WalletPop

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

If you or someone you know is planning to get married soon -- or just likes reading about weddings -- this is great Fantastic Freebie.

If you fill out this form -- and agree to receiver emails about "special offers" from WeddingStand.com -- they'll give you a 1-year, 6-issue subscription to Bridal Guide magazine.

That subscription has a cover price of of $29.70, and the same subscription would set you back $9.97 on Amazon.

That's a heck of a deal and win-win for everyone. WeddingStand gets to add a lot of email addresses to its files and Bridal Guide gets a hefty increase in circulation, driving up ad rates.

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

Here's one that will make the green-lovers feel all warm and fuzzy: Planting America will mail you the seeds to plant your very own tree. They currently have Colorado Blue Spruce, Englemann Spruce, River Birch, Paper Birch, and Red Spruce. They have all the information you need to figure out which tree will work in your climate. From the site:

Why do we give away free seeds? In an effort to plant as many trees in as many places around the country as possible, we are offering a variety of free tree seeds. Look at the list below and find a tree that suits your area and your needs. Please refer to the sowing instructions we have supplied for the best chances of success. Fill out our order form and you will receive a minimum of 250 seeds in a few days for free!* If you do not plan to plant your seeds immediately upon arrival, please refrigerate them, but they do not have an immense shelf-life and would most likely survive if planted in the spring. Thanks for helping out the Planting America cause and making your community a bit greener. We ship our seeds on Fridays.

I know: no one buys CDs anymore.

But at $4.99 a pop, Best Buy's collection of budget CDs might be a good way to fill some holes in your library for less than it would cost on iTunes. And remember, you can always upload the tracks to your computer. And let's face it: you need a copy of Abba Live, which would set you back $7.97 on Amazon. This offer is only good online, but my hunch is you wouldn't want to stroll up to the counter and buy an Abba album anyway.

Some other gems include James Brown Live at the Apollo 1962 and a bunch of Rush CDs.

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

Back in April, I wrote about the free Chicago White Sox kids club memberhsip. Not to be outdone, the Florida Marlins have Billy's Bunch, a kids club that's free to join for anyone 12 years old and younger. Members receive:

• A Welcome Letter from Billy The Marlin
• 2 FREE Vouchers to attend a 2008 Marlins Home Game
• 2008 Player Poster
• Baseball Cards
• Marlins Eye black

The are also monthly contests to win signed memorabilia.

It's free, and you don't even have to be a Florida resident to join. If your kid's a baseball fan, sign em' up. The eye black will come in handy for Little League.

Industrial rock pioneer Nine Inch Nails is also a pioneer in the Web 2.0 era of music distribution. InformationWeek reports that the band "released a free album Monday, one day after allowing Facebook users to download a single track. The album, called The Slip, is the second Nine Inch Nails' album released online. It includes the tracks "Echoplex" and "Discipline," both of which were made available online before the entire album's release."

Click here to download it. According to the band (their lack of capitals, not mine):

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

we encourage you to remix it share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.

Sounds like a pretty good deal!

Over on BloggingStocks, I've written about Barry Minkow's allegations of fraud at multi-level marketing giant Herbalife.

Here on WalletPop, I thought it might be worth taking a look at Herbalife -- especially its recruiting tactics -- from the personal finance perspective.

On the Herbalife webpage, there's a form you can fill out to receive more information about becoming an Herbalife distributor. Among the questions:

How much would you like to earn monthly?
An extra $500
An extra $1,000
An extra $2,000
The sky's the limit!

The unchecked use of homes as ATM machines has left many home owners in the uncomfortable position of being former home owners.

Now that they're out equity and have little left to be milked for fees and interest, the big banks have turned to another group: people who have been responsible, paid off their mortgages, and preserved their equity. The New York Times reports that the big banks would "love to serve" these people.

Will isn't that just dandy. Having spent the past decade reporting huge profits (and then huge writedowns) helping financially unstable people get themselves into bigger trouble, the industry is now looking to move on to the more responsible borrowers.

To be sure: some retired people who own their homes outright do need to tap into the equity to provide for living expenses. But as I wrote back in March, retirees need to proceed with caution, especially when it comes to reverse mortgages.:

There's a reason salespeople love these products -- and therein lies the problem. One elderly lady quoted in the New York Times piece paid an up-front fee of 8% -- $17,100 -- out of the initial proceeds of the loan. And the independent counsel that people are federally-required to receive before closing on a reverse mortgage appears to be a total joke --oftentimes it's paid for by the lender making it, by definition, not independent.

The housing market was given a huge boost in recent years by lax lending standards that enabled a ton of people to buy houses that they never should have been able to using gimmicky mortgages. The result has been record foreclosures, and lot of people who pursued the American Dream are regretting it. Now they're back to renting and a lot of people witnessing the carnage are wondering: Is homeownership really worth it?

In a column in Parade, Mike Hammer lists 4 "great reasons to rent": renting can save money, homeowners' tax deductions are overstated, there are more options available to renters, and renting gives you flexibility. Hammer writes:

According to popular myth, renters are just throwing their money away. But the reality is that when you buy a home, you're paying for closing fees, mortgage interest, property taxes, private homeowners' insurance and maintenance -- costs that return nothing on your investment.

