Hazy summer days are behind us and now we usher in autumn’s beauty and holiday madness. With Thanksgiving preparations in full swing, here are some tips for saving money for your Thanksgiving celebration without taking away any of the joy.

One of the most important steps is to predetermine a head count for who’s eating, prepare a basic menu, and maybe plan some inexpensive activities for the kids to do while the adults cook, clean up, and chat after the meal. Knowing what you need in advance saves you from a very costly emergency trip to the corner convenience store.

Before you begin writing up a grocery list, take inventory of your cabinets and pantry. With a menu established, you can easily determine what staples you need; flour, corn starch, sugar, salt, pepper, allspice and poultry seasoning in addition to grocery list.

If you’re cooking for a small crowd, consider buying a turkey breast instead of a 20 lb. turkey and a package of turkey legs for the dark meat die-hards.

With large crowds, have guests each bring a dish. Most of your guests will probably be family so, unless they’re arriving from the airport, they shouldn’t mind bringing a side dish. For your guests who arrive after dinner, they can bring a dessert. If you wish to serve two meats, have someone bake & bring one and you bake the other. Having guests bring food items also reduces your grocery bill.

Buy some items in advance when they are on clearance; serving dishes & utensils, some canned items, decorations, kids’ crafts. If you’re considering using paper products for eating, keep in mind that does offer convenience but isn’t much of a money saver. For disposable aluminum baking pans, take advantage of your local dollar store prices. Thanksgiving purchases don’t all have to wait until November.

Items such as stuffing, cranberries, evaporated milk, canned pumpkin and some staples will be on sale weeks in advance so watch your grocer sales advertisements and take advantage of those savings. Save considerably more by using coupons in conjunction with what’s on sale and use that to buy crafts or activities for the kids.

Bake your own pumpkin pie rather than pay for convenience. It’s so easy to buy crusts and canned pumpkin, then follow the recipe which usually makes two deep dish pies; all for the cost of one frozen pie.

Don’t go overboard with your decorations. Use nature or buy decorations on Black Friday a year in advance. Take advantage of nature’s beauty by putting pine cones in a bowl then spritz them with cinnamon oil. Or put small evergreen branches in a vase. Fill a wooden bowl with leaves of fall colors and magnolia. Martha Stewart will be jealous and proud.

Some grocery stores offer a free turkey with purchases over a certain dollar amount. If you’re purchasing your groceries at this store, a free turkey equals considerable savings, especially if it’s a 15-20 lb. bird. Stretch those dollars even further by getting multiple meals out of that free turkey. You can freeze the meat for future meals and casseroles.

Debbie Dragon is a freelance writer providing articles for billeater.com, a site that combines articles about saving money with real tools, like the ability to compare insurance quotes.

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3. Love Them or Hate Them, Make the Most of Gift Cards this Holiday Season

The holiday shopping season is upon us. Many consumers will be heading out stores soon to find the best deals on stuff they want or stuff they want to give others. “Stuff” has it’s place in this gift-giving season, but gift cards are actually one of my favorites items to give and to receive for most situations. I like gift cards because they’re a consumable gift and they take some of the hassle out of shopping. Gift cards aren’t without their downside though. Some people aren’t a fan of them, calling them restrictive and impersonal.

Whether you love them and give them out, or hate them but still get a few, here’s a few tips for making the most of your gift cards this holiday season:

Giving Gift Cards

If you’re the type that loves to give out gift cards, check out these tips:

Choosing Between Generic Card or Store Brand Cards

There are two basic categories when it comes to gift cards. Those that are basically like a prepaid credit card (generic), and store-specific cards. What type you get depends on the type of person you’re buying it for. The most hard to shop for group of people, teenagers, are also the one’s who would be most likely to want a generic gift card or even just cash. Any other person and you run the risk of seeming too impersonal. So, if you go generic, make sure it’s for a teenager.

For most everyone else, a store-specific card would be appropriate. Do your best to match the store with what you know about the person. If they’re a reader, give them an Amazon.com or book store gift card. If they like sports, consider a gift card to a sport apparel store, or to a ticketing website, where they can find tickets to all types of sporting events. Gift cards for consumable experiences (movies, restaurants, events) are always best in my opinion. I love gifts that don’t clutter up someone’s house.

