Every year, millions of people spend billions of dollars on funerals. While much of this money goes toward overpriced caskets and sprays of flowers, a large part goes toward the embalming of corpses.

This process, which many states legally require as a prerequisite for open-casket funerals, uses pricey, toxic fluids, various artificial foams, heavy cosmetics, and non bio-degradable plastics, to maintain a look of freshness and health. The end result is a corpse that is preserved, not for millennia, as in the case of King Tut, and not for decades, as in the case of Vladimir Lenin, but rather for a few days, just long enough to organize a funeral.

Considering the high price and questionable returns on embalming, I was particularly interested in the case of Karen Hanrahan. An Illinois food educator, Hanrahan has kept a McDonald's hamburger in a cabinet for 12 years, occasionally taking it out to show classes as an exemplar of the incredible amount of preservatives that are used in American food. While the burger has gotten a little cracked and shriveled, it hasn't decomposed, and the bun is completely free of mold.

Every so often, I find my natural impulses at odds with each other. On the one hand, I am a self-confessed cheapskate; my favorite price is free, and I pride myself on my ability to find bargains. I still remember how much I paid for almost every article of clothing in my closet, and my vacation albums are liberally littered with pictures of stores and street vendors who gave me great deals. Saving a dollar gives me an almost physical thrill.

That having been said, I am also somewhat obsessive about my food. I read labels, shy away from corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, and generally cross to the other side of the street when I find myself within range of a fast food joint. I buy organic produce (when I can afford it), and cook a lot.

Generally speaking, these two personality traits don't come into conflict all that often; I prepare most of my meals, and am generally able to beat fast-food prices. Every so often, however, I find myself torn between my love of money and my quest for good health. This is one of those times.

As part of its Olympic Face the Glory promotion, McDonald's is offering a free "Southern Style" chicken biscuit or sandwich with the purchase of a medium or large beverage. Basically a takeoff on the Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, this is sure to be a calorie-busting exercise in the joys of fried, breaded meat products.

Still, it's free. I'm so conflicted!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He once drank a free sample of red chili wine. He couldn't taste anything for three days.

Prices are rising fast on everything, but you can still get a lot of stuff for $1, from fast food to greeting cards to shoes. Shoes? Yes, shoes. We've found deals on just about everything, including shoes, in local stores, national chains and on the Internet, and all without setting foot in a dollar store.

• Fast Food: You better run fast to get the last $1 deals on McDonald's menu:The company is floating raising the price to $1.29 to off-set higher costs. But you can still find 99-cent items at most other fast-food chains, like Burger King, Wendy's, KFC and Taco Bell, which even has items as low as 49 cents.

• Kids Meals: Remember when kids used to eat free at many restaurants? And then there used to be plenty of places where they could eat for 99 cents? Not so much anymore. Even kids meals at fast-food restaurants are much more expensive these days (and loaded with calories, says a new study). But there are still some 99-cent deals around, like IKEA's 99-cent mac n' cheese, which also comes with a drink. Some chains also have seasonal deals, such as Denny's offering free kids meals, and local restaurants in your area may still have this throw-back price.

• Amazon.com: You're filling your shopping cart and need just a few more pennies worth of stuff to qualify for free shipping. What do you usually do? Amazon has long counted on people adding another item and spending much more than the $25 minimum. But there's another way to do with a web tool at Slickdeals.com. The tool lists over 1,000 items that you can choose from to add just a few dollars or cents to your order. Not all the items are very exciting – need a door knob or wooden dowel? – but you should be able to find something you need if you really want that free shipping.

Is McDonald's having trouble moving its "so simple, so juicy, so perfectly seasoned" Southern-style chicken and biscuit breakfast sandwich? Or its regular-menu Southern-style chicken sandwich? Perhaps. But if you're in the Washington, D.C. area, you can find out if its worth your money (and the considerable amount of simple carbs you'll consume) tomorrow, Thursday, July 24 with the purchase of a medium- or large-sized beverage.

The biscuit sandwich offer will be good 7 a.m. through 10:30 a.m. (McDonald's typical breakfast ending time) and then the chicken sandwich will be available for free with purchase through 7 p.m. This is a repeat of a nationwide offer from May; McDonald's has been repeating the offer in local markets in a (desperate?) attempt to shore up sales for the new menu item, even offering the sandwich free for pajama-clad customers in one Florida market.

If you hit the breakfast sandwich, you can check out the premium coffee at the same time. Sales for the pricey caffeine have been slower than expected so you may not have this chance for long!

Have you tried the sandwich? What did you think? If you're in the D.C. area, will you wait in line for it tomorrow?

Just what do marketing agencies do these days, if companies are increasingly turning to regular folks to create their jingles and add campaigns? The latest to step into the user-generated content fray is McDonald's, which is reviving its classic jingle from 1974, "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame-seed bun."

The user part is to create a new version of the jingle -- using the same words, in the same order -- and post it on MySpace.com. They have received over 1,000 submissions so far, and you can vote on the top five, who are all men, interestingly enough.

The New York Times digs into the background of the ad and all the particulars of the campaign, including touching base with the original creator of the slogan, Keith Reinhard, who is "thrilled" that the jingle is being revived.

Nothing much is new under the sun in advertising, of course. McDonald's is touting this campaign as a major revival of the jingle for Big Mac's 40th anniversary, but it has revived it in the past for other commercial campaigns. Other products have also tried the user-generated concept. Doritos did it in a much bigger way during the Super Bowl last year.

