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As one of the most talked about shopping days of the year, it’s no wonder thousands and thousands of people wake up early and make the trek to their favorite department store in search of great deals. But, will it really save you a lot of money?

In a word, yes. But only if you’re properly prepared. Just as you can find great deals on Black Friday, you can also get sucked into deals that aren’t as great — and probably not worth the stress you’ll go through fighting the crowds.

Below, we’ve put together some of the top myths about saving money on Black Friday — and why you shouldn’t believe them.

Myth #1: All Of The Best Sales are In the Wee Hours of the Morning

While many times this is true, you can also find some pretty great deals late on Thanksgiving night or later in the day on Friday – without waking up early to stand in line with thousands of other shoppers. Check your local paper and it’s likely you’ll find some great deals that are happening later in the day.

Read on for more Black Friday myths.

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Of the mail you receive—both electronic and otherwise—how much is legit, and how much is junk? That’s what we thought. According to various sources, something like 90 percent of all email is spam, and direct-marketing mail makes up more than half of U.S. Post Office volume. Then there are telemarketers. (Remember them?) Here’s how to lighten the load.

This is for you: If you’re overwhelmed by junk mail, junk email, and unwanted telephone calls.

Cost: Varies, depending on the services you use and whether you’d like to donate to the services that are free. (But probably $20 or less.)

Hands-on time: Varies, depending on how many services you decide to unsubscribe from

Total time: Same

What you’ll need:

• An Internet-connected computer
• Some idea of the catalogs and junk mail senders you’d like to block

What to do:

1. Put all of your phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry to prevent telemarketers from contacting you. Note: If you’ve done business with or donated to an organization, they still have permission to contact you unless you expressly ask the company to take you off its calling list.

2. Consider a service like CatalogChoice.org to remove your name from catalog and other direct mailing lists. Remove yourself from specific catalogs for free, and remove yourself from all direct mail marketing lists for a $20 annual fee.

Read on for more.

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Gadgets are supposed to make our lives easier. Take smartphones, for example, which have given us countless applications and the ability to do just about anything on the go. And then there are the gadgets that are either pointless, or on its way to becoming obsolete. Here are 10. First up:

Expensive Headphones

You don't need studio-quality headphones unless you're a record producer, and online reviews of expensive headphones have shown that a lot of people can't tell a lot of difference between a $50 pair and a $200 pair. I own a pair of headphones that I use at work that cost less than $30, and have done an excellent job of blocking out noise when I'm trying to focus.

Popcorn maker

Why spend $30 or more on an electric popcorn maker when a microwavable bag does the trick? Unless you're pumping out popcorn like a movie theater, this kitchen gadget is just taking up space in your cupboard.

Digital Camera

Once upon a time, digital cameras were powerful enough to make Kodak film a thing of the past. Now, everyone has high quality camera options on their smartphones, and digital cameras are becoming obsolete. If you really want to take great photos, a digital SLR is the way to go, but for everyday photo-taking, your phone will do just fine.

High tech toys

Do you or your child really need a $450 robotic dinosaur walking around your house bumping into things? Didn't think so.

Read on for more gadgets you should skip.

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We're always talking about saving money, but sometimes spending money can help you save more in the long run. Here are 10 instances doling out cash can help you add more to your savings.

Do a big weekly grocery shop

I like to cook, but I'm a little lazy about buying groceries. It's hard to drop a lot of money on food all at once! When I do a big shop, it always seems like I'm spending so much money. Last week, for instance, the tab came to over $100 for two people. But, when I get lazy and don't do a grocery shop, I wind up going back to the store four or five times in a week, and end up spending even more than I would if I had just bought all my food for the week at once. Plan a few meals and make yourself go to the grocery store once a week.

Resole your shoes

I once had a pair of $150 boots that sat around for two years without once seeing the light of day because the soles had worn down. They were my favorite pair of boots, but I figured they were probably done for. I actually bought two other pairs of boots — and was going for a third when the light bulb went off — just get my old boots resoled! It cost about $50 and they feel like a whole new pair of boots. Save money on excessive numbers of shoes by getting your old pair resoled.

Read on for more.

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You're a good grownup. You have health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, and homeowner's insurance. Life can throw anything your way, and you'll be covered! Well, not anything. Each of the insurance plans that you pay premiums for every month have caveats and asterisks and fine print. Here are ten surprising things that you insurance probably doesn't cover.

