 and now its a dollar 60 cents. Gerri that doesnt sound like a lot and people will be like well, its only less than 6 why are you complaining . It is sort of the idea of the thing that they would go out and more than double this fee. Its really congress that did it. On top of that, what they are saying is we are not using it for security. What are they using for . Basically to pay down the federal deficit. It gets worse because if you are doing a multi city trip where you go from like new york to chicago or chicago to savor the scope and then separate cisco to miami and miami back to new york and you stay over more than four hours each delay will be 5. 60. Before it was capped at 10 for a roundtrip. Gerri this comes on top of increase fees for checking bags, the fees for wifi, you name it. Everything going up and now this. Whose grand idea was this . Basically congress, but we will also see the passenger facility charge come up every time you take off and landed there is a passenger facility charges. Gerri what is a passenger facility charge . Its on your ticket most people dont even know the price of airfare is a largely the rice has been due to taxes, not just in this country, but when you go to the youth uk you pay 133 just to land. Thats in economy and business class. Gerri this tsa fee, the thing that is so annoying is there is no and they can take it where they want to and i have a feeling they will. Is there anything i could do to bring that down . Other than staying home were driving, no. Gerri george, thank you coming on tonight. Yet another be from the government and they are using the money for Something Different than what they are saying. Yes, for reduction of the deficit. Gerri so, white air travelers should pay for the other than anyone else i have no idea. Because we are a captive audience, literally on the ground and in the tin cans they call planes. The policymakers use travelers as you bank or atm or whatever analogy you want to use. Gerri i still feel that way. Thank you, george. Im sorry for the bad news. Gerri still to come a lot more this hour including your voice. During the show we want you to facebook me or tweet me gerriwillisfbn and later in the show i will read your tweets and emails. Dynamics in the household, the money dynamics are switching around, women are marrying men of lesser means. Next, what you need to know to keep the peace in your marriage and your finances. Gerri that was the perfect song, she is rich, he is not , the trend of wealthier women marrying men of lesser means is presenting interesting challenges. Chronic a dagger is here from the wall street journal and she is covering the story. That was a great story the wall street journal today. So, you hear about this a lot and is it happening that much more often . Yes, there was a recent us study that showed three in 10 minute women who remarry tend to have more assets than men they are remarrying, so youre getting these women with of these great job than men any not so great. Gerri you read all the time about more women finishing their College Career that better educations and stay in school longer, so its no surprise at the end of the day women end up with a better job. What kind of problems does this create . First of all their can be a communication problem. Gerri is that what we are calling it . Well, there is transparency is another one. First of all gerri sharing. Each spouse me not feel forthcoming with what they make and what their Credit History is, what their debts and liabilities and assets are. Gerri you a great example in your story of someone who woke up like two years after working on ill to find what . They that there is now seven 30,000 dollars with of debt. There white did not know about and she ended up bailing him out and making a loan to him of sorts instead of just writing him a check, but that still causing a lot of friction and resentment within the marriage. Gerri that makes conversation over the serial zero so nice, but if you check each others Credit Report ahead of time and talk about finance and show each other your Balance Sheet you can avoid those issues. Gerri i know everyone and their mother thinks they should get prenups and i am not a big they and a prenuptial agreements, im sorry. So, do you have a theory about prenups and when you get when when you should have one . A lot of advisers say especially when its a second marriage to get a prenup. If you didnt do a prbecause if you remarry your odds of getting divorced are that much higher. Also, you have children from a prior marriage then you t protect those kids as well even if they are adult kids and make sure they get an inheritance that youre hoping to give them. Gerri okay, so you also have to worry about their inheritances. E idea was that you know what you think you may know what youre getting into, but the spouse you may be marrying may not be the person gerri sometimes people are not as truthful as you would like a. Especially when it comes to money. Gerri frolic, thank you. Nights show. Later in the show we have a list of the best car deals for you and you gerri boston has become the latest city to install security cameras and school buses. The city says it will cut down on sites that have become all too common on school buses across the country. For that have about kids k12 take the bus to school each intraday. For more on this nypd detective and fox news contributor. Before i come to your went to show what happens on some of these buses. Here is what our kids are facing every single day. Look at what is going on in kent, washington. So, as you can see there is lots of violence, School Bus Drivers dont know what to do. Kids are getting beaten up and the idea here, i think, in boston is a deterrent would be to have cameras like this on the school bus, but we are looking at footage from one of these cameras. It doesnt appear to help. Is that the answer . Well, you know when you have Something Like this you have to know what the cost factors are. Some of these things cost millions of dollars to implement, so you look at the budget you have. I am 100 totally supportive of having these cameras on the buses. These kids are going to school and they are supposed to learn. They are on their way to school and all of a sudden they start fighting like this and i want to know if these kids are doing. Gerri you want to know what these kids are doing, but you see the video in their beating this not out of each other is what theyre doing. How do we stop that . On the other side theyre going to have a camera where they watch and they could help and asked us and all that kind of stuff, but how do you stop that is you let these things be seen on video and let people see these things before these things happen. Gerri but, we have been doing