However, please be careful what store you purchase your gift card for. Stores that go out of business or go bankrupt might not honor the card after a certain point. So aim for cards from stable companies.

Also, it’s important to note that some generic gift cards often come with fees. Stay away from these types.

Don’t Buy Gift Cards for These People

Unless they ask for it, I wouldn’t suggest getting a gift card for your significant other. This is the one person in the world that you should know exactly what to get and not resort to a card. Additionally, you wouldn’t want to get young kids a gift card either. Kids enjoy unwrapping actual gifts. Lastly, people who don’t go online or out that much wouldn’t have much use for a gift card either.

Use a Gift Card to Inspire

Gift cards can be used to inspire a person into certain actions that you or they desire. For instance, if you know someone who never takes the time to treat themselves, consider giving them a gift card to a spa or ice cream shop. Know someone who talks about learning a musical instrument or being more physically active? You can get gift cards for music lessons or sports/active programs.

Look for Kickbacks

Some gift cards come with an incentive for the person doing the giving. Last year I bought a $25 restaurant gift card, and received my own $10 card for free. It was for a place that I frequent, so I felt like it would be put to good use. You might consider this even if you aren’t giving the card away.

Receiving Gift Cards

If you receive a gift card this year, keep these points in mind:

What to do with Gift Cards You Don’t Want

Let’s say you get a gift card that you didn’t really want. For instance, you’re not a coffee drinker and you get a gift card from Starbucks. What a waste, right? Well consider these options:

• Re-gift the card to someone you know is a coffee drinker.
• Browse the various gifts, music, and food at your nearest Starbucks. There may be something besides coffee that you’ll like.
• Use one of the websites that will allow you to trade for a different card or send you a check for your unused gift cards.

Use Them or Lose Them

Unfortunately, some gift cards come with expiration dates. So make it a point to place all your gift cards in a highly visible spot so that you’re sure not to forget about them and let them expire.

Have any other tips related to gift cards? Share them in the comments below.

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Here are the actual results (in no particular order):

• I’d say it was a success! We actually made $3 at the end of the week.
• The Christmas cards were a purchase we already had planned and due to a sale price ending during the week we decided to make the purchase this week rather than next. Excuses, excuses, I know.
• The Craigslist sales and consignment shop money were quick money. As were the returns.
• The dinner on Friday night was a feast at Boston Market. They were running a $1 dinner special.
• We still have about $100 worth of items on Craigslist which hopefully will sell soon.

More thoughts about the week:

• It wasn’t that hard to eat more meals from home, thanks to Mrs. PT creating some excellent meal choice for us throughout the week. This made the meals outside the home more special.
• Earning extra money to spend wasn’t that difficult. While there might not always be things to return on hand, there seems to always be something lying around that we could sell on Craigslist. We have a bunch of clutter.
• The clothes consignment shop was easy money too. Although, the lady at the counter told me my styles (that didn’t sell) were “a bit dated.” I took that as a compliment and quickly dropped those items off at Goodwill.
• It didn’t take much planning to prevent those impulse convenient items.
• This is something we should do at least once a month. We really could use to do this sort of thing more often. Recently, we’d gotten lazy with our spending and we haven’t always made the conscious choice with our end goals in mind. This week helped us to be more aware about our spending and live more within our means.

So what do you think about our experiment results?

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1. A Money Experiment: A Week Without Spending
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Just a few more days till the end of the month, right? I’ll get paid and we’ll have a little more breathing room in the budget. You see, Mrs. PT and I have been saving aggressively over the past few months for some upcoming goals. We do our saving automatically, a few days after we get paid. That way we have the rest of the month to spend the remaining funds on whatever. This month, however, our aggressive saving and spending finally got the best of us. Now we’re running a bit low. So, instead of dipping into our savings or using debt, we are challenging ourselves to not spend any money this week.

One exception: If we earn extra money by selling something or by returning something and getting a refund we get to use that money however we like.

Because of the exception above, I made some moves over the weekend. I grabbed a few items around the house that we didn’t need anymore and listed them on Craigslist.org. Two have sold so far, giving us $38 dollars. We also brought some of our old clothes by a consignment store, which gave us an additional $10. That’s almost $50 to spend this week without having to dip into savings. And if a few more items sell, we’ll have even more cash. Sweet!

