Blog Posts by CBS MoneyWatch.com

By Sarah Lorge Butler

How much do you pay your babysitter? My voodoo math starts with a base rate of $8 per hour for a high schooler and goes up depending on how late we get home, the number of kids she is watching, and the amount of wine I have at dinner. Then I round up again. The time I got a call from the sitter because my daughter wouldn't stop crying? I think I paid a $10 bonus for a three-hour date. Yes, my viewing of Invictus was interruptus, but I felt worse for the sitter than I did for myself. Truth be told, I was afraid she wouldn't want to come back.

I love summer, because babysitters, like strawberries and corn, are readily available. College gals, who start at $10 per hour, turn up about mid-May, high schoolers are available by late June until Labor Day. I can get out with my husband, and we don't have to compete with AP calculus, ski club and orchestra practice.

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AP PhotoBy Kathy Kristof

The whole social networking phenomenon has millions of Americans sharing their photos, favorite songs and details about their class reunions on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and dozens of similar sites. But there are a handful of personal details that you should never say if you don't want criminals - cyber or otherwise - to rob you blind, according to Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The folks at Insure.com also say that ill-advised Facebook postings increasingly can get your insurance cancelled or cause you to pay dramatically more for everything from auto to life insurance coverage. By now almost everybody knows that those drunken party photos could cost you a job, too.

You can certainly enjoy networking and sharing photos, but you should know that sharing some information puts you at risk. What should you never say on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site?

-- What NOT to Say on Twitter or

When one parent decides to stay home with the kids, many couples fix on merging all of their finances. While this is certainly convenient since you're now living on just one paycheck, it's not always the smartest move. As we all know, life is unpredictable. We lose jobs, get divorced and even become widowed. When stay-at-home moms and dads maintain some level of financial independence, many experts believe the unit as a whole is better able to withstand life's setbacks - and even more mundane things like buying a new home.

Here are three steps stay-at-home parents should take to better manage their own and the family's finances.

1. Maintain (or Improve) Your Credit Score

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-- Kids' Allowance: How Much Should You Pay?

-- 10 Ways to Stop Fighting About Money

-- Dumbest Things You Do With Your Money

-- How Much Does the Tooth Fairy Pay?

If you do

Getty Images Editorial/Kelly ClarksonBy Kiri Blakely for CBS MoneyWatch.com

While millions of fans focus on Crystal Bowersox's high notes, Lee DeWyze's guitar playing, and Simon Cowell's last gasps of snark, MoneyWatch is, well, watching the money. By that measure, it hardly matters who wins next Wednesday - if they manage life after Idol correctly, the two finalists stand to earn millions of dollars each. Previous Idol winners such as Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have gone on to become mega-selling, globe-touring, award-winning stars, while even contestants that haven't won, such as Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson, have gone on to become top-earning performers.

"You can rest on having been on American Idol for years," says Joel Peresman, CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Exactly how much cash do Crystal and Lee stand to rake in? Based on the experience of past Idols, seven figures is likely, and it's quite possible they'll rake in tens of millions of dollars. Not bad for a couple of

By Stacey Bradford for CBS MoneyWatch.com.

I recently found myself at a baby shower and watched as the mother-to-be opened scores of gifts. I've never seen so much useless loot in my life. I can tell you from personal experience that most baby gear - especially stuff for newborns - isn't necessary. In fact, after my second baby was born I managed to get by with just five items. Here's my list:

1. Car Seat

There's no getting around it. You simply can't get by without a car seat. And unlike other items that you can buy used, safety experts recommend that you purchase a new one for your baby.

2. Crib

Even if you decide to co-sleep with your newborn, you'll eventually want him to snooze behind bars. Keep in mind that cribs are constantly getting recalled, so you'll want to stay on top of the latest news and buy one with fixed sides.

-- How Much Does the Tooth Fairy Pay?

-- Tylenol Recall: Get Your Refund

-- 10 Ways to Stop

By Matthew Rothenberg for CBS MoneyWatch.com.

For many newlyweds, choosing a surname can be more complicated than selecting a china pattern. Many of us have broken with Western tradition by hyphenating, bifurcating or blending our last names. (At my house, we have one Tobin; one Rothenberg; and a pair of Tobin Rothenbergs, not counting the pets.)

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How do these choices affect the job prospects of women who would historically be expected to take their husbands' names? According to a recent study by social psychologists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, women who adopted their partners' names were perceived by test subjects as "more caring, more dependent, less intelligent, more

By Gail Belsky for CBS MoneyWatch.com

Just as you wouldn't put high-octane premium gas in the family van for a trip to the neighbor's, or regular gas in your high-end sports car when you're taking it out for a spin, you need to put the right fuel in your tank for the tasks and situations at hand. That means choosing foods that will rev up your brain and body and keep them running at optimum efficiency throughout the day. In general, a mix of carbs and proteins provides that brain boost by giving you a quick shot of energy (the carbs) and the ability to sustain it over a long period of time (the protein).

Here's what to eat when confronted by these all-too-common work situations.

1. You Overslept

Situation: It's 8:17 a.m., your alarm never went off, and you've got 43 minutes to get to the weekly status meeting. There's no time for breakfast, but you're a zombie without it.

What you should eat: If you can't sit down to scrambled eggs and whole-grain toast, make the

By Gail Belsky for CBS MoneyWatch.com

Other than getting a good night's sleep, there's probably no other thing that impacts your productivity and mood at work more than what you eat. Yet you probably give little thought to what you consume before and during work, defaulting instead to what's convenient, cheap, and tasty. And when you do think twice about what you eat, it's usually in the context of a diet that's focused on losing weight rather than improving your cognitive functioning and energy levels. Fortunately, there are a few basic food rules that go a long way towards achieving these latter goals. Here are the best of them.

Things you will need:

• A new food attitude: Carbs are not the enemy. Neither is fat. Eliminating certain food groups may help your waistline, but it will hurt your brain functioning.
• A stash of snacks: To keep your brain well fueled, you can't let yourself get too hungry. Have a ready supply of trail mix, peanut-butter crackers, or