this for years now. You are talking a Million Dollars now. Now you look at the video and we ate all see this video. Gerri its so these people are trying to go to school. When i see kids getting a guy like this i want to have that video so i am able to expel them out of school. Gerri so here school bus backs corner purdue thousand school thousand school bus in the country and they transport 25 million kids each everyday. More than half of the k12 publisher. You know a lot mom and dad out there wont let their kids on the bus and this is precisely the reason why. There was a kid that was sitting there, a disabled child and we put a tape recorder and a camera on him and they were slapping this get around and we were able to file a suit against the bus company. These are kids that are disabled and they were assaulted the kid a making fun of him. This happens all the time. I like cameras, but the problem is the cost factor. Gerri we mentioned that before. Heres what Craig Cockburn of the apl you had to say and i want hear what you have seen her response. She says i think schools and school bus should be places where students can extras themselves without fear center. Is this about free speech or not getting a black eye on the way home from school . This has nothing to do with free speech. It has to do with children who are on buses going for it education and others kids bullying them and assaulting them. This is ridiculous. What is that called . Gerri aclu. When you want to bring that in their they should realize what the kids what is a good education and look at these pictures. These kids are being bullied and assaulted. I want to know if these kids are on their i want to pick them out and you know what they do then they should expel them off that bus. Gerri heres what i want to know is here is wheres mom and dad . I would like the parents see their son beat this poor child up like that and what they should do is expel them out of school. That is assault. Look at this best punching this young child. Gerri thank you. We have to deal with this is the i think so also. Thank you. Its the start to our users guide to saving money. We have hidden deals inside your Grocery Store and its and 45 years since nasa put a man on the mood, but what is nasa doing now . Will we have another ought inspiring moment in space . Gerri well, we are kicking off our week on you. Users guide to saving money. Everything from cutting down your commuting costs to starting deals on the latest technology and clothing trends, but first cause are skyrocketing at the Grocery Store. Our next guest has hidden ways of bringing up savings at your nearest supermarket. Senior projects editor Consumer Reports. Welcome back to the show. This story was amazing. Some great ideas. The first one is using the loyalty card. How important is this . Its one of the 10 commandments of grocery shopping. You sign up for your stores loyalty program. More and more chains want you to come back and how do they do that . By making deals available to you, their Loyal Customer that arent available to the general public. If you look at the weekly flyers most of us are familiar with and you see what they call the hot specials or the cherry pick a specials, those are lost leaders. They are sold at a low cost to the work you into the store and then hopefully you will buy more probable i dont. More and more we are seen major groceries change reserve the best deals for customers who use their bonus card, loyalty card. Gerri sorry to interrupt, what am i looking at here . Paper towels, toilet paper what my buying at such a great savings . The staples of everyday life. Bacon, serial, eggs, orange juice, you name it. Aluminum foil, have you priced that lately . All the things most of us by repeatedly that i personally buy at a Warehouse Club, but if people want to go to a supermarket they need to get a loyalty card. Gerri lets talk about storebrand versus name brands. Some storm for ever not so great, but some are terrific. More and more consumers are finding the dirty little secret. Not only are a lot of National Brand companies manufacturing storebrand, they are selling them at upwards of 25 less than the namebrand depending upon the item. Some can be 60 . You are talking about stuff that sold at a drugstore, health and beauty eight, overthecounter remedies can be 60 , so you are talking big bucks. Again, storebrand Consumer Reports had tested store brands for years and years and we find that the storebrand is almost always at least as good as the National Brand. It may not taste the like, but its a bargain most people love it and stores back it. Gerri you say go big or go home. By the big size you say is that always true . Absolutely not. There have been investigations and we have done our own here youre after year. You have to check the unit price because remember if you want to buy orange juice is available in maybe four to seven different sizes. Supermarkets run a promotion. One week the bigger site is on sale and the next week the smaller one. The only way to know what the true bargain is is to check the unit price per ounce, cork, per pound. Thats the holy grail. Gerri who is cheapest overall, every thing considered where do i go . Well, it depends on what youre buying. Walmart has a great reputation for price and you can get almost anything for less there. However, we Consumer Reports just did a big grocery ratings report and walmart was the nations lowest rated grocer. If youre buying canned goods it doesnt matter, but if you are buying perishables you may want to be more selective. Cosco, the Warehouse Club is still king. Everyday low prices thing in and day out. No waiting for a sale. You may have to buy larger quantities, but you can stock up and save. Gerri talk about little secret in this you talk about these Dollar Stores they are really offering the best deals in the thing you forgot on that list the extra gallon of milk, maybe bread, why . Again, these are items that are called high velocity items. They get you into the store. They are a lost leader. Drug steve stores are doing it also. They put these items that you are going to buy day in and day out on discount, so you may get a gallon of milk 4399. Thats great because if you go to a regular store it may cost 4. 99. They may just check the xray she needs of the Dollar Stores. Gerri checked expiration, that always makes sense. Todd, thank you. And if you missed part of what todd said tonight it on my website gerri willis. Com. Its a big anniversary, yesterday, sunday it was 45 years ago that america landed on the moon. They held a ceremony today in florida to mark anniversary. The countrys next giant leap into space seems lesser today than all those years ago. For more on this bill night, the science guy. Im so