With times tight, everyone is looking for ways to save money. One way to do that is by making sure you get the most bang out of every hard-earned dollar you spend. So today we're going to reveal some retail rip-offs that give you less than your money's worth.

These tips aren't about scrimping or cutting out life's little luxuries -- we just want to show you some places where you are paying big price mark ups and may not realize it. Once you see just how little you are getting for your money, you can save a lot with just a few simple changes. Like...

1. Wine in restaurants
The markup on wine in restaurants is outrageous -- 100 to 200% more than what you would pay at the store if you buy by the bottle. It's a whopping 300 to 400% markup if you buy wine by the glass! To make it even worse, the highest markups are on the lowest priced wines.

Here's one thing you can do to combat wine markups: If your state/restaurant allows it, bring your own bottle and pay a small fee for the restaurant to open and cork it for you. You'll normally pay about $10.

Option two: Find out if the restaurant has an "off premises" license that allows you to take open wine bottles home with you. If so, you'll save money when you buy the full bottle even if you don't plan to drink it all. Simply cork it at the end of your meal and bring it home to enjoy later.

Have you voted yet?

In Oregon, where I live, we vote by mail -- my husband and I voted together Friday night and handed the ballots off at the county elections office Saturday. We're set.

And so now I know what I'll be doing Tuesday morning in the place of the booth voting ritual I miss sometimes: I'll be going to Starbucks down the street to pick up my free tall coffee. In an advertisement on NBC's Saturday Night Live tonight, Starbucks promised it would give a free coffee on November 4 to anyone who says they've voted.

If your area doesn't give voting proof, Starbucks will go on the honor system; and the offer is good at all company-owned stores. The idea behind the free coffee for voters concept came from MyStarbucksIdea.com discussion.

Watch the 60-second ad (friends were reporting tears so watch it!) after the jump:

I write about 'The Latte Effect' often; the concept that, by eliminating Starbucks lattes from your budget, you can save thousands a year. Depending on the application of this concept (are you substituting with another chain's coffee, brewing your own, or giving up caffeine altogether?), it's either a fantastic way to save money or simply an illumination of how spendthrift our economy has become.

Every time, though, that I write about giving up Starbucks, one of you (or a bunch) pipe up to suggest we drink Dunkin' Donuts coffee instead. It's better! you say, and not to mention, cheaper.

You're right. Surprised? I knew you weren't. In an independent, double-blind taste test, Dunkin' Donuts coffee was deemed better than Starbucks. 476 adults in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Seattle participated in the study, pitting Dunkin' Donuts Original Blend against Starbucks House Blend. According to the study administrator, the results "clearly indicate a preference for Dunkin' Donuts" Original Blend.

So the lower-cost choice is not just more imbued with working-class cred; it's tastier, as well. When your friends complain about how much their Starbucks habit is costing them, you can feel superior, in both good taste and wealth. Don't tell 'em, though. It's not kind to show someone how much smarter you are than they are ...

Expensive tastes are getting a little bit cheaper this holiday season. When a Starbucks regular realizes that the $3.50 he spends every morning on the way to work adds up to nearly $1,000 each year, he may decide that a good way to save money would be to brew some coffee at home. Of course, he'd be right, but the retail coffee giants don't want you to see it that way.

This year, as more of its customers take a closer look at their budgets, Starbucks is introducing some new ways to save money on coffee and gift items without skipping its stores every morning.

Savings start with new Gold Cards. Store managers will be giving out a limited number of Gold Cards to the very best customers, while others can buy the cards for $25. These cards are good for 10% off most items in the store, and the company expects to sell "millions." If you're one of the ones spending $1,000 annually on coffee, $25 buys you $100 of that back. So if you're not going to cut back on your Starbucks visits, at least you can cut the damage to about $925 this year.

In addition to selling savings with the Gold Cards, the store is cutting prices on many of its gift items in hopes of luring holiday shoppers. Coffee samplers and CD's that sold for $14.95 in 2007 will be marked down to $12.95 this holiday season, and stores will feature tables with gifts under $10 as well.

Lastly, the coffee giants have teamed up with Costco to offer savings on gift cards for the first time ever. Costco shoppers can purchase five $20 gift cards for $80. This deal has been available for just one month, and already the store has sold more than 1 million gift cards. Starbucks execs are optimistic that this will be a huge moneymaker in the holiday quarter. After all, shoppers love to save money -- but one of the best ways to save money still remains: Don't buy overpriced coffee every day.