More thoughts going into this week:

1. I don’t pretend to think that this is going to be easy. We’ve gotten into the habit of spending when we feel like it. Especially dining out for lunch or dinner. So, believe it or not we normally spend a lot more than $50 on food in a week. It’s our biggest frivolous expense, you could say. Plus, we have all the other normal expenses to avoid: groceries, personal care, and convenience items. Although, I think the groceries will be easy since we have so much in our cupboard already.
2. I know some of you guys are a lot smarter with your spending, do this sort of thing all the time, and are probably laughing at me right now.
3. Hopefully we can do it successfully and get more in tune with our needs vs wants. I see it as a chance to get back to the basics.

I’ll report back on Friday and let you know how we did.

If you’d like to take on this experiment with me, let me know in the comments below. You can also follow along on Twitter for more timely updates.

If you’re tweeting too, use the hashtag #weekwithoutspending

Carnivals from the last two weeks:

Economy And Your Finances, Pecuniary Delights, Money Hacks, Frugality, Money Hacks, Twenty Somethings

© PT Money - Visit PT Money for more articles on saving money, frugality, and debt reduction.

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3. Go Cash Only for a Week

1. Interest rates: You might be surprised to learn that banks are sometimes willing to lower your interest rates on loans and credit cards if you just call them up and ask. Don’t ask for something completely unrealistic. Just explain your situation and ask for a lower rate that will make it easier for you to pay them back all their money.

2. Dining out: You don’t have to stop eating out altogether. Just choose one night out a week for enjoying a restaurant meal and choose a couple of appetizers instead of entrees to save money. Order water or sodas instead of alcohol, or if it’s a special occasion, head to a BYOB restaurant that lets you drink your own bottle of wine.

3. Groceries: Buy generic groceries and dry goods, and you can save more than a few dollars, depending on how long your list is. Limit your grocery shopping to one trip per week to avoid overspending and buying things just because you’re craving them.

4. Medicine: Buy generic brand drugs, too for major savings on medicine.

5. Pets: Your pet will be happier just playing with you in the yard than eating snacks or getting a new to every day, so limit how much you spoil your pet.

6. Transportation: Ride your bike, carpool, walk or take the bus a few times a week in place of regular commutes or errand running to save on gas.

7. Bar tab: Order domestic beers on tap and bottom shelf liquor at neighborhood hangouts if you’re just dying to get out. A better option is to buy your own bottle at a liquor store and mix drinks at home.

8. Electricity: Unplug your computer every night and turn up the A/C when you leave your house for major electricity savings that don’t affect your comfort or convenience. Open blinds during the day for natural light.

9. Phone bill: Get on the same plan as your family and cancel any phone lines you don’t need, like a landline. Editor note: I use Skype for my long distance. It’s free for computer to computer calls.

10. Clothing: Buy what you need and try to buy on sale or with an online discount or coupon.

11. Gifts: The next time you see a “buy two get one free” sale, scoop up all three and save them for gifts. Send cards if you just can’t afford to buy a gift for every friend or family member’s birthday – there’s no shame in it.

12. Rent: Negotiate with your landlord, especially if you live in a single family home or a duplex, if he or she raises the rent or you want it lowered because of long running maintenance issues, security problems or a bad economy.

13. Food: Buy items in bulk that you can freeze, and follow portion guides to make food last longer.

14. Exercise: Give up your gym membership and find cheaper ways to exercise: organize an intramural football team, go for a run, or buy a couple of workout DVDs that you can use over and over.

15. Laundry: Hand wash delicate items to lighten your regular loads and hang up clothes to dry instead of wasting electricity or quarters on a dryer.

This post was contributed by Rose Jensen, who writes about online courses. She welcomes your feedback at Rose.Jensen28@yahoo.com.

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No one likes paying overdraft fees. Banks charged these fees to customers who they’ve had to bail out for spending more money than they have in their accounts. Banks have also somewhat taken advantage of this relationship and piled on the fees once things go in the negative. It’s not pretty. But this ugliness can be avoided. First, by never spending more than you have (duh!). But also by putting in controls to help protect yourself from the occasional slip up.

Opt Out – Beginning today, Bank of America and Chase bank allow you to opt out of their debit card overdraft programs. By opting out, instead of incurring a $35 or $40 fee, you’ll be stopped at the register next time you try and use your debit card and don’t have the funds. They’ve also made some changes to the way they tack on the additional overdraft fees once the account is already in the negative. Nice changes for us dumb consumers.