I actually prefer when companies pull out old campaigns like this and re-run them as they were originally. It livens up the hyper-stylized marketing of today's TV ads and gives you a sense of perspective.

I was only a toddler when the first version of this McDonald's ad came out, but I certainly remember the slogan, and probably every other McDonald's commercial of my childhood. There was even a hand-slapping game that we used to play at camp to the tune of McDonald's food itmes (Big Mac, Filet of Fish, Quarter Pounder, French fries, icy coke, thick shake...does anyone remember the rest?). But I cannot tell you the gist of any recent advertising campaigns.

If you're up for a challenge, you could try out our Brand Slogans Quiz.

At this point, it's hard to imagine someone who hasn't at least heard about Super Size Me. Morgan Spurlock's 2004 video account of the physical effects of eating McDonald's for a month amazed and disturbed thousands of junk-food junkies who had apparently thought that extra large sugary sodas, greasy Big Macs and deep-fried potatoes were the basis of a healthy diet.

Four years later, Chris Coleson, of Quinton, Virginia, has offered an interesting response. In December of 2007, Coleson weighed 281 pounds. Convinced that he needed to lose weight, he decided that McDonald's was the place to do it. Over the next six months, he ate nothing but McDonald's food, filling up on salads, wraps, fruit, and apple dippers. In the process, he lost over a third of his body weight, slimming down to a comparatively skinny 195 pounds.

Personally, I haven't walked into a McDonald's in three or four years. To put it bluntly, I have a Big Mac problem and don't trust myself around the tantalizing demon burgers. For that matter, the scent of french fries exerts a strange power over my soul, and the apple pies, oh the apple pies...

While Coleson's weight loss is impressive, I'm particularly blown away by his self control!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. While he loves the Big Macs, a part of his soul belongs to the Big Dave's Deluxe. Wendy's, please, bring it back!

What's your American Dream? Seems today is a good day for thinking about the big picture of your place in the economy. Because if your version of living the high life is driving around in a big car, then your life is getting more expensive every day as the average price of gas hits $4 for the first time. USA Today's special on the American Dream getting squeezed finds people dealing with the painful effects of a bad economy in new ways every day. How have you fared? Are you better off now than five years ago?

Other news nuggets you need to know today:

McDonald's Pulls Tomatoes After 23 Sick
Apple Expected to Unveil New iPhone
IRS Battles with Billionaire Anschutz
Amazon Goes Down for About 2 Hours
Corn Soars to Record High, Set to Go Higher
Goody's Files for Chapter 11

Elsewhere on the Web:

Family Businesses Lead to Family Drama
Souring Economy Puts the Bite on Pet Owners
Beer Makers Turn Increasingly to Viral Ads
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner First Flight is on Schedule
Companies Offering Free Gas to Attract Business
Lenders Slash Prices to Dump Foreclosures
Hard to Find a Job, But not an Internship
Visa, Mastercard See Gold in Prepaid Cards

Fast food has been blamed for the plague of Dunlop disease in the U.S. ("My belly dunlop over my belt.") Certainly, a typical meal at McDonald's takes a lot of work to burn off. A Quarter-pounder with Cheese (in Europe, a Royal with Cheese), fries and a medium Coke contains 1,100 calories. The average person needs 1,800- 2,500 calories for an entire day to maintain consistent weight.

However, most chains now offer waistline-friendly selections. For example, McDonald's has compiled suggested menus that don't require you to eat leaves and twigs. These include-

Breakfast:
Sausage Burrito
12 oz. orange juice
440 calories
(For comparison, two glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts have 400 calories)

Lunch:
4 pc. Chicken McNuggets w/ honey dipping sauce
Side salad with a half pack of Newman's Caesar dressing
Small Sprite
470 calories

Supper:
Cheeseburger
Apple dippers with low-fat caramel sauce
Small Diet Coke
400 calories

Certainly these menu selections aren't perfect; they are high in fat, sodium and cholesterol. However, for sedentary workers they make a lot more sense.

This post is part of a series about real-life signs we're in a recession.

The good news about the recession is that there are bargains to be had for the adventurous shopper. The bad news is that many people are not able to afford them.

Times are tough and the economy is slowing. The National Bureau of Economic Research has not officially pronounced that the U.S. is in a recession -- technically two consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product Growth. GDP rose 1.9 percent last year and is expected to decline in the first quarter by 0.1%, according to Morgan Stanley.

Yet some economists, including David Wyss of Standard & Poor's, argue that a recession is already in progress. He believes that the economy is half-way through the slowdown, which he expects to be mild as recessions go. "It's still going to hurt," he said in an interview. "Recessions always do."

Indeed, signs of a recession are all around us. People are doing without a full tank of gas. They are watching their pennies at the grocery store. They are learning to do without things that they thought, until recently, they could not do without -- including $10,000 summer camps. Many are watching their homes decrease in value at an alarming rate and foreclosures have hit records.

In WalletPop's Recession Watch series, bloggers documented some of the new trends brought about by the economic slowdown. For example, some young adults are moving in with their grandparents. Businesses of all sizes are merging to save money. Others, such as a karate dojo, are adding quirky new side businesses, such as selling balloons.

Here are some other additional signs of looming recession: