Simplification

The headlines for various projects and challenges to eat on a small food budget always slurp me in with their titillation, the gauntlet-throwing, and immediately I ask myself: could I do it? The answer always disappoints, because I'm either doing it already or find the challenge so impossible it's meaningless. Eating on $1 a day per person?

I was helping my second-grader with his homework; he was reluctant to read a the little copy-printed book on bartering, saying, with full eye-rolls, that he'd already read it.

So we read it together, and worked through the questions at the end. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "You and dad barter!" he said.

Exactly. Here in Portland, Ore., I am such a regular user of the barter economy that the book's historical viewpoint (first came bartering, and finally came malls) seems passé.

The grocery co-op where we are member-owners holds an annual holiday barter swap, instead of a bazaar, and we look forward to the seed and start swap in the spring. On Portland's craigslist barter page, hundreds of offerings appear every day, and if it weren't for the constant request to trade something for an iPhone, you'd think it was 1972.

"VHS copies of your favourite horror movies that you replaced on DVD this year for Tokyo Long Scarlet Radishes," reads one ad, also suggesting the trade of an old window for a 10-pound Fielderkraut cabbage.

So Halloween's over and now you have bags of candy -- literally bags -- lying around promising to do some serious damage to your kids' teeth and your waistline. What to do? Eat it? Throw it away? Put it in the garage and forget about it? We at WalletPop think we've found an answer to this most vexing of parental dilemmas: Donate your extra bags of Halloween candy to a charitable cause.

Send your extra candy overseas -- Several organizations send donations of all kinds to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operation Gratitude will happily take your donations of extra bagged candy to distribute to troops (find more info about procedure here and scroll to the bottom of the page.). Operation Shoebox will take your candy - also any extra socks or old cell phones you care to donate.

Some local dentist offices will buy back your extra candy for $1 a pound, and ship it themselves to U.S. troops abroad. Check here to see if dentists in your area are offering this program.

Ronald McDonald House charities welcomes donations of your extra candy (provided it's in the original wrapper, of course). Check its website for specific giving policies at the Ronald McDonald House near you.

Your local Meals on Wheels charity, which takes meals to housebound seniors, will take your extra candy. Click here to find a local chapter.

As always, women's shelters, churches, synagogues and other places of worship will accept donations of extra candy. The PTA at your child's school may also be happy to have your (bagged) extra candy for use in harvest and holiday festivals.

Probably best to involve your kids in this operation, since while they won't object to sending half their candy to a worthy cause, they will definitely object to losing all of their swag.



Thanks to CoolMomPicks.

Lots of us find that at the end of the month, we don't have any money left. The recession has forced millions of Americans to put off dreams of renovating or redesigning their homes. Designer Michael Moloney has a gift for quick and effective decor. After all, he whips up stunning new rooms within days every week on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Taking off from the show's episode this Sunday, in which a family's plans to build their dream home are derailed by a freak accident, Moloney calls in to WalletPop's studios to talk with Jason Cochran about the things you can do if you find you can't afford that dream makeover anymore.

You can whittle down the things you already own. You can freshen things up by moving your stuff all around the house to new locations. Or, if you have $14 left in your pocket by the 31st, you can give any room a dramatic new look with one simple solution.

Watch our conversation with the design whiz below. You can also watch our conversation with music star Xzibit, who is making his second appearance on the show this weekend as he pitches in to help another needy family.

If you hear bloodcurdling screams and ghastly groaning this Halloween, it's coming from retailers. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) consumer spending for the holiday is expected to drop from the average of $66.54 spent last year to a recession rocked $56.31 for 2009. In 2008, revelers shelled out a spooky $2.1 billion dollars on costumes alone. Eeeek!

This year we've been scared straight. Halloween costumes will not only be judged on their cuteness or creep factor but also their cost.

With this in mind, it's time to get creative. Think Project Runway: the home version. The challenge: Create children's costumes utilizing household items to assemble a Halloween ensemble that won't haunt the budget til Christmas. Oh, and your kid has to be willing to wear it. Although, free candy is a terrific motivator...

