Loose Change

Today, WalletPop takes you to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, where inside an unassuming shed facing Alcatraz Island, you'll find one of the most unique attractions in the country: Musée Mécanique, the "mechanical museum." It's both a virtual temple to spare change and the product of thrift where a pocketful of quarters can transport an entire family to the early 20th century.

Not only can you see the Musée on a dime, but it runs on one, too.

This morning the alternative pub SFGate featured companies that broker ad deals between Twitter users and advertisers that pay Twitter users to promote their products.

The return ranges from a few pennies to several thousand dollars per tweet, depending on the twitterer's number of followers or how famous the tweeters are off the Internet

The story reminded me of that old Dire Straits song, Money for Nothing ... The first line of the lyrics is particularly apropos: "Look at them yo-yos, that's the way to do it. ... "

In his last real-life drama, Nicolas Cage was faced with selling off a castle or two to scrape together the $6.3 million he owes the IRS.

Now it seems the Family Man is facing yet another costly conundrum. His ex, Christina Fulton, is suing the actor and his former business partner for a reported $13 million, alleging that the two have, among other things, put the kibosh on her plans to sell her home and left her with a sizable tax bill on the property, to boot.

The suit, which was filed in Los Angeles Tuesday, claims Cage not only inflicted her with undisclosed "mental, physical and emotional abuse" during their relationship, which ended 15 years ago, but he never transferred the title on the home he bought for her in 2001. The home is reported to have been Fulton's "bonus" for raising the couple's son, Weston Coppola Cage, instead of pursuing her own burgeoning career.

As college students get ready for a new year of classes, there's a lot more to worry about than Shakespeare and molecular biology. With the recession in full swing, colleges are raising prices at just the time when students and their families are least able to afford it. Worse, a tight job market has made it difficult for some students to raise cash the old-fashioned way: working. Since I'm headed back to college in the fall too, I came up with five ways that you can raise cash for college.

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I've been looking for the back-to-school deals, and I've found plenty on Web sites offering online coupons. As retailers worry that kids and their parents won't be buying as many pencils, binders and electronics, more of them are offering special deals online at coupon-focused sites. Here's a sampler of some sites I found good deals on:

• Savings.com: Lots of big-name retailers here, like Macy's, Target, Old Navy and Apple. Check out their special "Back to School" section, although instead of giving you a coupon code, you're usually sent to a special Web site with the retailer's specials and discounted goods. Two good ones: The Apple store is offering up to $200 off a new Mac computer for college-bound students, and REI is taking 20 percent off certain backpacks.
• CouponWinner.com: It also has name-brand retailers like Home Depot, Target and Toys R Us. Deals right now: AT&T is taking $50 off and free shipping for new cell phones. I like the way they categorize their deals -- you can search by new coupons, most-used coupons, and coupons expiring in the next seven days.
• RetailMeNot.com: I liked how they found printable coupons for local stores in your zip code. Looking for deals on pizza for dinner tonight, I found that Pizza Hut was offering three medium pizzas with one topping at $5 apiece. But RetailMeNot needs to do a better job keeping their coupons up to date -- I saw many coupons that had expired days, weeks and even months ago.
• FreeCoupons.com: Check out this site's Editor's Blog, which does a good job reporting the latest deals. RIght now, it's touting deals at Target and giving a link to the retailer's printable coupons.
  
• Speaking of blogs, some good ones that find good coupon deals around the Internet for parents and their kids are Mommy's Wish List (read its recent posting about tax-free shopping weekends in various states, which can save back-to-schoolers a good deal of money) and Coupon Cravings.
• Twitter is also a good deal-scouting tool: Savings.com recently made a list of 30 deal hunters to follow for their regular tweets on coupon savings.

I'm new to online coupon-cutting but I'm finding some good everyday deals worth the price of printer ink needed to print them out. Not all online-coupon Web sites have great deals or good reps, so it's wise to rely on those that have live people to contact if you're having trouble using their coupons, and those that don't charge membership fees. For more tips, read this MarketWatch.com article by Jonathan Burton.,

Forget Armani, Zegna or Versache: For my fashion dollar, there's only one Italian I'm sticking by as I walk into the job interview vortex, and that's Marco Liotta.

Liotta, you may recall, was the suave New York City fashion maven (and consultant to shows such as "Sex and the City") who took me to a Goodwill store in SoHo to see if we could find clothes worthy of GQ and a job interview for less than $50. Hey, Liotta must know something: He owns two uber-hip Amarcord Vintage Fashion shops in the Big Apple.

