Don't you hate the first time you make a certain kind of purchase? We've all been in the situation when even the tidbits of advice you have heard over the years don't fully prepare you for the transaction.

The first time I felt this way about a deal was when I bought my first car. I made some goofy decisions and even though I did it half right I still felt like I could have gotten a better deal if I had been through the process before. As my wife and I are exploring home ownership I can't help but think that I am going to feel the same way about our home purchase.

Yesterday I found a great resource which really raised my hopes for taking out a mortgage and buying a home without remorse. The aptly titled article, "How to Get a Mortgage" on Mahalo.com breaks down the process of getting a mortgage into bite size morsels of knowledge so detailed and applicable it should be printed in pamphlets and handed out in front of every bank!

The top three sites for those looking to sell their homes themselves are FSBO.com, Owners.com and ForSaleByOwner.com, all of which provide sellers with different tools and services at different prices. All offer to list your home in the local Multiple Listing Service for a fee but, remember: to attract buyers and their Realtors, you will need to offer a commission to the agent on the other end of the deal.

There are definitely other sites out there which you can use to sell your home, and I'll cover a few of those after looking closer at these three. When evaluating these options for ambitious home owners I looked at the price, selling aids such as video tours and yard signs as well as the reputation and customer service of the companies. Be sure to check out WalletPop's look at what you need to know about selling your home from a Realtor's standpoint.

Let's take a look at three of the top sites for selling your own house.

If you or your kid is new to college this year you've probably heard horror stories about book costs from your friends who have already crossed the archway to higher education but fear not! WalletPop is providing you with some great ways to save money on textbooks. The first part of our series covered 5 ways to avoid purchasing a textbook, while still doing all of your homework and reading. This post will help you find the cheapest version of the textbook out there.

As you'll soon find out there are many other places besides the campus bookstore to get your textbooks and companies are finally beginning to offer textbooks in new, exciting and of course CHEAPER ways. The following list will help you locate cheap copies of those books that you need to buy because borrowing just won't cut it.

Nowadays, some students are easily spending $500 or more on textbooks each semester, prompting some professors to provide their new books online for students anywhere to use for free.

Since this is unfortunately not yet the norm in many institutions around the nation, in a few weeks most parents and students will need to crack open the wallet to get ready for a new semester.

Most returning students will already be familiar with the best ways to get the books they need on the cheap, but for incoming freshmen and their parents, this guide will provide a great toolkit for getting the best deal on textbooks.

I am frugal or as my wife calls me, cheap. Because I can't bear to spend more money on something I can fix or save it really irks me when we have to pitch something because of a stain. While some of us view stain removal as a chore which accompanied by a trusty spray bottle form the supermarket, others tackle stain removal with the same passion as a chemist.

It seems pretty simple to remove a stain, we all have secrets passed down from our mothers but did you know that you get baby formula stains out with meat tenderizer? Common baking soda can even be used to get marker off of wood furniture in the event that your kid decides to draw a caricature of you on your coffee table. If you have a specific offender you are trying to remove you can easily check out the "New Zealand Stain Guide".

If I could have saved all of the clothes that got stained with chocolate when I left a piece of chocolate in my pants pocket I would have been a very happy blogger. I ended up having to pitch a bunch of dress shirts and khakis as well as many of my wife's good clothes. We ended up spending a significant amount of time and money at the local shopping center replacing the clothes after none of our attempts salvaged the clothing.

Do you have any stain removal tips? How long do you fight with a stain before breaking down and replacing the item?

As we have been fans of the drive through and the new "to go" services many restaurants are now offering we have found that the service is often lower than if we sat down in the restaurant. After brushing of the poor service and quality of food we received in the past at two restaurants, this last time I decided to fire off a quick email to the company expressing my displeasure.

My first email was to a local sit down establishment who had been shorting me on fries with each order, but avoiding them was out of the question as they provide one of my wife's favorite salads. Rather than live with the shortage I email a quick, concise and slightly humorous email to the restaurant's corporate offices, who responded with a $10 gift certificate.

More recently when I stopped at a local Subway to pick up a quick dinner my gift card was refused and then after they decided they could take it, the machine wouldn't process the gift card nor would it take any credit card I had. Since I didn't have enough cash to cover the transaction the employees pitched my food and I had to go up the road to another store in order to get dinner. Again, I wrote a level headed and short email to Subway and a week later I received an apology as well as an explanation of the problem. The manager even sent along a $10 gift card to make up for the problem, which seems to be the token we screwed up amount.