• Stuff in your car. If your car is broken into, your comprehensive coverage will replace the broken window. What it won't replace is anything that got jacked. The property in your car is covered instead by your homeowner's or renter's insurance, if you have it.
• Nuclear disaster. If you live near a nuclear power plant and it has a meltdown and you are forced to abandon your house, your homeowner's insurance will not cover it.

  Your shrink. Some health insurance policies have mental health coverage, but many do not. Before you get too comfortable on the therapist's couch, double check to see who will be paying for it.

Read on for more.

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When I first graduated, I did some things right with my money (lived cheaply, didn't get into a lot of debt), but I also did some things wrong (didn't ask for raises, borrowed too much money from my parents, didn't save any money for several years). If you're graduating and just starting off, here's some money tips to get you started, from someone who went through what the young graduates of today are going through.

Don't pretend your student loans don't exist

I'm not saying you should become overly worried about your loans right after you graduate, but don't pretend they don't exist! You usually have a six-month interest-free deferment period before you have to start repaying them, so take that time to get organized. Figure out what your monthly payments will be, and start taking the steps to be prepared to repay them when the time comes. Bundle has many articles for dealing with student loan debt, so be sure to read about them if you need extra help.

Don't spend big money going out every night on food and drinks

This is definitely the time of your life to live it up as a twenty-something, but it's also not the best idea to spend all your extra income at the bar every night. You would be surprised how much money you'll save by limiting how much you spend at restaurants and bars. Find ways to live it up for less: Throw house parties, potlucks, brunches, and when you do go out, have the $2 PBR instead of the $8 cocktail — at least sometimes.

Read on for more rules.

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Freelancing can be an exciting and rewarding path for many people. You get to call the shots — accept or decline assignments, enjoy greater degree of flexibility in your schedule, and develop diversified streams of income. But there are also many things that freelancers have to worry about: health insurance, invoicing, saving for retirement, etc. Here are 10 money moves you can make to ensure that your freelance career is well-positioned for success.

Have an emergency fund

Most personal finance experts recommend 3-6 months worth of living expenses stashed away, but for freelancers, it might be more prudent to aim for a bigger, 6-9 months emergency fund. Jamie Beckman, New York-based freelance writer and author of The Frisky 30-Day Breakup Guide, saved about seven months' worth of money in an emergency fund before she took the freelance leap. "In retrospect, I'd probably recommend saving more than that just in case," said Jamie, "I was able to get a good amount of work right off the bat, so I haven't been dependent on my savings (knock on wood!), but having a healthy financial cushion buys me peace of mind. I also have a few mutual funds that I can cash out in an emergency, but I'd rather not dip into those unless my situation is dire."

Read on for more tips for freelancers.

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Struggling under a pile of credit card bills? Reducing your multiple monthly payments to one may seem tempting. Just one payment to keep track of! Just one balance! If you're in the market for decluttering your finances, walk this way.

This is for you: If you're juggling multiple credit card payments every month and would rather make one payment on one large balance.

This isn't for you: If you don't have your spending under control. Consolidating your debt only makes sense if you have a sensible payoff plan. If you're still charging things to plastic and adding to your debt every month, moving your debt around won't make a bit of difference — and reducing your monthly payments could actually make you feel like you have the license to charge more. Get your spending under control before embarking on this plan.

Hands-on time: Less than two hours to research cards, apply for a card, and transfer your balances onto that card.

Total time: Up to a few weeks for the balances to transfer from your old cards to your new one.

Cost: $0 if you're really, really lucky, but probably 3 to 5 percent of the balances you're transferring—that's the average balance transfer fee being charged these days. As long as you're lowering the total interest rate on your debt by more than 3 to 5 percent, you're saving money in the end. (If you're moving the balance to a card with a similar interest rate, you won't save money. Consider how much you're paying for the convenience of one monthly payment.)

Read on to find out how to consolidate your credit card debt.

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It is better to save, than it is to spend — that's usually a winning (and smart!) mantra to live by. But there are actually some things that are worth the extra dollars in cost. Here are 10 of them.