Get Overdraft Protection – Some banks will let you connect a second account (savings or credit) to your checking account. This is called Overdraft Protection. When you spend more than you have, funds are transferred to cover the difference. Fees are usually less with this type of protection vs the normal overdraft program, which uses the banks borrowed funds.

Create Alerts – Most banks now offer a low-balance alert feature. When your balance reaches a designated dollar amount $100 for instance, you are alerted by text message or email. Money management software (like Quicken Online) also features this at a more advanced level, with predictive type alerts. Your past spending trend and expected deposits are used to predict when your money is likely to run out.

Go Cash Only – This isn’t for everyone. But if you have a problem constantly spending more money than you have in your bank, you likely need a stronger control. Dump the debt card and roll with cash only. Spending with cash only has been known to help some curb their spending as well.

Use a Different Bank – The big banks are convenient for their locations. There’s nothing wrong with using these banks for some of your banking: making check deposits comes to mind. Still, you can find a great bank that will give you a debit card and won’t charge you overdraft fees. ING DIRECT’s Electric Orange account is my spending account. They don’t charge overdraft fees. They simply start charging you daily interest on the negative balance. This is peanuts compared to a $35 hit for each overdraft.

Have you ever been hit with an overdraft fee? How did you change your behavior? Do you have some other tips to avoid fees?

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I recently signed back up with cable TV service. As regular readers know, I’ve been without paid TV service for over a year now. I canceled my Dish Network last fall while competing in the FNBO Direct Pay Yourself First Challenge. There were several reasons I canceled. But the main two were cost and time. It just wasn’t worth paying for something that I wasn’t watching that much of anyway.

As I mentioned, when I canceled I had service with Dish Network. This time around I chose Time Warner because I wanted TV service without a contract. Something Dish was unable to do. Also Time Warner ended up giving me a sweet deal on a cable / internet bundle. We’d been having trouble with ATT internet, so I decided it was a good move. Another reason I chose Time Warner is because ATT never got around to installing uVerse in my neighborhood. You could have had me, ATT!

Anyway, I have mixed feelings about this recent retreat back into the world of paid TV. The past few days have been good in that I’ve been able to catch up on shows that I’ve been missing. Not to mention watch most of the season-opening NFL games. I’ve really enjoyed it.

But I’ve also seen some negatives, in that other areas of my life begin to take a back seat when cable TV is around: family time, exercise, sleep, and blogging, to name a few.

I’ll discuss one of those briefly. Building this blog wasn’t easy. I didn’t do it by sitting in front of the TV every night for the past year watching reruns of Dog the Bounty Hunter. I’ve been hard at work on this site. And having no TV helped me make that happen.

That’s not meant to disparage anyone that watches TV every night (or Dog). It’s just a testimony that you can do something else with your time, make some extra money, and still find time with a little bit of TV. I also said that to motivate myself to not get caught up in too much TV, lest this blog’s content suffer.

So as a nice reminder to you and I, I thought I’d put together a quick guide to keep TV from stealing our money and our lives:

Just Say No

Consider going cold turkey with the paid tube. There’s plenty of TV available over the air for free that will keep you busy for an hour a day (a good limit). You can even watch some shows online. Mrs. PT and I got by using these two methods. You didn’t think I was going to totally let my newly purchased flat screen TV go to waste, did you?

Going without paid service is not for everyone. But if you want to watch less TV and get more done, this is a good compromise. Or, you could make bold move and remove all the TVs from your house. Simply force yourself to spend time doing other things.

Get a DVR

If you’re not into going without TV, then consider a DVR. The Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or Tivo is one of favorite inventions of the last decade. Watch only the shows you want to watch, when you want to watch them, and skip all the commercials. It’s really how TV was meant to be watched. If you’re going to have TV, this for me, is a must have. A huge time saver.

Drop the Extras

While you’re signing up for DVR, make sure you not paying for some other services that you aren’t using? Are you even watching all those premium channels? If not, call up your service provider and have them removed.

Threaten to Cancel or Change Service

If you’re going to keep your service, make sure you’re getting the best deal you can. The cost of TV service varies greatly from person to person. It’s likely the only thing stopping you from getting a lower monthly TV bill is you calling in and asking for it. Scan your local paper or look in your junk mail for a competing TV service offer. With that in hand, call up your current provider and discuss getting a better deal. Be nice and simply ask for a better monthly fee that can compete. They’ll do a lot to keep you on as a customer.

