WalletPop

Wanna get away? With all apologies to Southwest Airlines, it's not looking like the travel industry is going to get a boost from Bush's economic stimulus package: Only one in five of approximately 1,000 respondents to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll said they were likely to use part or all of their rebates for vacation or travel, and 64% said they were not at all likely to do so.

That's not stopping hotels across the country from trying to tempt Americans to stimulate the economy by indulging their wanderlust. Until May 13, travelers who book a vacation package to cities like New Orleans, New York, Vegas and Nashville through Expedia's Explore America can save up to 30% on hotel stays. But you've gotta go between May 23 and Sept. 5.

If you're looking for lodgings by the beach, a slew of Virginia Beach hotels are offering their own economic stimulus packages. Among these are a "Romantic Weekend Getaway" at the Cavalier Hotel, where for $159-$319 per night through June 19, couples can get a room and indulge in complimentary champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, then take a free one-hour bike ride to work it all off.

If your vacation is more of a family affair, get thee to the Clarion Resort Beach Quarters Resort for its "Virginia Beach Break-Away Package": two nights' stay, tickets to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, tickets to the Virginia Zoo and dinner at Pi-zzeria for $399 through June.

If you are among the lucky few who can take advantage of these deals, I enviously wish you bon voyage. I'll be thinking of you as I'm using my rebate to pay for past credit indiscretions and thumbing hungrily through old vacation photos from my boom years.

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

My brother-in-law recently wound up paying a lot more than he expected when he left my nephew's Toyota Tacoma in the Oakland Airport's long-term parking for the weekend. When he returned from his trip and turned the key in the ignition, the truck let out a roar that would deafen even the most hardened Harley driver, and David knew he'd joined the growing number of victims of catalytic converter theft nationwide.

Thieves have taken to removing catalytic converters, which help control emissions, from the underside of parked vehicles. The converters contain trace amounts of platinum and rhodium--which go for about $2,054 and $9,278 per ounce, respectively--and can be sold on the black market for a couple hundred dollars each. Victims, however, pay much more than that for replacement parts: My brother-in-law shelled out almost $2,000 for a new converter for my nephew's truck.

While David has pledged to use only short-term parking at the airport from now on, that precaution might not be enough. For one thing, trucks like the Tacoma and SUVs like the Toyota 4Runner--the vehicle David owns and drives to the train station each morning--are among the hardest hit since they sit high off the ground, making their catalytic converters easy to remove from underneath. For another, those who are of the mind to slide under a vehicle with hacksaw in hand don't seem to be picky about where they strike: Reports of catalytic converter thefts have come from day care centers in Memphis, carpool lots in Michigan and car dealerships in Ohio.

Since this is a crime of opportunity--and since thieves are grabbing every opportunity they can--prevention is tricky. Seems the best way to avoid becoming a victim is to drive low to the ground. Or maybe just ride a Harley.

Since co-authoring The Three Trillion Dollar War with Linda Bilmes, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has tried to help American taxpayers wrap their heads around just how much our government is spending on the conflicts and subsequent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan by doing some comparison shopping.

"Try filling your shopping cart with what the cost of the Iraq War could buy: health care for every American? A new home for every subprime borrower now facing foreclosure? An Ivy League degree or two? You haven't even gotten started," Stiglitz said.

To illustrate Stiglitz's assertion, the folks at True Majority and Brave New Films launched the Three Trillion Dollar Shopping Spree, where consumers can fill their carts with $3 trillion worth of virtual items that could save the world or just make their own lives easier.

I've noted before that my experience buying food at dollar stores has been dicey at best, not so much because they sell off-brands but because they often sell old off-brands, items so far past their expiration dates as to present gastric health hazards. Also, a lot of this so-called food has very little food in it; the list of ingredients reads like a chemistry experiment. Apparently, though, a couple chains have stepped up to the dinner plate since I last ventured down a dollar store grocery aisle and are offering "many healthful, name-brand and even organic products" at deep discounts.

Leading the way are 99 Cents Only Stores. The chain, which has more than 250 locations across the country, has produce specially grown for its stores. Foods that are canned, dried or otherwise prepackaged make their way to the stores' shelves if the manufacturer has discontinued or produced too much of an item, or even if the packaging has been changed.

Armed with this knowledge--and a copy of The 99 Cent Only Stores Cookbook--I might be inspired to try food shopping there again. Starving artist Christiane Jory, already a dollar-store devotee, was moved to do so when she saw a woman who looked like she could afford better buying wine at a 99 Cent store. Jory decided to develop the recipes for the cookbook as a means to feed herself and her fellow impoverished friends.