Obvious answers include a neighborhood costume swap, or the time-honored tradition of sibling sharing. Borrowed sports or cheerleading uniforms, re-purposed bridesmaid dresses (see, it really can be worn again!) or sleepwalker-style pajamas are also fun, easy and most importantly free(!) options. The hobo look hits a little close to the nerve this year, it would be more fanciful to dress up like someone with eighteen months of living expenses in savings and flowing credit at zero percent interest...but I digress.

If you've already mined familiar themes for hauntings past, following are five fabulous costume tricks that treat your wallet right.

In a few short weeks Sprint and Palm will launch the new Palm Pixi, a smartphone that hopes to capitalize on the popularity of the Palm Pre which is powered by the same acclaimed WebOS software.

There's no doubt that the Palm Pixi smaller and newer than the Palm Pre, but is the newest cell phone always the best deal?

I'll explain how the cell phone industry works, in terms of phones. When a company is launching a new top of the line phone, commonly referred to as a flagship phone, they pour a lot of effort into launching it and getting it into the public's eye.

With Christmas less than 60 days away, the shopping season has already begun, which means scammers are on the lookout for some holiday happiness of their own in the form of your money and information. In order to keep you abreast of the latest holiday scams we spoke to Fred Touchette, a security analyst who writes about security threats at the Digital Degenerate for AppRiver, to learn what to watch for as you start your holiday shopping.

Scams don't wait for the holidays, but scammers do take advantage of the increased shopping and distraction when things get busy to take your money and personal information. Fred shared the following three Holiday specific scams with WalletPop so that you don't get taken this year.

This week Intuit released Quicken 2010, the latest update to the popular Quicken line of personal finance software.

Included in the release are several features and enhancements to provide a better user experience in Quicken 2010 as well as an easy-to-use conversion tool to help Microsoft Money users convert to Quicken 2010.

Of the enhancements and upgrades to Quicken, customers will appreciate the following five features that will make using and sticking with Quicken 2010 easier.

• Faster setup -- New three-step guide gets you up and running faster than before.
• Simplified navigation -- Easier access to the tools you want to use.
• At a glance homepage -- All of your important info on one page; saving spending and bills.
• Automatic categorization -- Transactions are now automatically added to the right category -- saving you time.
• Easier to use -- More welcoming to new users and provides customization.

This Sunday evening, Food Network star Sandra Lee appears as a volunteer on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and she'll be pitching in to collect something she knows a lot about: canned foods.

Lee has crafted a mini-empire out of her DIY advice that teaches people to take economical shortcuts with pre-packaged foods. Her expertise runs from gardens to drapes -- she helms two Food Network shows, Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee and Sandra's Money Saving Meals, a magazine (Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade), and three recently released books, Weeknight Wonders, Money Saving Slow Cooking, and Cocktail Time. And, of course, on ABC this Sunday, when she helps re-make the lives of some dedicated community volunteers.

In a video chat with WalletPop's Jason Cochran, Lee talks candidly about her youth spent on food stamps and working in food banks with her grandmother.

When one bank fee dies, another one is born to fill its place; so what's a consumer to do? Well, thanks to technology, keeping on top of your accounts and locating a nearby surcharge-free ATM is as easy as updating your Facebook status.

With ATM fees rising and bank fees as a whole on the rise, staying on top of your banking is an absolute must. RecessionWire has a very useful listing of iPhone Apps to help you avoid bank fees or at least minimize them when using an out-of-network ATM. Some of the most useful include:

• Bank of America App (Free) - Account tracking and in-network ATM locating
• Wesabe (Free) - Account tracking
• PocketMoney (Lite version Free, $4.99 for Full) - Account tracking
• Quicken (Free) - Account tracking and in-network ATM locating
• Mint (Free) - Account tracking
• TapFinder ($.99) -ATM locating

While Apple's popular iPhone certainly has the most apps available to help you avoid a bank fee, there are plenty of ways for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android and even regular cell phone users without apps and web access to do the same.

