Gas prices have been dropping lately, but nevertheless, the dollar amount at the pump is still...what's the word I'm looking for... oh, yes, insane. Evil is another good word.

So when the spokesperson for Pump and Save contacted me, vowing that its average user saves over $175 per year at the pump, I knew I'd be writing some sort of post for WalletPop. So here it is: Check out PumpandSave.com, a web site that offers numerous tips and tools on how to save gas -- like price-saving maps and gas usage calculators. But by far, its reason for being is that you can compare the best of the best of the cash-back and rewards-based gas cards.

If you're in the market for a gas card, this is a really sharp site. They have a lot of gas cards listed here, on the home page, so that you can compare one from the other, since not all rewards are created equally.

As I often note when mentioning one of these saving money sites, I'm not endorsing it. Beyond just looking around, I haven't used PumpandSave.com, and in fact, I don't even have a gas card and am not currently planning on getting one. But as an objective bystander, it looks interesting, and like it's worth spending some time on, especially if you've been considering getting a gas card, or if you are just really frazzled by the price at the pump and want some gas-saving ideas.

Geoff Williams is a freelance journalist, author and--not that anyone asked--the owner of a 1994 Saturn that fortunately has pretty decent gas mileage.

Earlier today I found out about a new entrant to the high yield online savings market on CNN which is offering a savings account with an interest rate of 3.75%. Dollar Savings Direct boasts that this new savings account has America's highest rate* a full quarter of a percent above its nearest competitor. While the new entrant is FDIC insured and not new to the banking industry the new high yield interest rate doesn't come without a catch.

Getting the 3.75% rate isn't difficult but unless you already have some savings built up you can't open an account at Dollar Savings Direct which requires a minimum of $1,000 to open an account. If you have less than $1,000 in the account at any given time, the interest rates drops to 1% APY, which is dismal, especially for an online savings account. I'm not a huge fan of the drop in interest rate but if you have trouble dipping into your savings for non-essentials it may be enough to keep your savings in the bank.

I'm a huge fan of online savings accounts, especially those which pay me well for building up my savings. I currently use HSBC where I was able to open an account with only a dollar and I am currently earning 3.5% APY on the emergency fund we have built up over the past year. The real benefit of a high yield savings account with no minimum deposit is that it isn't a huge challenge to open and combined with direct deposit is an excellent way to start an emergency fund. If it wasn't for HSBC's no minimum savings account I'm positive that our emergency fund would have been squandered on electronics and Taco Bell.

Ed McMahon has finally found a buyer for his multi-million dollar house avoiding foreclosure. Reportedly, his mortage lenders filed notice of default in Februrary when McMahon was over $644,00 in arrears. When McMahon was interviewed regarding his money woes, he blamed his financial problems on having broken his neck about 18 months ago, preventing him from working.

I certainly can empathize with health issues causing financial hardship, but where's the bucks? McMahon worked for over 30 years on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, was the host of Star Search and spokesperson for dozens of products. I repeat: "Where's the bucks?"

While several accounts connect McMahon's problems to the credit squeeze and U.S. housing downturn, I think it has a lot more to do with poor money management. At 85 years old, with a career that spanned decades, you would think that McMahon would be financial secure. But I have seen this before.

Elizabeth Edwards is on the cover of the latest People Magazine and offers a candid interview inside of the anguish, pain, and decisions that she faced after learning of her husband's affair with a former campaign aide, Rielle Hunter. Recognizing that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness that could leave her three children without a mother was reportedly a factor in her decision to stay in the marriage.

Children are one of the reasons that women stay in a marriage where a husband has strayed, but it shouldn't be the only reason. Women's income generally drops an average of 16% while a man's increases by 23% according to the NY Times. They often don't have the earning power of their spouses or may have been out of the workforce due to the demands of child raising.

When Tracy Coenen told us how to waste $175,000 in 10 years, she didn't mention splurging on a new car to help you through your mid-life crisis, or throwing your life savings down at the roulette table. We tend to waste money a few dollars at a time, on lots of little extras throughout our lives -- and we all do it.

Judith Wright, author of The Soft Addiction Solution, calls these little extras our soft addictions. They're not taboo like drugs and alcohol, but they are addictions nonetheless, and perhaps we're wrong to view soft addictions as harmless -- after all, look how much time, energy, and money they're costing us.

