Food is one of the major line-items in my family’s budget. In my goal to save more money this year, I’ve been trying different ways to slash-and-burn my grocery bills. Allow me to share my hard-earned do’s and don’ts with you. Some might sound strange. It’s OK; when saving money is concerned, I have no pride.

Do shop at non-grocery stores: Many of the big-box stores have been increasing their grocery offerings. Seems you can hardly turn on the TV without seeing an ad about money-saving groceries at Walmart, but I’ve found another big-box store with surprisingly good grocery deals; if you have a Big Lots store in your area, check out their grocery aisles. They offer name-brand breakfast cereals, as well as canned and snack-food items you may never have heard of. They’ve been a particularly good source of canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, and canned beans, at prices at least $.25 less than my typical grocery store. (It’s better to go in with an open mind rather than a set menu, though I found black-eyed peas there in time for New Year’s Day, which was a pleasant surprise).

Pets can be a serious line-item in your yearly budget. A yearly vet physical can set you back anywhere from $30 to hundreds of dollars, depending upon whether the veterinarian finds anything wrong with your fuzzy, feathered, or scaly companion, to say nothing of the unexpected costs that arise when your pet is ill or suffers an accident.

I first became aware of pet insurance when my kitten, Maxwell, got into a scrap and had to have his face drained (sorry, TMI). I never signed up for it, though. It just sounded like a hassle and I wasn’t convinced the benefits would outweigh my assumptions.

Back in August of 2009, Yian Mui of the Washington Post reported that “sales of bottled water have fallen for the first time in at least five years.” Its meteoric rise to popularity was astonishing: sales of bottled water “swelled 59 percent to $5.1 billion between 2003 to 2008, making it one of the fastest growing beverages.”

So, economically, if you owned shares in a company that sold bottled water, you probably received a tidy return on your investment.

I don’t remember how I first heard of Gilt Group, but its sales model intrigued me: Luxury branded items for sale at deep discounts, but only for a limited time. I received an invitation (yes, you need an invitation to join) on my birthday. I needed new shoes. I signed up.

Gilt’s sales begin at noon EST daily and run for no more than 36 hours. They send a daily email to members — I usually get mine at 11:57 — announcing the brands and items for sale that day. In the few weeks I’ve been a member, they’ve offered goods from Vera Wang Collection, Judith Lieber, Rodanthe, American Apparel (really?), Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Alexander Wang.

Now, here at Wallet Blog we’re no strangers to high-yield, interest-bearing checking accounts. Wrote about Focus Bank back in May and yes, their offer still stands. But how could I be content, knowing that I’ve only alerted you to one 4.51% checking account? Time to rectify that situation with a few other options.

For instance: Bank of the Sierra, based in my beloved California, also offers a 4.51% yield checking account. And you don’t have to be a millionaire to enjoy their top interest rate; you can open the account with only $50, and you’ll earn 4.51% APY on balances up to $25,000, so long as you meet the minimum qualifications for that statement cycle. (Qualifications include a minimum of 12 Sierra Check Card purchases per statement cycle, minimum of one direct deposit/automatic payment monthly, one Sierra BillPay payment per cycle, eStatements, and you must open the account line.) And, if that’s not enough, there are no monthly fees, you can earn up to $25 in ATM refunds each statement cycle, and there is a beautiful picture of Sequoia redwoods on their Sierra Reward Checking Web page. Click here to learn more and to open an account. Please note that the account is available nationwide, but you must be a U.S. resident or a U.S. resident alien to apply.

OK, the economy might be bouncing back but my wallet sure isn’t, so I went trolling on the Internet for some free samples. Call it cheapskate retail therapy. There are plenty of places where you can sign up for free stuff, but at what cost?

The first site I went to was Thunderfap.com.  They list an appealing “fall sample pack” on their home page, along with other items that would be of interest to pretty much anyone who has pets, kids, or a pulse.

So, my husband and I have been delighted with our choice to buy a CSA farmshare. Our summer has been chock-full of mostly local, mostly organic vegetables, and it’s pushed me to become a more adventurous cook and eater (yes, I ate the beets. Call the press).

