Hardly a day goes by without a call or direct mail piece from a charitable organization wanting money. All sound like worthy causes, but how can you really know if your money is being put to good use? The answer is to check out the Better Business Bureau, which has a list of charities and a variety of information that you can use to determine if you’d like to support the cause. Not only can you learn more about the organization, its services and history, but you can see what percentage of monies are used towards the cause, and whether or not it meets the BBB’s Standards of Charity Accountability. The BBB offers a resource library with information on make the most of your charity giving and if you’ve had a problem with a charity you can file a complaint.


To learn more, visit the Better Business Bureau’s Charity information.

If you run a small business, keeping your receipts organized and accessible helps make tax time easier. And with estimated tax payments coming up soon, now is a good time to check out Shoeboxed.com, where you can mail-in or upload your receipts to organize them and get rid of clutter. The information can then be transferred to programs such as Excel, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Evernote, Quicken, and CSV formats. If you scan and upload your receipts yourself, there is a free option. Or if you’d like to mail your receipts for scanning or use one of the mobile photo capture and upload options, there is a fee depending on how many receipts a month you upload. There is even an option to upload business cards.

To learn more or sign up for a free trial, check out ShoeBoxed.com.  Also check out ShoeBoxed’s blog for great articles on personal finance, taxes and more.

Have you ever been sent a link to an article only to discover that you have register to read it? At BugMeNot you can access shared logins for thousands of web sites so that you can read the materials without divulging your personal information. The most popular sites include the NY Times, NY Post, Washington Post, and Youtube.

There are two ways to use BugMeNot. The first is:

1) When you get to a site requiring a registration, open another tab or browser and visit www.bugmenot.com

2) Copy and paste the URL of site you want to access into the URL box on the BugMeNot website.

3) Use one of the usernames and passwords provided to access the page you want to read.

The second option is the use the BugMeNot bookmarklet.

1) Drag the bookmarklet found on the BugMeNot FAQ page to your toolbar.

2) When you visit a site requiring a log in, click on the bookmarklet for login information.

BugMeNot is only for websites that offer free materials. Don’t try it on sites that require a fee.

Visit BugMeNot to learn more.

When it comes to managing my life, particularly if I’m way from my computer, if I can skip or speed up a step I’m more likely to stay on top of things. Google Calendar allows me to quickly add events through my phone through SMS.  I simply scroll to Google in my contact list and choose the option to send an SMS, type my appointment and hit send. Google texts back that the appointment was received. I also use it to send my self to-dos and notes that I don’t want to forget.

To set up the mobile option with Google Calendar:

1. Visit your Google Calendar online.
2. Click on the “Settings” option.
3. Click on “Mobile Set up”
4. Check to see if your Carrier is supported.
5. Enter your country and phone number, and then click “Send Verification Code”
6. You’ll receive a message back with a verification number. Enter that number in the “Verification Code” field on in the mobile settings on your calendar. (If you don’t receive the code, you can request it again through the Mobile Set up in the Settings.)
7. Click “Finish Set-up”.

To send a text of a new appointment:

1. Add Google Calendar’s SMS number to your contacts 48368
2. Send a text to the SMS number. Enter the appointment, date and time for example “Dinner 3/4 8pm” or “Soccer Saturday 10am”
3. Google Calendar will text back that it received the appointment.

Appointments I made through Text (SMS)

You can also have Google Calendar text your appointments to you. To receive the next item on your appointment schedule text “next” (without the quotes) to 48368.  Text “day” to get the day’s appointments or “nday” to get tomorrow’s schedule.

At the BBC website you can get audio and video courses to learn a foreign language including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Chinese and Russian.  You can even learn Gaelic! (See other language options at the bottom of the page).

Audios can be downloaded to mp3 players for learning on the go. Or watch a video online.

Various levels are offered including Beginner, Post-Beginner, Intermediate, and Quick Fix for those about to travel and need a quick update.

To start learning a new language or to learn more, visit the BBC’s Language Resource

Meal planning, like budgeting and clipping coupons is one of those tasks that I always groan at. However, meal planning does make a mom’s life easier, not just in knowing what to make for dinner each night, but in grocery shopping as well. When you know what you’re going to serve, you know what to buy.

Over at KitchenMonki.com you can get help with the process of menu planning. Add your own recipes, use them to meal plan, and even print out a shopping list. KitchenMonki.com also has a social aspect in that you can share or get meal plans and recipes from others.

The site is free to use so check out KitchenMonki.com and start meal planning.

Ever wonder what the odds are that you’ll get struck by lightening or win the lottery? BookofOdds.com can let you know. According to the site:

“For over three years we have been building what we believe is the missing dictionary, one filled not with words, but with numbers – the odds of everyday life. It contains hundreds of thousands of Odds Statements, from the odds of being the only one to survive a plane crash, to the odds of having a heart attack, to the odds of having ever eaten cold pizza for breakfast.”

Simply visit the site and type in your odds inquiry to receive a list of possibilities. The site also provides a variety of articles with interesting statistics and other number related items.

Visit BookofOdds.com to test it out.

Do you lay wake at night wondering how much you should be saving in order to pay for your child’s college education? Well you’re in luck because over at SavingForCollege.com you can use it’s World’s Simplist College Cost Calculator to find out.

Simply enter your child’s age and you’ll get results. You can modify those results based on your expected annual college costs (default is $25,000), number of years your child has left in high school, what percentage of college costs you plan to pay, and how much you already have saved.

Visit the World’s Simplist College Cost Calculator for more information.

Want to read some of the world famous classic stories, but don’t want to buy them? At Project Gutenberg you can find over 28000 classic books in electronic form. You can find such great stories as (the number after the title is the number downloads over the last 7 days):

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1724)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1185)
History of the United States by Charles A. Beard and Mary Ritter Beard (1182)
Ulysses by James Joyce (994)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (972)
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete by Leonardo da Vinci (917)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (899)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (835)
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (796)
The Marvelous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum (646)
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (637)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (630)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (617)

The books are available in a variety of formats including PDF, HTML, Text, and formats that can be read on your Smartphone or any reader that takes these formats. You can even download audio versions.

Be sure to read the information about use and distribution of the books. The books are in the public domain in the United States, but you’ll want to check the rights if you live in a different country. The books are free to use, but not necessarily free for you to distribute to others.

To learn more, get books or even get involved with the project, visit Project Gutenberg.

Have you ever been shopping online and seen a box for a special savings code during the check out process? Have you ever wondered how and where to get a discount code?  There are many sites that have rebate and discount codes, but at CurrentCodes.com, they keep an updated list of hundreds of codes from as many different companies such as Amazon.com, Staples, Overstock.com, 1-800Flowers, GameStop and many more. What’s even better is that the site is free to use!