Credit card use can inspire many passionate opinions. There are followers of the Dave Ramsey camp, who aspire to a lifestyle free of any credit card use. Other people see credit cards as one of the tools in their financial toolbox - a short-term liquidity instrument or a convenient method of payment.

Erin Scottberg, Lemondrop.com, for Lemondrop's Cheap Week Part of living on less is making your money go farther, and lowering your bills and keeping a basic budget can both help. Luckily, much like sending greeting cards, remembering birthdays and spelling basic words, the Internet can do it for you. Or at least that's what some sites promise. But could they help me, a girl who's ready to swipe her credit card the second her wallet's empty, actually stay on track? I tried some out to test.

There was an interesting article this week in TIME magazine - Getting Real About The High Cost of Cheap Food.  The article goes into detail about the harmful effects of cheap food on our environment, our finances, and ourselves. Have you read the article? From Choosing Raw - Nutrition in the News:  The High Price of Cheap Food...

I've heard a lot of arguments against paying kids an allowance in exchange for chores.  Some say the children have to do chores just because they're part of the family. (Yes.) Others say it teaches children to help out just for a reward and not for the joy of helping. (Yes.) I think those things are all true. And I'll still be paying my kid an allowance to do her chores (as long as my husband agrees -- it may be interesting to see his reaction this post).

While innovation is great, the best lessons from this economy are not really all that new. For a generation of us this economic downturn is the most severe we've experienced in our lifetimes. Yet, we don't necessarily need to re-create the wheel to find the financial lessons we seek.

I haven't done one of these in awhile because I'm too busy playing a business, career and personal finance expert on television. Or the Internet. Whatever. Here are a few of my favorite business/career/personal finance bloggers in these parts. They're the people I go to when I need help with rewriting my budget for the umpteenth time. They're the people who seem to get it much better than I do. But I suppose that's the case with anything; you always feel like someone is doing it better and you are totally doing it wrong. 

In the past few months, we've had one credit card raise our interest rate by five percent and another lower our limit by $13,000. We've never missed a payment and never paid less than the minimum amount due on either of these accounts. We're the good guys -- but that doesn't seem to matter right now. What can a family do to protect its credit in times of uncertainty?

Budgeting, saving, and managing your money are high on everyone's list of priorities right now. There are many online tools and resources that will help you track and manage your money, even help you save. I'll review four of these sites.

Yes, I’ve started writing little notes to  bill collectors when I post my checks.  Dear Mrs. Sallie Mae,

Increasingly debt collectors are going after the living to pay the debts of the departed. In many cases the family members these debt collectors contact have no legal obligation whatsoever to pay the debts. This article however reveals that some pay it out of a desire to honor the dead or help them "to rest easy, knowing their obligations are taken care of."

In January, I began a new job at a nonprofit organization that works to prevent foreclosures and preserve neighborhoods throughout New York City. Although I was not involved in the field back in August 2007, I read enough about it to realize that foreclosure was about to have a very female face. Not only that, but it was going to be a face that was likely to be ignored by the mainstream media.

There are multiple reasons for this financial mess.  There are many of us that did nothing wrong and yet are suffering at the hands of the greedy and the unconscionable. I have been asking “How are we going to solve this problem?” I’m asking liberals and libertarians. I’m trying to read conservative blogs for answers but I quickly learned that there is a lot of anger in that part of the blogosphere.  We are faced with the equivalent of cleaning King Augeas' stables.  We have nasty work ahead of us.