Over the past few months, as the economic outlook has grown increasingly gloomy, various pundits, commentators and all-purpose wing nuts (including yours truly) have offered tips to help the average person weather the financial downturn. We've given suggestions for lowering bills, saving money on food, increasing equity, decreasing fees, and various other mainstream methods for reducing your fiscal burden.

While many of these suggestions have been intelligent, useful, and well-thought-out, they generally aren't all that inspiring. Every so often, however, a wild, off-the-wall solution comes along and shows how a little bit of creativity can shore up one's finances and improve one's community.

A perfect example of this is Blanka Amezkua, an artist in New York City. Noticing the lack of art venues in her area and eager to increase her neighborhood's sense of community, she decided to turn her bedroom into an alternative art space. Christening it "The Bronx Blue Bedroom Project," or BBBP, she began inviting a variety of artists to create art installations in the room, which she subsequently opened to artists and art lovers in her neighborhood. While Blanka doesn't charge for these showings, she and Laura Napier, another artist who lives in her building, also host art sales. These, in turn, help her market her own work while continuing to generate interest in the local art scene.

The adage my dad used to tell me that "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is" looks like it applies here: In the news today, a suburban Chicago car dealer is selling a PT Cruiser for $1, if you buy a $40,000 luxury SUV.

The Cruisers that Frank Mancari is selling are used 2008 models with about 10,000 miles on them that usually retail for $10,000. The Chrysler Pacifica has a list price of more than $39,000. It's a great way to get people in the door as car sales drop around the country, but a little difficult to swallow when you do the math, as Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter did.

You're already down some cash by agreeing to the sticker price of the SUV, instead of any negotiated price. As Rhodes points out, maybe you could get the Cruiser for $8,000 and the SUV for $32,000 without the deal. With the deal, the two cars would cost $40,001 together. Not much of a deal so far.

The deal was to have ended Monday after the five Pacificas were sold, but Mancari says he may extend it to other models.

Neither vehicle gets great gas mileage. The Pacifica gets about 15 mpg in the city while the PT Cruiser gets less than 20 miles per gallon in the city. With gas prices dropping, returning to the gas-hog days of the past with an SUV may look like a deal now. But wait until gas prices go up again, because you know they will.

Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job search at www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com

Back in July, I wrote a piece about the yellow pages for a series on things that are disappearing in America. That article brought a fair amount of criticism from industry insiders who said the business was thriving, and that if you include usage of online yellow pages, the business was actually growing. There were some business owners who said the yellow pages were vital to them. And there were plenty of us who said we have no use for the book (or the online yellow pages, for that matter).

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal supports my theory that the yellow pages business is dying a slow and painful death. When it became clear that the Internet was capturing some of their former users, the publishers of the directories started creating online yellow pages. That helped some, but apparently not enough.

One analyst says that spending on advertising in the print and online versions of the yellow pages will fall over 6% next year. That's twice as much as the expected decline in television advertising. The spending in the printed directories is expected to fall 39% over the next four years. Ouch.

I have it on good authority that some of the people who work at 60 Minutes read WalletPop. While granted, I'm not around to see this, I imagine probably first thing in the morning, Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Bob Simon and the other correspondents are gathered around a PC in the office, shoving each other aside, trying to get the best view of what the latest post is. And I'm sure in the mix of this throng is Andy Rooney, peering through their shoulders and over their heads, jotting everything on WalletPop -- particularly my posts -- hoping to turn them into amusing closing segments for the show.

OK, I'm making a few (dozen) giant leaps of deluded logic, maybe the most ridiculous being that 60 Minutes would only have one PC monitor in their offices. But I did hear from one of the producers from 60 Minutes, who saw the post I wrote about their segment that aired last Sunday on e-waste, and, sure, someone may have sent my post to him, and so maybe even this producer doesn't read WalletPop regularly, but let me have my fun, okay?

He wrote me the following:

Strange jobs are probably common, but I had to laugh and wonder about job discrimination the other day when I came across an odd job description for the regular, everyday job of copy writer. The ad on Craigslist seemed straightforward enough, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a bit of discrimination.

A part-time, experienced channel editor/copywriter is needed for a social networking web site in San Francisco that focuses on hair loss lifestyle. Editors are needed in various categories, again, as they pertain to hair loss lifestyle. The categories include: Entertainment, travel, news and fashion (hats?).