Even things that don't cost money directly, like watching too much television, or endlessly surfing the internet (guilty!), rob us of energy, productivity, and keep us, Wright argues, from the things we really want out of life. Soft addictions can be bad habits that usually involve lots of time wasting, compulsive activities like overeating, shopping, even overworking, or substance addictions like caffeine. Wright says that many people spend up to and over $15,000 a year on their soft addictions, but no one she's encountered spends less than $3,000 annually on soft addictions.

Because there's little if any societal pressure to kick these addictions, most people never even consider the damage their habits may be doing. Think about some of your habits. Is your life better because of them? Worse? Could it be a soft addiction? Take the quiz here.

I love these kinds of illustrations. They show us just how quickly a few dollars here and a few dollars there add up to big money. I admit that I'm not that frugal of a spender. I was when I started my business almost nine years ago, but since then I've become accustomed to much more spending freedom. I don't really look for sales at the grocery store, I get a regular pedicure at the salon, and I stop regularly for a cup of my favorite coffee.

Yet how many of us really stop to think about how much we're wasting each week, month, and year? I bet not many. And when people complain about being broke, an analysis like this makes it clear how many of us probably have plenty of fat that can be trimmed from our budgets.

The Digerati Life did an analysis based in part upon a recent feature at AOL Money on Top Ways to Waste Money. She added up many of the common "extras" we buy on a daily or monthly basis: coffee, gum, lottery tickets, bottled water, manicures, car washes, memberships we don't use, cable television, and the like.

When I quit smoking, almost three years ago, my main reason for doing so was the birth of my daughter. Both of my parents had died from smoking-related illnesses, and I decided that I wanted to be around when my kid graduated from high school. Beyond that, I also wasn't a big fan of the seasonal bouts of bronchitis that I had every year, the occasional coughing fits, the lack of stamina, and the assorted other health miseries. The final nail in the coffin was the price: because of the ever-increasing taxes levied on cigarettes, it had gotten to the point where I was spending over $5 a day on my habit.

It's hard to find that ultimate reason to quit, and I have numerous close friends who simply can't make the final step to nicotine independence. With that in mind, I've been getting excited about the array of smokeless tobacco options that are now entering the market.

By combating the smoke that causes most smoking-related health problems and the taxes that bankrupt smokers, these companies are finding ways to make nicotine addiction less expensive and more socially acceptable. Of course, quitting is still the ideal, but if smokers can't find that final reason to push them over the edge into nonsmoking, these are some other options:

Family Dollar is featuring Disney backpacks or lunch bags at $6 each. It is also featuring four-pack Kraft Handi-Snacks or four-pack Kool-aid Gels for $1 each to help fill those lunch boxes. Along with Disney and other character school supplies, the 99-cent Only Store has lunch box treats like Florida's Natural Fruit Sticks in a six-pack for 99 cents or seven mini snack boxes of Sunmaid raisins for 99 cents. Dollar Tree also has lunch box snacks like potato chips, juice boxes and fruit roll-ups in multi-packs for $1.

Dollar General is offering licensed lunch boxes in assorted styles for $5 each and backpacks in assorted styles for $8 each. I can't tell from the picture, but these backpacks look to be made of nylon material and look to have some outside pockets, whereas the Disney ones at Family Dollar look like they're some I've seen that are made of soft vinyl. If it were me, I'd go for the sturdier material.

Socks is one item of clothing that you can save a lot of money on by shopping at a dollar store. Dollar Tree is featuring kids and adult sizes in solids and patterns for $1 a pair and the 99-cent Only Store has sport socks for 99 cents a pair. I've bought socks from my local dollar store and they've stood the test of time and many washings. And Dollarama has some really cute kids socks.

Marlene Alexander is a freelance writer and dollar store diva. She writes about budget decorating using only items from the dollar store.

When I was a kid, my parents sent me to private schools, which meant that, not only did they pay a pretty hefty tuition bill, but they also had to pony up dough for school trips, lunches, after-school programs, textbooks, tissues, PE uniforms, and hundreds of other expenses.

My classrooms were habitually under-heated in the winter, my carpools often took me on byzantine routes across the DC area, and there were times when adult supervision was totally nonexistent. Even with all of this, I somehow managed to get a decent education: years later, I still remember how to do basic math, have a fairly good idea of how the federal government is structured, and rarely misspell the word "very." I think that this might put me a couple of notches ahead of Dubya.

Coming from this background, I'm not all that horrified by some of the cutbacks that school districts are using to deal with America's current fuel crisis/recession/inflation/stagflation hiccup. I think that some of them might even improve our schools; as a child, I found it hard to fall asleep in my chilly classrooms, which actually seemed to help my studies. Furthermore, bake sales and money drives could increase parental involvement, something that is sorely lacking in many areas.

