Invest smarter, find a job, save on your next purchase at Amazon, skip trips to the supermarket, dork out with DIY projects, retire in happiness, comfort, and security, avoid fees, scams, taxes, and mistakes on Facebook, find out what your waiter would never tell you about your meal, and more.
5 Mistakes Online Job Hunters Make. One mistake, according to the WSJ, is that online job hunters are only hunting for jobs online—and there are tons of opportunities you’d hear about only when talking to someone over the phone or (gasp!) in person.
5 Best Ways to Save Food and Store Leftovers. A WalletPop post discusses the pros, cons, and costs of freezing, drying, canning, pickling, and vacuum sealing.
5 Ways Your Bank Can Still Gouge You. Among other things, Liz Weston explains that while the rules for ATM overdrafts may be changing, there are plenty of other ways customers can still overdraw and be hit with fees.
6 Credit Card Fees You Might Not Know About. Reward recovery fees? Payment protection fees? Activity fees? CreditCards.com explains.
6 Ways to Save on Amazon.com. One of the ways, suggested at Bargaineering, is to take advantage of Amazon’s Friday Sale merchandise. And what do you know? Today is Friday.
6 Things You Should Never Reveal on Facebook. Some of Moneywatch’s suggestions should be well-known, like that you shouldn’t tell everybody you’re going on vacation. Why? Because it’s the equivalent of sending a message to thieves that says: We’re not home! Come and rob us! But you also shouldn’t casually mention your birth date and place either—because they can be used by identity thieves to predict your social security number.
7 Reasonable Alternatives to Buying. WiseBread makes the case for not buying stuff—not when you can make it, fix it, rent it, or swap for it.
7 Secrets to a Happy Retirement. For nearly all of the secrets in this US News post—good health, a social network, enough money, intellectual curiosity—it helps if you’ve been working on them long before you even think about retiring. So the message to everyone, no matter what your age, is: Start now!
10 Products to Never Buy Generic. No-name garbage bags and diapers may be cheaper, but you’ll regret not spending the money when they rip or leak.
10 DIY Food Geek Projects. Lifehacker invites you to geek (and pig) out by frying KFC-like chicken at home, grinding your own meat, and cooking pizza in a homemade pizza oven.
10 Stock-Market Myths That Just Won’t Die. Per the WSJ, myths passed along by brokers such as: “This is a good time to invest in the stock market.” Brokers aren’t likely to ever tell potential clients that it is a bad time to invest in the stock market, now are they?
10 Unpopular Taxes and Fees Cropping Up Everywhere in the Nickel and Dime Economy. I suppose the list of popular taxes and fees would be much shorter. WalletPop’s most hated list includes new fees for things that you’d think should be free—picnics at public parks, accessing your tax and property info online, bringing your dog to the dog park.
10 Free Options for DIY Home Improvement Training and Advice. Much can be learned about home improvement for free from your local hardware guy, your handy neighbor, online forums, blogs, and videos, big-box retail sessions, and your local library.
12 Ways to Eat Well on a Budget. Tips from Oprah mag advise, for instance, that store-brand butter is just as good for baking as high-end Euro spreads. There are tips on booze too: Cheap wines often score highly among imbibers who aren’t shown the labels, and there’s little reason to buy pricey vodka or gin—because chances are, you’re not drinking either straight up.
16 State Sales Tax Holidays for Back-to-School Shoppers. Most of the tax-free weekends (entire weeks, in some cases) are in August, though Mississippi’s begins today. Each state has its own rules and exclusions, but in general, clothing and school supplies that cost under $100 a piece can be purchased tax-free, and many states have much higher price ceilings for purchasing computers and peripherals with no taxes.
20 Secrets Your Waiter Won’t Tell You. This Reader’s Digest roundup of waitstaff confessions includes: Restaurants put extra sugar into kids’ dishes (even pizza) so they’ll like them, the night’s “specials” are probably something the restaurant wants to get rid of before it goes bad, you’ll get the best service if you go out on a slow night (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays), and you’ll get the worst service—and probably overpay because of a “special menu”—on Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day.
20 Cheap, Healthy Dishes Made from 10 Pantry Staples. Chances are you’ve already got ingredients like beans, canned tomatoes, pasta, rice, onions, and garlic in your house. Now, with this post from Cheap Healthy Good (a blog that once took on the challenge of feeding a 205-pound man on $25 a week), you have a bunch of nutritious, inexpensive suggestions for using those ingredients—and so you’ve got no excuse for ordering takeout tonight.