Here's the part that caught my eye: "Preference given to those who live a hair loss lifestyle." So a bald writer will get preference over me, a man with a full head of hair? Is that fair? I understand that the company wants to hire someone who can best get their message across and knows what they're talking about, and as someone with a Don King type of hairdo if I let it grow for two months, I laughed out loud at the euphemism for being bald. But is putting that request in a job announcement akin to asking for writers who are white, female and have long, brunette hair?

Girl fights can be so nasty. In the epic battle between Barbie and Bratz, the tall goddess doll appears to be winning. But the $100 million verdict in Barbie's favor in a copyright infringement case doesn't appear to be enough for parent company Mattel. In the latest legal wranglings, Mattel wants a judge to ban MGA Entertainment, the maker of the Bratz line, from making more Bratz dolls and also wants existing products impounded and destroyed. A judge won't decide the case until January, so holiday sales of Bratz items will not be affected.



Can you hear millions of little girls around the country crying into their sippy cups? This is the result of the harsh world of branding -- you have to protect your products at all costs. Mattel, being the world's largest toymaker, has the most at stake and also the biggest war chest for carrying out a fight like this. But these sorts of battles play out across the business world every day at all sorts of levels, right down to one of your co-workers presenting one of your ideas as his own.

This particular case is probably more common that you'd think, given the millions involved. The dispute was over whether or not Bratz doll designer Carter Bryant came up with the concept for the dolls while he was working for Mattel, and then quit to make the dolls with another company. A federal jury found that this was the case. But the new wranglings are about whether or not MGA Entertainment can continue with the line, which has more than 40 characters and a ton of spin-off products. Is it only first-generation dolls, which spawned from Bryant's design? Or the whole she-bang? If Mattel wins, will county sheriff's be breaking into people's homes to collect their illegal dolls, or will they issue a lead-paint-style recall, where people are asked to destroy them?

It would seem, in cases like this, that the cat (or rather, the brat) is out of the bag. This is why these cases are so hard to settle and hinge on cash penalties. The same thing in going on at dozens of companies right now -- RIM Blackberry faces this dilemma, as does Vonage, to name just two -- and when the whole company's business is based on a "stolen" design, it can spell huge trouble.

Mattel has been so fierce in fighting this case because sales of rival Barbie dolls have slid since Bratz came on the scene in 2001, and were down 15% in 2007. Mattel as a whole isn't doing so great either, with the economy, toy recalls and other problems weighing down the company. It recently announced it was laying off 1,000 employees.

If you caught Sunday night's episode of 60 Minutes, you were treated to not just an incredible example of journalism but also a gripping story about what happens to the personal computers and laptops we recycle--it's a tale that apparently often ends in Guiyu, China where you can't breathe the air without hacking, and most of the children have lead coursing through their blood. That's because in Guiyu, workers are paid $8 a day to dismantle electronic waste, and they use chemicals to burn away the plastic to extract the metals lodged in the equipment. And during this process, lead, mercury and polyvinyl chloride are released, all of which are all cancer-causing agents.

It was a great story, especially when CBS correspondent Scott Pelley confronted Brandon Richter, CEO of Executive Recycling in Englewood, Colorado. Richter had been interviewed, talking about the importance of safely recycling e-waste and his company's web site, according to 60 Minutes, had stressed that they never sent the laptops, monitors and other electronic equipment oversees. It was all done here in the United States (the web site makes no mention of that now).

Renting out a vacation home is a growing and largely unregulated industry. Pop the place up on Craiglist and a homeowner is in business. The National Association of Realtors reported that the number of second-home owners renting out their properties has increased from 18% in 2006 to 25% last year. And property management companies say that number has risen as the economy has slowed.

I understand why. My husband and I own a second home on Lake Erie and the cost of paying the non-homestead taxes and keeping it heated and cooled has soared in the last couple of years. Finding a tenant willing to pay big bucks (or even little bucks) to use it on the weekends we aren't is appealing.

But renting out a vacation home and keeping fun-seeking tenants pleased is no day at the beach. My husband still complains about the beds in the house we rented near Disney World three years ago so we could gather all 17 of us for a Mouse Ears Christmas.

The bed springs stuck through the tops of the ancient mattresses. You had to position yourself carefully, otherwise, when you rolled over, you'd get a puncture wound.

Then there was the lake-front place we rented near Michigan Speedway that smelled like rotten eggs and Valvoline.

And the house in Atlantic City whose owners boasted that it had a "breathtaking" view of the ocean. Well, you were certainly out of breath by the time you climbed three flights of outdoor stairs to the rooftop porch where if you leaned way over the railing, past the neighboring house, you could catch a glimpse of waves a quarter-mile away.