Several of the Apps listed above, like the Bank of America App, also work on Android and BlackBerry phones, giving users quick access to their accounts. Others like Wesabe, Mint and Quicken also offer mobile web versions of their site optimized for the small screen to let you query the balance in your accounts, and, in Quicken's case, where the closest ATM is. There are also several other applications in the Android marketplace to help members of specific credit unions locate ATMs.

If you don't have a web-enabled cell phone, fear not; you can still stay on top of important financial information via text messages. Yodlee, for example, is a free personal financial service which connects to your bank and credit accounts and can provide numerous text alerts based on criteria you choose, such as a low balance warning.

Finding a surcharge-free ATM with a text message is also easy. Just text message Google at (466453) with the name of your bank and your location and you'll receive a text message with the local listings. For example, "Bank of America Toledo Ohio" returned three local branches. I could then text message Google, "directions [my location] to [banks address]" to find out how to get there.

So, no matter what kind of cell phone you have, it's easier than ever to check your account balances and avoid costly bank fees while you're on the go.

For most people calling customer service to deal with a complaint is a rather mundane affair. You dial in, climb through a complex phone tree and listen to inexplicably staticy hold music with interruptions that jolt you to attention only to be told, that "your call is important to us."

But for some people, like myself and Matt Jabs, the author of "Debt Free Adventure," calling up customer service is an art form, approached with the same level of practice, patience and obedience that a Ninja approaches his craft.

With this in mind Debt Free Adventure has compiled what I believe is the best compendium of customer service tips to stop overpaying for everything. Over many years I've personally tested these seven tips and can attest to their money saving power even when dealing with the best CSR's.

This is the first in a series of columns on how to help your family live greener -- and cheaper in the bargain. Check back each week for a new topic.

Is it possible to live more lightly on the Earth after starting a family? Yes it is. Is it easy to go greener with kids? Well... let's just call it inconvenient.

Living greener, trying to leave a smaller footprint, comes into ever-sharper focus when you start your family. How many children will you have? What will they wear, play with, sleep on, eat? What will you teach them? How will you ensure that, when we further our species, we're not also hastening the destruction of our ecosystem?

Big questions, and worthy of making an effort. That's why I came up with a 12-step plan to live greener and cheaper ... along with my family of three small boys and an occasionally-reluctant husband.

Let's take a look at the first step. It's a biggie. And with kids, it also takes some determined effort: Reduce your trash.

There's an old saying about death being a recession-proof business. After all, come hell or high water (or maybe because of them), somebody's going to die. But the nation's cemeteries are facing a tough row to hoe as recession-weary consumers pare down burial plans and escalating real-estate prices crimp land purchases.

That's leaving some in Provincetown, Mass., to wonder if the town cemetery, with just six plots left, won't soon run out of space, reports USAToday. While the Cape Cod community has set aside money to acquire two acres of adjacent land, it isn't certain the town council will release the money to fund the purchase, when other needs, such as schools and street maintenance, are also under the surgeon's knife.

For a lot of individuals in their 20s and 30s personal finances have a lot in common with David Copperfield; money appears and disappears and sometimes it earns more in a bank account but at the end of the day it's all magic.

If you fall into this group you can either sit around and moan about the lack of a personal finance course at your high school or you can do something about it.

Good, you're still reading, so I assume you'd rather your finances are a bit more like Penn & Teller; mind blowing and quick to call "BS" on gotcha's and bad money deals. Well you're in luck, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s" does just that; offering up sound advice in an easy to access format that calls attention to important facts with sidebars throughout the book.

My favorite sidebar examples in the book are of the "Money Pit" and "Dollars and Sense" variety, which you can see throughout this post. These include cautionary notes and tips to keep you on top of your personal finances.

For many people Christmas is a time to give generously to friends and family, but if you haven't been saving throughout the year it can be easy to rely on credit cards and overspend; leaving you with a big bill come January. Thankfully, you still have a few months until Christmas so there's time to get your gifts without going broke.

While you'd be better off if you started saving in March, Spend On Life has pulled together 10 ways to avoid Christmas credit card debt, which it estimates will net you $750 toward Christmas gifts in the next two-and-a-half months.