Consumer News: FTC, states sue Ticketmaster and Live Nation over ticketing abuses

A monthly index shows prices are falling but are still higher than a year ago

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

• Grocery prices dipped slightly in October, with the average shopping cart totaling $150.84, down 0.9% from September but still 3.6% higher than a year ago.

• Breakfast foods and beverages drove much of the inflation, with Honey Nut Cereal up 20.6% and Cola up 21.6% year over year, while some items like butter and bacon saw modest declines.

• Inflation remains stubborn despite easing monthly costs, as consumers continue to pay more for everyday essentials like peanut butter, soup, and detergent than they did in 2024.

The ConsumerAffairs Datasembly Shopping Cart Index shows that grocery prices continued their uneven path in October 2025, with the average cost of the tracked cart totaling $150.84. Thats down 0.9% month over month from Septembers $152.21, but still up 3.6% year over year compared to October 2024s $145.64.

Inflationary pressures persist in several key categories particularly breakfast foods, beverages, and cleaning products while some pantry staples saw price relief.

Year-over-year changes (October 2024 October 2025)

Biggest price increases:

1. Honey Nut Cereal (18.8 oz Family Size) up 20.6% to $6.67 from $5.53

2. Cola (2 liters) up 21.6% to $3.38 from $2.78

3. Peanut Butter (16.3 oz) up 13.5% to $3.61 from $3.18

4. Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup (10.75 oz) up 9.2% to $1.55 from $1.42

5. Laundry Detergent (96 oz) up 2.1% to $13.33 from $13.06

Notable declines:

• Salted Butter (1 lb) down 10.9%, from $6.22 to $5.54

• Cookies (14.3 oz) down 47%, from $7.14 to $3.79 (reflecting a likely correction after 2024s price spike)

• Whole Bean Coffee (12 oz) down 2%, from $12.20 to $15.19 (but still well above pre-2024 levels)

Year-over-year, shoppers are paying more for packaged foods and pantry essentials especially cereal, drinks, and condiments while some dairy products and snacks are seeing modest stabilization. Beverage prices, notably for soda, are among the highest increases.

Month-over-month changes (September 2025 October 2025)

Largest increases:

1. Honey Nut Cereal (18.8 oz) up 20.8%, from $5.52 to $6.67

2. Cola (2 liters) up 9.4%, from $3.09 to $3.38

3. Peanut Butter (16.3 oz) up 10.4%, from $3.27 to $3.61

4. Laundry Detergent (96 oz) up 2%, from $13.06 to $13.33

5. Condensed Soup (10.75 oz) up 6.9%, from $1.45 to $1.55

Largest declines:

• Bacon (16 oz) down 4.2%, from $8.92 to $8.55

• Whole Bean Coffee (12 oz) down 2%, from $15.51 to $15.19

• Salted Butter (1 lb) down 1.7%, from $5.36 to $5.54 (after prior volatility)

On a monthly basis, the steepest price growth came from breakfast staples and pantry goods. Meanwhile, high-ticket proteins such as bacon saw modest relief. Household cleaning and beverage costs continued to creep upward, signaling sustained inflation in non-food essentials.

Overall Summary

While the overall grocery basket eased slightly from September, prices remain well above 2024 levels. The continued volatility across categories suggests inflation is moderating but not gone with consumers still facing higher bills for everyday staples.

The House may vote on the measure Wednesday

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

• The United States Senate voted 6040 late Monday night to approve a short-term funding bill aimed at ending the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

• The legislation, a bipartisan compromise, will fund most federal agencies through January 30, 2026, and combine three full-year spending bills with a stopgap extension.

• The deal notably does not include an extension of the enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health-insurance credits a major sticking point for many Democrats setting up further acrimony within the party.
  

After 41 days of a federal government shutdown that furloughed workers and snarled air travel, the Senate late Monday night sent to the House a funding package that, if approved by the House of Representatives and signed by President Trump, would reopen large swaths of the federal government.