I'm the first person in my immediate family to go to college. And I make vastly less than any of them. Why? While I was paying the big bucks for fancy-schmancy degrees, they were plying their trades.

Dad's a pool-man and manufacturer of pool tools. Brother Dave is a sign-painter. Both are hard-working, entrepreneurial, and prosperous as a result.

Sometime in the Go-Go '80s, it seemed that the archetypal American worker lost cache. The hard-working tradesman got overshadowed by the flashy, money-making executive. All you ever read about was how to get an MBA, how to get a white-collar job. Where Rosie the Riveter was once the symbol of honorable American Labor, she was replaced 40 short years later with Gordon Gekko. (And you see where the bankers have led us.)

Not everyone can or should go to college. You can make a better living working as a tradesman than you can in any number of jobs that require a four-year-degree (I'm thinking, ah, journalism...for one). How much Joe-the-Plumber actually earns notwithstanding, skilled tradesmen can and do earn a robust living, and in many ways have more control over their incomes than any corporate middle manager.

Don't miss the rest of our series on Underrated In America!

The economy is sputtering and you need a stomach of iron to watch the daily fluctuations of the stock market; but people ARE still buying. Many businesses are able to make money in spite of the economic meltdown and some are growing at a rapid pace.

According to Automatic Data Processing (ADP), a provider of business outsourcing solutions, the outlook for small business looks optimistic. According to ADP, over 200,000 small business jobs have been created in the last six months. There has been a continuation of growth by small businesses, defined as companies with less than 50 workers, adding 28,000 new jobs in September.

Small businesses have advantages over large corporations. They are able to move quickly in response to market changes and customer demands. They can maintain close contact with their customer base more easily to build customer loyalty. And they can flex staff in response to business demands to save overhead.

Whether large or small, there are things you can do to grow your business in any economy. Smart businesses are taking advantage of the economic meltdown by marketing and acquiring new customers. Here are some techniques to build your business:

• Get closer. Have a focus group of key clients and ask them what types of challenges they are facing. Buy them lunch and listen to their issues and brainstorm possible solutions. Make sure you follow up with each participant, thanking them for their input. Look for possible opportunities for new products or services.
• Conduct periodic surveys. Use Survey Monkey to get customer input quickly on issues in their industry. The basic membership is free and you can create surveys quickly to be completed on-line. This survey service can also be used to gather input from employees, etc.
• Offer solutions. People are willing to pay if you can solve their problems, save them money, or save them time. No one likes to be sold to but people love to buy, especially if they see value. What solutions can you offer that makes life easier for your customers?

If you're under the age of 30, you've heard of Twitter, and if you're in the business world and under the age of 100, I'll bet you've come across the name. Still, some people "get it" more and a lot faster than others. It's taken me awhile, but I think I'm starting to get it.

I joined Twitter a year ago, posted an update or two... and that was about it. Meanwhile, as the year has passed, I've read everything from Time magazine praising Twitter to MSNBC, which just wrote about the Twitter phenomenon the other day. I've interviewed a number of people who sing its praises. And throughout the last year, I've watched in awe because clearly some entrepreneurs and enterprises are using it to their great advantage.

For instance, Zappos, the shoes, clothing and accessories retail site, has used Twitter as something of a way to focus test its products, and communicate with its patrons. Businesses and nonprofits ask their loyal customers or enthusiasts to follow them on Twitter. Politicians use it to spread their message or let followers know that a rally is coming up.

You just have to admire the British. In a classic display of; "Chin up old man," a huge new mall has opened in London's inner city. CNN.com reports that the Westfield center, now Europe's largest metro shopping complex, boasts 1.6 million square feet of retail floor space. The complex houses a whopping 265 individual retail units.

The huge new mall houses such top-end product names as Louis Vuitton, and Prada. The project construction began about five years ago, long before the specter of tight money swept across the globe.

Owners of the mammoth shopping facility state that the available retail space is already 99% leased out. The CNN report also indicates that approximately 21 million visitors shall attend the mall each year, and that the project cost $2.6 billion (US dollars) to build. Additionally, more than $272 million (US dollars) were spent on upgrading London's mass transit system. Her majesty the Queen must be very proud.

It shall only take a scant 60 days to find out if this bold move by the Brits will pay off. Perhaps our friends across the pond are still a bit looser with their wallets than we here in America have been forced to become. I hope the mall is a smashing hit, and that the shoppers arrive in droves. Anything which helps get the wheels of world commerce turning again would be considered a big plus right about now.