• Service. Consumers like to complain about the terrible service they get from certain companies — cell phone and cable TV providers, for example, or dry cleaners and tailors. Ever have to fight with customer service on the phone over a dispute on your cell phone bill? Ever pick up a pair of pants from the tailor only to later discover that your hemlines were uneven? Had a bad haircut? It's worth it to pay more for quality service. People who are skilled in their craft generally charge more for their expertise, and people are willing to pay for a good experience — especially if that means having a bad experience that the service provider is willing to quickly make right for you for free. That's priceless.
• Direct flights. We're used to going onto sites like expedia.com or kayak.com to find the cheapest airfare for wherever we want to go, but it's often worth it to pay the extra money for a direct flight. Not only do you avoid the hassle of having to transfer planes at a layover, you save the precious time you could be spending more efficiently at your destination. I'd pay $50 or $100 more for a flight in a heartbeat if that means six extra hours with my family and friends during the holidays instead of snacking on overpriced airport food in the middle of nowhere waiting to get on the second leg of a flight.
• Closet basics. There's absolutely no reason you should spend $200 on a pair of designer jeans. But a good, durable pair of jeans from a retailer like Levi's, which produces them for around $50, can last much longer than cheaper brands from big box stores. The key word here is basics: You don't want to spend a lot on whatever is "in" now, but stuff that you can wear no matter what year it is: A nice suit that will work for both a job interview or a wedding. A nice pair of shoes that can be dressed up or down. A white dress shirt you can wear to work or a night out. One nice coat to get you through many many winters. Spending money on quality basics means you'll have things to wear for a long time without ever going out of style, and that actually saves money in the long run.

Read on for more things worth paying more for.

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I'd like to believe that I've perfectly honed my ability to spend money in a way that benefits me now — and will continue to do so in the future. However, just when I think I've got it all figured out, that's when the rug is pulled out from under my checking account (so to speak). Little slip-ups here and there seem harmless and unavoidable but when I really step back and examine my financial decision-making on a daily basis, I notice that there are plenty of areas still left to improve. If you're anything like me, you might need to work on them, too.

Buying brand names

While there are definite differences between certain brand name products and their cheaper generic counterparts, most of the time, there is absolutely no discernible distinction apart from the packaging and the inflated price. Toasted Oats are just as good as Cheerios and nobody will ever know the thrifty secret (especially if you're one of those people who transfers all dry cereal to a plastic container rather than saving the box).

Overspending on your car

Most contemporary cars are designed to use regular gas and putting premium fuel into that system will not improve the car's performance in any way (think of it as the mechanical version of the misguided belief that "well, beta carotene can help prevent night blindness so if I eat a ton of carrots, my eyesight will never stop improving"). Conversely, cars designed to run on premium will not find any sort of drop-off with regular gas. So why pay more for the same results?

Additionally, many modern cars can traditionally go longer between oil changes (especially if you're using synthetic oil), meaning you don't need to make as many costly trips to the mechanic. A better idea for constant vehicle maintenance is to just monitor your tire pressure to ensure you're getting the best gas mileage possible in between those actually necessary oil changes.

Read on for more ways we're wasting money.

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Twentysomethings and even teens just starting out in the workforce may aspire to become young billionaires like Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and retire early. But any retiree could tell you it's not as easy as youd hope.

The real trick to a comfortable retirement is to get serious and start early, ideally before home ownership and kids take center stage.

Pitfall #1: Starting too late

Young people should start saving now. Even if you wait till your mid-30s, you might not have enough to retire at 65. The younger you start saving, the more time you have to watch your savings grow. And the earlier you want to retire, the earlier you should start investing for retirement.

Pitfall #2: Assuming you can choose your retirement age

Would you rather retire early or retire comfortably? is it really retirement if youre in your 60s, 70s or 80s and you spend half of your day working? The definition of the word retirement is changing, according to Barclays Wealth.

And theres no guarantee that youll be able to stay in the workforce as long as you want to. Americans in their 50s have been forced out of the job market during a struggling economy and others have been forced to compete for positions traditionally filled by young whipper snappers.

Pitfall #3: Not expecting to live that long

When youre young, it may not be pleasant to imagine yourself as a retiree, but thats something youll have to do if you want to take an accurate look of your long-term financial picture and decide how much youll need to afford the kind of retirement you want.

The average life expectancy is about 78 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But keep in mind that a man who's 60 years old right now has a 20 percent chance of living to 95 and a 60 year old woman has a 30 percent chance, Wachovia advises.

Read on for more retirement traps.

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Just a few short years ago, it was inconceivable that American shoppers would start to give up paying with plastic. But in the wake of one of the worst economic crises in history, more people are choosing to kick credit cards to the curb. During last year’s Black Friday shopping, about half as many consumers paid with plastic as had the previous year, according to America’s Research Group. And credit card ownership dropped to 67 percent in 2010 from 71 percent in 2008.