Combine Services

One area of savings that’s often overlooked is the bundling of services. Having your phone, internet, and TV all with one provider can help save a nice amount each month.

Set Limits

Lastly, set limits for yourself on the amount of TV you watch each day. This is especially important if you have kids. Life’s best enjoyed when we keep things in moderation. And TV is no exception. As a family, decide on a good limit (1 hour is enough to help you veg out for a bit). More importantly, find something else to do with your time: read, talk, walk, organize, build something, write, create, etc… Having something to fill the void is what’s going to keep you tuned into life and tuned out on TV.

Is TV stealing your time and money? Let me hear from you in the comments below…

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My wife really is a great compliment to my approach to money management. These days, I tend to focus on the big wins (the mortgage, alternative income streams, investing), as well as setting up automated systems to help us achieve our goals. Once those big things are in place and working on their own, I’m mostly content to just “spend the rest”.

Mrs. PT, on the other hand, is excellent with the day-to-day choices that help us avoid lifestyle inflation and busting our budget. This skill comes in handy now that we’re living on one income. Here are a few of the ways she helps us reach our financial goals, frugal-style:

1. Taking Advantage of Freebies - Dining out is a big expense of ours. Mrs. PT helps cut that expense in half by suggesting places where we can dine 2 for 1, or even eat for free with a coupon. She doesn’t go over board here. She only finds us the freebies that apply to the places where we’re already spending. She’s not cheap (although she wouldn’t be offended at the comment), she simply aims to get the best price for the things we’re already paying for.

2. Returning Things We Don’t Use – Fair warning to all the stores: Just because Mrs. PT buys something from you, doesn’t mean it’s a final sale. She gives every piece of clothing the at-home fashion show test (I am required to attend these “shows”). She does a great job of holding on to receipts and packaging for the things we purchase in case the product doesn’t work or fit. And she makes the effort to do the returns and get our money back. I realize that most people don’t make this big effort and things just end up sitting around till they’re thrown away or shipped off to Goodwill.

3. Taking Care of Our Stuff – My wife keeps our stuff clean and in working order. Taking pride in the things you own and making them last is a big part of living a more frugal life, in my opinion.

4. Repair Things When They Break – When things do wear out or break down, she’s quick to look for a way to extend their life, or to get them fixed. For instance, our old pocket camera recently stopped working. She found the repair policy on the Sony website and determined she could get it fixed for free (minus a shipping charged). We now have the refurbished camera and can either sell it, or continue to use it as a second camera.

5. Value Time with Others Over Things – This point is definitely a bit more abstract that the 4 specific points above. But this is huge for helping us to be able to live within our means. It’s this overall attitude really that allows her to make the other choices above. She cares about the other people in her life and invests her time and energy into them, seeking happiness there, instead of focusing on things.

In what ways does your spouse compliment your approach to managing your finances? I encourage you today to think about those ways and thank your spouse for his/her efforts.

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Because Google bases their suggestions on data from what people actually search for, I’m assuming this is a list of the most searched for terms that begin with “buy a” and “sell my”. Pretty cool, huh?

What People Want to Buy

People are taking to the Internet and using the ole Google machine to potentially spend their hard-earned money on the following items:

A Monkey?! Really!? Are that many people looking to buy a monkey? Sometimes you amaze me, Google Box. Scratch that “most searched for” assumption above. More thoughts:

• Be wary of buying a star online. Jim from Bargaineering says, the “International Star Registry Is A Ripoff“.
• If you need to buy a domain name and host a website, I recommend BlueHost.
• Need help deciding what kind of car to buy? See “Should You Buy a New or Used Car?”
• Thinking of buying a house? Might as well “Buy Your House the Right Way” and get the “$8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit“.

