Sorry to break it to you, but unless you bought your Halloween costume last November, you might be paying more than you have to.

“The best time to buy cheap Halloween merchandise is right after the holiday when specialty stores and retailers deeply discount goods anywhere from 50% to 80% off,” says Andrea Woroch, consumer savings expert for The Frugals, a network of money-saving websites that includes CouponSherpa.com.

If you didn’t have the foresight to go Halloween shopping last fall, you should start shopping for costumes, decorations and other spooky merchandise now. Right now.

To read the full story: The Times Herald

The world’s largest retailer, which ditched the pay-as-you-go plans in 2006, is rolling out a holiday layaway plan from Oct. 17 through Dec. 16.

Wal-Mart’s layaway option comes as its mostly lower-income shoppers are being squeezed by high unemployment and rising costs. It also comes as Wal-Mart tries to reverse nine quarters of revenue declines at its namesake U.S. stores open at least a year — a measure of a retailer’s health.

“We’re always looking for ways to ease budget strain for our customers, and we know this holiday season brings with it additional financial pressure,” said Duncan MacNaughton, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart’s U.S. division. “This was a key component that our customers asked us for.”

To read the full story: USA Today

Communication is increasingly moving off the grid and into the cloud. For cellphone users — especially ones with smartphones — there are a host of online tools and apps that can help reduce usage on carrier plans and save money. One way to shave down costs is to drop extra SMS packages and use the bare minimum of minutes for calls. The recent proliferation of free Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services and instant-messaging applications makes it easier than ever to find low-cost communication alternatives.

Internet-based apps are apparently already cutting into the classic SMS text messaging business, once a cash cow for cell phone carriers. Over the last six months, SMS experienced its slowest growth in the past decade, The Wall Street Journal reported.

However, before you ditch your calling plan for an Internet-based alternative, you might want to manage your expectations. These options come at a lower cost, but most are not entirely free. VoIP services can suffer from lower audio quality than a traditional cellphone or land line, with muffled sound and slower connection times. Most of the messaging services, which are lightweight software or apps for your phone, require both sender and recipient to use the same app (even if on different smartphone operating systems.)

To read the full story: Daily Finance

If you’re among the 39 million Americans on the road for the Fourth of July weekend, you’re burning up hard-earned money with every mile. Pump prices were averaging a hefty $3.55 a gallon across the nation for regular on July 1, so it’s time to fuel up on these gas-saving tips from fueleconomy.gov, swapalease.com and yours truly.

Travel light. You don’t operate as well when you you’re wearing a 20-pound backpack. Your car doesn’t like lugging excessive weight either. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle can reduce miles-per-gallon by 2%. That translates to between 4 and 7 cents a gallon. If you must lug stuff, use the trunk, not a roof rack, which creates a lot of aerodynamic drag.

Stop idling: Sitting still with the engine chugging burns up to half a gallon an hour, so kill the engine when you’re parked. You’ll save 1 to 3 cents a minute versus idling with the air conditioning off, and 2 to 4 cents a minute if you had the air conditioning on.

Stop racing: This isn’t NASCAR and you’re not Carl Edwards. Speeding and accelerating too quickly and then braking will exhaust your gas 33% faster on the highway and 5% faster in town. It also makes us nauseous. If you ignore your speedometer, you’ll see another 24 cents a gallon go nowhere for every 5 mph above 60 you travel. Quit the Speed Racer act and be 18 cents to $1.20 a gallon richer. That’ll make you a winner — and all of us safer.

To read the full story: Daily Finance

If you’re considering declaring yourself independent of municipal fireworks displays this weekend and sending up a few red, glaring rockets of your own, question number two on your mind should be “How can I get the most bang for my buck?” To aid you in that quest, we’ve consulted with the fireworks pros for advice.

But yes, cost should be the second question on your mind: First, you need to know precisely what your explosive options are in your corner of the land of the free. Because the law on fireworks is highly variable, depending on your state, county, and even town.

Perhaps it’s one of the few up-sides to the downturn: The number of states where people can purchase consumer fireworks is growing, as states see legalizing them as a potential way to raise a bit more in sales taxes. Last year, Rhode Island joined the majority of states that allow consumer fireworks, as did Arizona. And in New York, a bill is on the governor’s desk that could lift the ban on consumer fireworks, under certain circumstances. Meanwhile, Massachusetts this year introduced legislation to open its doors to the sale of consumer fireworks.