You can spend a lot of money keeping the bathroom stocked with essentials. But if you don't need to have a name brand, you just may find that the personal care aisle at the dollar store has many quality products that will do the job just as well. Again, please check prices in your area.

1. Band-Aids. For years I tried different store brands in an effort to save money. The individual strips were hard to open and the plastic was of such a poor quality that it would tear. I had all but given up when I discovered Medi-Care at my local dollar store. They are sterile, open easily and stay put. My store has them in packages of 60 regular or clear, five large size and children's cartoon designs. Johnston and Johnston bandages cost $3.27 for a package of 40 or a package of 10 large. The larger, patch type band-aids are 20 cents each at the dollar store. The brand-name ones, at the price I saw, would be about 33 cents each. The off-brands won't "cling in soapy suds" but under normal circumstances, they do the job very nicely, thank-you.

2. Purell hand sanitizer cost $4.87 for 237 ml bottle with a pump. The dollar store brand comes in a 236 ml. pump bottle for $3.87 less.

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Here's the plain truth: The single best step you can take to living the retirement of your dreams is to contribute the maximum amount allowed to an IRA. Unfortunately, too many people ignore this rare gift from Uncle Sam.

We hear from readers all the time about why they don't contribute to retirement plans, and it's usually because they don't know where – and how much – to contribute. Let's clear up some of that confusion with our answer to the following WalletPop reader question.

Dear Ken and Daria,

Can a working and a non-working spouse both make IRA contributions?

-Jim

Making the most of your IRA is a key part of successful retirement planning. Get answers to all your questions about IRA rules, Roth IRAs, rollovers and more at Dolans.com.

Two generations ago most families lived on working farms. All family members participated in the work and had responsibilities. School was designed to give the children the summer off primarily because they were needed on the farm to help with the planting and harvest of crops. Children had responsibilities and a role in the family.

Fast forward to the present. Most families no longer live in the country and in too many homes children have no real work to do. With the advent of TV in the 50's, an amazing change happened to the role of children in this country: their primary role became "a consumer."

This change began gradually with Saturday morning cartoons and cereal commercials. These cereal ads were really the first attempt to market directly to kids. Perhaps you remember them? Cereal with submarines and other toys in the box so the kids beg, cried, and screamed until their parents bought it.

Earlier this year, Yahoo News interviewed Republican candidate John McCain. They asked him a simple question: "What kind of computer do you use? Mac or PC? His answer? "Neither. I am an illiterate who has to rely on my wife."

Scary stuff if you ask me. In an era where terrorists have laptops in their caves and Bin Laden organizes his followers through the internet, the idea of a President who can't log on is terrifying. Not being plugged in is the equivalent of being Out Of It according to Anna Quindlen in her recent Newsweek column. And being OOT just isn't an option for any of us regardless of age.

The majority of Americans ARE online with many older Americans using e-mail for years. My mother is 87 years old and regularily surfs, answers e-mails, and maintains a webpage. She is not alone. Surveys of the older, well educated population finds that three out of four use the internet on a regular basis.

There is a lot of new research on happiness and money with some surprising results. While Americans have become more affluent, their happiness levels have not really increased. In a series of studies by the University of Chicago, the average U.S. Family has become 60% richer in the last thirty years, but they are not significantly happier. In 1960, approximately 42% of Americans surveyed pronounced themselves "very happy."

A similar poll in 1990, found that 43% were "very happy." What seems to matter most for your sense of well-being and your happiness level is how you stack up against your neighbors. People tend to use this yardstick of comparison to evaluate their money and circumstances. Even a millionaire will feel miserable in the company of billionaires.

I used to love Back-to-School shopping. When I was a kid, my mom would haul out the Sears catalog and let me pick out a few new dresses and a pair of new shoes. It was like Christmas in Autumn. These days, however, as a mom of two grade-school kids, I don't view the season with such delight. Why? Back-to-School shopping is often a budget-buster for those of us living on a shoe-string.

I'm not the only one who feels this way. Retailers around the country are bracing for what they think will be the worst Back-to-School shopping season of the decade. A recent survey by Deloitte shows that 70% of households surveyed indicated that they would be spending much less this season, and nearly half said they'd try to cut back on the back-to-school budget by at least $100.

The good news is, retailers are bending over backwards for the parent dollar, running promotions, two-for-one deals and sales at certain times of the day.