I'm not advocating you to go complaining about every little mix up you encounter, often times these issues can be fixed by the manager on duty. In the event that they can't fix it right then, there's no reason to go spouting off to the Consumerist every time someone making minimum wage at Arby's gives you a made out of roast beef confetti rather than sliced meat. Spend those three minutes writing the company via their corporate website, and almost every time you'll get a great return on your time.When it comes to customer service from corporations the fast food industry is usually quick to make amends as soon as you go above the store level.

Despite the fact that we recognize following a budget makes loads of sense and that there are many tools available to help us set up and stick to a budget, it is something we have had trouble doing. In fact if I gathered up all of the Excel spreadsheets with "budget" in the title strewn across our many computers you'd likely be able to fill a blank CD! Thankfully, the blogger Saver from She's a Saver, He's a Spender has compiled 7 steps to getting on a budget. With these simple steps, even the most fiscally challenged individual should be able to begin getting their money under control.

Aside from the usual information about budgeting which is always floating around, Saver presents some great commentary to help you get going. One of the most important parts of creating a budget which is pointed out is to be reasonable. If you set an unreasonable budget which throws too much money at debt or savings, you won't follow it and then you may as well have just played it free and loose. Finally, at the end of the month make sure you look over your budget and adjust it based on your experiences. A budget is not a static tool; it should change as you gain experience and have life changes.

As I mentioned I don't have a budget. My wife and I have been playing it by ear, so to speak, with constant monitoring of our checking account before making any major payments. While we spend less than we are currently making and are throwing most of our excess at credit card and student loan debt I think we could do a much better job of making our money work for us, especially by budgeting for minor purchases like meals and coffee. Stay tuned in the coming months and weeks while my wife and I try to choose a budgeting tool and deal with the realities of a budgeted life!

What's your favorite budgeting method? Leave me some advice on what system or tool I should try out in the comments.

More on budgeting-

Budgeting by the year - a better idea?

The Mint- one of may Internet budgeting tools

Wells Fargo is offering up a guide for first time homebuyer's, which comes chock full of information and explanations of the many terms associated with getting your first mortgage. The guide is free but does require that you hand over your email address to Wells Fargo. It covers the rent or buy question, real costs of ownership, mortgage and loan types as well as help on choosing a real estate agent. Just like the rent or own calculator we shared last week, this is a great tool to add to your arsenal before you head out to buy a home.

The guide is definitely geared towards the benefits of owning a home, but I am impressed that it points out that in certain cases, renting makes more sense. I don't care for the guider's description of home ownership as "Owning your own home is like having a savings account that you can live in." as that seems to be part of the problem individuals are currently experiencing with the current lending crisis. The guide even offers up a selection of the ways to find money to use for your down-payment, including using a forced savings account or selling unused items, to name a few. The guide also details interesting places you can find funds such as down-payment assistance programs or borrowing against your 401k. The latter being something I wouldn't recommend doing.

As a current renter looking to purchase in the near future I have found this guide to be a very good primer. While i still have some questions about becoming a first time homeowner, I have a few more ideas about what to ask friends and family regarding our first mortgage.The information about choosing a home and a real estate agent are also really useful for me as the right agent can make a huge difference.

You've walked the stage and cashed all of those checks your family wedged into graduation cards, now it is time to find a place to live. Unless you are moving in with grandma, your first decision is likely going to be what city, state or continent you want to call home. If you spent your college days in a dorm this may be the first apartment you are looking for and your options as well as the security deposit may be overwhelming! Hopefully the following primer to apartments can help you get your foot in the door to your lovely new one bedroom in the city of your dreams without suffering more regret than a one night stand.

When you start your search learning the lingo of apartments is important; your first step is to determine what kind of apartment you want. Maybe you looking for an efficiency or loft which typically consists of an open floor plan or something like a 2 bdrm with DW, WIC, W/D which nets you a dishwasher, walk in closet and a washer and dryer. The choices are sometimes daunting but after you look at a few units and assess your needs you'll quickly know what type of apartment you are looking for and can expand your search to location.

Just like real estate is about location, location, location; so is your apartment. You need to find an apartment that is in a neighborhood you feel comfortable in, both during the day and when you come in late at night. After you think you have nailed down a location before signing any paperwork, check out the location at night and see if it agrees with you, look for outdoor lighting and listen for trains, planes and noisy neighbors. After you sign a lease these issues will be much, much harder to deal with.

