A Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey published last week suggests that most homeowners think the worst is over, and don't anticipate further declines in the value of their properties in 2010.

Just 15% of homeowners surveyed in January expected their homes to decline in value over the next year, the lowest level since early 2007. It should be noted that the last time a lower percentage of homeowners expected their homes to fall in value, home prices promptly tanked.

Get out of debt guru Dave Ramsey is now in the hookup business. He has provided his fans with a list of recession- and debt-themed pick-up lines.

Here are a few of the best ones, with an archive of past ideas here:

If I had a dollar for every time I thought about you, I'd be in a higher tax bracket.

I won't ask to borrow your phone number, since borrowing is stupid. Will you just give it to me instead?

With piles and piles of fine-print, the IRS is here to make understanding tax code easy: just spend a few hours flipping through the booklets, and you're sure to find a reference to the topic you're wondering about.

If you're unsure about what exactly constitutes income, Publication 17 (2009) is your source of information. Here's some sources of income that a lot of people often overlook:

Gambling winnings. You must include your gambling winnings in income on Form 1040, line 21. If you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), you can deduct gambling losses you had during the year, but only up to the amount of your winnings. See chapter 28 for information on recordkeeping.

General Nutrition Centers, or GNC, is hardly known as a haven for budget-minded dieters. This is, after all, the place that will sell you 24 cans of green tea for $53.69 to go along with 60 packets of low-carb fudge for $155.99.

But in my quest to gain weight and build more muscle, I've turned to GNC -- and with the easy combination of a discount card and soon-to-expire clearance items, I've found that shopping at GNC can actually be cheaper than buying junk food at Walmart.

Here's how it works: For $15 per year, you can get a GNC Gold Card, which entitles you to 20% off almost anything (including almost all sale/clearance items) for the first seven days of every month. On top of that, GNC offers deep discounts on soon-to-expire bars, shakes, and other nutritional products. If you buy stuff two months before it expires, you can save a fortune.

The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell this week, noting with little fanfare (subscription required) that the college degrees we're told are a ticket to wealth and happiness aren't all they've been cracked up to be.

The College Board, a glorified trade group representing the interests of colleges and universities, has long touted an $800,000 lifetime earnings advantage for college grads. Now other researchers, armed with more rigorous data, are suggesting that the lifetime earnings advantage of college may be less -- a lot less. Mark Schneider of the American Institutes for Research calculated that the lifetime earnings advantage of a college degree is just $279,893.

It's that time of year again, if you have kids in college or getting ready for college: It's time to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form, the tedious, repetitive, boring and mildly intrusive paperwork required to qualify for financial aid.

Everyone should fill out the FAFSA form: It's free, and you have nothing to lose and tons to gain by filling it out and turning it in. But The Los Angeles Times reports that "students often limit their college search to institutions that they think they can afford -- typically junior colleges and state colleges and universities, rather than high-priced private schools. The folly is that high-priced private schools often provide so much aid that they become more affordable than less prestigious colleges. . ."

Last week, WalletPOP looked at the tanking market for Hummel figurines. But there's at least one brand of kitschy, once-collectible figurines that has fared even worse: Precious Moments.

Enesco, a once-leading giftware company, began selling the figurines in the late 1970s, based on the drawings of Sam Butcher, who had been marketing a line of Precious Moments cards and posters for several years. The figurines caught fire because of their inspirational messages and Christian themes, and a hot secondary market quickly developed, with retired early figurines routinely selling for several times their original prices.

Now, thanks to rampant over-supply on the Internet, changing tastes, and the recession, the market has tanked.

With all the hype about how home ownership is dead and real estate is no longer a good investment, it's useful to look at some numbers.

Instead of all the headlines and hysteria, numbers can tell us -- with some objectivity -- whether real estate is attractively priced.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "The average cap rate for office properties in central business districts jumped to 8.8% in December from 8.56% in November. The December number was the highest rate for that category since May 2003. Meanwhile, average cap rates for apartment buildings was 7.36% in December, up from 7.09% in November."

The New York Times reports on the ease with which a few small colleges are boosting applications with clever direct mail marketing campaigns -- that look a lot like credit card offers.

The mass mailings are designed to make the prospective applicant feel special: envelopes marked "distinctive candidate application" contain letters offering a waiver of application fees and essay requirements -- and in some cases, a decision can be yours in just three weeks.

As the New Year's Resolution crowd looks to lose weight once again, many people are combining it with another recession-inspired resolution: managing money better.

WalletPOP's Geoff Williams has been chronicling his efforts to lose weight while saving money, and I recently looked at how exercise videos can offer an affordable alternative to the gym for fitness newcomers. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports on (subscription required) a few other possibilities: walking around the mall in groups, participating in free or ultra low-cost yoga classes, and bike paths.

Time Magazine covered the rise of mall-walking way back in 1985, and About.com recommends checking with the information desk at your local mall to find out about mall walking programs. Alternatively, you could just go to the mall and walk around on your own without the structure and motivation of companions there to talk you out of ducking into the Godiva store for refreshments.

You could also go vintage and buy this Suzanne Somers Thighmaster on eBay -- complete with the instructional VHS! Or you could go really vintage -- as in practically antique -- and work out with Jack Lalanne, who has uploaded some of his vintage exercise programs onto his website so you can watch them on your laptop while you work out. He's 95 years old, and he's in better shape than most 20-year-olds. So clearly he knows of what he speaks.

The bottom line is that lack of money is never an excuse for not getting in shape. There are tons of alternatives to gym memberships that cost little or nothing.