With so many retailers offering pre-Black Friday sales, Thanksgiving Day sales and of course Black Friday deals, you might have forgotten about the upcoming Cyber Monday sales!

Even though many stores are trying to keep their Cyber Monday sales under wraps until after Black Friday we found several places to go looking for the best bargains on Cyber Monday.

First off is the CouponShack which has a large collection of Cyber Monday coupon codes for Kohl's and many other small retailers who are offering Cyber Monday specials.

RetailMeNot is another great place to look for Cyber Monday discounts. The RetailMeNot Cyber Monday page currently has some coupons from last Cyber Monday mixed in but there are still some geed deals to be found. You can also install the browser toolbar for FireFox or Internet Explorer and be alerted coupons for any store you visit.

Chances are you're enmeshed in stuffing turkey, prepping pies and getting ready to set your Thanksgiving Day feast table. And if visions of getting up tomorrow at the crack of dawn to pop a turkey in the oven or to polish your grandmother's silver sound familiar, you're not alone. Scores of turkeys, platters and pies will be carefully tended to tomorrow in the hopes of presenting family and friends with a delightfully delicious meal.

But like any good cook, you know that the presentation can be just as important as the taste, which means you've got to set and decorate your Thanksgiving table. It also usually means needing to run to the store to buy table decorations you'll most likely use just once or twice. And that's an expense you don't need to incur.

While most of us are preoccupied with gorging ourselves on turkey and stuffing, it can be easy to forget about the growing number of people who are struggling just to eat one meal a day. In fact, a recent government survey found that more than one in seven U.S. households are finding it difficult to afford putting food on the table.

Those 14.5% of U.S. households, representing about 49 million people, make up the highest rate of "food-insecure" households since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began monitoring the issue in 1995. As the recession has deepened, so has the number of people using food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, with participation growing by 23% in the last year, according to Hans Billger of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The situation would be far worse if not for food pantries and federal food assistance programs, such as SNAP. For the nearly 35.9 million people who receive SNAP benefits, they're a lifeline to survival. In July, more people were using SNAP benefits than at any other time in the history of the program.

The average SNAP benefit for one person is $101.53 per month with a maximum of $200. For a household of four, the average benefit is $226.59 per month (the maximum benefit is $668 per month). WalletPop recently spoke with a few families who rely on food stamps to find out just how hard it is to stretch their resources and put healthy meals on the table.

If you're entertaining over the holidays, make sure you save yourself some money by following these simple money saving tips inspired by Jeannette Pavini, the Household Savings Expert of Coupons.com.

Simplify Your Ingredients: If a recipe this Thanksgiving calls for creme fraiche, use Greek yogurt instead. Take a look at your menu to see what simpler, more affordable ingredients you can sub in for the fancier stuff. Instead of serving the entire bird, save money by serving turkey breasts. This will also save you money on your energy bill, since it takes less time to cook, and it saves you from all those turkey leftovers. Don't forget to ask for day-old-bread -- you'll get a deep discount on the price and it's just as good if you warm it in the oven or use it for making croutons.

Black Friday deals are already appealing, with plenty of Black Friday laptop deals and clothing deals and plenty more. But what would you say if you could get an extra; 5%, 10%, 20%, or even 35% off of your purchase in the form of cash back just by starting your holiday shopping on Bing.com?

For a limited time on Black Friday, November 27th, Bing will offer bigger cash-back rewards as part of their Bing Goldrush promotion. This will include cash-back amounts from 5 to 35 percent from retailers such as Macy's, Sears, The Gap, AT&T, Walmart, eBay, HP and many more.

It's definitely cruise ship season. Royal Caribbean just made a major splash by launching the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas. That made headlines, but there have been other news stories in the industry. Last week, the huge Carnival line also had an unveiling of its own in New York City. Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden was the godmother for its new ship, the Dream.

WalletPop was invited to take a two-night ride on the ship, which is impressive but no record-breaker, as a guest of Carnival. Since the ship was packed with die-hard cruisers and travel writers eager to get their first peek at Carnival's newest vessel, it was the perfect opportunity to ask experienced cruise travelers for their favorite money-saving tips for taking a cruise.

Once you've paid your fare, your room is taken care of. So are your meals, provided you stick to the few on-board restaurants that are included in your ticket price. But after that, the costs start mounting. WalletPop's Jason Cochran, who has taken quite a few cruises himself as a travel writer, asked passengers on the sparkling new Dream for their best money-saving tips.

So here I am, writing this from off the coast of Florida as part of the first two-day preview cruise of the magnificent Oasis of the Seas. Royal Caribbean has launched the largest cruise ship in the world, a towering dagwood of action-packed decks and over-the top superlatives: longest cruise ship, widest cruise ship, tallest cruise ship, heaviest cruise ship.