The deal cleared the chamber with the minimum 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster, thanks to eight Democrats joining virtually all Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) declared: The time to act is now, underscoring the urgency of restoring operations, paying federal workers and halting further disruptions.

What the bill does

• Funds most federal agencies and programs until Jan. 30, 2026, providing much-needed relief to furloughed or unpaid federal employees.

• Includes full-year appropriations for certain key programs, including military construction and veterans health care.

• Reverses mass firings of federal workers initiated during the shutdown and provides for back-pay.

The bill now faces a vote in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson says a vote could come as soon as Wednesday. The measure must pass the House before heading to the Presidents desk.

Officials say that even after funding is restored and federal employees especially air traffic controllers receive back-pay, the system wont snap immediately back to full capacity. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy specifically said it could take days, if not a week for travel operations to stabilize after the shutdown ends.

Some commercial aviation experts caution that while major delays and cancellations may diminish within days, normal flight schedules, full staffing, and smooth airport operations may take longer, particularly given the backlog of adjustments.

Companies make it easy to sign up and weirdly hard to quit

• Scan 6090 days of card/bank statements and make a hit list of anything recurring, vague, or annual you cant cancel what you forgot exists

• Always cancel where you signed up (Apple, Google Play, website) and look for turn off auto-renew or cancel at end of period, then screenshot the confirmation

• Start a fake cancel many services throw out wait, want 20% off? offers in the cancel flow, so you can keep the service but at alower rate

Somewhere right now, your credit card is renewing a streaming service you dont watch or a workout app you havent touched since February. None of this was intentional. Its just what happens when companies make signing up stupid-easy and canceling slightly annoying. Heres how to stop paying for the stuff you meant to cancel, and how to shut down the ones that play hard to get.

Start with a subscription audit

Its very hard to cancel the services youve completely forgotten about. So, before you can cancel anything, you have to know exactly what youre paying for.

• Start by opening your bank or credit card app and look at the last 6090 days.
• I always like to write down anything on the statement that looks like one of these: recurring, APP*, Digital, or a name you dont recognize.
• Also, dont forget about your annual services (password managers, antivirus, cloud storage) as they can often be the sneakiest.

Now youve got a hit list to work with.

Turn off auto-renew everywhere

Most of the time, you dont need to fully close the account, you just need to stop it from renewing every month or year.

For each service you want to cancel do the following:

• Go into account billing manage plan.
• Look for turn off auto-renew, cancel at end of period, or dont renew.
• Screenshot it. Save the email. If they end up billing you again, you have proof that they shouldnt have.

If you cant find billing inside the app, log-in ona laptop or desktop computer. Often times companies will sneakily hide the real cancel tools there instead of on their app.

Pro tip: Renewal emails love to say stuff like Your benefits are continuing or An update to your account instead of Were charging you $59.99 tomorrow. So be sure to open those boring, vague emails and search for words like renewal, next billing date, or will be charged.

Cancel through the same platform you used to subscribe

This is a big one that many people miss and can cause a lot of frustration.

• If you subscribed through Apple, you have to cancel in Apple.
• If you subscribed through Google Play, cancel in Google Play.
• If you subscribed on the company website, cancel on the website.

For example, if you signed up for Paramount+ through Apple, you have to cancel it in your Apple subscriptions.

If you try to cancel on Paramounts website instead, theyll say they never got the cancellation and youll keep getting charged. Always cancel where you started.

Beat retention tricks

Some services dont say cancel. Instead, theyll say something like pause, downgrade, or keep 30 days free. Those are all classic stall tactics.

Scroll down until you see wording like end membership, do not renew, or cancel immediately. If all you see is pause, go ahead and do it so they stop billing you right now. Then go back into your account after a few days and the full cancel option will typically appear.

Do this when they make you call or chat

Some companies still force you to talk to a human so they can talk you out of cancelling. You might not have a choice but to play along, sobe sure to leave a trail.

