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The toy store for anglers, Bass Pro Shops, is offering a 15% discount on a wide selection of fishing and camping gear in trade for old video games on May 21-26th. This clever campaign, with the obvious message "get outside and play", is limited to one video game trade-in for one discount per family.

On May 17-18, BPS, in conjunction with Stearns, is also offering boaters the chance to trade in their old personal flotation devices (PFDs, better known as a lifejacket) for a new Stearns PFD. This is a great idea for any using an old PFD, which could rupture along the seams just when you need it, or still carrying around a 'one size fits all' PFD that could slip off a child faster than Sunday School clothes.

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Did you receive your economic stimulus check yet? These companies are offering you something extra if you will spend those bonuses with them.

SUPERVALU, nationwide chain of 2,500 grocery stores.
The deal: For every $300 gift card purchase purchased with a stimulus check, Supervalu will add an additional $30.
The catch: Good 5/2/08 thorugh 7/31/08

Staples, nationwide office supply chain.
The deal: $150 off $1,000 of furniture: $40 off purchase of $300 or more (except computers).
The catch: Expires 5/18/08

Sears, KMart and Land's End, retailers of fashion and home goods.
The deal: Convert your check to a Sears, K-Mart, or Land's End gift card and they'll give you another gift card worth 10% of that value. For those receiving a full $600, that's a free $60.
The catch: The offer begins May 14th and expires 7/18/08, and is only good for in-store purchases.

Home Depot, retailer of construction and home supplies.
The deal: discounts on environmentally-friendly items.
The catch: None noted.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer of home, fashion and food products.
The deal: Will cash checks free, no purchase required.
The catch: None noted.

Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's bulk sales membership-required retailer.
The deal: Free membership for non-members or a $40 gift card for existing members with purchase of selected items. Free cashing of the stimulus check.
The catch: May 18-31.

Lowe's, retailer of construction and home supplies.
The deal: Will cash checks for free, no purchase required.
The catch: None noted.

Meijer, retailer of home goods, clothes, and groceries.
The deal: $30 gift coupon for every $300 Meijer gift card purchased with rebate
The catch: Valid 5/2/08 to 5/31/08

RadioShack, nationwide vendor of electronics.
The deal: 10% off purchases over $50, with the balance of the check put on a Mastercard gift card.
The catch: Valid May 4- July 12, 2008.

Kroger, national grocery chain.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: May 2 through July 31, 2008.

Shop 'N Save, Cub Foods, Albertsons, Acme, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco, groceries owned by SuperValu Co., grocers.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: May 2 through July 31, 2008.

CVS/pharmacy, pharmacies.
The deal: For loyalty club members, $5 off a $30 purchase.
The catch: None noted.

Food Lion grocers.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: None noted

Safeway grocers.
The deal: shoppers that cash their check at Safeway will receive a coupon good for 10% off groceries purchased within two days.
The catch: Good May 14- July 19th.

Menards, construction and home supplies, in the Midwest.
The deal: 5% bonus tacked onto store credit when you cash your check at Menards.
The catch: None noted.

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Not only is my mother is really hard to buy for, she's a bit ungrateful to boot. She told my sister yesterday not to get her a gift for Mother's Day because she was probably going to have to return it anyway. Nonetheless, I can't show up at her house empty-handed, so I began to look though my emails for ideas for last minute Mother's Day gifts that might pass muster. Here's a roundup of what I found:

Flowers: I recommend 1800flowers, where you can opt for fresh flowers or plants. I'm considering the gardenia (mom's favorite flower) in a green planter for $29.99. If you order-and have them delivered today-there's free shipping although some products are not eligible. Also, you can save money by ordering bouquets without a vase, which most moms have plenty of.

Chocolate: My inbox has several notices from Redenvelope with Mother's Day specials like a lily of the valley bulb kit in a bamboo box for $38 and the Queen for a day chocolate set, reduced from $38 to $28. At this point, you'll need to use 2 day shipping to get it there in time.

Gift baskets: Wine country gift baskets has a collection to suit moms with a variety of tastes-spa-goers, tea drinkers, coffee lovers and of course, oenophiles, to mention a few. They'll charge you an extra $10 for shipping but it's guaranteed delivery by Mother's Day. They ship wine to 39 states but alcohol-free baskets can go anywhere.

