Now, before you handyman types get all up in arms, I'm not suggesting that dollar store tools are going to meet everyone's standards. All I'm saying is that you can get some well made tools for a buck. Every home needs some tool basics, whether you're measuring a window for curtains or hanging pictures on the living room wall. My experience with dollar store tools has been favorable, the fundamental criteria being that any implement I buy must be solidly built. It may not be scientific, but I have rarely been disappointed with a purchase. Here are a few of the tools available and how prices compare for similar items at Home Depot. Please check prices at your local store.

1. 10" claw hammer. The $1 hammer is all metal with a rubber hand grip. The only 10" hammer I could find at Home Deport had a wooden handle and cost $3.98.

2. 16' measuring tape with a blade lock, quick rewind and a rubberized casing. Cost, $1. A similar 16" measuring tape at Home Depot cost $3.98.

3. 9 1/2" screw drivers. The $1 screw drivers have hard plastic handles with rubber grips. The hardware store sells similar screw drivers for $6.96 each.

4. Needle nose pliers. The dollar store has two or three different sizes of these for $1 each and they all have plastic-coated or rubberized handles. The Home Depot's pliers cost $6.99 for the 6 1/2" size.

5. Crescent wrench. Okay, maybe the Home Depot wrench has a bit more metal in it but $23.74 for a small wrench? For all I use a crescent wrench, I'll stick with my $1 ones.

Even though gas prices are dipping a little in my area the local media and pretty much every personal finance blog online are still extolling the virtues of walking or biking to work. It seems simple enough; dust off your bike or sneakers, grab a backpack and hit the road. Right?

If you're encumbered by urban sprawl this may not help you out much but if you live in a city of one-way streets, which the walking directions ignore, this may be the best article you've read all week. Google just rolled out a new beta feature to Google Maps which allows you to use the service to get walking directions, no matter the distance. It also avoids areas typically restricted to foot traffic such as interstates and other highways.

Even though it is interesting to see how Google thinks I should walk the 20 miles to work, when I ask for realistic directions to my barber's shop I am shown a much different route than I would normally take in my car in order to avoid crossing a few bigger and heavily trafficked intersections. Another nice feature is that Google estimates the time to cover the distance, so you can even plan out your departure time. Google expects me to cover about a mile every 20 minutes.

One of my pet peeves when reading advice on how to save money is to get a bit of advice without being empowered to actually make use of it. These new feature should help you find a way to add walking into your busy life. Walking to your weekend barbecue or to pick up groceries this month is a great way to save money and get healthier. Make sure you head Google's warning and "use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas", since the service doesn't appear to alert you to areas with frequent muggings. To use this feature, just select "walking" from the drop down box that appears below your destination.

Wesabe is an amazing useful personal finance site which provides access to all of your checking and savings accounts under one site in order to better track your finances. I had a chance to chat with Marc Hedlund, the CEO of Wesabe about security, user rights, features, upcoming and the community focus of this excellent site. This article is longer than our normal fare but stick with it if you want to get to know your money using a cool online tool.

The first thing you'll want to know before handing over your banking information to a company is how secure they are. Wesabe provides its users with industry standard encryption to protect your financial data. Unlike their competitor, Mint who uses a third party to handle security and data Wesabe has taken the processes in house and developed their own system. The decision is actually a great one when it comes to security and the rights you have over your data. Marc shared with me that one of the main reasons they built their own system was to be able to offer users a Data Bill of Rights, allowing you to completely delete your data at any time, something third party vendors would have kept. Aside from keeping your passwords and financial information from a company you don't have a business relationship with the Wesabe system also has the ability to get updates about your transactions as often as your bank provides updates providing you with more accurate information.

Another cool feature of being a Wesabe user is that there are currently 4 ways to upload your data based on how much information you want to trust Wesabe with. Three of these methods don't require that you provide Wesabe with any of your banking credentials and the fourth is an automatic uploader which logs in and updates your account information throughout the day after you provide your login information to Wesabe. Many users begin with the manual upload and as their trust in Wesabe grows, move to more automatic methods of uploading. The fully automatic uploader came about from user requests and is the method that Marc uses to upload to Wesabe.

I think it is safe to say that everyone knows smoking is an expensive habit. Besides the increased use of cost of health care for smokers the amount spent on cigarettes over a lifetime can be mind-numbing, especially with prices on the rise. Thankfully if you need to really see how much that nicotine addiction is costing you; you can use a free Windows tool called CostofSmoking to find out your current smoking tab.