You don't have to look very far to find instances of blatantly misleading but still legal advertising in the automotive industry. Even though most dealers clearly disclose how the deal works, the result is that car ads are obfuscatory and require very careful reading.

My favorite (or least favorite) example of deliberately confusing car advertising is the ol' "price reflects down payment and/or trade-in."

Here's an example of how this works in action. Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Myers advertises a 2003 Corvette priced at $24,988, with the caveat (in much smaller print) that "all prices are after your $2000 down payment."

Think about that. This dealer (and many, many other dealers that use the same tactics) are telling you that the car costs $24,988, not including another $2,000. Wouldn't it be more forthright to just say that the car costs $26,988? To my knowledge, the car industry is the only business that uses this tactic. Can you imagine if the flyer for the grocery store advertised "99 CENT VITAMIN WATER!" with an asterisk indicating that "price advertised does not include the other 50 cents that you have to pay for the drink"?

I know that these companies aren't doing anything illegal in their advertising. But to me, it's misleading enough that I wouldn't even consider buying from that dealer.

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

Summer will soon be here again and the sinking housing market might mean things are tight. You may no longer feel comfortable shelling out for summer camp for the kids, so you'll have to get creative. here's an idea: tap into the entrepreneurial instincts of youth, and help your kids start their first business. Yes, a lemonade stand.

If you log-on to Sunkist's site, you can find everything they'll need to get started: tips for young entrepreneurs, posters, a form for keeping track of sales (, recipes, advice on pricing, success stories, and information on how to use the stand to raise money for charity. If you fill out a form, they'll mail you a lemonade stand kit. They're out of stock right now, but check back soon for more.

But you probably don't need the cardboard stand: your kids will have more fun designing their own.

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

If you're in the market for a Las Vegas vacation, now might be a great time. The Wall Street Journal recently reported (subscription required) that "Reacting to a national economic slump that has depressed gambling revenues and room rates along the tourist zone known as the Las Vegas Strip, casino and hotel operators are offering up a buffet of spring time deals normally reserved for the hot, slow summer months."

Room rates have fallen more than 20% through May 3rd. Conventioneers aren't staying as long as they used to, gaming revenue is down slightly, and it's easier to get in to A-list clubs than it used to be.

And if you're interested in making your stay in Las Vegas more permanent, property values there are "dive-bombing" according to the USA Today.

For investors, casino-related stocks have also taken a beating. Shares of Wynn Resorts are down more than 30% from their 52-week high. Atlantic City is also slumping, and shares of Trump Resorts have been under heavy pressure following the company's failed effort to find a buyer.

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

I was a big fan of the Magic School Bus when I was younger, and now the Environmental Protection Agency is offering free copies of a new book from the series, The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up: According to the EPA:

In "The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up," the children and Ms. Frizzle explore the pollution emitted from their own diesel school bus and learn about how to reduce the emissions as they find themselves traveling through a diesel engine. The children learn about idle reduction and ways the community can help reduce the health risks from diesel exhaust. At the end of the book, the "Magic School Bus" gets its own pollution control device, a diesel particulate-matter filter.

Sound interesting? Click here to order. The book and shipping are free and you can order up to 20. Perfect for teachers!

Back in October, The Federal Reserve released a startling -- and widely ignored -- study showing that a large chunk of recent home buyers know almost nothing about their mortgages. Here are some findings from the Fed's survey:

• 25% could not identify the APR on their mortgages.
• 25% didn't know how much they spent on settlement charges.
  
• 50% didn't even know much the loan was for.
  
• Two-thirds were unaware of any prepayment penalties.
  
• 75% did not recognize that the loans included charges for optional credit insurance.

Major, major props to Forbes' Josh Zumbrun for digging this up. Zumbrun adds that "It's a point you don't hear much about. Yes, lenders maliciously tricked borrowers, and yes, frenzied speculators bought houses they knew they could not afford. But it's just as true that a lot of well-intentioned people simply signed mortgages they did not understand."

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

I've never heard of Planet Heroes but hey: it's a free DVD from Fisher-Price. They even pay the shipping!

Give it to your toddler when you pick him up from preschool. Fill out the form on this page to request your copy.

A word of warning: the site says to allow 12-14 weeks for delivery, so let this one be a surprise for Junior.

Try to hold back your tears. The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "Faced with sinking property prices and heavy legal fines, he has abandoned a multimillion-dollar home in suburban Los Angeles and let it lapse into foreclosure."

It seems that the deflation of the steroid-enhanced housing market is hurting baseball's most infamous drug abuser.

The decline and fall of Jose Canseco has been pretty remarkable to watch, and the players whom he accused of steroid use in his bestselling -- and heinously bad -- books have to be looking on with more than a little bit of schadenfreude.

For a great look at everything that is wrong with Canseco, check out this wonderful piece from DeadSpin.

For more on celebrity foreclosures, check out this awesome blog. Here's the foreclosure listing for Michael Jackson's ranch.