Sure, there may be some quibbling out there about whether Seattle's Best Coffee is really Seattle's best (and as it's now owned by Seattle native Starbucks, well, that's just a conundrum, ain't it?). But free coffee is free coffee, and I, for one, am not going to quibble about that.

Getting a free sample is as easy as filling out your name, address and email -- you'll get to choose between Henry's Blend ("uncommonly smooth"), Seattle's Best Blend ("captivating aroma and a smooth finish") and Vanilla Bean ("perfectly combines smooth coffee flavor with vanilla"). Is Seattle's Best Coffee "a whole different cup"? Soon, you'll know.

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

I always had a soft spot in my heart for the humble donut. Long years after the cappuccino and croissant became the preferred breakfast of young urban professionals, I would always sneak into the little donut shop on the corner for my glazed twisty and cuppa cheap coffee. Then Starbucks came on the scene, and I never looked back.

Now venerable donut chain Dunkin' Donuts is beckoning again. The chain is offering 99-cent cafe lattes in the afternoon hours, hoping to lure cash-strapped consumers who've shirked their $4 Starbucks afternoon fix.

The lattes, which normally sell for between $2.59 and $2.79 depending on the market, will sell for 99-cents at all stores between 2 and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. As Homer Simpson would say, "Woo-HOO!"

The best part of waking up hasn't been Folgers for a decade or more. With Starbucks making gourmet coffee ubiquitous and boutique coffee roasters brewing ever-more-delightful java, Folgers is stuck in grandpa's mug. My brother-in-law and I give each other grimaces behind my dad's back when we drink the home brew at his house, and I've been known to bring my own beans when I'm visiting.

But grandpa is getting on now, and consumers looking for ways to save cash turn to their daily coffee beverage so often that saving $4 a day has a name: The Starbucks Factor, or the Latte Factor, depending on your brand loyalty (or lack thereof). But Folgers, Maxwell House and the even lesser-known competitors make their coffee from the ultra-cheap and inferior "Robusta" beans, in contrast to the "Arabica" beans used by upscale coffees. Robusta beans thrive at lower altitudes and produce far more beans per plant, and have twice the caffeine of Arabica beans; but their flavor, according to coffee connoisseurs, is extremely inadequate. How could a discriminating coffee drinker be persuaded to switch to Folgers, without creating a price disadvantage?

Instead of investing in better beans, Folgers invested in technology and marketing.

Starbucks' announcement today that it was launching its own fairly-traded coffee label, "Shared Planet," had me buzzing. My favorite coffee roaster is a local company called Stumptown Coffee, and one of the reasons I love the coffee so much is that I can trust the business' founder to deal fairly with the suppliers. He travels to every country from which the beans come, often tasting each batch himself, and is famous for having paid the highest price ever for an especially eloquent crop of beans. I know Starbucks works hard to pay more for coffee than other coffee big boys -- Folgers and Maxwell House come to mind -- but the average price the coffee giant pays, $1.42 a pound, is probably about a third of Stumptown's price.

Interestingly, Starbucks is still quoting that $1.42/pound, the average price from 2006. It appears that 2007 and 2008 have been lower, as worldwide commodity prices have decreased, but Starbucks has stopped talking price (even its SEC filings are mum on unit pricing). The company is dropping the talks of dollars and cents and is now controlling the messaging around its coffees.

Passwird.com brings news of great deals on Green Mountain Coffee at Amazon.com:

Amazon has Green Mountain Coffee K-Cups French Vanilla, Box of 25 K-cups, Pack of 2 (50 Cups Total) at $20 - $11 off promotional code CLRNCFTY = $9 with Free Super Saver Shipping on $25+. For use in Keurig Brewers. AMAZON

• Green Mountain Coffee French Roast, 25-Count Boxes (Pack of 2) - $9 after coupon
  
• Green Mountain Coffee French Roast, 25-Count Boxes (Pack of 2) - $9 after coupon
  
• Green Mountain Coffee Vermont Country Blend Decaf, 25-Count Boxes (Pack of 2) - $9 after coupon
  
• Green Mountain Coffee, Southern Pecan, 25-Count Boxes (Pack of 2) - $9 after coupon

Green Mountain Coffee just came out with a new version of coffee that comes with an extra caffeine. It says Revv will have "will have 27% more coffee and 27% more kick." In other words, Green Mountain is trying to make the Jolt Cola of coffee, although it isn't as rambunctious about it: Jolt had twice the caffeine of soda.

