Economizer

There's nothing like cruising down the highway, wind whipping through your hair in a sporty two-seater to stir up romantic feelings.

Whether you're playing the parts of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in "To Catch a Thief," enjoying a first date in an Alfa Romeo like Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross did in "The Graduate" or flying through the desert in your "Schaguar" like Mike Meyers and Elizabeth Hurley in "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," there's no arguing with the romantic feelings that a fast car brings.

Even better than spending Valentine's Day in a sports car, right now is one of the best times to buy a one.

A new survey of by PayPal confirms that people are spending less on each other this year than they did before the economy took a crash but that doesn't mean they have stopped giving gifts altogether.

The majority of men who took part in the survey reported that they wished they could give more to their special someone this year which may be due to the fact that nearly half of consumers will spend less than $50 this year. Thankfully, only 28% of women reported that they would like to receive more on Valentine's Day, so for the most part couples should be able to enjoy each other's company on Feb. 14.

PayPal's Can't Buy Me Love survey also showed that George Clooney and Megan Fox topped the list of celebrities you would want Cupid to hit with an arrow. It's not all love though, Kanye West better work on a Valentine's Day auto-tuned hit otherwise he might be spending the day alone as he was voted the celebrity that people would least like to see on Valentine's Day.

Another interesting bit of information from the survey revealed the differences in valentine spending between single people and those in relationships which is shown on the graph below.

Lovers, you've got a little more than one week until the hottest day of the year. No, we're not talking about summer solstice or the dog days of summer.

Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, the day devoted to red-hot romance, love and hearts, is notoriously hot, hot, hot. And whether lovers are toting home heart shaped boxes of chocolate under their arms, ordering in heart shaped pizzas or going out for a romantic dinner, food plays a big role in Valentine's celebrations.

So WalletPop thought we'd give lovers a helping hand this year. With the help of Dr. Melody Hart a practitioner at ChicagoHealers.com, we compiled a shopping list of must-have aphrodisiac foods. And, as an added bonus, most of these foods are pulling double duty, offering numerous health benefits, too.

Assurance Wireless announced today that it is cutting its per-minute calling option in half in a program aimed at giving poor people cellphones.

Call it a coincidence, but the move comes less than a week after WalletPop pointed out that after the 200 free monthly minutes are used, customers can buy more airtime at 20 cents a minute -- double what the company's sister program, Boost Mobile, was offering at 10 cents a minute.

Its text messages, however, remain extraordinarily high at 15 cents, making messaging more costly than a domestic phone call. Most prepaid plans charge less for texting. Whatever. At least the calling rate drops.

According to a survey on Valentine's Day gift giving, overall Valentine's Day spending is up 50 cents, but the average gift people are giving to their significant other is down almost $4 from 2009. Even though this brings Valentine's Day gift spending down to the levels we saw in 2004, ladies will still make out better than their male counterparts, as men on average will spend double what their wives or girlfriends will.

A new report says coupon use is up 27% from 2008 to 2009. This is the first time coupon clipping has increased in 17 years, but puh-leeze, tell me something I don't know. The Great Recession made folks frugal? NO!

The list of folks not surprised by this trend includes Stephanie Nelson, a long-time coupon clipper who runs CouponMom.com. More people are using her site and her tips to become effective clippers than ever before.

Nelson's new book, "The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half" compiles all her tips. In 295 pages spread over 21 chapters, she shares practical strategies for folks who want to dramatically reduce their bill at grocery and drug stores. Following her tips will take a few minutes extra, but the savings pay off. And you'll get quicker over time.

If you don't buy her book (selling for $9 on Amazon, marked down from $15), I've summarized some of her best tips:

Friday night on ABC's Shark Tank, we were introduced to a product that could, as infomercial godfather Kevin Harrington put it, make "$100 million on TV." It was LipStix ReMix, an ingenious lipstick recycler.

Although the pitch ended in a fantastic six-figure deal, its inventor made a simple negotiating mistake that could end up costing her an untold fortune. Jason Cochran found out what it was in WalletPop's exclusive AfterShark interview. (Make sure you stay tuned for the end of the interview, when Quillin offers an exclusive two-for-one deal exclusively for WalletPop readers.)

I've written about Swagbucks before but now is a good time to revisit because the site's rewards are spiking today.

