MoneySmart

As mentioned in today's Money Smart cover story, online deal site fatwallet.com has a good discussion of freebies available on your birthday from restaurants and other retailers. Follow that discussion here.

Many retail stores have brought back layaway--the trusty, incremental payment method of old. And now it's available for online purchases, too.

Sites such as eLayaway.com and Lay-Away.com serve as middlemen for companies such as the Apple Store and KitchenAid, allowing folks to pay for items a little bit at a time before taking possession of them.

The service was revived after credit card companies tightened up on personal credit and recession-battered consumers gave up credit cards altogether.

---Samantha Maziarz Christmann