FreeCycle.org - Give and get stuff for free in your neighborhood

For those who overindulged in calories during the holidays, here's a word of warning to avoid getting eaten alive by health club salespeople. This industry basically has two business models. In the good one, you pay month-to-month or quarterly with no real contract. The sleazy business model, however, involves long-term contracts designed to give your checking account a workout. In the latter model, the downfall begins when they offer you a free tour of the facilities. The tour is done by a commissioned salesperson with the intention of getting you to sign a multi-year contract. When you sign, the salesperson gets a commission and the club sells off the contract to a finance company that will take the paper on and sell it off for pennies on the dollar. Then the club gets what's left. Clubs sell so many memberships this way that they have to hope that you don't work out -- otherwise there wouldn't be enough space for everyone!

The Feb. 2008 issue of Consumer Reports rates health clubs, with the worst rating going to Bally's Total Fitness. Bally's got bad marks in staffing, classes and equipment, plus the worst possible score for locker rooms, cleanliness and crowds. On the flip side, the best club is a chain that's in 15 states called Lifetime Fitness. In the second-best slot are on-site gyms at work and coming in third best were gyms at your local Jewish Community Center/YMCA/YWCA. Though Consumer Reports doesn't mention them, Clark also recommends checking out hospital-affiliated fitness centers. They're usually rehab-based or geared toward hospital staff. They're clean, well run and don't force stinking contracts on you. Most sell memberships to the public. One final word: Signing a contract will not get you to work out. You may have the best of intentions, but most people quit working out within weeks. So don't obligate yourself to a multi-year contract.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that more than 1 in 4 people can no longer park cars in their garages because they have too much junk taking up space. Clark has an idea for how you can purge some of your excess stuff. There's a website called FreeCycle.org that's booming. FreeCycle matches up people who are giving stuff away with people who are looking for select items. The sister of Clark's executive producer saw a funny post on FreeCycle where someone was looking for Clark's books! Clark loves that this individual is really getting his message about being extra thrifty! If you want to make some profit from your junk, try going through your garage, basement, attic or closet and putting the surplus up for sale on Craigslist. It's free to post a listing in almost all cities. People troll Craigslist constantly looking for deals. So if you have a 2-car garage and can't park both of your vehicles, set the goal for yourself that a month from today you'll be able to park 1 car in your garage. Then you might want to get really ambitious and vow that a year from now you'll be able to park 2 cars in your garage!

A lot of us got a lump of coal from our own government this past year. Your home may have gone down in value in 2007 and may continue to do so this year. But talk about rubbing salt into the wounds; people are getting property tax reappraisals that are way up from where they were before. The Washington Post reports that Maryland residents are seeing property tax increases of 33 percent, yet property values are down in much of the state. This scenario is being repeated all over the country. The appraisals are out of date and use faulty data from boom-year sales. The net effect is that your local government is ripping you off. There's no other way to say it. Do you have to take it? No, you can appeal your appraisal. The rules for appeal vary by jurisdiction. There may be an informal process before the formal one. Never gripe about the government during the process, just present the facts about recent sale prices of homes similar to yours. These figures, often called "comps" in real-estate lingo, are the smoking gun that will help you get an appraisal price rollback. Search out comps on the Internet or consult a local real-estate agent for help. If you can get comps for foreclosures in your neighborhood, that's like having extra ammunition. Clark suggests dressing business casual if you have to appear before a panel as part of the process. The idea is to dress nicely -- but not too well -- and people will respond to your appearance.

One of Clark's most recent polls was about coupons and how you get them. Clark is serious about the benefits of coupons and was surprised when the second most popular answer was that you don't use them. But the good news is that most people do use them, and the majority of you still get them the old-fashioned way through newspapers. The least popular method of getting them, according to the poll, was through your cell phone. You may recall that Clark recently talked about a company called CellFire.com that delivers coupons to your handset. Clark tried this service and it kept draining his battery, so he had to delete it. He also recently spoke to coupon guru Stephanie Nelson and she said she's a big fan of the color coupon inserts in the newspapers too. Clark really means it about coupons. He clips them and keeps them in his wallet for later use. While he's not coupon obsessed like some people, he thinks they can make a big difference in your life if your budget is pinched. You can save tax-free money by taking a few minutes to clip and organize them. It's so easy. Meanwhile, what would you do if you got $5,000 free and clear? That's the subject of another one of Clark's polls. Be sure to vote today!