Republic Wireless is a better deal then ever.

I know that most artofbeingcheap.com readers already have a Republic Wireless cell phone, but if you are one of the few that are still overpaying for your cell phone this weekend is a great time to start saving money.  For a very limited time, you have your choice of two extra special deals.

You can either choose to get $75 off a customizable Moto X or get a free Google Chromecast (A device that streams internet TV on your regular television) with the purchase of a Moto X.  You have to choose one though, you can’t get both deals. Make your choice at Republic Wireless

You can find my review of the Moto X here. 

You can find my review of the Chromecast here.

This week’s best articles on how to save money

I read dozens of websites and blogs on how to save money so that you don’t have to.  Here are my favorite articles this week:

Summer vacation ideas for families on a budget Here is a fun list of trips you can take for $500, $1,000, or $5,000 from Teresa at livingonthecheap.com.  While Disney World isn’t cheap you should be able to visit for less than $5,000.  Here is my guide for how to see it for $3,000.

10 ways to Save Money on Carpet Cleaning Steve from thepennyhoarder.com shares the secrets he learned as a professional carpet cleaner on how to keep your carpet clean or get it cleaned without paying a lot.

Is Holding a garage sale worth it? Barbara from barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com looks at whether or not garage sales are worth the trouble.  My opinion is that they are just too much work for the amount of money you get.  You can get better prices selling on Craigslist, Amazon, or Ebay, so my suggestion is to sell anything worth a material amount of money (say $10-$25 or above) online and just donate the rest to charity.  If you itemize deductions on your tax return the write off you get will be worth far more than the cash you would have collected from a garage sale.

Make Money Series- Renting Out Your Car Have a car you don’t use all the time?  Me neither.  But if you did, you might want to read this article from Grayson at sproutwealth.com, who explains what you need to know if you are interested in picking up a little extra cash by letting other people borrow your car.

Deciding whether to invest in a home rooftop solar electric power system On reachfinancialindependence.com Larry  gives us a really in depth, well thought out analysis of the financial viability of solar power.  This has been a pretty hot topic around the country lately and this article is one of the best ones I have seen on the topic.  I looked into solar power for my house recently and decided it just didn’t make sense in my case.  A big reason for that is there aren’t many solar installers where I live, but hopefully that will change in the next few years.

Links to Republic Wireless are affiliate links and help support the charity noted on the right hand side of this page.

Best articles on how to save money for the week of July 18, 2014

I read dozens of websites and articles on how to save money so you don’t have to.  Here are my favorites this week:

12 home maintenance chores you should do now Teresa Mears from livingonthecheap.com has a list of small things you can do now that can save you money in the long run.

How much does supporting your team cost you financially? Mike from personalfinancejourney.com has some interesting thoughts on how much it costs to be a sports fan.  Short answer is way too much.

The Argument for Freezing Credit:  Is your Social Security Number Easily Found on the Web?  Melissa from beatingbroke.com has some advice on identity theft, and how to stop it cold.

My top 20 Online Travel Resources Christine from frugaltravelguy.com has a pretty comprehensive lists for all the places to check for finding cheap flights, finding things to do, and finding places to stay.

12 Mobile Apps that will help you earn extra money None of these will make you rich, but Kyle from thepennyhoarder.com has a list of apps that can make you a little extra dough in a variety of ways like taking surveys, mystery shopping, etc.

How much is that home printer really costing you? This article is written by me and is my second article on clarkhoward.com.  I look at how much home printers really cost and give you some tools you can use to cut your home printer costs to zero.

Best how to save money articles for the week of July 12, 2014

The results of the poll are in and artofbeingcheap.com readers have selected the National Alliance of Mental Illness of Appleton, WI as the charity that the ABC will donate 10% of advertising revenues to during the second half 0f 2014.  Thanks to everyone that voted!

I read dozens of websites and blogs on how to save money so that you don’t have to.  Here are my favorite articles this week:

6 Thinks you can buy that will pay for themselves in a year I love free stuff and in my book, anything that pays for itself is basically free.  Christianpf.com has this list of items that pay for themselves inside of a year and save you money after that.  The most interesting of these to me is the smartstrip surge protector.  Check back on artofbeingcheap.com Monday morning and I will have an article that evaluates whether this device will really save you money or not.

Free One Way car rental  Debra Karplus on The Dollar Stretcher.com explains how to find somebody who needs a car moved from one location to another and how to use that situation as a freeone way car rental.  This isn’t exactly a new idea as I seem to recall Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty used this trick to get from Denver to Chicago in the Jack Kerouac’s book On The Road.   That, my friends, was the first literary reference in the history of ABC.  I hope you enjoyed it because it might be the last.  I am not often referred to as “high-brow”.

Fire Your Landlord and 10 Other Ways to Save on Rent Steve Gillman from thepennyhoarder.com has a list of creative ways you might be able to cut your monthly rent payment.  As housing is the #1 expense for most people even a small percentage cut in your rent budget can mean saving a lot of dough.

A guide for Shopping at Less-Trustworthy Websites Have you ever found a good deal at a website you aren’t familiar with but were afraid to make the purchase for security reasons?  Trent from thesimpledollar.com has and he has some good advice on how to keep yourself safe in that situation.

Can you make money from online games Alright this one is just plain strange to me.  Mike from personalfinancejourney.com explains how video game players can make a little extra money by letting other people watch them play video games really well.  I have no idea why anybody would pay for that as every little brother in the world less than 40 years old pretty much spent their childhood complaining about that exact scenario.

I do have a friend who actually made some money playing video games though. This guy played a massive multiplayer online game similar to World of Warcraft for several years and over time built up a very powerful character.  When he decided to stop playing he didn’t simply log off, but he sold his character online to somebody who had too much money and was apparently too lazy to start from the beginning and earn a more skilled character.  My friend sold the character for several thousand dollars, but he acknowledges if he factored in all the time he spent playing this amounted to far less than minimum wage.

Losing socks isn’t your fault; here’s why you should declare sock bankruptcy- Don’t pass by this one because you think this is just a silly little article about socks.  Mario from debtblag.com is on to a seriously good idea here that will save you some serious time when folding your laundry.  I have thought about this idea for many, many years, but have never been able to go through with it because I am too cheap to throw away perfectly good socks.  Sigh.