I've learned two important wine-tasting lessons in recent weeks:

1. If you find a wine you really like at BevMo's 5-cent sale, get as much of it as you can (ill) afford. I was stoked to find that my local BevMo was offering the 2006 Tapiz Malbec as a selection in its "buy one bottle, get a second for 5 cents" sale. I first bought this Chilean wine, which normally sells for $15.99 a bottle at BevMo, on impulse and was more than happy with how it paired with my impromptu picnic of hard cheese, pears and crusty whole-grain bread. The Fincas Patagónicas winery, which considers the malbec its signature wine, suggests pairing it with Chile's national dish, asado, and has even posted a recipe for same on its website.

Sadly, I never got to try this pairing with the pair of bottles I procured from BevMo. One went to a friend as a thank-you gift, the other to a party where it was quickly consumed by other people, who damn well better have appreciated it. I went back to my local BevMo to restock, but it they were sold out. (The 5-cent sale ends April 20, and there are some pretty good dregs left, so stock up fast.)

A corollary to this lesson: If you want to ensure that you get a taste of the bottle you brought to the party, open it yourself and take the first swig--etiquette be damned.

• A case of the Mondays: You often feel physically ill at the start of each new work week.

• Your TPS report needs a cover sheet: Your work is constantly criticized, and your mistakes are repeatedly brought up.

• That's my stapler: Your boss is isolating you, going as far as to move your desk.

• Yeah, I'll need you to come in this Saturday: Your boss always schedules last-minute after-hours meetings.

• Not enough flair: Your supervisor finds nit-picky ways to ensure you'll fail at your job.

Another mosaic/collage artist I know isn't content to wait until she drops a plate or rips a sweater to collect material for her work. She shops for other people's shards and scraps or buys whole pieces of crockery or clothing at thrift stores then takes them home to destroy and reform. Her resulting creations are both fun and functional; she's put her personal touch on everything from window frames to light fixtures to planters.

I don't pretend to possess the artistic skills of these two, but my attempts at recycled art have shown me that this is a good medium for anyone who wants to get her creative ya-yas out while giving new life to stuff she'd otherwise be throwing away.

As one of maybe three people left on the planet who still shoots film, I find collages are a great way to turn a bunch of less-than-fantastic images into one far more interesting one. And you can create them in more than one dimension: Now instead of just giving a framed photo as a gift, I'll put together a photo montage on one of those three-for-$2 unfinished wood frames from Ikea. It's more personal -- not to mention cheaper -- than an unadorned mass-produced picture frame, and it keeps my scrapbook rejects from becoming just more recycling fodder.

Obviously, there's an endless supply of materials you can use to create recycled art. So if you're in spring-cleaning mode, look at the junk you're purging from your hall closet for artistic inspiration before you chuck it. After all. 'tis the season of rebirth and renewal.

The blogosphere has become a relatively safe place to rail against your workplace under cover of a user name, to say anonymously what you'd really like to say to your boss's face if it wouldn't get you fired. So it must have come as a pleasant surprise to Wal-Mart buyers when their corporate bosses encouraged them to use Check Out, Wal-Mart's web blog, to lay out their unvarnished opinions about the merchandise the mega-retailer is stocking its shelves with.

As the New York Times points out, these buyers' "decisions about what makes it onto Wal-Mart's shelves have enormous impact, earning (or costing) vendors millions of dollars. It was a blogger on the Check Out, after all, who first disclosed last month that Wal-Mart would stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format, rather than the rival HD DVD system. The decision was considered the death knell for HD DVD."

According to the Times, Wal-Mart's buyer bloggers have slammed everything from Microsoft to movies on the site, but their online musings aren't limited to their working life: They also write about their pets, religious beliefs and favorite authors, thus adding that sought-after "personal touch." Quick customer feedback is another benefit of the blog.

The American worker has a vicious cycle going: Stay late at the office, bring work home, sleep less at night, fall asleep at work, stay late at the office ... you get the picture. It's a cycle experts say is costing U.S. employers tens of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity.

The National Sleep Foundation is trying to break the cycle and get us back in the practice of separating our working and home lives. In conjunction with National Sleep Awareness Week, the foundation released a survey chronicling the effects of a sleepy workforce over time.

This post is part of our series on people, places and things that have found new life in 2008.

When I found out last year that The Police was regrouping for a reunion tour, I immediately called my rock concert buddy to make plans to see the show. "I feel like I'm 17 again, " I told her, giddy at the thought of seeing the three hot guys (I'm talking both physically and talent-wise here) I'd dug in my adolescence take the stage at the same venue where I'd seen them almost 25 years ago.

While the concert was solid and enjoyable, the band didn't move me the way it did in my youth. The tour was successful enough that The Police are coming around again this year -- this time with fellow '80s icon Elvis Costello -- but I'm not compelled to see the show again. That's the problem with reunion shows: The reality rarely measures up to the rosy glow of memory.

Take , for example, the Jackson 5: Jermaine Jackson announced plans for a reunion tour late last year, saying brother Michael was on board. No tour dates have been announced yet, and it seems likely that the self-proclaimed King of Pop is holding things up. After all, he's been pretty busy with the release of the 25th anniversary edition of the Thriller album.