The coffee will be sold through Exxon gas stations. So you know it must be good.

The company doesn't really get into how it is cramming more coffee into my coffee. Green Mountain's site has a detailed and worshipful discussion of caffeine: "the most popular mood-altering substance on the planet." It also brags that "caffeine in coffee occurs naturally; it's not added to coffee (as it is, for example, added to many soft drinks.)" So, that makes me think that it really is brewing Revv with more coffee, not just spiking it with more caffeine, the way a cigarette company would do.

Green Mountain says that a six ounce cup of brewed coffee has 75 to 125 mg of caffeine. So, Revv just gives you roughly 27mg more of caffeine. A measly 27mg of caffeine is hardly worth mentioning. I really enjoy Green Mountain coffee, so I'd probably rather stretch out my extra milligrams of caffeine in larger cup. Green Mountain, don't trifle with us. If you are going to put out the Jolt of coffees, give us double the caffeine!

On Sept. 18, Smoothie King is giving a "wake-up call" to potential customers by offering a free taste of their new coffee-based products. The 20 oz. drinks come in caramel, mocha and vanilla flavors, and it's one per customer.

In case this is something you're inclined to forget -- because, presumably, you don't have enough caffeine in your system right now, the Smoothie King Web site has a few ways to remind yourself. You can set up a reminder on your calender or RSVP on Facebook.

If you're concerned about calories, there's also nutritional info on the new concoctions. Mocha is the skinniest, at 260 calories, with the others weighing in around 340.

No one ever thought that $4.05/gallon would look like a decent price for gas. Here on Cape Cod this summer it did, so I stopped. It was a gas station in West Falmouth, a town I once lived in but visit only rarely these days. The $4.05 was at a "full-service" pump which once meant that someone would pump your gas and even wash your windshield. Forget the windshield these days but most of us have adjusted.

On a blackboard at the corner of the station a sign read, "Coffee, any size, 49 cents."

"I'll just leave the car here a minute while I run inside and get an ice coffee," I told the attendant.
"I'll show you," he replied and followed me inside. The Quikmart was newly renovated and the attendant - who I suspect might have been the owner - pointed to the coffee area. "Coffee," he said and then pointing again, "Milk, cream, sugar." It was actual milk and cream resting in a bin of ice, not those terrible little plastic containers that add reams to the landfill and are filled with something that doesn't taste like milk.

When you heard that Starbucks would be shutting 600 under-performing stores by March, did you wonder if a coffee shop near you was on the list? Everyone is curious. Blogger Paul Kedrosky mapped the 50 locations Starbucks officially announced it would close. The Seattle Times, Starbucks' hometown newspaper, went a step further and mapped all the stores that are rumored to close, according to baristas, customers the media and others. They've even opened a tip center for rumors of more closings.

The maps both show to some extent how Starbucks overextended itself in frothy real estate areas. The map of official closings shows five stores doomed in Las Vegas, six in southern California, but none yet in Florida.The rumor map has six in Florida, seven in Vegas and 22 in southern California. Dallas, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Omaha will be caffeine-deprived.

When I was growing up, it seemed like everything that I liked ended up being bad for me. From playing in the mud, which destroyed my clothes, to eating pre-sweetened cereal, which left me climbing the walls, it was almost a foregone conclusion that anything that brought me pleasure was also going to hasten my inevitable demise.

As I've grown older, this trend has continued, with allegations that convertibles have high mortality rates, that smoking causes cancer, and that the salty deliciousness of Virginia ham raises one's blood pressure. As I've been trying to prolong my stay on planet Earth, I've stripped myself of one vice after another, until all that remains is a sharp tongue and a tendency to criticize other peoples' clothing.

On the bright side, however, I recently discovered that coffee is, surprisingly, good for me. According to a 24-year study that was conducted by the University of Madrid, drinking coffee may lower my chances of developing heart disease and other illnesses. What's more, the study's findings seem to suggest that the more coffee one consumes, the greater the health benefits. It's worth noting, however, that the positive effects of coffee seemed to max out at six cups a day.

If you're in the market for a new coffee makers without the bells and whistles, this is a good one: $9.97 with free shipping, discounted from $19.97 at P.C. Richard & Son.

The limited details available on the site: the coffeemaker is white, has a removable filter holder, weighs 4 pounds, and has a water window with cup levels.

If you're stupid, you can buy a 2-year warranty for $15.