And as of today, the coolest cruise ship. Rihanna was on here yesterday, and I'm told Richard Branson has come and gone, too. By now, most of America has seen the particulars of this gargantuan, billion-dollar chunk of devil-be-damned engineering. Here on board, one of the stateroom TV channels plays, on a loop, the segments of yesterday's Good Morning America in which Sam Champion and his crew romped around the Aqua Theatre, the Solarium, the cocktail bar that rises and falls between three decks (pictured above), the huge Central Park and Boardwalk atriums (atria?) that carve an airy middle into the ship.



The ship is, simply put, astounding. I have never seen anything like it in my years of cruising. It took me about six hours to explore fully from Deck 3 (the Studio B ice rink) to Deck 17 (the stunning, and ridiculously expensive, duplex loft suites with two-story sea views). There's nearly no way to take in the enormity of the endeavor. If you could pack a small shopping mall together with a 2,400-room resort and send it off to sea, you might start coming close (one cynic described it as "a hotel on a barge," which omits the considerable frills and dazzle), but you'd still have trouble wrapping your head around it all.

It is so big as to be humbling, and sometimes, that makes it a little frightening. As we left Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, a police boat rushed a smaller craft that was approaching us and warned its captain to back off, as it was entering "restricted waters." Something this big and this audacious would be an obvious target, and local police are clearly taking no chances.

Royal Caribbean, ever adept at cleverly harnessing social media (remember that unfortunate recent case in which it was nabbed giving freebies to people likely to populate user-review boards with praise?), has invited large numbers of journalists, travel agents, and VIPs to take part on two, back-to-back, two-night cruises. Attending for WalletPop, I'm on the first one. For this run only, alcohol is free.



There were some early reports this week that the line would be, in effect, bribing the press for good stories by plying them with booze and by giving them stuff that will actually cost passengers on "real" sailings. Although alcohol is free, I can't say I've seen this accusation to be the case, and the crowd is a lot less drunk than it was for a paid sailing on the Carnival Dream a week ago. Not everything is handed out: I've had to pay for things such as a $2.50 coffee on the Royal Promenade or $2.50 for a hyper-sweet cupcake from its on-board cupcake shop. Whenever anything is offered to us, I ask what the price will be for paying customers.

Again and again, the answer I get tells me that many of the things we're getting are included in the fare anyway. That includes midnight pizza at Sorrento's, afternoon burgers at Johnny Rocket's, and twilight doughnuts on the Boardwalk (where there's a working carousel), and even rides on one of the twin FlowRider sheet wave machines, provided you can score a time slot. So although Royal Caribbean is pioneering obnoxious fees such as surcharges for late-night room service and hefty upcharges for the privilege of eating better food than its main dining regularly serves, I can't say it's using the launch of the Oasis to foist a lot of new ones on us.

There are some issues, of course. The first is lines. Royal Caribbean was wise enough to only pack this ship about half-full, which means we're all likely to get into the shows we want to see and we won't write reviews complaining about crowds. When it's full of paying guests, though, you'll have to make many of your reservations online or in a queue, adding another layer of hassle to what's supposed to be your break from it all. I also suspect the main pool area, on Deck 15, will not be able accommodate everyone who wants to swim. On balance, though, this is a pretty dazzling achievement, and diversion is around every corner.

When I see a ship as marvelously bloated as this one, I have to separate my sense of travel snobbery from my admiration for what Royal Caribbean has done here. I can't deny that passengers who immerse themselves in this floating circus might as well not be at sea at all. It's less a ship than a floating resort, and most of the passengers seem to be hanging out below decks than enjoying the sun and the sea.

Today, while I was having lunch in the Windjammer Marketplace buffet on Deck 16, I looked down at the smooth blue water to see dolphins playing alongside the ship. While I was admiring that sight, the couple behind me was engaged in a lively debate about the quality of this buffet compared to those on other ships. They were oblivious to their surroundings. It's typical of the attitude on board the Oasis, which is so loathe to share any glory with the oceans than most of its vantage points over the seas are sheathed in glass.

That's all right. This ship is a product, and whether you're a theatre reviewer or a travel writer, you have to remember the audience for whom you're reviewing the product. This audience is agog. I myself can't help but be impressed. For the next year or so, until its sister ship the Allure of the Seas matches her feats, this will be the ship to book, and rates are likely to be at around $150 a night or more (I wrote about upcoming deals to be had that were even better). I can't say that if I paid that price, high for the industry right now, that I would ever find that I was feeling ripped off.



