According to a recent study in the journal PLoS ONE, we end up throwing away an astonishing 40% of the food from our fridge and cabinets, usually because they expire before we eat them. Luckily, there’s an easy way to make use of all your food before it goes bad: Log onto supercook.com and simply type in the ingredients you have in your kitchen. You’ll be given hundreds of links to easy recipes for soups, appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts that use all those items so they don’t go to waste.
[photo: carolyn.will]
Loved the sunglasses Michelle Rodriguez wore in Avatar? The palm tree pendant Kate Hudson donned in Fool’s Gold? 
It could be a lot if you didn’t look carefully at your store receipts before chucking them. Many retailers and restaurants—such as J.C. Penney, Old Navy, Home Depot and Panda Express—print a website link and special access code on some receipts that leads you to a short online survey. Answer the questions—which are typically about your most recent shopping trip—and you’ll be rewarded with 10% to 25% off your next purchase or entered into a sweepstakes to win a cash prize. But act fast—most access codes expire within days of your purchase.
When you want to make a family member or friend happy on their birthday or simply thank someone for their love and support, which gift do you think they’d like more:
Think it’s strange when a salesperson keeps you talking about your personal life instead of plugging the product you’re considering purchasing? He or she may simply be fishing to find something you share in common, such as the same birthdate, hometown or hobby. And for good reason! A study out of the University of British Columbia shows that we’re far more likely to purchase a product when we have something in common with the salesperson who’s selling it. That’s because we all have a fundamental desire to connect with others, and having something in common creates this connection, making you feel closer and more trusting of the other person instantly, the resesarchers explain.
1. Get group discounts: Every day, 
Love to fill your home with beautiful flowers, but hate how fast they wither? “It’s easy to get five to seven more days out of your favorite buds,” says New York City floral and garden designer Rebecca Cole (
Next time you need to make a purchase (such as a car, appliance or new home), watch out if the salesperson does this: He begins by flooding you with facts, technical jargon and even nonsense words. Then 
Think you know a bargain when you see one? Maybe not! A study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that by simply making the right-hand digit of a sale price smaller, your brain perceives the discount as larger than it really is. For instance, an item on sale for $211 from the original price of $222 is perceived to be a better deal than an item on sale for $188 from an original price of $199—even though both discounts are $11. So keep a calculator handy the next time you go bargain hunting!
And the savings aren’t only on items at tag sales. A national study by Consumer Reports finds that more than 90% of folks who asked for a better price got it on brand-new 
Trying to tally your grocery bill as you shop? Need to cut a recipe by one-third? Stumped by your kid’s homework assignment? Try talking aloud as you do the math. When researchers from the University of Granada in Spain videotaped students working on tough math problems, those who spoke aloud while doing the equations found the correct answers faster than those who did the problems in their head. This easy technique helps you understand the problem better and come up with new ways to reach the right solution, the researchers say.