Sure enough we did it, snagging two shirts, dress pants and a pair of black leather shoes with the allotted dough and change to spare. You can view the original piece, and the video where I do the Best Mannequin Impersonation Ever, by clicking here.

But it's one thing to buy these clothes as an exercise in thrift -- and quite another to put them to the test in a real-live, every-impression-counts job interview. Call me fixated on getting the real story, but do WalletPop readers deserve any less? So I donned the stud duds for a Tuesday, July 21 job interview at Concordia University in River Forest, Ill.

The position: Assistant professor in charge of building a new journalism program.

Ever since the Chicago Tribune gave me the heave-ho in April, I've been thinking a lot about my image and the way I dress. An awful lot.

Ready to hit the job market in mind, body, spirit and attitude -- but not in wardrobe -- I sought the advice of a true master, and a man after my own Italian roots. Marco Liotta, who owns two Amarcord Vintage Fashion stores in New York City, agreed to take me on as my fashion mechanic ... and just to make things interesting, we at WalletPop finessed Marco into the equivalent of one fashion-savvy arm tied behind his back. That is: Could he make me over at a Goodwill store, and on less than $50?

Macy's earnings were in the spotlight on Wall Street on Wednesday, when the retailer posted an $88 million first-quarter loss. But about 40 blocks uptown, at its historic 34th Street flagship, the focus was on fashion.

Macy's unveiled its fall collections in a maze of themed rooms -- one housing racks of jewel tones, another draped in leopard and zebra. And at the center of it all were the studded handbags and stretchy tunics from Rachel Rachel Roy, the retailer's latest big-name branded collection.

You wake up in the morning feeling a little congested...what's the first thing you do? If you're like most Americans, you reach into your medicine cabinet for some instant relief, either from over-the-counter medications or prescription drugs that resulted from many visits to a doctor. But what if you could cure what ails you with a little stretching, some breathing exercises, a healthy breakfast or even just a kiss from somebody who loves you?

Fashion designer Donna Karan wants to save you some money on your health care bills and make you feel better with a nationwide initiative to spread the word about holistic medicine. She calls her foundation Urban Zen, and so far the holdings consist of a training center, a store that sells Karan-designed clothes, a center for healing at Beth-Israel Hospital in New York and an educational campaign to spread the message across the country.

When we took stress management expert Debbie Mandel to Grand Central Station, we knew we would run into a lot of people who needed her help. Who isn't a little frazzled these days? The radio show host and author of Addicted to Stress: A Woman's 7-Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life had a lot of great help to offer the people we met, including one great tip to recover your sanity with a little cinema therapy. Watch her advice now, and then check out 12 great movies that will make you feel better about almost any financial problem!

As WalletPop's Aaron Crowe reported yesterday, the circus is recession proof. After a hilarious run-in with a group of clowns today in New York's Grand Central Station, I can see why!

The WalletPop production crew was shooting an upcoming video for Loose Change, a new series that shows you how to save money and flourish regardless of the economic climate. As we were wrapping up our shoot in Grand Central's beautiful Main Terminal, a boisterous crew of clowns from Ringling Bros. Circus came charging through. (Tonight is the opening night for Ringling Bros. two-week run in Manhattan -- for tour info check out the Ringling Bros. Circus website). We just had to interview them to find out, which is harder, this economy or graduating from clown school.

Hey, if the government is handing out free cash to basically anyone who asks for it, why shouldn't you get your fair share? Free stuff has become the buzzword of the moment, with everyone searching the web, twittering away, and lining up for hours to get pancakes, coffee, donuts or anything else offered for free.

Walletpop's "Loose Change" video team recently visited downtown Manhattan where the art of scoring freebies actually has turned into art -- a store-front art installation called The Free Store, which has been doing a bustling business and has people on the street talking. After the jump, you'll get WalletPop's 10 tips for scoring freebies!

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Like death, taxes are one thing you can count on and preparing taxes can be a trying experience especially if you haven't kept up with the numerous tax credits that are available. Thankfully the IRS has partnered with volunteers to provide free tax preparation assistance to individuals making less than $42,000 through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Additionally, the Walmart Foundation is also helping taxpayers by providing a $3.6 million grant to help taxpayers earning less than $56,000 file their taxes correctly.

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For the most part, using the VITA program for tax preparation assistance is no different than going to H&R Block -- other than the fact that you'll save $130! There's no need to for any special paperwork to file your taxes through the VITA program, just the standard tax documents, a list of which can be found at the IRS VITA program page. Additionally when you file with the help of a VITA volunteer it shouldn't take any longer than filing at a tax prep company and in many cases will be faster than doing it yourself.