To read the full story: Daily Finance

Call it the $5 store. For the price of a fast-food combo meal, you can pay someone to proofread your business plan or record a professional voice over in the Queen’s English. Fiverr.com is year-old international online marketplace for people to buy and sell everyday services. And yes, nothing costs more than five bucks.

Browse through some of the 500,000 listings and soon you realize that there is almost nothing than can’t be bought or sold in $5 increments. The thrust of the site is on small professional tasks that could take a novice half a day to figure out — for example, how to Photoshop a picture, start a Twitter account or solve an HTML problem — but that an expert could turn around in minutes. The site also offers off-beat items such as a playful spin on busking: Pay a starving musician to play you a saxophone solo or order up a digital birthday card with a personalized bagpipe message. You can also “request a gig” if you need something done and are willing to pay $5 for it.

To read the full story: Daily Finance

If you’ve been racking up credit card rewards, summer is the perfect time to use them.

And a new survey suggests that more Americans plan to do just that — cashing in their credit card rewards as a money-savvy way to enjoy everything from quick weekend getaways to extended overseas vacations — during these summer months.

According to the latest quarterly Capital One Rewards Barometer, which surveys how consumers accumulate and redeem credit card rewards, about 40% of consumers plan to use their credit card rewards for travel this summer, up from about one-third of consumers who used credit card rewards for summer travel last year.

To read the full story: WalletPop

Gas prices fell 11 cents over the past two weeks, part of a downward slide likely to continue in the coming weeks, the publisher of a new survey said Sunday.

The Lundberg Survey found the average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is $3.63. That’s down 37 cents since prices peaked on May 6.

Crude oil prices have dropped in recent weeks, and “weak performance” by the U.S. economy has lowered demand, said publisher Trilby Lundberg. “Many would-be drivers are out of work,” she said. Their “movements are curtailed due to underemployment or unemployment, so demand is still down for the year.”

The average gas price is still 86 cents higher than it was a year ago, Lundberg said.

The International Energy Agency announced last week that governments will sell 60 million barrels from reserves, half of it from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Lundberg noted. The news helped drop crude prices further, “which of course would imply further cuts at the pump.”

To read the full story: CNN Money

A Pennsylvania woman has forged an internet sensation with a blog post about making freeze-ahead meals for her family — 46 of them, to be exact, for about $95.

Snapping up closeout deals on meat, carrots and peppers, and buy-one-get-one-free deals on potatoes and onions, Natalie assembled a mountain of raw meat and vegetables, “sucking it up and committing to an afternoon of slaving away in the kitchen,” as she wrote on her blog, for the big pay-off over the next few months: “Tomato Basil Soup, Sesame Chicken, Balsamic Roasted Chicken Thighs, Parmesan Garlic Chicken, Buttermilk Herb Chicken, Pesto Chicken, Cranberry Chicken, Dijon Pork Roast, Bourbon Brown Sugar Pork Chops, hamburgers, teriyaki anything!”

(Before you go searching, her recipes all come from Don’t Panic — Dinner’s In the Freezer! And while you may not be able to get such great deals on meats in your local store, there are a number of tips you can adopt as your own.)

What we can take from this post is a number of ideas on making your own convenience foods without the convenience markup. If you don’t know what I mean, head to your grocery store’s freezer section, choose a frozen prepared meal and compare prices by the pound.

To read the full story: WalletPop

No matter what style you’re shopping for, shoes are that reliable, pick-me-up purchase. Shopping for footwear can give you an instant lift — which is not always true when it comes to buying clothes. (Trying on that cute little black dress after you’ve put on a few pounds is more torture than fun.)

But with the plethora of shopping choices in stores and online, how can you find the best buys on heels, flats, boots and sporty shoes, too? Here’s a guide to help you step into some great footwear deals this summer.

Tap Outlet Stores, Off-Price Chains For Deals

For the big shoe deals in brick-and-mortar stores, scour off-price chains and outlet stores. You’ll find a wide selection of brand names and designer shoes for 20% to 60% off department store prices.

While the mix at off-price chains is unpredictable and can be spotty — much of the merchandise is department store and supplier overruns — the prices can be worth it. A recent trip to a New York City Marshalls, a nationwide off-price chain, turned up a pair of Michael Kors gold sandals for $30, down from its original $90 price tag, as well as dressy pumps from Aerosoles for $29.99, down from $69. (Of all the off-price retailers, Marshalls probably offers the widest shoe assortment.)

To read the full story: WalletPop