One of the building blocks of personal finance for me came from my early exposure to money management at home through earning an allowance. Deciding what method to use in order to give your children an allowance which both educates them and enables them to buy stuff for themselves can be complicated. The author of Fivecentnickel shares an intriguing method which he uses in his house of four. His system for allowances revolves around allocating the allowance to several locations such as spending, long term saving and charity.

They recently revamped the system moving to distributing the allowance once a month to ease the distribution between purposes and to re-enforce the need to budget to their kids. The allowance system they use bases the weekly amount on how old the kid is. Even though it isn't stated, I am going to assume that with age comes more responsibility. The kids can even get a dollar for dollar match by moving money from spending into their kiddie IRA.

It seems airlines can't seem to choose a price and stick with it, they are constantly adding new surcharges for gas or extra bags. Next month Jet Blue is even adding an fee for seats with close proximity to the toilet. With all of these additional costs, frugal travelers need an extra hand in order to see the world and still maintain a positive balance in the checking account. The easiest way to do this when it comes to air travel is to pack smartly in order to avoid the extra bag fees which will soon be industry standard.

Thankfully, where there is a charge; there is a website which exists to defeat it. Onebag.com is a site devoted to teaching people how to travel anywhere with just one bag. Aside from the obvious tip of pack light and make a list, the founder has two tips for travelers when it comes to maximizing the power of your suitcase. The first tip is to use every space available to you. Packing something hollow such as an extra set of shoes provides a great place to store smaller items for your journey. The coup de gras of Onebag's advice is to pack your clothes in a bundle rather how you keep them in a dresser at home. This bundling method maximizes your use of space as well as reducing wrinkles in your clothing!

Back in February Tom Barlow covered 40 ways to avoid a traffic ticket which provided some great tips relating to preparation, driving, and what to do if you do get stopped. Just this month Car and Driver posted an article which contains some great information to build on Tom's original series. Car and Driver went straight to the ladies and gentlemen in blue to find out the top 5 best things to do if you are busted and the top five worst things to do! Nothing beats hearing this advice from the individuals you have to deal with out on the road and the advice comes with anecdotal experience to back it up.

Even with the best driving you will likely get pulled over at some point in your life and the actions you take may heavily influence the outcome of the traffic stop. Even those done with the best of intentions can result in unease for officers and money out of the pocket for you. When you do get pulled over be sure to put yourself in the officer's shoes and realize that someone going for a cell phone or an insurance card can look a lot like someone going for a gun. At the same time be sure you are aware of your rights when it comes to a traffic stop. Instructables recently released a guide which covers what to do if the police stop you, which is information worth knowing.

Health Savings accounts are a great tool for preparing for medical expenses, both planned and unplanned. After a knee surgery last year tapped out our HSA, we bumped up our monthly contributions to try quickly build up to a useful amount. After putting the increase in place we promptly forgot about it and adjusted to the slight decrease in take home pay. Despite being forced to drop the amount contributed by the yearly caps the balance and the contributions have remained untouched and out of mind for several months.

Last week we got a bill for about $400 from the local hospital prompting me to call up and find out what our HSA balance was. To my surprise the balance was more than double what I expected! I had forgotten that we had bumped our monthly contribution months ago up and that in the meantime our employer had made a contribution which led to a significant balance. I quickly made sure the money was actually mine and faxed in the request form .

That's it, no muss no fuss and we didn't have to put the payment on a credit card or string it out for months at the hospital. As an added bonus our hospital has an incentive to pay early, so we save 5% on the total bill. When it comes to savings of any kind, the best method may be to, "set it and forget it".

Finding a good mechanic can be a particularly daunting task. I have been trying to find a new mechanic near me for quite a little while now. This task has been a little more difficult for me as my dad used to be a full time mechanic, handling all of my repairs. Now that he has switched jobs he doesn't have access to many of the tools needed to do advanced work on our 2005 Equinox. Thisrecent purchase spurred the search for a trustworthy and loyal mechanic.

The way I see it, you have 4 options for finding a reliable mechanic in your hometown. If you disagree or want to add to the list use the comments box below.

1. Use reviews on Cartalk.com - Click and Clack run a weekly call in show about car problems, often spiced with laughs and a DIY approach. Their website also offers a "Find a great mechanic" feature which pointed me to several local repair shops worth checking out.
2. Ask your co-workers and neighbors - Have lunch with a co-worker you trust and get along with, find out where they take their car. If they seem happy with the service give the place a try. Same goes for your neighbor, though if they recommend "Cousin Jim's auto repair and taxidermy," you may want to make sure the shop is properly equipped and staffed with trained employees.