Up to a quarter million dollars per appearance might be sunk into luxury travel, limos, professional hair and makeup, elaborate clothes, and an entourage whose purpose was to, say, pick all the blue M&Ms out of the bowls in said star's dressing room. The value of an on-camera performance, the labels reasoned, was still cheaper than taking out an ad.

A check for $250,000 feeds a lot of hangers-on and hairstylists, but the music companies are following the general American corporate flow and slashing expenses. Entertainment Weekly reports that Universal, which backs acts like Bon Jovi, Ne-Yo, and The Pussycat Dolls, has capped the bill for each appearance at $50,000. For just fifty grand, artists now have to figure out how to look like a million bucks. That's not much when you're Lil Wayne and your big single is called "Got Money."

When you travel for work, you know the drill: Get receipts for everything. When you spend cash for stuff like meals, beverages, hotels, and rental cars, your employer is likely to pick up the tab as long as you've got proof of purchase.

But what if you have to spend money on the road but can't get a receipt? It's happening more and more. The major airlines have deployed their newest fees with such haste that they are not always equipped to issue receipts for on-board purchases. Ask a flight attendant for one, and on some carriers you're more likely to receive a blank stare than appropriate documentation.

Take U.S. Airways. As of Aug. 1, the carrier began charging for drinks of any sort, including $2 for water. Passengers are not permitted to carry their own beverages through security, and buying drinks in the terminal is not always possible either because of a time crunch or because of personal dignity over gouging. If you, a business traveler, decide during Hour Three of a flight that you're thirsty, the staff will sell you a drink but they won't be able to give you a receipt.

I called U.S. Airways to ask if any of its flight attendants were equipped to furnish receipts for this newfangled charge. The answer was no. Right now, an airline rep told me, there are "plans" to give on-board staff hand-held devices for printing receipts by the first quarter of 2009, but for now, they have nothing, and those nebulous "plans" could not be elucidated for me. U.S. Airways' flight attendants also have neither the training or the equipment to write receipts by hand.

When your son or daughter applies for educational aid from the government you first have to fill out the FAFSA, a free application which helps determine how much money you as a parent should be able to contribute towards their education. In most cases the dollar amount that you are expected to put towards his or her future is easily way more than you can actually provide.

The Wall Street Journal took a look at one of the additional expenses of sending your child off to college this fall; spending money. It's hard to believe that you'll need more money after you've already covered room and board but students realistically will need some funds to get by. The amounts which several colleges recommend students have for personal expenses are rather large, especially if all of the money comes from mom and dad. The estimates are different for every school but can go above $2,000 in some locations.

The article also looks at whether the student or the parents should be the ones footing the bill for incidentals at school. One concern they raised is that some colleges suggest students do not work their first semester in order to adjust to college life. Personally I think students should get a J-O-B; there are plenty of student jobs on campus that typically provide low hours and the ability to work around class and sports schedules while still providing spending money.

Many people get uptight when they think about the process of creating a home budget. They see dark visions of three column ledgers filled with six digit numbers and lots of black and red ink. Home budgeting doesn't need to be like that at all. In fact, home budgeting can be quite easy. Most often, just getting a system started is the single hardest part.

You can start by looking at it this way, your budget will only have four main parts. Part one is income, which is the total of all funds you receive each month. The second part is expenses, which are all the things you need to pay out every month. The third part is disposable income, that's the money which is left over after you subtract your expenses from your income. Part four is savings, that's the part you get if the other three parts play nice together.

Put away the noisemakers! It isn't the new year yet. And you're probably searching around the net thinking, how can I decrease my tax burden before the year expires?

If you're on the West Coast like me, you may still have time to use up your health care flexible spending account by going to an enterprising optometrist, dentist, or chiropracter. If you've spent more than (or very, very close to) 7.5% of your gross income in health care expenses this year -- which is a LOT of health care expenses, by the way -- you might want to pay a couple more bills to take advantage of those expenditures.

The easiest way to create deductions in the last few hours of the year is, of course, charity. Give until you can't give any more, and most charitable institutions allow you to use your credit or debit cards to pay online, and it will count for 2007, right up until midnight. If you must send money to your church, community food bank, or other small non-credit-accepting institution, run! Bike! Drive! (careful! It's a party night!) to the nearest post office that postmarks until midnight, and stick a check in the mail.