Now that I've seen this ship, though, I might consider any other vessel that dared to charge me so much would be a rip. In this way alone, the Oasis may have changed the industry: It will be difficult for less exuberant ships to charge the same price, and if they do, they'll have to find some other hook, be it a boast about smaller crowds, better food (Royal Caribbean's food is not widely considered its strong point), Mickey Mouse appearances, or larger cabins. The sheer magnitude of the Oasis, its biggest selling point, will also be the very thing that convinces some customers to choose a sailing with more modesty.

And more importantly, remember that traveling is not always the same thing as vacationing. Not everyone wants to engage with other cultures; for many people, the floating fishtank of a cruise ship is all the exploration they need. The Oasis is a fabulous vacation machine, but it's about the universe it has created for itself, not about its place in the outside world. In that, it's a home run.

The thrill of the hunt is compelling, especially when your grocer's ads tout "BIG SAVINGS" on favorite holiday meal fixins.

But even if you're just shopping for your weekly groceries this weekend instead of the trimmings and trappings for turkey day, it's still tough to say no to a good sale. And with most of us on strict, self-imposed budgets because of the current recession, shopping on the weekend becomes an even bigger temptation, a time to say, "But I've been so good all week, I deserve a little splurge!"

Tossing sale items in your cart can blow your budget if you're not careful. "I find it hard to resist great sales, so I'll buy far more than we need or than I can fit in my freezer," says frequent sale-shopper, Barbara Nelson.

I am a self-professed recreational shopper. Always have been. Some people play sports competitively. Me, I shop competitively.

The thrill is in the bargain. Hunting it down, getting it in my sights and then moving in for the kill. I sharpened my elbows as a child in Daffy Dan's in New Jersey (mob aside, a reasonable state with no sales tax on clothing; are you listening California?) but have since refined my methods.

My current weapon of choice: coupons I find online. My trophy purchase mounted on the wall of my closet: a 100% cashmere sweater with the Sak's label still in it that I got for $5 at a thrift store in Malibu.

It was only a matter of time before my prowess reached the TV networks. I was asked by CNBC to take a camera crew along while I shopped. My terms: They don't get in my way.

Move over AA, NA and other 12-step programs, now there is Debtors Anonymous for those addicted to overspending. Patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous, DA is a 12-step program to help spenders recover from chronic debt and compulsive spending.

In DA, the first step for recovery is accurately tracking every dime, nickel and penny of spending for 90 days. The new DA member is then paired up with two or more veteran members who assist in formulating a new plan for spending and budgeting. The weekly meetings offer support and encouragement to members, particularly if there is a spending relapse.

Holidays are all about food, family and receiving gifts that you know you will never use -- with a smile. Of the $437.6 billion consumers plan to spend this holiday season, $42.7 billion worth of items are likely to be returned to stores, according to retail trade association, the National Retail Federation.

But this year, the annual pilgrimage to the return counter may prove a little less satisfying. Last year, the bad economy and gloomy sales forecasts led retailers to loosen up return policies, but 2009 is shaping up to be quite different -- 15.9% of retailers say they are tightening the rules, according to the NRF.

That makes reading the fine print on return policies even more important. Here's our roundup of retailers' return policies and our assessment of which ones are naughty or nice.

When financial experts are recommending canceling vacations, cutting cable and staying far away from restaurants to save money in the recession, it's easy to guess what they'd think of frivolous expenses like, say, holiday trinkets and decor.

But before you let a budget-minded humbug talk you out of decking your halls this holiday season, you might want to check out fredflare.com. The site peddles inexpensive, quirky holiday tchotchkes and treats guaranteed to charm hipsters and homemakers alike.

Travel may be down in this economy, but there's one area where business is booming: discount booking sites. With travel providers desperate to unload unused rooms and tickets, it seems like the only sectors of the travel industry that are exploding are the ones previously seen as a last resort by the industry.

Priceline.com reported that bookings through its site, which offers steep discounts on hotel rooms and other travel products, are at their best levels in nine years. Hotwire.com, which is owned by Expedia, reports a similar boost in revenue. The Hotwire Group's sales over 12 months have exceeded $250 million for the first time, and reps told WalletPop that compared to last year, hotel bookings in the biggest markets (meaning the most popular travelers' cities) are up between 20% and 30%.

To give, or not to give a gift card? No matter how impersonal it may seem, this holiday season it's a proposition that will be hard to resist. Retailers are stepping up offers that include gift cards as bonuses or dangling free cards with purchases.

They're doing so for good reason: Gift cards will be the most requested gift during this year's holiday season, according to a recent report by the National Retail Federation. According to the NRF's survey, 55% of adults in the United States want a gift card this year. Retailers have definitely taken note. Research firm First Data expects retailers to use cards as promotional tools this season more than ever before.