What People Need to Sell

Times are tough. Lots of folks are selling these days. Let’s peek at some of the things they want to cash in on:

In case you didn’t know, “wow” stands for World of Warcraft, the extremely popular online role playing game. It appears that the popularity of the game has led to a side market of buying and selling accounts. Accounts can sell in the thousands. More thoughts:

• Seeing timeshare on the sell list and not on the buy list (as apposed to cars and houses) likely indicates the buyer has all the power in that market. It is apparently not a good time to be selling a timeshare. Is there ever a good time? Head’s up, another scam alert: “Why Timeshare Resale Scams Don’t Deliver.”
• Would you ever sell your hair? This was listed as one of my “52 Ways to Make Extra Money.”
• The last few items look like prime Craig’s List and eBay material: books, textbooks, cell phones, and the much desired “stuff”. Actually, Mrs. PT’s been selling her old textbooks on Amazon. She’s promised a guest post on that soon.

Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got here. Have a great weekend.

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I recently shared some time management tips over at the Quicken Blog. I centered my tips around the use of a simple prioritized to-do list, and a calendar to help drive an effective use of your time.

I realize to make this work, most people in the corporate world will probably use some combination of MS Outlook Calendar and Tasks (or a simple text editor). Most “offline” people likely use a simple piece of paper and a daily planner to manage their time.

But what about freelancers? Or what if the offline folks are looking to come online, but don’t have access to Outlook? What are some good options for them?

I did some research and discovered (thanks to FreelanceSwitch.com and go2web20.net) that there are actually a ton of free online time management tools. Here’s some of the one’s that looked worth while. All should be free or in some type of beta.

Free Online To Do Lists

“Todoist features a simple and intuitive interface that helps you get organized without getting in your way. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to achieve blazing efficiency.” It also comes with a built-in calendar. http://todoist.com

 ”Ta-da List is the web’s easiest to-do list tool. Make lists for yourself or share them with others. It couldn’t be simpler.” This also works on a mobile browser. Looks pretty lean and mean. Nice app. http://tadalist.com/

“Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.” This is a very popular tool. Probably the most recognizable of the bunch here. http://www.evernote.com/

 ”ForceDo is a free online to do list. You can add as many tasks as you want and start a timer which will force you to get things done. ForceDo will help you beat your procrastination.” This is another tool that uses the getting things done methods. http://www.forcedo.com/

 ”Manage tasks quickly and easily. Get reminded, anywhere. Organize the way you want to. Locate your tasks. Work together to get things done. Add tasks wherever you are.” This looks to be a great tool for task management. If you’re looking for something compatible with other programs choose this one, http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Free Online Calendars (and more)

 Touted as the World’s best online calendar, 30 Boxes comes with access to your own calendar page that allows you to quickly add in your calendar items. The tool does a lot more and is big on connectivity with friends and family. http://30boxes.com/

 Create events, set reminders, connect with others. This tool does it all and if you’re already a Gmail user, it makes the most sense to go with this calendar. http://www.google.com/calendar

 ”Matchbox Calendar is an online calendar which allows you to share and plan events in your life.Plan events, Read news, Organize timetables, Arrange meetings, Integrate your calendar, Share your calendar with friends.” http://www.matchboxcalendar.com/

“A reminding service.You add events on important dates or subscribe to shared groups. myMemorizer will then send you a reminder as an e-mail or as a SMS/Text Message to your cellphone.” http://www.mymemorizer.com/

 ”Soshiku is a simple but powerful tool that manages your high school or college assignments. Soshiku keeps track of when your assignments are due and can even notify you via email or SMS.” http://www.soshiku.com/

Free Online Time Tracking

 ”RescueTime is a tool that allows you to easily understand and optimize how you and/or your team spends their time and attention. You install a small application on the computer and they magically track what software and which web sites are actively being used.” http://www.rescuetime.com/

Free Online Project Management

 Thymer is currently in beta. I’m not a project manager, but this tool looks really cool. “Thymer has a novel one-page-design, uses Natural Language Processing to figure out what you want, and has a lightweight, intuitive and powerful interface that makes common tasks as simple as humanly possible. http://www.thymer.com/

Easily organize your actions and projects online with this neat tool based on the getting things done concept. Has a nice iPhone app to accompany the tool. The free version is somewhat limited. http://vitalist.com/

More Free Time Management Tools

 ”Nirvana is all about getting things out of your head and into a trusted system, then effortlessly drilling down to the thing you should be doing right now.” http://www.nirvanahq.com/

 ”To-do’s are too simple, calendars are overly complex, sometimes you just need to be reminded. Superminder is a micro-application that will make sure you don’t forget.” http://www.superminder.com/

Do you use any of these tools, or know of more free online time management tools? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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