Sure, you can go into Wal-mart or Sears and buy presents for your friends and family, but take a closer look at what's in those gift baskets. Mugs, beverages and snacks? Candle holders and candles? Bath products? The dollar store has all of those things and many more potential gift ideas. All you have to do is put them together for presents that will look great but cost half the price of their department store counterparts. They will also be totally unique.

Here's how to build beautiful Christmas gifts with stuff from the dollar store.

It's another nail in the Postal Service's coffin. Magazines are ripping a page from newspaper tradition and are ditching the U.S. Mail and contracting with cheaper delivery services to hand-deliver their issues. The change further dents our national mail's bottom line. It's also bringing back the paperboy.

Unfortunately, the switch to cheaper labor means customers may not be getting their money's worth anymore. In New York City, hand-delivery subscribers no longer receive their magazines in their mailboxes, safely behind locks, but instead find the latest issue left on the doorstep of their buildings, where theft and weather can take their swift toll.

Many of us regularly shop dollar stores for household items and holiday-related items. I typically find most everything for entertaining like cooking pans, extra serving pieces, gift wrap and cookie tins (seriously, why would anyone pay those prices at The Container Store for holiday themed tins you will be giving away?). But I've been wondering about the gifts themselves, what dollar stores have to offer in this area.

Walletpop's own dollar store diva Marlene Alexander will be offering tips on dollar shopping and gift ideas as we get closer to the holidays, but until then, Family Dollar has some suggestions. The retailer will be offering a selection of $5 gifts with brand names like the Disney Play Hut, will issue a recipe and coupon booklet for the season.

The NBA's regular season doesn't tip off until next week, and already a significant bargain ticket offer has materialized. It includes opening night, no less. Through TravelZoo, the New Jersey News announced they were offering tickets for four of their first five home games at up to 75% off the regular price.

The Nets' Oct. 27 debut against the Detroit Pistons, Oct. 29 game vs. the Sacramento Kings, Nov. 3 vs. the Charlotte Bobcats and Nov. 9 vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers all include a similar price-slashing structure (with small variations). At the deal's high end, normally $200 lower-level seats are going for $50. At the low end, normally $40 seats are available for $10. (The team wisely omitted the Oct. 31 game against the LeBron James-led Miami Heat from the arrangement.)

The little everyday expenses in life -- coffee and snacks -- can quickly add up but so do the big costs. So while cutting out that daily latte may help your day-to-day expenses, cutting the cable service or a telephone line can mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars in savings.

Granted, it can be hard to imagine getting rid of some of life's "necessities." Ride a bike to work instead of drive, are you crazy? Watch television shows over the Internet instead of cable? No way. But when the savings are tallied, it may make you think twice. Here are five of the little luxuries in life that you're financially better off doing without:

No one wants a rain check for Christmas. Remember the Nintendo Wii shortages a few Christmases ago? Some stores sold out of the popular video game system in minutes and many stores didn't offer rain checks. The stores that did offer rain checks didn't have the consoles until January, and a rain check wouldn't be that much fun to play with on Christmas morning.

To prevent a gift-giving catastrophe this year, WalletPop came up with a list of products that consumer electronic experts expect to be popular Christmas gifts. These are gifts that you don't want to wait until the last minute to buy, or expect a sale on soon -- although they might be discounted at Black Friday sales.

.

If a Golden Age of kitchen appliances exists, it would have to be the 1920s, when the domestic Big Three leaped from the drawing board to the countertop. The creativity started in 1922, when Stephen Polawski invented the blender; he used his spinning blade contraption to make fountain drinks. Then came 1927, when architect John W. Hammes built his wife the world's first kitchen garbage disposal. (Either he was the World's most sensitive hubby, or just got tired of taking out the trash.) And finally, Ivar Jepson gave us the glorious Sunbeam Mixmaster, patented between 1928 and 1929.

Yet for all that invention, no one has crafted a device that can help homemakers make the best choices in outfitting the kitchen. In fact, you might well say "There's an app for that" -- as in appliance -- with all the gadgets you can stuff into your cooking and dining space. Noodle makers, apple peelers, juice grinders, espresso makers: How about an appliance that bends over and cleans up the spaghetti blob your kid just plopped under the table?

We may not have a patent on that device -- but at the Savings Experiment, we do promise some timely research and findings to help you make that kitchen efficient, modern and thrifty. Now there's a nice Big Three if we ever saw one.

It's been a rough few years. Unemployment woes, foreclosure fears and economic uncertainty rule the headlines. It's a time where being frugal has become chic and "tightening our belts" de rigueur.

With this in mind, and inspired by reader submissions to our Biggest Money Wasters message board, we've compiled our list of 9 Top Ways We Waste Money in 2010.