First, I know Swagbucks seems like a total scam. I resisted joining the site for months for that exact reason. Then I gave it a chance and I have earned more than $200 worth of gift cards in the past few months.

This is how it works. You register at Swagbucks.com and the the site installs a small toolbar at the top of your Internet browser (such as Internet Explorer or FireFox). When you search using the Swagbucks toolbar, you can win swagbucks, which you can redeem for prizes and gift certificates.

Some searches will earn you one, two or five swagbucks. For others, you'll get nada. Today is mega swag bucks day, when the site awards 10, 20, 50 and 100 swagbucks for searches. If you're going to try Swagbucks out, today is a good day to join.

Once you accumulate some swagbucks, you can turn them in for prizes. I always go for the gift cards. For example, 45 swagbucks will get you a $5 Amazon gift card. 130 swagbucks will get you a $10 Starbucks card, and so on. You can trade in your swagbucks for clothes, MP3s, movies, and more.

I asked for reader feedback about things you've bought at a dollar store but wouldn't buy again, and you let me have it! What surprised me was that most of the comments were about positive shopping experiences. Everyone loves the paper products, greeting cards, wrapping paper and the like, and I heard again how awesome the cleaner Awesome really is.

Several of you rapped my knuckles for placing plates of hot food directly onto a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth. Ouch! In my defense, this was not the first vinyl tablecloth I've ever owned and I have never had the color fade and flake off of one the way it did on my dollar store find.

When it comes to hosting a Super Bowl party on the cheap, WalletPop embraces the K-I-S-S approach: Keep It Simple, Super.

Austere times call for a lean but loving bash, letting the game and conversation carry the day, supported by traditional sports-watching grub. The warmth of your home filled with friends will be your most valuable player.

Our winning strategy focuses on not overdoing it. Prepare one abundant main dish and play off that. How about a mild vat of chili that can be spiced by each guest? Just remember to match a pound of tomatoes or tomato sauce for every pound of meat or beans, then add garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Twenty bucks can feed a dozen. One WalletPop colleague suggested a chili cook-off as a turbocharged potluck if you're in super-economizing mode.

Super Bowl 44 is just around the corner, and while many consumers already own decent-sized high-definition televisions, the week leading up to the Super Bowl is still a popular time to purchase a new high-quality HDTV. To help you get the best deal on a new HDTV for Super Bowl Sunday, we've gathered some great shopping tips as well as recommendations from HDTV and deal experts.

A great place to learn about getting a good deal on a HDTV for sports is Consumer Report's 10 tips: Buying a TV for the Super Bowl. Instead of focusing on the tech specs that you should look for, which we will do later, these tips will help you make smart shopping decisions to get the most for your money.

Update: Assurance Wireless announced on Feb. 3 that it is lowering per minute charges for calls to 10 cents a minute.

Assurance Wireless is offering a cellphone and 200 minutes of calls for free to low-income people -- a noble goal but one that could prove costly if the users stick with the free phone service and buy more minutes after they've used up their 200 free minutes in a month.

The program, which started in December, offers the free prepaid service for people who have incomes 135% below the federal poverty rate -- $14,621 per year for a single person and $29,768 for a family of four, for example -- in New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virgina.

If household income isn't that far below the poverty level, people can also qualify by receiving government assistance such as Medicaid, food stamps, Supplemental Security Income, Section 8 housing, the National School Lunch Program's Free Lunch Program, and other government programs.

People often complain that Disney's too expensive, and they have a point. But now and then, the company comes through for money-savers, as it did when it created the Value category of hotel room at its Florida resort. Now, perhaps spurred by the necessity of the recession, the company has just announced a cheaper version of its luxury-priced Adventures by Disney escorted tours.

They're called the Gateway Collection, and they're made less expensive because they strip out some of the activities that fill the itineraries of the more expensive versions, plus replace the top-line hotels with quite decent mid-line ones. There are currently three scaled-down tours on sale, and naturally, they're of the most popular destinations: Costa Rica, Italy, and a London/Paris combination.

Since Bing hit the search-engine scene, it has been trying to convert users from Google and Yahoo, in part by offering Bing Cashback on many purchases. Bing has garnered 10% of the search market share, but many users are still hesitant to switch from Google or Yahoo. Now, thanks to a new feature from Billeo that puts Bing Cashback offers directly in Google and Yahoo Search results, users can enjoy the savings of Bing Cashback without quitting Google cold turkey.