Pop's Wallet

Let's face it, many of us suck at managing our money: we don't know the first about budgeting, we're in debt up to our eyeballs and we spend money like it's on fire.

In those cases, some of us call in the reinforcements and hire a money coach, unearthing our most shameful spending habits and our most debilitating psychological hang-ups around money -- all in an effort to correct them. With our most personal and private financial shortcomings, and all of the psychological or family issues they stem from, disclosed to our money coac these people better know what they're doing.

But the thing is...they don't have to. Anyone can become a money coach.

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• Top 10 Exercises for Flexing Your Money Muscle (Numbers 1-5)
• Top 10 Exercises for Flexing Your Money Muscle (Numbers 6-10)
• Community Colleges Offer Money Management Courses for Young Adults

Gas prices are astronomical, car insurance is crazy expensive, parking is scarce and stories of mechanics and car salesman gouging their customers are a dime-a-dozen. Sometimes, car owners probably wonder why they have a car at all. There has to be a better way and, these days, there just might be.

It's called 'car sharing' and it's a model for car rental that has existed in Europe in various forms for decades and has just recently started becoming popular in North America. It's becoming a more economical option for businesses that need cars to visit clients and individuals who want aCcess to their own car, but drive less than 10,000 kilometers per year.

Basically, the customer pays either an annual or monthly fee, depending on the plan, plus a one-time application fee and an hourly or daily rate that is more expensive on weekends compared to weekdays and only applies when you're driving.

For example, ZipCar is a car sharing company available across the U.S., and in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, and the Toronto location offers both an annual and monthly plan that breaks down as follows:

It's not so bad to be a man in the 21st century.

As men, you still earn more than the better half, pay less for services (spa treatments, haircuts, dry cleaning) and when you indulge in additions to the wardrobe, they're made to last.

In comparison to women's budgets for similar items, men are benefitting from being simpler creatures - you're not as obsessed with shiny new things, since your list of necessities is a lot shorter.

For those who want to stand out in the crowd of blue shirts and chinos, men have to emulate their dads and grandfathers.

According to RealMenRealStyle.com, the whole package is worth the effort to go for grey suits, new shirts with french cuffs, cufflinks, pocket squares, fedora hats, classic overcoats and wingtip oxfords. Or, they can just emulate ad-exec-about-town circa 1963, Don Draper.

Have you ever been out somewhere and thought, I wish someone would bring me a coffee?

Well, now you can turn that thought into reality by harnessing the people power of the strangers you pass by everyday.

There are a few ventures popping up on the web that take advantage of the so called "mobile marketplace." These ventures take the "People are basically good" philosophy of eBay and combine it with the online classifieds aspect of Craigslist, while adding something entirely fresh and innovative.

Now, strangers from your community can be recruited in real-time through your mobile phone or direct through the website to complete tasks, provide services or exchange goods and all it takes is a negotiated electronic payment to the volunteer. Suddenly, you can hire someone to get what you need, or get what you need done, instantly and no cash has to physically change hands.

This is the concept behind the new mobile marketplace, but there are many online options to choose from and slight variations of the concept in each one, so let us help you sort out the three heavyweights in the market and outline the pros and cons of each one.

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Marc Springer used to sell Harley Davidson motorcycles, but then the economy took a dive and people didn't buy as many man toys as they used to. Springer's income was dwindling rapidly, so it was time for him to move on -- now what?

"I was a teamster truck driver back in my early 20s and I always had this burning desire to drive the big trucks. It was something I always wanted to do and it just never happened. So, when I began to strike out on my own I thought, 'Well, I've got zero income and zero working capital, how do I start a company?"

His wife reminded him that he had a leaf blower sitting in the garage and suggested he go clear the lawns in the neighbourhood. But Springer thinks big, so he began extrapolating how many employees he'd need to do all the surrounding neighbourhoods and quickly realized he'd need a trailer. But when he went on Craigslist looking for a trailer, he found a 1999 frieghtliner truck with a 20 foot flat-bed.

"They wanted $20,000 for the [trailer] and I thought, 'You know, I think I'm just going to buy a truck.'"

He booked a load the day he bought the truck and was just going to use his contacts in the scrap metal business to haul scrap metal in Seattle and the surrounding area, until he hit the internet and found a veritable trucker's Shangri-La.

"I was looking to fill the truck with scrap and I was doing pretty well at that, making decent money and one day, I was on the computer wondering, 'How do you find loads? There's got to be a better way to do this. How do these guys find the freight to get on their trucks?'"