• Ask, Can you confirm this is canceled today?
• Get the confirmation number or email while youre still in chat.
• Save the transcript or take screenshots.

Now if they bill you again, you can go to your card and say, I canceled on X date and heres my proof.

Use your credit card as your backup plan

Think of this as your safety net.

If youve tried to cancel and they keep billing you, dispute the charge with your card or bank and tell them its an unauthorized recurring payment.

Amazingly, banks see this all the time. You can also use a virtual card (Privacy, Capital One Eno, some bank apps) which have spending limits attached so a subscription cant suddenly double on you.

Set a reminder the day you start a free trial

Most ugh, I forgot to cancel charges happen 730 days after you start a new subscription.

So, when you start a trial, set a calendar reminder on your phone for 2-3 days before it renews. Literally name it: Cancel Paramount+ or whatever.

If the service wont tell you the renewal date clearly, thats a big red flag in my book. I recommend cancelling right away and resubscribe later if you still want it.

Make it harder for subscriptions to get you

Ive discovered two easy habits to make sure I dont overspend on subscriptions I never use.

• Keep all subscriptions on one credit card so you can scan one statement quickly.
• Before you cancel, drop to the cheapest version. A lot of services will surface the real cancel button only after you downgrade, and if you end up needing it again, youre paying less in the meantime.

Dont actually cancel and save money in the process

A lot subscriptions will offer you a discount when you first hit the "cancel" button. They don't want to lose your business and will often throw you a bone to keep you paying.

So if you pay for a subscription that you actually use, but it's a little more than you want to pay, give this a shot. The good part is they'll typically tell you about the discount before you have to hit the "finalizeyour cancellation" button giving you time to back out.

Your points card might not be welcome everywhere anymore

• Visa/Mastercard may cut swipe fees a hair (about 0.1%), which helps stores but wont show up as obvious price drops for shoppers

• Stores could get more power to favor cheaper cards and even say no to high-reward, high-fee cards, so you might need a backup card

• Expect to see more surcharges or cash/debit discounts as merchants get more freedom to nudge you toward cheaper payment methods

Every time you tap a Visa or Mastercard, the store is paying roughly 2%2.5% of the transaction to the card networks and the bank behind your card. After 20 years of legal fighting, the Wall Street Journal recently reported,Visa and Mastercard are now close to another settlement with merchants that would trim those fees a bit and, more importantly, give stores more flexibility to say no to certain higher-cost cards. Thats the part consumers will actually feel.

Whats actually changing?

1. Small fee reductions for stores

Visa and Mastercard would shave the fee built into card payments by about 0.1 percentage point. Not all at once though, it would be spread out over time.

Thats real money for big retailers processing billions a year, but its not a dramatic cut, which is why merchant groups are already saying it still lets the card networks keep fixing swipe fees.

2. Stores could sort cards by cost

Right now, if a store takes Visa, it generally has to take all Visa credit, including the rewards cards that cost the most to accept. The new structure being discussed would let stores treat cards on an individual level. So, cards with heavy rewards, no-rewards, and commercial cards could be separated.

That opens the door for a store to prefer cheaper cards or even refuse the priciest ones. Consumers who love high-rewards cards are the group most likely to bump into sorry, we dont take that one at smaller or lower-margin businesses.

3. More room for surcharging or steering

The reporting also says surcharging is part of the talks. Surcharging is when the store tells shoppers upfront that since youre paying with a credit card, were adding a fee to your transaction.

That matters because merchants have complained for years that they were blocked from nudging shoppers toward cheaper payment methods.

If those rules get looser, you could see more signs at checkout that say X% added for premium credit or signs steeringyou towardscash or debit card discounts. Weve already seen this after earlier settlements and court rulings and this could normalize it further.

Why are Visa and Mastercard doing this now?

