Money Tips Network

It’s not a secret that people give away or throw away lots and lots of stuff.  Stuff that’s outlasted its usefulness.  Stuff that’s broken.  Stuff that reminded them every day of their lousy purchase.

We’ve gotten useful castaway items right from within our subdivision.  We scored a nearly-complete set of patio furniture that just needed a little bit of cleaning. Recently we happened upon a stash of building materials: pressure-treated wood and other odd pieces.

A few days ago, my father-in-law picked up a Radio Flyer wagon that was thrown to the curb. The front axle was bent. He fixed that very easily, and now it works great for carting small garden equipment back and forth from the house to the garden.

Easy fixes … if you know how!

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some of the best articles from around the web on keeping your education productive and frugal.

Top 5 Articles

17 Back to School Clothes Shopping Tips to Save Money on Kids — Doing a clothing swap and having a budget can help you save when it comes to shopping for new clothes for back to school. [Money Crashers]

A slow cookers is one of the best tools for making delicious, easy meals (which can conveniently be ready right when you get home from work). Make your slow cooker recipes even more awesome with these seven tricks. (See also: 35 Slow Cooker Recipes for Busy (or Lazy) Vegetarians)

1. Sear and Brown Meats

A common criticism of slow-cooking methods is that meats end up gray and tasteless, although my personal opinion is that this is usually due to a faulty recipe, not to the method itself. You can also boost the flavor of your slow cooked meats by searing or browning them before placing them into the slow cooker.

When you hear the phrase "travel accommodation," do you automatically think of hotels? They're the safe, default option for many travelers. But forgoing hotels doesn't have to mean giving up cleanliness and basic amenities. And alternative travel accommodation is not just about hostels and vacation rentals.

If you're ready for something truly different, try the following lodging options on your next trip.

Last month, I wrote a popular article for U.S. News and World Report about “shopping hierarchies.” Here’s how I defined “shopping hierarchy” in that article:

However, there’s stronger strategy you can apply that affects the price of almost everything you buy. I call it the “shopping hierarchy” strategy.

It’s a simple strategy: Whenever you go to a store to buy an item, always start at the store with the lowest prices. If you do this every single time, you’re bound to pay low prices for everything you buy.

The article provided an extremely brief look at shopping hierarchies, but based on the feedback from that article, a number of readers wanted more information or had additional ideas that they wanted to add to the concept.

The following is a guest post from Marotta Wealth Management. I have made my share of tax mistakes when selling assets, but have also used market downturns (like 2008) and charitable donations of stock (as he notes below) to strategically readjust my holdings. I should be in a place where I don't need to sell any assets for quite some time, but this is a topic that we all still need to be reminded of and consider from time to time. Not sure his "capital gains should be 0%" at the end is right, but it would make things much simpler.

How you deal with the new capital gains rates hinges on your tax bracket. The strategies to deal with capital gains differ for each level.

Do you want to start living a better life today? I mean, right this very moment?

Then stop saying "should." That's it.

Don't just stop saying it out loud, but stop repeating it in your thoughts, too. Don't tell yourself what you should be doing instead of what you're actually doing or what you should have done in the past. (See also: How Doing Less Helps You Get More Done)

If you do this, your life will improve faster than you'd have thought possible.

Now that summer is in full swing, you might be getting bored of standard hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill. Spice up your next party by trying something new and different — grilled pizza! I live near an old Italian restaurant that has built its reputation on its flavorful grilled pies. After eating many myself, I have spent years replicating them at home. (Related: This Is How You Make Restaurant Quality Pizza at Home)

As many of you know, I had a bit of a financial epiphany in April 2006. I came home from work one day, picked up the mail, and sat down to pay our bills, only to realize that we didn’t have enough in our checking account to pay all of those bills. Because neither of us would get paid for at least a week, at least a few of those bills were going to be late, and it was going to be a tricky balancing act to get out of it.

For some reason, that moment just set me off. I felt really ashamed of myself. Sarah and I both made a good income – why couldn’t we make this work? We had an infant son who relied deeply on us – shouldn’t we be doing better for his sake?