While there are already more online calculators out there to help you figure out the cost of smoking, none of them offer the range of options that CostofSmoking does. This program takes increases in cost as well as future savings and inflation rates into calculating the cost of smoking. You can also set up multiple periods to account for any times in the past where you did quit, to get a more accurate total cost of smoking.

While we all have our vices and weaknesses when it comes to budgeting and saving, I don't see how anyone can be a smoker and still complain about not having enough money. Even though the estimation of my video game habits adds up to an awakening $10,000 over the course of 10 years, it still doesn't touch the out of pocket cost of $89,000 a smoker would spend on his addiction over a 20 year period, 10 years past and another 10 into the future. If you invested in a savings account over the same 20 year period you'd be looking at savings of at least $120,000 in money not spent on butts.

If this tool doesn't convince you that smoking is a fiscally irresponsible activity, then you must be pretty well off!

Mint.com is a personal finance site which provides the ability for you to link together all of the parts of your financial life. In order for the service to work you need to provide all of your banking passwords and account numbers to Mint so that it can work all of its behind the scenes magic. With a treasure trove of financial information like this sitting in one place, you'll want to be sure that your information is secure. Ryan Taylor of Money Millionaire Habits did just that and has provided a simple rundown of the security features utilized by Mint.com to protect your money.

First off, it is important to note that you don't make any transactions from inside Mint, which affords solace to some wary users. The most impressive piece of information about Mint.com's security is that the back end that runs Mint, called Yodlee, is also used by many of the top banks in the industry. All of these precautions should combine to give most users the same sense of security when using Mint.com to manage their personal finances as they have with their own bank.

Even though I am part of the younger generation which seems at time to jump on new technology, I have been hesitant to start using any of these third party online budgeting systems mainly due to security. Thankfully, it appears that my fears were unfounded and Mint.com appears to be using good policies and software to safeguard users' information and money. Stay tuned, in the near future I'll be looking into the security behind a Mint.com competitor, Wesabe.

The Daily Deal for Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008
Just in time for spring building and repair season, a great selection of popular DeWalt power tools is being offered at price reductions of 10% to 17% off Lowe's regular store prices. I had a look at the Lowe's website and I found that they're discounting more than just a few oddball items. For instance, one of DeWalt's most popular offerings, the 18 volt, 4 cordless tool combo is available for $499. An additional $4.99 may get the set shipped right to your door.

If you have some things to cut up or cut down, DeWalt's heavy duty, corded reciprocating saw might be just the ticket. It's priced at just $99.99 during this sale. A reciprocating saw is a tool of necessity around my house. I'd be lost without one. How about a new air compressor for airing up tires and for feeding air to your pneumatic tools? The popular DeWalt 4.5 gallon 200 psi air compressor is priced at just $349. This is a contractor quality compressor, and with 200 psi peak capacity, you should be able to run two pneumatic nail guns at the same time. Speaking of nail guns, Lowe's has three Dewalt models at reduced prices. The DeWalt round head framing nailer is just $239, their clipped head framing nailer is also $239 and their coil fed roofing nailer is just $228. These are good prices on great tools if you're in the market for some.

Be sure to check out the official Lowe's website to confirm product prices and availability in your area. Lowe's has a simple product locater on it's website which you can use to verify availability. I believe that Lowe's ships from regional locations to keep your shipping costs down, so not all models may be available in all locations.

Some deals only come around once or twice a year, but offer savings that justify the wait. This post is part of our series on such 'don't miss' sales.

Back when I was doing home remodeling and home repair projects for myself, I enjoyed the routine trips to Menard's home improvement centers to buy products and materials. Its weekly newspaper fliers were stuffed into Upper Midwest newspapers where its 235 stores are located. The stores nearly always had exactly what I needed.

Menards has become known for a promotion called the "Fit in a bag sale." It sends full-sized grocery bags out with a sales flier. Shoppers can take the bags to Menards and fill them with whatever they wish (subject to restrictions). All items in the bag are then discounted by a percentage (which varies from sale to sale, but last August's was 15%) off the normal price of the items in the bag.

I used this sale opportunity to beef up on my home DIY guy supplies. I'd pack that bag with things like duct tape, drywall screws, utility knife blades, lightbulbs, batteries, auto fuses, WD-40, Miracle Grow, and caulk. I'd also pick up things for specific ongoing projects. Perhaps I'd buy solder if I was approaching a copper plumbing task, or some ring shank nails to fix a fence.

Surprisingly, the Menards spokesman I spoke to declined to comment on the sales, or even acknowledge that they exist. Apparently, he didn't want to suggest that you should wait for an upcoming bag sale to buy your supplies. But I will. Who doesn't want to save 15%?

Watch your newspaper and circulars for news of upcoming 'fit in a bag' sales at Menards.