That's when he stumbled onto uShip.com. It opened all the doors to all of the business opportunities he enjoys today, including becoming a reality TV star as the handlebar mustache sporting, big-rig driving, cast member of A&E's Shipping Wars.

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• Free Shipping Day Comes to Canada
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There have been epic neighbour battles throughout the history of time and pop culture. None more drawn out than the battle between According to Jim's Jim Belushi and Julie Newmar, best known for playing Catwoman in the '60s era Batman TV series. The two lived next door peacefully until 2004, when Belushi wanted to heighten a fence around his property for more privacy, but Newmar complained that the higher fence robbed her prized roses of sunlight.

From there, the fence feud spiraled out of control. Both took public and private swipes at each other, with Belushi accusing Newmar of tearing down his fence and egging his house and she shot back with the assertion that he was such a noisy neighbour, she had to buy a set of air traffic controller earmuffs. The feud finally came to its epic climax when Belushi sued Newmar for $4 million, alleging harassment, defamation and vandalism.

However, handling the jerk next door doesn't always have to be settled in a courtroom. Below are a variety of strategies Julie and Jim should have tried first.

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• Neighbours from Hell: Real Life Stories from AOLers

Nanny sharing -- it's not as erotic as it sounds.

No, there will be no passing the punch bowl and dropping in your keys because all nanny sharing comes down to, is a strategy parents can employ to make childcare more cost-effective.

There are many ways to do it, but like the childcare equivalent of the carpool, it essentially comes down to two families (or more, in rare cases) sharing the childcare capabilities of one nanny. As bills mount up, maternity and paternity leave starts to ebb away and the search for adequate childcare that fits your family's circumstances becomes more and more stressful, the nanny share starts looking like a more and more viable option -- at least it did for my friends Laura and Neil Ziniuk.

"In Vancouver, there's such a shortage of daycare that people tell you that as soon as you find out you're pregnant, you need to get on waitlists for daycares and we did that literally when I was three to four months pregnant, but we didn't hear back from most of the daycares we applied to and for almost three years we never even got called up for an interview," says Laura.

So, the couple took matters into their own hands after hearing about the nanny share from another friend and other new parents who raved about the individualized care their child was receiving that you just can't get in a daycare setting.

"We decided that we wanted to have the nanny at our house," continues Laura. "Just so we could have that extra benefit of not having to go anywhere. So, it's always at our house and for that privilege we pay a little bit more."

There are many ways to organize a nanny share, the way the Ziniuks do it is just one in a long list of variations.

Related Links:

• How to Save Money by Sharing Stuff
• Teach Children Positive Financial Habits Early
• Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing: Would You Let a Stranger Drive Your Car?

Mo' Canadian men than ever donated their upper lips to fight prostate cancer this Movember, raising a stash of over $35 million -- the most of any country in the world.

245,000 Mo Bros registered at http://www.movember.com, chronicling their journey towards moustachedom with a photo series and setting up a network to garner donations that would eventually go to Prostate Cancer Canada. The agency plans to use the money for ongoing research and survivor-support programs.

According to the Prostate Cancer Canada website, "The organization was first approached by Movember and introduced to the "Mo" in 2007. The first year saw 9,400 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas raise $545,000 across Canada.They came back with $22.3 million in 2010 and added another $10 million and change this year."

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• Be More Charitable Without Depleting Your Bank Account
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• Open Your Heart and Eyes When You Donate

The Canadian dollar is once again in free-fall today, but if you read one of our most popular posts here at Walletpop -- Extreme Couponing isn't as Extreme in Canada -- one of the biggest recurring questions asked was, "Why do Canadians pay more for everything even when our dollar is worth more stateside, or at least at parity?"

Well, when our readers ask questions, we listen. We sent our sleuths to find an answer and I believe we've come up with something definitive.

RELATED LINKS:

• Is the Canadian Dollar Caught in a "Death Grip"?
• Loonie will Stay at Par with U.S. Dollar: Flaherty
• Loonie at Par Means Shopping, Vacation and Investment Bargains

Last week I was in an Au Lit store browsing the fine linens section. I thought I'd look at sheet sets. After falling in love with a particular sheet with a stunningly high thread count, I found out that the set (fitted, flat and two pillowcases) would cost me $1,000 before taxes.

On a side note, when I mentioned that in the weekly Walletpop editorial meetings, the general response was, "People buy $1,000 sheets?"

I blanched which made the sales associate tell me that they have their white sale in January when everything will be 20 per cent off. That doesn't mean I'll be buying those sheets. Instead, here's a list of what to buy on sale during the months of October, November and December.