Remember the days as a kid, when mom took the empty Coca-Cola bottles BACK to the store every grocery trip? I sure do...I think she got back $0.05 for every bottle, (which was her deposit when she bought the carton in the first place). Wow. Those were the days!

Shopping and saving in today's economy is starting to get back to the basics again..we're re-soleing shoes instead of buying new ones. We're having the dry cleaner sew on those buttons, instead of buying a new shirt, and clipping coupons has become sexy again. (OK--maybe that's a stretch, but my husband is Mr. Happy when I tell him about some of my "finds"...)

I recently stumbled across some interesting (and fun) ways to make our dollar stretch a bit further. Recycling programs. Now these aren't your run-of-the-mill-go-out-and-find-aluminum-cans kind of recycling...these programs are found WHERE WE SHOP EVERYDAY...and they can pay off BIG.

www.bestbuytradein.com has a program set up where you mail in your old electronics, and they send you a Best Buy Gift Card. Done. Easy. They even pay for the shipping costs. I sent them my old cell phone, a dusty old PDA I had laying around, and a computer monitor that didn't work. Result? $20 (total) in Best Buy Gift Cards were sent to me in the mail. Now...yes...you have to fill out a form for each item, and honesty is required--they review what you send them, and they only send you gift cards for things that actually work....but was it worth THEIR shipping costs to clear out my clutter? You betcha!

They now just announced they will take televisions that are smaller than 32" at ALL store locations. For this deal, I had to give them $10 cash...but they gave me a $10 Best Buy Gift Card, and took my old TV off my hands. For me it was a win/win. That thing was sitting in my garage for a year.

Hey...will this buy me the new 52" TV I want?  No, but I took my $30 and got 2 new DVD's I'd been wanting...and they didn't cost me a dime! 

Cathy