Read through our round-up to see popular places we drop unnecessary dough and get tips on how to cut these costly wallet-drainers from your life. Some of these may seem like common sense, but if you are still making these money mistakes, a refresher may be in order.

While many of us clip grocery coupons, buy generic medication and combine shopping trips to conserve gas, a smaller number of Americans take extreme steps when it comes to saving money. How extreme? Well, this article lists five categories of unusual, sometimes shocking steps people have taken to lower their expenses or earn a bit more cash. But do you really need to invite a renter to crash in your spare room, sell your car, turn off the thermostat in wintertime or even restrict your eating to save a few bucks?

The short answer is "probably not," according to Peter Dunn, author of the book 60 Days to Change: A Daily How-To Guide With Actionable Tips for Improving Your Financial Life. "To me that seems pretty extreme," he said when WalletPop got him on the phone to ask what he thought about taking a boarder or going on a starvation diet. For these two examples, he points out that you could literally be putting not only your own health and safety at risk, but that of your family as well. Some ideas, such as getting rid of your car, will only work if you have reliable public transportation that can get you to work, to school and to the store.

On a recent reporting trip to the Toronto International Film Festival for WalletPop and other outlets, I booked four nights at a hostel and feared the worst: hard-partying tourists, sketchy conditions and zero privacy. What else could a cranky 49-year-old family man expect from a place that traditionally has "youth" in front of it?

I was blessedly wrong. My stay in a private room with shared hallway bathroom was quiet and tension-free. The room was clean, the WiFi strong, and I was able to recharge in a comfy queen bed. Best of all, I saved big bucks. Instead of shelling out a minimum of $240 a night for even a modest hotel near the festival center, I paid a total of $252 for four nights at the All Days House #3. That's $63 a night. What made it more satisfying was that I searched for lodging just days before the festival.

McDonald's Hong Kong stores are super-sizing love starting Jan. 1, when couples can officially tie the knot and become McMan and McWife under the Golden Arches.

Any objections? Speak now or forever hold your Quarter Pounder.

Value priced at $400, wedding packages will accommodate 50 to 100 guests and include venue rental, bridal decor, audio system, gifts for the couple, party favors (hopefully a step up from a Happy Meal), a master of ceremonies -- and of course, happily catered meals all around. Instead of cake, think nuptial stacks of apple pies.

But before you hit send on those Evites, note this: Two round trip tickets from Los Angeles to Hong Kong cost about $6,700 on Cathay Pacific -- before taxes, fees and not including refills of Coke. Something to chew on, you might say.

I can't imagine why a 16-year-old boy would want to sell nail polish, but that's what Justin Bieber is doing for his fans starting in December.

When I was a kid I had a newspaper route, although those are mostly done by grown-ups now, so kids must have to find other ways to make money. I didn't have throngs of teenage girls screaming my name at concerts, either, so I can see how Bieber is trying to take advantage of his celebrity and make some extra cash while he's the hot flavor of the month.

Bieber is being hired by Nicole by OPI to create a line of polish called One Less Lonely Girl. The collection has six shades: One Less Lonely Glitter (pale purple), Prized Possession Purple (grape), Give Me The First Dance (silver), Me + Blue (metallic blue), O.M.B! (metallic red) and Step 2 the Beat of My Heart (heart shaped specks).

You'll get more for your money with no-contract wireless – as long as you pay your bill on time. Today, Boost Mobile, one of the pre-paid arms of Sprint, rolls out Monthly Unlimited with Shrinkage.

It works like this: The basic Monthly Unlimited (unlimited phone, text, data, IM and 411) is $50. Pay your bill on time for six months and your monthly tab drops to $45. Hit 12 months of on time payments and you go to $40. And with 18, you lock in at $35 for as long as you're with the carrier. Oh, and the months don't have to be consecutive; they're additive. If you pay on time for two months, skip a month or two, then pay on time for another four, you still get your $5 off.

The holiday shopping season is drawing near, and if you're like many Americans, you may be wondering where to find the discipline to stay within your budget. Here's a new idea for you: Try using gift cards. You pay for them up front and there's no interest or late fees to pay, unlike credit cards. In fact, you don't need to wait for the holidays; gift cards could help you budget for a big expense like a vacation or a home-improvement project.

But while gift cards might help you establish a greater degree of control over your holiday spending, there are a few things you should keep in mind to stay on track, says Ruth Susswein, deputy director of national priorities for watchdog group Consumer Action. "It's not a bad idea if it helps you stick to a spending limit," Susswein says, although she notes that the people who really need financial discipline might still be tempted to whip out a credit card if their spending goes over the pre-set amount on the card.