But now, there’s a new buy-local buzzword in town. It’s called “cowpooling.” This is where neighbors pool their money to purchase all of the meat from one local cow.

According to the National Retail Federation, consumers are expected to spend nearly $24 billion on gift cards this holiday season. Additionally, gift cards are the most requested gift for the third year in a row – over half of adults said they would like to receive a gift card and almost 80 percent of people plan to buy one this holiday season. However, given these statistics, how do consumers know which gift cards to choose for their friends and loved ones this season and beyond? To answer this question, Card Hub® is pleased to announce the launch of its Gift Card application for Facebook – a completely free, first-of-its-kind gift-giving tool. The Gift Card application from Card Hub® removes the hassle from the process for gift givers and ensures that the receivers will be happy with the gift card they’ve gotten.

The primary feature of the Gift Card application is the Gift Card Wish List. In less than 60 seconds, it allows users to pick their favorite stores and share their selections with their friends, giving them potential spending power at places they actually like. Currently, there are hundreds of stores to choose from including restaurants, department stores and e-retailers, and that list is constantly growing. What’s more is that users with niche or special interests can add stores to the application that wouldn’t be top-of-mind to most consumers, simply by keying in the associated URL.

Given the upcoming holiday, I decided to do a light post about my favorite phone service. As we all know, there are plenty of heavy-hitters in the VoIP marketplace: Vonage, Skype, Google Voice, Magic Jack, Jupiter Jack, etc. But Vonage (VG) is the best of them based on my own subjective opinion. Here’s why.

First off, Vonage is different from its competitors because you do not need a PC to utilize it. Basically, you connect the Vonage box to a digital modem (either DSL or Cable), and then you unplug your regular phone from the wall and instead plug it in to the Vonage box.

Getting ready to shell out your hard-earned ducats for some holiday gifts? Here’s a round-up of what’ll be “in store” for the day after Thanksgiving. Click the store name to see the entire list of Black Friday incentives.

Best Buy: Twenty to 50-percent off many appliances, and a slew of digital camera offers that you can also access via eBay.

National Geographic magazine is a national treasure and as such, those of us in the US should support it. At $15/year, you’ll receive the best journalistic and nature photography ever, and you’ll learn something, too.

Visit this link and subscribe all your nieces and nephews. They’ll receive 12 issues for $15. Even if they don’t read, they’ll enjoy the beautiful pictures. Also, you can repurpose them into dioramas, collages, and other art projects. National Geographic employs the best photographers worldwide and has also awarded more than 8,000 grants for exploration, research, and conservation efforts.

My clutter is costing me money. I figured this out a few days ago when, struck by the mad desire to clean my apartment, I found not one, not two, but three unopened packages of swim diapers. At about $8 apiece, that’s $24 wasted dollars.

Enough was enough. So far I’ve decluttered my office, the nursery, and half of my bedroom, and as a result I’ve taken 11 tall kitchen garbage bags worth of stuff to my local Goodwill. (Yes, I could have had a garage sale, but I wanted this stuff out of my place pronto.)

In light of the imminent prospect of network neutrality rules being voted on by the FCC, AT&T has announced that it will allow Internet calling services to be placed and received over its wireless network.  The FCC’s proposed rules will likely affect the validity of exclusive relationships, like the one that exists between AT&T and Apple’s iPhone, and will ensure that broadband providers don’t abuse their power over Internet access in order to favor their own services or harm competitors.

The result of allowing products like Google Voice and Skype over wireless phone networks should be similar to the effect that Voice Over IP (VOIP) has had on land-line phone services.  As we all know, once people began to use their computers to make phone calls at significantly reduced rates or even for free, traditional phone companies were forced to significantly reduce the rates they charged for phone calls.  Then, they covered their lost revenue by developing new products and  introducing new services.

Last year around holiday-time, we heard a lot about layaway: “It’s coming back!” “Helloooo, 1980s, your purchase-plan just called.” In particular, Kmart earned buzz with its layaway program last year, and now offers layaway items on Sears’ purchases as well.

