This week, until Sunday, November 16, you can get two triple cheeseburgers for $3.00 at McDonald's. (Or, as a smarty pointed out, you can get three double cheeseburgers for the same price -- that is, until the price goes up to $1.19, as it may soon according to McDonald's management comments.)

I wouldn't suggest it, but it seems many consumers are turning to fast food to fix their economic blues. McDonald's this week reported same-store sales were up sharply (compared to its many depressed restaurant competitors, that is) in the U.S. and worldwide. The picture that is rapidly emerging in America is one in which hungry, time-strapped folks are turning away from spendy fast-casual restaurants like Chili's and The Cheesecake Factory and riding the value menus at McDonald's and Wendy's.

Here's why that's a bad idea, financially struggling people: all this food is nutritionally bereft. Save money now on your stacks of corn- and soybean-fed beef patties with imitation cheese, and chances are you'll be racking up thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of expenses down the road for heart conditions, early-onset diabetes, and other diet-related illness.

It turns out, you can eat just as cheap as McDonald's if you spend a little time planning meals and cooking from scratch -- and maybe eat organic too. We have lots of ideas here at WalletPop on how to eat like a peasant; it's better for your wallet (short-term and long-term), your health, and the planet!

Around 1 million Americans suffer a stroke each year and getting the victim to the hospital quickly is of the utmost importance.

How do you know if someone is having a stroke? You could read pamphlets and books on it -- but that would be boring! Instead, watch this way too catchy music video (I frequently find myself dancing to it) and remember to ACT FAST.

Winter's coming and with it, the flu. Like turning the clocks back and unfolding your sweaters, getting a flu shot is an annual ritual that, quite frankly, can be a pain in the butt. Happily, this year a slew of airport clinics are equipped to provide passengers with shots containing this year's anti-flu formulation so that if you're traveling at all for the next few months, you won't have to waste time or money scheduling an appointment with your doctor.

Included in the list are some of America's busiest, such as Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, Chicago's O'Hare, New York City's JFK, and LAX. The shots often cost $25 to $35, which is in the same ballpark as many co-payments for a visit to a doctor with health insurance. Except in this case, you don't waste time. You're filling time you're already wasting. And the jab-averse can easily go grab a cocktail right before rolling up their sleeve, something doctors might frown upon.

In some cases, your health coverage may cover the expense. Some airports are even doing it for free, including San Diego's Lindbergh and Phoenix's Sky Harbor. Here's a handy list of which airports are giving out shots, along with phone numbers and directions.

No matter whether you intend to get a flu shot (some people hate the idea), you have to applaud anything that removes annoying loopholes in our regular lives, such as waiting hours for a flight, and replaces them with opportunities for industriousness. Travelers waste far too much time in the airport twiddling their thumbs and staring at the irritating babbling heads on CNN. Why not get needled by something that can actually be good for your health instead?

Americans spent more than $2.3 trillion on health care last year. That's more than $7,600 per person -- and it's going to get worse! The government projects that in less than a decade, you'll spend 20% of your annual income on health care.

Health care has been a major theme during this year's Presidential election, and we're paying close attention to the Presidential candidates' plans for how they will fix our badly broken health care system. But let's be honest here: The odds of any real change happening anytime soon are slim to none, so let us help you deal with this budget buster. We're going to show you how to save big bucks on your health care costs right now.

This weekend, my 14-month-old, Monroe, had a terrible accident. I'd just finished taking out the recycling, and he and his brothers were playing. I heard glass bumping against glass. Strange, I thought, I got it all, didn't I? A moment later, a sound of broken glass, then my oldest son yelling, then screams. Really, really serious screams. Then there was blood. Lots, and lots of blood.

One 911 call and an ambulance ride later, I was thanking all applicable heavenly bodies that, firstly, the enormous gaping cut to his eyelid was not life- or vision-threatening and second, that I had two weeks left of health care insurance. I'm leaving full-time employment to do the freelance thing, and along with it will go my full complement of benefits. I had considered going without for a few months, but this weekend's excitement and the realization that I have three of these danger-prone little boys has me decided to buy emergency health insurance, that will pay out for extreme costs. I'll pay out-of-pocket for regular well-baby visits and my own extremely rare visits to the doctor.