What’s it like to live your life off the credit card grid? Is it liberating? Inconvenient? Will your friends think you’re weird? I chatted with a few cash-only converts to find out. Here’s what they said:

You’ll spend less. Ditching credit cards will re-tool your financial perspective like nothing else. All of a sudden, it’s literally impossible to spend beyond your means. If you don’t have the money, you can’t squander it — period. “There’s a definite difference in spending when you use a credit card than when you use a debit card,” says Adam Baker, 26, author of ManVsDebt.com and currently credit card free. “When you’re spending with a credit card, you say, ‘How am I going to pay this off at the end of the month?’ With a debit card, you have to say, ‘Do I have enough money for this in my account?’” In fact, this Bundler spent less after he froze his credit cards into a block of ice.

Read on to find out what it's like to live without credit cards.

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If I have to read one more argument about why college isn't worth the cost anymore for the available jobs out there today, my head is going to explode.

College is worth it. Yes, I know: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of college and now they are filthy rich. They are a rare breed. They are geniuses who were smart enough to get into schools like Harvard in the first place. If you are smart enough to get into Harvard, but know you can make a billion dollars by working on your tech startup, sure, college isn't worth it. But you can also go to Princeton, graduate, and then start Amazon.com like Jeff Bezos did. Or you can go to college and then get an M.B.A. and start eBay like Meg Whitman.

Need other arguments on why college is worth it? Here's a few more.

Studying the right field pays off

Certain majors have more earning power than others. Engineering majors, for example, learn technical skills that earn them median earnings of $75,000, so going to college to pursue these degrees are well worth it.

If the point of going to college is to get a well-paying job, don't become a psychology major — studies show that psychology alumni don't work in areas that pay a lot of money. Of course, money isn't everything. Students should study what they're passionate about — they just need to be realistic about whether their passions are worth their earning potentials.

Read on for more reasons to go to college.

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Two-thirds of generic foods match or beat their name-brand counterparts in taste tests, according to a report, but Americans are still hesitant to give up the familiar names or logos they love to save a few bucks. For a household that spends $100 a week on groceries, store brands can mean a savings of $1,500 a year, Consumer Reports says. Here are 10 safe bets for buying generic.

• Cereal: Store-brand cereal and oatmeal don't leave you wanting better crunch or flavor. Kroger brand Frosted Shredded Wheat and Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal are always in my cabinet!
• Baking supplies: Basic pantry staples like salt, baking powder, baking soda, dried milk powder, and graham cracker crumbs can be deeply discounted and don’t function or taste differently.
• Cream cheese: Whether it's bricks of cream cheese for baking, or tubs of the whipped stuff for bagels in the morning, that rich, creamy flavor is identical to Philadelphia brand.
• Cookie dough: Kroger cookie dough often goes on sale for about $1. Out of curiosity, I tried out a bunch of varieties — peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal cranberry, and they all baked beautifully and tasted delicious.
• Granola bars: Like their versions of name-brand cereal, the generics do a pretty good job. They may look a little different than Special K bars, Nature Valley Granola bars, NutriGrain bars and Chewy granola bars, but the taste is more similar than you think.

For more off-brand products to buy, read on.

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Getting a roommate is a great way to share costs and lower rent. But living with someone is not always easy, as these roommate horror stories illustrate.

One way you can limit problems is by creating a roommate agreement. This is a formal document that spells out living arrangements and responsibilities. It may sound odd to create a legal contract, but it is often a sensible idea. Here are three reasons why.

1. A lease is not good enough

A lease is an important document, but it's limited in its focus. A lease typically specifies legal obligations between a landlord and the tenants as a whole, focusing on rent collection and length of term. A roommate agreement, by contrast, is a document between tenants. It can cover issues a lease cannot, like how to split up utilities, how to pay for groceries, and whether someone can keep an overnight guest.

2. You can avoid miscommunication

By making a roommate agreement, you have a chance to make sure everyone is on the same page. It is a good time to bring up any personal preferences.

Here are a few important issues that should be discussed.

• How to split rent, utilities, groceries
• Level of cleanliness and required chores
• Policy for overnight guests
• Whether to allow smoking, firearms, etc.
• What happens if someone moves out

While it's impossible to specify every issue, discussing house rules early helps avoid surprises. And if a serious issue ever happens, you will at least have something written to help make your case.

Read on to see samples of roommate agreements.