But is layaway really a big deal?

If you or someone you buy for is planning to dress in costume for Halloween, you can save big money by taking care of those needs right now instead of a couple of days prior to October 31st.

For the younger set, Toys “R” Us/Babies “R” Us lets you save $10 on purchases of $30 or more if you’re a new “Bill Me Later” customer, subject to credit approval.

For a very limited time, Restaurant.com is offering gift certificates worth $25 for the price of $1. Just enter the Discount Code NINETY at checkout and hit “apply.” Oh, and be sure to say “no thanks” when they ask if you want to complete the survey, because if you click “yes” you’ll get charged an additional twenty bucks.

This offer is good for 99 hours starting 9/9/09, so act quickly!

Yeah, between summer vacations and back-to-school, my wallet’s pretty tapped out. Yours too? How about a nice change of pace: free stuff!

1. Free TV and Movies: Seems like there’s nothing good on TV these days; good thing we’ve got Hulu.com as our go-to source for TV-over-the-Internet. Not only do they have hundreds of shows cataloged on their site, they’ll also tell you where to find other favorites. An umbrella site, ovguide.com, also serves as a massive pointer toward other TV and movie favorites.
2. Free Debt Help: feeling overextended? Evolution Finance (EF) just completed a new credit card debt help area. It’s chock-full of tips, definitions, and referrals for people who are feeling a little overwhelmed (or a lot overwhelmed) and want to get their debt load under control. EF is also the parent company of Wallet Blog, so I’m happy to assure you that it’s worth a look.
3. Free Music Education: Always wanted to learn to play the ukulele? Ukulele Underground offers free online video ukulele lessons, tabs, chords, and more. Go Piano offers free piano lessons from basic to advanced. And eHow offers a series of 15 videos that will get you started on the road to violin virtuosity. There are similar lessons on the Internet for every instrument — just type “free online <instrument> lessons” into your search engine and watch it go!
4. Free Food for Kids: About.com’s travel with kids host has cataloged many sites that offer coupons or information about where kids can eat for free (usually while dining with an adult who pays full price).
5. Free Time-Sucker: Facebook. ‘Nuff said.
6. Free Money for College: Besides the myriad grants and fellowships out there, you can start saving for your kids’ college now by registering for Upromise. By shopping online through upromise.com, eating at participating restaurants, or shopping at participating stores, you can be credited with bonus money in a Upromise account that can then be rolled over into a 529 account. Makes sense!
7. Free Mind Expansion: Find Hub is a compilation of all major search engines in one place. From comparison shopping to videos, from travel to maps and a dictionary to help you define it all, it’s a one-stop site and super convenient (and yeah, it’s under the Evolution Finance umbrella too, but it’s really helpful and you’ll like it).
8. Free Stationery: Once you register for Vistaprint, you’ll receive about four emails a week and they’ll all offer you free printed items. It costs a little more to upload your own designs (rather than using their templates), but it’s worth it! I’ve ordered from them for years and have never been disappointed — just make sure that you double-check that they don’t put their logo on the back side of anything you’re ordering.
9. Free Comparison Shopping: How did we ever save money before the Internet? Whether you’re looking for travel deals on Kayak.com, item deals on Shopping.com, credit card/gift card/prepaid card deals on Card Hub, or mortgage deals on Lending Tree, the Web is chock-full of sites that help you become a savvier consumer. Thanks, Tim Berners-Lee!
10. Free Credit Report: You are allowed one free credit report per credit-reporting agency each year. Get in on the fun at annualcreditreport.com. Watch out for other outfits that promise a “free” credit report — they usually sucker people into paying a subscription fee.
11. Free Software: Paying for software is so 1999. Nowadays you can use Google Apps for your personal and business use. Microsoft Office replacements are available online at OpenOffice, and you can keep  your PC safe via AVG’s free anti-virus protection.

Disclosure: Some links point to CardHub.com or FindHub.com, which are both owned by the same parent company as this blog.