This is basically the sequel to a long antitrust fight in federal court in New York over credit-card fees and rules. Earlier efforts included a big settlement meant to save merchants around $30 billion over several years, but a judge rejected a version of that in 2024, which sent everyone back to the table. Card networks keep denying wrongdoing, but settling gives them certainty and heads off more years of expensive litigation.

What this means for consumers

You might see more payment friction. The U.S. has been spoiled by near-universal card acceptance. If merchants get more power to reject high-fee cards, you could run into the occasional we only take basic Visa/Mastercard or debit. This could end up forcing you to keep a backup card in your wallet.

Premium rewards could get pressure. Rich travel cards tend to carry higher fees because those rewards have to be paid for somehow. If more merchants start pushing back on those cards, banks and networks may have to rethink how rich certain rewards offers can be in the future. That wont be immediate, but its the logical downstream effect.

Price effects will be subtle. A 0.1-point cut is helpful for retailers, especially small ones, but its not the kind of drop that turns into a big, obvious price decrease for shoppers. At best, it will be the slow drip of we had to raise prices because costs went up.

Career experts share how to find legitimate remote gigs that best fit your needs

• FlexJobs identified 10 fully remote side jobs from copywriting to tutoring that can earn $1,000 or more per month.

• Career experts say the key to landing a side hustle is matching roles to your skills, schedule, and realistic time commitments.

• Tailoring your resume, highlighting remote-friendly experience, and using your top skills as keywords can help you stand out in your search.

With holiday spending in full swing, many Americans are looking for ways to bring in a little extra income without sacrificing their time or commute.

To help, FlexJobs identified 10 in-demand remote side jobs that can earn $1,000 or more per month, based on Payscale data. From virtual assistants to freelance writers, these positions are actively hiring, fully remote, and designed to fit around your main job so you can boost your income without burning out.

The top 10 list

Heres a look at the list FlexJobs put together:

1. Therapist ($32/hour)

2. Nurse Practitioner ($58/hour)

3. Customer Service Representative ($17/hour)

4. Copywriter ($25/hour)

5. Executive Assistant ($25/hour)

6. Accountant ($24/hour)

7. Interpreter & Translator ($24/hour)

8. Content Writer ($23/hour)

9. Graphic Designer ($21/hour)

10. Tutor ($20/hour)

Finding remote side jobs

What are the best ways to find these kinds of jobs? ConsumerAffairs spoke with Toni Frana, Career Expert Manager at FlexJobs, to learn more.

First, focus on roles that match your skill set so you can facilitate an effective job search, Frana said. Its also important to understand what your availability and time looks like for what you can commit to a new side hustle.

Finally, know your worth. Your experience is valuable, even for something that isnt done full-time. Identifying these first will help you conduct focused research to make sure you are searching for jobs in the right places.

Resume dos and donts

If youre not sure how to make sure your resume is as attractive as possible, Frana offered some expertise.

"Your resume for a side hustle wont be noticeably different from the resume you use when applying for full-time roles, he said. In fact, tailoring your resume for side hustles is equally as important as it is for full-time roles. Employers want to see that you have the right skill set and experience for the job, regardless of the number of hours per week it requires.

Highlighting your remote-friendly skills and experience is also important for hiring managers to see on your resume. And, in some industries, particularly creative fields, it may be beneficial to put a portfolio together that you can include a link to on your resume.

Turning skills into income

Frana recommends that consumers start with what theyre already good at, and try to find ways to turn that into extra income.

Knowing what your top skills and your transferable skills are is very important for finding a new role, he said/ Yes, side hustles offer the opportunity to increase your income, but also allow you to expand on skills you already have and leverage them to learn new and valuable skills that can open future doors as well.

Once you know what skills you can leverage into a side hustle, you can consider using some of those skills as keywords in your search strategy. Searching for job titles is generally what we default to, but oftentimes job searching sites allow searching with keywords, which can really help optimize your search efforts by focusing on some of your top skills as keywords.