Gift certificates: Stop by the local nail salon or spa and pick up a gift certificate-or go to Spafinders, where you can send a gift certificate to participating spas nationwide.

Clothes: It's really hard to buy clothes for most moms, mine included, but I know where she shops, so I may just stop by the local mall and pick up something at Coldwater Creek. Lord & Taylor had some beautiful summer sundresses I might check out too. Otherwise, I received an email from Appleseed's - which let's just say appeals to a certain demographic, which encompasses my 73 year-old mother. They have apparel that looks like her style for up to 70% off! Aside from the flowers, this option might be the best suited for my mother, although I'll have to look into the return policy.

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Gina Henry-Cook

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Are you penny-wise? If so, this is a perfect time to save some Lincolns. On May 12th, the US Post Office is raising the price of the first-class stamp by one cent, from $0.41 to $0.42. I can only conclude they make a killing on one-cent stamps.

Luckily, I've been buying Forever Stamps, which sell for the same price as the current first-class stamps, but remain valid for first-class postage no matter how much it increases. Given the stock market results over the last few quarters, my stamps have out-yielded my index stocks by a considerable margin.

I'm mystified by people that still buy priced stamps. The post office apparently sells a lot of $0.41 stamps, though, and will probably sell as many $0.42 ones to those who value the appearance of the stamp enough to offset the annoyance of keeping a stock of one-centers. Me, I'm buying Forever Stamps, and doing it before May 12th.

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• Local Newspapers
• Street maps (a serious yard sale shopper needs detailed street maps, otherwise you will waste time and gas and gain only frustration)
• Index cards
• Scissors
• Scotch tape or a glue stick
• A highlighter pen.
  

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

When I was a kid, summers were spent playing in the backyard with my brothers and sister and about two dozen children who lived in my neighborhood, a small farming town in New Jersey. If you look around the suburban neighborhood where I live now on a summer day, it's devoid of children. Kids as young as three gear up every morning and head to day camp. If you have a couple of kids enrolled for four to six weeks, as many are, summer camp can set you back more than $10,000.

The thing that kills me is that my kids don't really like going to camp. Last summer they each spent two weeks at an ESF Camp (which has locations in Delaware, CT, PA and NJ) and one week at a nature day camp at our local Audubon Center. Three weeks of camp cost just under $3,000.

It seems like a waste of money, given that I usually ship them off to camp because there are no kids around to play with! I'm not the only one with summer camp sticker shock. This year, I plan to cut back on camp expenses by skipping camp altogether or finding less expensive ones. For example, I'm looking into a town-run baseball camp that one of my son's buddies is attending for $400 for two weeks and my daughter may sign up for a similarly priced art and music camp.

That begs the question: how will I entertain my kids the rest of the summer and still manage to get some work done (I'm a freelance writer and editor)? Let's not forgot that I'd like to still be sane come September.

Given the state of the economy, I'm guessing there are some other like-minded parents loathe to fork over thousands for camp this summer. We have a pool, and I'm pretty certain that if we invite kids over for swim play dates, we'll get takers. We don't have big vacation plans but we own a time share, so I put in a request for a large three bedroom unit in Vermont. If my husband can't go, I'll invite some girlfriends and their kids. That will cost $164 for the exchange fee, plus food and other expenses similar to those incurred at home since there's a kitchen where I can cook. Otherwise, I'll line up day trips to places like the beach (free) and the Bronx Zoo where we already have an annual membership. And I'll still have some money left over to pay a babysitter once or twice a week so I can get some work done.

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I didn't become a salon junkie until two years ago, just after I published my first book. I would schedule an appointment to get my hair colored pretty much every time I had a book signing. Since I didn't want to be photographed wearing the same outfit at every event, buying new clothes also became a necessity. After this became a pattern, my husband pointed out that I was spending more money on my hair and clothes than I made selling books.

To commemorate National Hairstylists' Day, I'll share the many ways I've tried to save money on my salon bill since then--something I suspect many other women have done to cut back on spending in recent months. First let me share a brief haircutting history:

Two decades ago, I moved to California and worked as a counselor in a homeless shelter as part of a full-time volunteer program for recent college grads. My $65 stipend couldn't cover my monthly salon bills now. Anyway, I got my hair cut at the Vidal Sassoon Salon in Santa Monica, where student hairstylists gave free cuts.