Do you feel guilty that even though a dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, you’re still not clipping coupons out of the weekly newspaper circulars? “Couponing” is one craze that we should all take advantage of — especially with so many grocery stores now offering double-coupon values when you give them a single coupon — but it’s such a pain in the neck! First you have to get your hands on a local newspaper, then go through the slippery circulars, clip the coupons you think you might actually need while avoiding the ones that make you want to buy unwanted items, then organize them in some sort of order, and finally, remember to take them to the grocery store. It’s exhausting.

Happily, a new online company has taken the hassle out of coupon-clipping. Shortcuts.com, a service of AOL, offers free online grocery coupons that link to your grocery store loyalty/rewards card.

Well, the Cash for Clunkers program, aka CARS, ended on August 24th. The original $1 billion, which lawmakers thought would last until October, was gone within two weeks, which prompted lawmakers to grant another $2 billion towards the program.

Ultimately, CARS increased car sales, and the sales of more environmentally friendly cars, while removing junkers from the road. It offered a shot in the arm to ailing car dealerships and the U.S. auto industry at large.

Ever had a retail experience that made you grind your teeth? The worst part isn’t necessarily the money lost in a bad deal, but the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness that goes along with it. There are, however, many ways to regain the upper hand. Here are a few options.

The Better Business Bureau: The national BBB has an online presence where you can submit consumer complaints. You enter your Zip code onto the home page and they route you to your local BBB. The site is easy to use and yes, it garners results. I had a bad experience with a cellular carrier and submitted a complaint through the Web site. Then I forgot about it. Within two weeks, though, I received phone calls from the office of the president of my cellular phone provider. When they didn’t reach me at home, they called my cell phone (I’d provided both numbers on my BBB complaint). They handled my complaint expediently and I feel much better about the process.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 316-109 Friday to augment the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program by $2 billion. The additional funding will be transfered from energy stimulus funds.

Fears that the “Cash-for-Clunkers” program would die within days of its initial approval spurred the House to call a vote, an action that came within hours of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s report that the program would soon run out of funding.

As I prognosticated before the bill was even signed into law, many carmakers have jumped onto the Cash-for-Clunkers bandwagon and are offering additional incentives.  It definitely pays to do a bit of research at your local dealerships to see if you can qualify for additional trade-in cash or special financing. (But do it quick, because unless Congress extends the program, it could be over as soon as this weekend, according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs). In the meanwhile, read on for a rundown of  offers from major auto companies.

Under the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program, the lease period for new vehicles must be at least five years. As such, Toyota has created special five-year leases specifically for the CARS program. Sixty-month leases are in place for the Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Tacoma, and Yaris models. To find the special offers available near you, visit Buy A Toyota and type your Zip code into the “Special Offers” box in the lower left-hand corner.

Have you visited the Web site Restaurant.com? It lets you search for participating restaurants by Zip code or region, offers descriptions and menus of the restaurants you’re interested in, and then you can purchase gift certificates online and print them from your computer for immediate use.

The gift certificates can be purchased in different denominations, at a steep discount. Right now, they’re offering $10 gift certificates for $4, and $25 gift certificates for $10 apiece. This is a pretty good deal, but it’s about to get sweeter: I’ve found a secret promotional code that lets you buy a $25 gift certificate for TWO DOLLARS. And there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of certificates you purchase!

Spoiler: yes! Yes! YES! Longer Answer: Yes indeed.

I purchased a farm share in early May (and wrote about it on Wallet Blog on May 11th). My main motivation was twofold: helping local farmers while encouraging my family to eat better. For $15.38 a week, I would receive one small box of mostly local vegetables, which I’d pick up at the Tuesday afternoon farmers’ market in my city.

Want to save 40 to 80 percent of the cost of a domestic Total Knee Replacement, heart procedure, plastic surgery, or another, typically high-cost medical procedure?  You might look into medical travel, which can save you up to 80 percent of the typical costs for an equivalent procedure in the United States.

“If the procedure you’re considering costs more than $6,000 in the United States, it might be worthwhile and money-saving for you to evaluate a medical travel option,” said Patrick Marsek, Managing Director of MedRetreat and co-author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Medical Tourism.”