By Kendra Porter with Sarah Lybrand

If you're looking for the next big idea to become your own boss...you might try examining both your strengths and your weaknesses. For one New York woman, she managed to turn an addiction to shopping into a full-fledged career.

Kendra Porter, an entrepreneur and image consultant from Westchester, N.Y., now gets to shop full time as part of her job. There was a time, however, when her relationship with shopping was a bit more complicated.

For her, it all started in college. Stress from a heavy courseload in engineering and pressure from her parents were taking its toll. Forget the 'Freshman 15' -- for Kendra, it was more like the 'Freshman 50'. To deal with her new body, whenever she'd get depressed, Kendra would go on shopping "sprees" -- splurging at a number of stores over the course of several days, spending sometimes a thousand dollars at a time. At the same time, Kendra was a poor college student. Guilty over how much she was spe

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The season of new grads is officially upon us, and the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics anticipates over 3.4 million degrees will be handed out to students completing their secondary education in 2012. With so many young adults entering the consumer world, often without the assistance of parents, the first few steps couldn't be more important.

Here are the first five things you should do once you've gotten that degree and are preparing to enter the "real" world for the first time:

1. Create a Budget
This step is not only deemed to be one of the most important actions for a new graduate to embrace, it's a skill that will benefit them throughout their lifetime.


Howard Dvorkin, founder of ConsolidatedCredit.org and author of "Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt," advises grads to realistically consider their "true" salary of any new job. "Many college grads are starry-eyed at the salary they will be making at their first job. They should do their homework and find out the

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Love is blind--and never more than when it comes to our money.

But how do you keep from choosing a dubious financial partner while falling head over heels? It isn't easy, as any of us who've loved and wound up in the red can tell you.

That's what this list is for. In between the flowers and the heart flutters, take the time to see if the person you love fits any of these eight signs.

By the way, this advice is steeped in real-life experience, as well as a recent survey by TD Ameritrade about the biggest financial dealbreakers in Americans' love lives. Not to mention research from the National Marriage Project about the most likely predictors of divorce-many of which center around money.

After reading these signs, if you're tempted to say, "Oh, but my lovebunny isn't really like that ...", call your mom or your closest girlfriend and discuss. One sign alone doesn't mean your relationship is in jeopardy. And for each, we'll give you a recommendation of what to do next if your true lo

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Sometimes shelling out a little extra money upfront saves you a hard-earned cash down the road, and splurging becomes an investment that pays for itself. Here are just a few examples of when it pays to spend more:

Resealable Food Packages
When food doesn't get sealed properly, it spoils and goes to waste, so look for packages with resealable tubes, bags or containers. They may cost you a bit more at the grocery store, but can save you hundreds of dollars a year in uneaten food. Or, if you're a bulk buyer, consider investing in a vacuum sealer or even some good quality vacuum bags. "It's a really good way of taking advantage of sales at the grocery store, especially on really pricey items like meats and cheeses. You can buy in bulk and then they're ready when you want them," says Jody Rholena of ShopSmart Magazine.

Class Packages
Stop the "pay as you go" insanity at your local yoga studio, spin or aerobics class. If you've taken three or more sessions in a row, ask yourself ...Read More »

Cut your bills with these money-saving tips on buying household essentials, clothing, and personal products.
By Kaija Helmetag and Yelena Moroz

Pet Food
Amazon.com's Subscribe & Save service ships various household products (anything from coffee to dishwasher tablets) to your doorstep on a schedule of your choosing, from monthly to every six months. It offers numerous pet-food brands-both grocery-store varieties, like Pedigree and Friskies, and more natural ones, like Newman's Own Organics-at prices up to 15 percent lower than what you would pay at a big-box pet store. Bonus: Delivery is free, even for 40-pound bags.

Annual savings: $50

Also See: How to Save on Online Shipping Costs



Toilet Paper
Most of the time, mass retailers like Sam's Club (which have an annual membership fee) and Target charge 8 to 10 percent less on toilet paper than grocery chains do. However, near the first and 15th of each month, many supermarkets discount paper products by 20 to 40 percent.

A

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