Should Michael be on board? His talent is arguably still intact, but let's face it: He's not exactly the handsome young front man he once was. And even if you look charitably on his recent legal troubles, he's still one weird dude --something that wasn't apparent in the Jackson 5's heyday. Given all that, and the fact that they're all 35 years older, the brothers would be hard-pressed to recapture the innocence that helped make their music so endearing and enduring.

I don't think this is what Ben Franklin had in mind when he established the American insurance system: 47 million of us in this country are uninsured, and those of us who live in California narrowly escaped criminalization for not being able to afford an HMO, PPO or any other combination of initials that will help pay our medical expenses. Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential hopefuls are arguing over the definition of universal health care. It makes me sick to think about it.

I gotta admit to experiencing some Tinseltown schadenfreude during the Writers Guild strike: Unlike my brothers and sisters in print journalism -- whose union can't seem to shield them from endless rounds of layoffs, much less get them more money -- screenwriters hung tough, negotiated hard and got at least some of what they were asking for, in large part by demonstrating how their work stoppage could bring LA county's economy to its knees.

During the three-month strike, the county lost $3.2 billion in direct and indirect costs, according to Jack Kyser, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation's chief economist. The strike ended Feb. 13 when guild members approved a tentative three-year contract giving them a stake in revenues generated when TV shows and movies they've scripted are distributed online.

The contract is due to be ratified Feb. 25, the day after the Academy Awards are broadcast. And here's where my loyalties divide: I may be a writer, but I'm also a major movie fan, and I get a huge kick out of watching the Oscars, particularly the preshows. I love the glitz and glamor of the red carpet, to say nothing of the occasional swan dress. While I wasn't upset by the cancellation of the Golden Globes, which pale in comparison, I'd have had a bit of a boo-hoo if the guild hadn't gotten it together in time to pen this year's "And the Oscar goes to ..." speeches.

Praise cheeses, for they can turn a watered-down white into a winning wine.

This week I went back to the Wine Lovers Page and Robin Garr's list of wines with the best QPR, or quality-price ratio, to sample the second of two California whites whose price point is $15 or less. Bonterra Vineyards' 2006 Lake-Mendocino County Sauvignon Blanc lists for $12.99 (I got it at Safeway, where it was selling for $14.99, less a $3 "card savings," so arguably, I saved a buck).

Garr describes this wine as "attractive and complex, a very appealing aromatic blend. Good body and luscious fruit on the first taste, crisp and citric, refreshingly acidic hints of fresh-squeezed grapefruit and bitter orange." Thing is, while I got good fruit on my first taste, it flattened out immediately; apart from the acidity, there was really no complexity to speak of.

As someone who was born at the end of the Baby Boom and who's been paying into the Social Security system since I got my first McJob as a teenager in 1982, I'm worried that when it comes time for me to get my cut, there'll be nothing left. After all, according to USA Today, I'm one of 80 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who could qualify for Social Security and Medicare in the next 22 years.

The first wave of Boomers broke into the Social Security system this week, when 62-year-old Kathleen Casey-Kirschling -- whose midnight birth on Jan. 1, 1946, makes her America's first Boomer -- signed on for benefits. This opened the floodgates for the 3.2 million citizens who hit the big 6-2 next year, making them eligible for early retirement. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the average age at which workers in this country start receiving Social Security is 63.

Those who've crunched all these numbers say that if this trend continues, Social Security rolls will increase by 34 million by 2030, and Medicare by 35 million. The Social Security trust fund will start paying out more benefits than it collects by 2017 and is projected to deplete its reserves by 2041.

Never mind that it's beyond cliche: That heart-shaped box of chocolates will likely set you back more than usual this Valentine's Day. The price of cocoa hit a 23-year high this week, bad news for those whose beloveds are expecting at least some of their V-Day kisses to come from Hershey.

Chocolate-lovers aren't taking the news well: According to the Associated Press, feds in three different countries are investigating price-fixing among candy-makers, sparking retailers and consumers to file lawsuits accusing the world's biggest chocolate companies of violating antitrust laws. The lawsuits allege that companies from Hershey to Mars, which have the biggest hold on America's sweet tooth, to lesser players like Nestle and Cadbury Schweppes have formed an international cartel to decide when and by how much to raise the price of their products. The investigation into this confection conspiracy spans the globe from North America (the U.S. and Canada) to Germany.

The folks at Hershey argue that the price increases are necessary in light of the rising cost of dairy items used in their milk chocolate; the company used this argument to justify raising its candy bar prices by 13% last month. But investigators from the German Cartel Office say they suspect Hershey, Nestle and Mars of conspiring to raise their prices higher than what was necessary to cover the cost of raw materials. And investigators in Ontario claim top execs from these three companies held secret meetings to set prices.

This alleged skulking around by the folks who brought you Snickers and M&Ms hasn't soured investors on the bean from which all chocolate is created. The day before Valentine's Day, cocoa futures closed at their highest level since April 1985. How sweet it is.