And then I'll be taking the Great American Risk along with dozens of my friends and millions of other Americans: gambling that my kids' health needs aren't more than a $100 here and there. I can't really afford the enormous cost of individual health insurance for my family; depending on the plan the cost starts at $400 a month and skyrocket from there. $5,000 a year plus I have to pay $1,500 to $5,000 deductible? No way man. I'm rolling the dice, hoping my family doesn't end up with any life-threatening diseases, hoping I don't get pregnant again. Forget penny stocks or mortgage-backed securities; the stakes are way higher here in the living rooms and basements of the Regular American. I'd love to hear from other freelancers and part-time parents out there: what have you done?

If health risks can't convince you not to start smoking, maybe future poverty will. The financial costs of this nasty habit are far more than the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance, dry cleaning, and dental care. Their homes and cars have less resale value and they are at higher risk of having a fire.

Smokers also don't make the bucks. They earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits. They often have to pay additional premiums for insurance coverage. And they may have trouble getting a job. More and more employers are announcing they will no longer employ smokers.

• Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan stopped hiring smokers for full-time positions at both its Michigan campuses.
• Alaska Airlines requires a nicotine test before hiring people.
• Union Pacific won't hire smokers.

Don't miss the rest of our series on 15 Ways to Ruin Your Financial Future!

So why on earth do people ever start smoking? That's easy--to feel "cool." I should know, I am an ex-smoker. Like most smokers, I started as a teenager. Approximately 80% of smokers start in their teens and the American Lung Association estimates that every minute four thousand eight hundred teens will take their first drag off a cigarette.

I remember my first drag. Some kids were passing around a cigarette and I tried it. I was hooked almost instantly and up to a pack a day within months. I felt cool and wiser when I smoked and it helped me belong with a group at school. Like most teenagers, I didn't worry about the health implications, those problems were a million years away.

Hospitals are losing the war on bacteria and it is costing you money. The Health Protection Agency (HPA), which monitors infections, is particularly worried about a group of bacteria known as "gram-negative," which are extremely common and include Escherichia coli. This bug is the most common cause of urinary tract infections, causing about 70-80% of all cystitis cases, and can also cause pneumonia and other infections. According to recent estimates, it is resistant to all antibiotics in about 12% of cases.

This new "superbug" is in addition to the cases of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) that has increased 62% in general hospitalized patients in recent years. A study by a University of Florida researcher found that MRSA has more than doubled between 1999 and 2005, soaring from 127,000 to nearly 280,000 cases. The study concluded that MRSA and staph infections are now "endemic, and in some cases epidemic" in many U.S. Hospitals, long-term care facilities and communities.

Hospital-acquired infections from all causes result in an estimated 90,000 deaths per year and are the sixth-leading cause of death nationally. They also increase patient suffering and the length of time patients spend in the hospital -- in addition to direct health care costs, estimated to be more than $6 billion annually.

If Lori Hall Steele could get off her ventilator long enough, she would have a heck of a story to write.

It's a tale involving a brutal disease, a questionable health insurance policy, a mortgage company going about its devastatingly matter-of-fact business and of several friends who are determined to share her plight with the world. They've built a web site called Save Lori's House, and are launching all the power in the blogosphere that they can to bring people to it, all in the hopes that their sick friend not have to go into this fight alone.

Ms. Steele, a 44-year-old divorced mom, is a freelance writer in Traverse City, Michigan. She wasn't one of those people who purchased a subprime mortgage gone bad. Ms. Steele hasn't been able to keep up her house payments because she has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. As anyone familiar with this disease knows, ALS turns people into statues that can only blink and breathe...and ultimately in most every case, not even that.

There is no cure, although people have been known to live for years with the disease. But complicating matters even more, Ms. Steele also has chronic Lyme disease.

I have watched football games, football reruns and football highlights for more than 30 years. Now a new study at the University of Chicago, finds that people who watch sports may experience an increase in brain function. If this is true, then my husband must be a genius.

Researchers found that being an athlete or merely a fan improves language skills when it comes to discussing their sport because parts of the brain usually involved in playing sports are instead used to understand sport language, Reportedly this changes neural networks in the brain enhancing brain function. The study concludes that the brain may be more flexible in adulthood than previously thought.

Actually, the results are not really all that surprising. Any activity that makes you use your brain can improve function and memory. The Alzheimers Association recommends regular brain exercises such as crossword puzzles to maintain healthy brain cells. It also recommends regular social interaction as recent research demonstrates a lower risk of Alzheimers among people who live with other family members.

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

The United States Department of Health and Human Services is offering a free 2009 Women's Health Calendar to anyone who fills out this form.

