While the recent cut in interest rates is a welcome relief to mortgage holders, that hasn't stopped a flurry of newspaper coverage on how we still like to spend too much, save too little and whine about our super. But are things really that bad?
Long-term surveys of Australians by Quantum Market Research suggests that despite the apparently inexorable rise of consumerism, most of us are quite confident that we've got it right. As analyst David Chalke put it at a recent conference I attended in Canberra while discussing the viewpoint of "average Australians":

They are not going to hell in a credit-fuelled handbasket as they stuff their McMansions with plasma screens in their increasingly unhappy lives. We've actually got a lot smarter at managing money.

The Wise Bread blog has a few tips for anyone who's received such a nice thought from far-away relatives or friends who aren't quite hip to their tastes. If Craigslist, eBay, and same-store returns can't achieve equilibrium, you can turn it around, but not without taking a few precautions against getting caught. For example:

Don't wait too long to regift. ... The older the brand new item becomes, the more obvious it becomes that this is a regift. If you can no longer find the product in the stores, if the packaging has been updated or if the company that made it went out of business ages ago, you're stuck with that item. By all means try to sell it or give it to charity, but as a regift it stinks of "here's an old thing I found in my basement, but hey, it's never been used!"

For more regifting tips, and a few laughs about regifting horror stories, check out Regiftable.com. Photo by tornatore.

NBC's Today Show web site rounds up tricks for talking anyone into anything, whether you're negotiating over price, persuading your spouse, or influencing co-workers. A lot of the tips are more about simple manipulation, but the price negotiation tip offered a solid rule-of-thumb:

If you are the buyer, offer the salesperson 15 percent to 20 percent less than what you can really afford. For instance, if you absolutely can't spend more than $6,000 on a used car advertised at $7,000, try offering $5,100 (15 percent less than $6,000).

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There might be no such thing as truly free beer, but in the world of computers and software, you can often brew your own substitutes to premium paid software and service with just a few double-clicks and some know-how. Aside from the dough you shell out for a computer and net connection, you can get a lot of neat stuff done without spending another cent, and we've highlighted a few of our favourite no-cost solutions and work-arounds to tools that normally go for a good bit of cash. Check them out, and chip in with your own cheapskate solutions, after the jump. Photo by Daquella Manera.

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Guest poster Cathy of the Chief Family Officer blog writes on Get Rich Slowly about how she saves serious cash on household essentials by playing "The Drugstore Game." The Game is actually a wise combination of manufacturers' and store coupons from Sunday circulars, drug store rewards programs, and buying items you don't think you need right now to get the most value out of your savings. Here's the Game in action:

In the toothbrush example above, a Drugstore Game pro would never pay the full $2.99. Instead, she would probably have a $1.50 off manufacturer coupon. So she'll pay $1.49 and receive $2.99 that she can use to buy more items.

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The Dumb Little Man blog has a suggestion for all of us who can't help but feel the shameful pull of the drive-thru lane when we're hungry or just pressed for meal-planning time. Every night, empty your fast food (or candy, soda, or other junk food) receipts into a jar by your bed. Then ...

Round that up to the nearest $10 and cut it in half. That's how much you'll spend a week from now on ... Take that money and put it in a ziplock bag that you keep in your car. All your fast food will be paid for out of this fund, and when it dries up, that's it until next week. This will force you to ration and make choices.

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Windows only: Freeware application HP Smart Web Printing combines clips from any number of web pages into one page, so you don't have to print five different pages of filler to get one page worth of information. The tool—which despite its HP origins works with any printer—integrates directly with both Firefox and Internet Explorer, so clipping text, images, or any part of a page is as simple as clicking a button. Before you print, you can edit, resize, and adjust all of your clippings to your liking. The result is more useful printouts and less wasted paper. If this freeware, Windows only download tickles the environmentalist in you, check out other easy ways to go green and save money with your computer.

If you started investing $448 a month at 30 years old, Yahoo Finance says that a reasonable 8% return would put your savings over the million dollar mark in 35 years. The problem, of course, is finding that extra $450. To help ferret out every quarter in your couch cushions, the article suggests seven different potential expenses that, with slight adjustments, could easily produce the extra cash you need to start down the road to a million.

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Petrol isn't the only thing getting more expensive, so— in the face of rising food costs—health web site WebMD sets out to highlight 10 healthy foods you can buy for under a dollar. Granted, most of the foods listed are pretty standard for any healthy eater—fruits and vegetables like apples, bananas, and baby carrots—but it's a good reminder that despite the high prices, there are still plenty of healthy and cheap foods available. But to add a little more to where Web MD left off, why don't you share your favourite low-cost and healthy foods in the comments.

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Mint, the web-based financial management application that took us by storm a few months back, is adding investment tracking to their already impressive feature set. Mint's investments, currently in beta, tracks everything from the performance of your Roth IRA to the value of your 401k, all from its attractive, easy-to-understand interface. As with Mint in general, you'll need to be comfortable trusting your data in their hands (if you're curious, you can read more about their security measures here). Mint investments is currently in private beta, but if you follow the link, they've set up a page for Lifehacker readers to sign up. You should get access to Mint's investments sometime next week, and we've been assured that there's no limits on signups. In the meantime, hit the jump for a closer look at Mint's investments interface.

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