British smokers, upset over a recent cigarette ban, might have a solution to their desperate desire for nicotine. United Drinks and Beauty, a Dutch company, is about to release "Liquid Smoking," a non-addictive herbal beverage that, according to the makers, delivers the same kick as cigarettes. It will sell for £1.50 per can, or about 1/3 the price of a pack of smokes in New York City.

Anti-smoking groups are already moving to block Liquid Smoking,claiming that United Drinks should be more forthcoming about its product's ingredients and attacking its can, which resembles a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. Their argument is that the cigarette-like packaging is likely to drive people to smoke real cigarettes. Of course, this assumes that I smoked for over a decade because of an unhealthy attraction to camels, not because of an addiction to nicotine. Damn those evil, spitting, furry temptresses!

When I finally managed to quit smoking three years ago, I did so through a combination of generic Welbutrin, rubber bands, gum, and the grim realization that my wife would kill me if I skipped out of my daughter's birth to grab a smoke. Long before this, however, I had tried numerous methods to kick the demon weed, including herbal cigarettes, patches, nicotine gum, lozenges, jogging, and prayer. The most effective method, however, was probably absinthe, an herbal liquor which did a great job of distracting me from the miseries of nicotine withdrawal. Unfortunately, while the stuff is effective, it is also about 60% alcohol, which meant that I couldn't exactly start the day with a shot of it.

I have to admit that I am intrigued by Liquid Smoking. On the one hand, I agree that the company's vaunted "potent mix of roots from South African plants" is pretty vague, and could include a wide variety of dangerous substances. On the other hand, my own experiences with herb-infused liquids makes me think that this beverage could offer a workable solution for a lot of nicotine addicts. Given my delighted rediscovery of uncongested breathing, running, and lowered blood pressure, I hope that anti-smoking zealots won't let their blind hatred of addiction stand in the way of a potential solution for it.

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He's still trying to get over his absinthe addiction.

When Mr. Blackwell, the 86-year-old fashion critic, passed away recently, I wasn't happy, of course -- I am never pleased to see anyone check out -- but a little part of me breathed a sigh of relief. He was famous for coming out with his annual list of the 10 worst dressed women every January, but I always had this feeling that if I ever wound up becoming famous, he'd probably see me and decide that men needed their own list, too.

I tend not to be a very fashion conscious guy. I wear a button down shirt, jeans in the winter and shorts in the warmer months, and that's pretty much my routine, every day. I'm lucky if my socks match. If I were a fashion plate, I would be chipped.

So this is all my preamble for introducing Wardrobe911, a web site I recently learned about. The founder, "wardrobe therapist" Teresa Morisco and her fashion crew, will help you choose the right outfit for any occasion...for a fee. (and her website doesn't mention price, which leads me to believe if you have to ask, you can't afford it...)

Although I can imagine someone like Sarah Palin having contacted this service, had she not had assistance from the Republican National Committee, they specialize in helping entrepreneurs and executives, anywhere in the country or presumably world, provided you're willing to pay travel expenses. And any aspiring entrepreneur reading this, who thinks that the name of your company isn't really a big deal, you should take note. Would I be writing about this business if it were called, say, Dressing for Success? I can almost guarantee that the answer is -- no.

I just love the name: Wardrobe911. I'm envisioning a red telephone in Ms. Morisco's office. Someone haphazardly dressed -- maybe Britney Spears, a favorite of Mr. Blackwell -- calls, and Ms. Morisco slides down a pole, jumps into her fashion mobile and off she goes. We should all have help like that.

Geoff Williams is a fashion-challenged freelance journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

When money gets tight, does our population fail to take care good of itself? When people lose jobs and homes, does it drive them to more actively entertain their personal vices? Do people in dire straits seek psychological satisfaction through increased usage of questionable means, or does a lack of ready funds make people more careful about their health? A recent article by health columnist Tara Parker-Pope, of The New York Times, points at these questions in the light of current economic realities.

Ms. Parker-Pope's article reveals the surprising conclusion that tough economic times can tend to improve health and well being. The truth, which might seem contrary to conventional wisdom, points to increased time with family and closer attention to personal needs, as the reasons that economic downturns might actually improve national health. The article explains how people in economic boom times place more focus on exploiting the booms, and less time on taking care of themselves. On the other hand, people in tough circumstances have more time to take a closer look at their communities, families and selves.