In case you were wondering where your tax dollars go. Remember: this is the federal government, so don't be expecting any bikini-clad models. There's no other information about it available all on the site, so all you can do is order it and see what it is.

It has been long known that folks that are married have longer life span. Now, new research by the Karolinska Institute on Sweden has found that marriage or having a partner halves the risk of developing dementia. Scientists believe social interaction between couples may ward off illness. Good reason to work on your relationships.

The dollars involved in the care for Alzheimer's and other dementia victims is no small amount. In 2005, Medicare spent $91 billion on beneficiaries with Alzheimer's and other dementias ,and that number is projected to more than double to $189 billion by 2015. Medicaid spending per person equals around $13,207 per year on average per patient with dementia.

Well the Boomers are crying now. Market is down, 401k's are shrinking, and dreams of early retirement fading. The mad bull market that had us believe it would go up forever has faltered. The gains were so exciting it was easy to lose sight of the real goals and priorities. Financial accumulation became a mission rather than a means to an end.

I know, I know, what about retirement. Well what about it? Personally I don't believe in retirement, I believe in working. Work and activity are the measures of physical and mental health. Ideally, you are passionate about the work you do and it gives your life meaning. We are the only country in the world that has this ridiculous viewpoint of a magical age where we are not longer suppose to work. And WE didn't have it before the advent of social security. After all, the word retire was only used twice in the Bible, and in both cases as a punishment.

I'm in New York City this week and one of the exciting things about that is that I can try a wide variety of foods that Cape Cod grocery stores don't have. Today I bought a package of "Glenny's Low-Fat Soy Crisps" and, while they were quite good and relatively healthy for a packaged snack food, the consumer advocate in me has some complaints about the advertising on the package at right. It reads "10 Grams pure Soy Protein" and "Only 65 Calories per Serving."

This is a classic example of advertising spin: it isn't false and it isn't even misleading necessarily -- but it's a case of the company putting its best nutritional foot forward, and health-conscious consumers will need to be vigilant.

A look at the nutritional fact shows that there are indeed 65 calories per serving, with 2 servings per bag for a total of 130 calories. Each serving contains 5 grams of protein and the entire bag contains 10.

My beef with the marketing here is that they present the one you want a lot of -- protein -- on a per bag basis and then they present the calorie count on a per serving basis. 10 grams of protein appears right above 65 calories, but you'd actually have to eat 130 calories to get the 10 grams of protein.

Moral of story: pay no attention to "low -fat", "high protein", "light," "low calorie", etc labels on the front. If you want to know what you're eating, flip the product over, put on your glasses, and read the nutritional label: "just the facts ma'am."

It has become a summer tradition at my workplace to have a fitness challenge; last year we had a weight-loss challenge and this year we are focusing on walking. The whole idea is to get yourself in better shape by using the support of those you are around almost as much as your spouse.

The idea has received support from the higher-ups because healthier employees equal lower health care costs for the company. On an individual level you can also enjoy saving money just by being healthy.

This year's challenge lasts eight weeks and we have a goal of walking 10,000 steps a day, which translates into more walking for almost all participants. Walking to the store, the doctor, the movies and pretty much anyplace within a reasonable distance. Every time you walk somewhere you save money on gas which is tremendously helpful. To reach the 10,000 per day goal I need to walk an additional 1.5-2 miles per day, if I do this for the course of a month as a substitute for driving I'll save $10 in gas. Once you add the the support system and the financial incentive the walking challenge becomes a no-brainer for me.

If you can get enough people interested, your company or its insurer may even sponsor the challenge, though this will likely require the participation of 50% or more of your workforce. Are you working on getting healthy in order to save money on medical expenses? Have you found other areas of savings as well? Share your ideas and results with us!

Before we get any angry emails from concerned citizens: the title of this post was meant in jest and we certainly don't suggest that anyone actually try to perform surgery on himself.

The Associated Press lead says it all: "The 55-year-old Omaha man who performed a tracheotomy on himself with a steak knife says he did the same thing to himself two years ago."

Steve Wilder's throat has shrunken because of radiation treatments for cancer and, when he was having trouble breathing, he headed for the kitchen instead of the hospital. "I didn't feel no pain. I was just trying to survive," Wilder told a reporter. "I got relief right away. There was a big gush of blood, and I was able to start sucking in air."

Wilder's doctor even told him that he'd done a pretty good job.