When I moved to New York City, I worked at a magazine called American Health. Most of the young staffers went to the salon at Barney's New York, where once a week after work student hairstylists cut hair, again at little or no cost (it's been so long I can't remember, but I think it might have been $10, plus tip). A senior stylist supervised and fixed any mistakes, and by the time it was done, it could take up to two hours but it was worth the wait. I spent the next chunk of time in Washington, DC, where I could get a haircut at a nice Georgetown salon for $50 or so. That was a decade ago and I understand that prices there have skyrocketed as they have elsewhere. My neighbor, a British hairstylist, also occasionally cut my hair after work. For $20, I got a haircut and a beer in her backyard.

Once I hit 40, I could no longer pluck the gray hair or I'd end up with some serious bald spots so I began to color my hair. In the past few years, I have paid upwards of $200 for a cut and color in New York and suburban Connecticut where I now live. If I actually went to the salon every four to six weeks like they recommend, I could drop thousands a year. Let me point out that I have plain old brown hair and my goal is to simply keep it that way--no highlights, lowlights or fancy foil. Actually, the goal is to make it look like it did when I was 16, true brown with that nice glossy sheen.

The most obvious way to save money is to extend the length of time between cut and color, but as the gray slowly muscles out the brown, it's difficult to stretch it out. I have tried boxes to cover the gray in between salon visits, and for $8 it can hold me over. I always use Clairol's Natural Instincts because I'm too chicken to use permanent color at home. But it doesn't really cover the gray entirely, and I end up with a rainbow on my head, ranging from dark brown and gray at the roots, to what the haircolorist calls "brassy" on the ends (I call it red).

My latest approach is switching to permanent color - I did this at an Aveda Salon last month since they claim the products are more natural with less harsh chemicals. With permanent color, the color won't fade with multiple shampoos or get funky from the summer sun. I have heard that the root touch-up products sold in pharmacies everywhere work pretty well at extending the life of color but I have a week or so to go before I need to do that.

I do have one other strategy: my sister-in-law Cherie is a hairstylist who used to work in an Elizabeth Arden Salon, but since she had a baby, she just cuts hair for friends and family members from home. When my other sister-in-law gets her cut there, she pays $20. The problem? Cherie lives three hours away in New Jersey, and there's the ever-rising gas bill to consider. But if I can just schedule my hair appointments around other family visits, I could save a bundle.

Michele Turk is a journalist and author whose first book, Blood, Sweat and Tears: An Oral History of the American Red Cross, was published in 2006. She recently founded e street press, a self-publishing company.

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Here are some other additional signs of looming recession:

Restaurants:
Getting a reservation at your favorite restaurant has gotten a lot easier lately -- too easy for the liking of owners of dining establishments. Sales are down at chains ranging from Red Lobster to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. McDonald's and other fast-food chains are the exception -- their profits are soaring. Richard Martin, executive editor of the Nation's Restaurant News, said in an interview that there are now a plethora of promotions under way to lure diners. "It's pretty much an across-the-board situation," Martin said.

Golf:
Planning on hitting the links this summer? You may not have to worry that much about bumping into other golfers because there are fewer of them. According to The New York Times, people are quitting the sport in droves, partly because of economic reasons, such as corporations cutting back on country club memberships. This has occurred despite the popularity of Tiger Woods.

Penny Pinching:
When times are tough, people look for bargains everywhere, including eBay which recently reported a 12% increase in the value of transactions on its sites. Consumers also aren't shy about haggling at major retailers such as Home Depot and Circuit City, according to The Times. Take this trend one step further: we're seeing an increase in the lifestyle of Freegans, who say they "employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources."

Payday Loans, Cash Advances.
Shares of Cash America, a chain which operates 450 shops that provides pawn and payday loans services, have soared more than 30% this year. Christopher Tomberg recently noted in the Los Angeles Times that "before there were payday lenders, folks hard up for a few bucks had to go to an underground lender who would charge even more outrageous fees and possibly threaten bodily harm." Still, the interest rates are still pretty steep with these services (If you have to do it, here's how).

In the end, people will need to learn that in an economic slowdown, they shouldn't aim to get more with less, they should just get less. Inevitably, they will forget this lesson as soon as the economy rebounds.

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