I love when readers shoot me emails with great tips. Some even write articles on topics that they’re passionate about. Like Henry, who lives in Woodbury and works for Northwest Airlines. “I enjoy cooking and finding creative and inexpensive ways to spice up everyday dishes.  And when that fails, I open a bottle of wine and it makes it all good.”
Here is his tip for saving money on preparing meals. I hope you’ll share your own tricks too.

Every day it seems like the stock market is heading in the wrong direction. I even stopped looking at my 401K because it only mockingly informs me that retirement is getting further and further away. And like most families, I too am cutting back on as many expenses as I can, and one way I found is to look within my kitchen cupboard to lower my food bill. 

The previous night I had made an entire ham. Although it was a great meal as well as an economical lunch the next day, I was not sure that I could take having ham one more time without repackaging it into something a little different. But what could I possibly do with it?

I decided to see what the Internet had to offer, so I Googled “leftover ham” and in .24 seconds I had 283,000 results at my finger tips. I scanned through the results taking into consideration what ingredients I had in my kitchen as well as what would be simple to make.

Since then I have used Google several times to piece together a meal with ingredients that I already had in my kitchen. Sometimes I have to venture to the store to pick up a few things. Sometimes the meals are good and sometimes they are not so good, but in either case it saves a little money and gets my culinary juices flowing. By simply searching for ingredients that I had in my cupboard, I have been able to prepare inexpensive dinner alternatives.

No more do I open the cupboard and stare into the abyss of cans, boxes, and jars wondering what I can make for a meal. Now I let Google help me plan mealtime.

My Dad is retired from Ford and I think auto industry babies are from one of two camps: Car lovers or car users.

I’m a car user. I’ve never picked out a car in my life. The two cars I’ve owned began as lease cars and I purchased the gently used vehicles through my father’s connections at work. Sure there are other cars I like better, but my philosophy about cars is “if it gets me from here to there (and now that I have kids, can transport all of the people and stuff I need to), that’s all I need.”

Needless to say, I can’t stomach the idea of spending more than $20,000 on a vehicle. But for many folks, that new car smell and the feeling of driving a new car off the lot is a powerful aphrodisiac. At least it was before the recession.

Now, Edmunds.com is seeing that more and more people are buying used. Approximately 511,000 used cars sold in the past three months would have been new car sales in a more normal economy, according to new data.

“Projecting ahead, this could represent a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of more than two million vehicles, which equates to more than 15 percent of total new car sales. In manufacturing terms, that amounts to about two assembly plants’ new car production,” said Edmunds.com.

If you were to buy a car right now, would you go used? Or would you head to a desperate dealer in search of a bargain?

There are a lot of low interest rates and rebate deals out there. Plus the new stimulus encourages new car buying by allowing buyers of new cars and trucks worth up to $49,500 to deduct sales or excise tax even if the buyer takes the standard deduction.

Minnesota imposes a 6.5 percent sales tax for car purchases.

Kablog reader Suzanne wants your advice. If you have a question to pose to me or to readers, send it to kmcguire@startribune.com.

“We’re in the market for a new car and thinking that this may not be the best time to be taking on such an investment. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it. …especially when your current car is on its way out.”

Without more information from Suzanne (how secure is your job, will you need to take out a loan, do you have good credit, for example), it’s hard to give her a definite answer. But give it a whirl with all the caveats you’d like. And share your own experience if you’re in the market for a new auto.

Discarded wrapping paper and packaging, little plastic toy parts and game instructions. I don’t know about you, but after the presents are open, I am usually overcome by an overwhelming desire to get rid of stuff.

Fortunately, the holidays correspond with the end of the year tax time. So it’s a good time to cull through your unwanted stuff and donate it to charity.

With the economy weakening and the green movement, there’s also been an explosion of sites geared towards swapping and selling your items.

Zwaggle.com, for example, connects parents “who are tightening their belts during in a sluggish economy, but care about the environment and want to provide the very best for their kids.”

Kijiji.com is a free online classifieds site that recently surveyed couples and found 81 percent would like to get rid of dozens of items worth more than $670 in tax breaks, but can’t convince the other person to part with the junk (sound familiar, anyone?).

One local addition to the online classifieds universe is buythechange.com. Co-founder and CEO Zak Steven describes it as a “Twin Cities based alternative to Craigslist that helps community-minded people and businesses buy and sell goods and services with friends, neighbors and others they have something in common with.” Seventy percent of membership fees go back to local non-profits to strengthen communities. Memberships cost from $0 to $100.

If you want to avoid wasting money and space on items you don’t use that frequently, try neighborrow.

I haven’t tried any of these resources. Craigslist.org and Twin Cities Free Market have served me well in the sale or giving away of items. I’d prefer to give real neighbors and friends my unwanted goods if they need them.

Curbside pick-up of donations from places such as ARC and the Epilepsy Foundation make it simple to donate my items in good condition for a tax break.

But if you do use these newer sites, share your feedback.

Or Facebook is so not.

Coupons.com announced its new Facebook application earlier this week which allows you to print out coupons and share them with your friends.

At first glance, the page is a bit clunky and user-unfriendly. You can only view six coupons at a time. Another one pops up after you discard others, but sometimes they’re duplicates of ones that are already showing. But I give the company kudos for introducing money-saving habits to a demographic that I’m guessing rarely considers clipping a coupon before shopping.

You can also track how much you’ve saved with your coupons, something I’ve considered tackling in 2009 to determine if clipping coupons is really worth my time. My gut definitely says yes.