The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel holidays of the year. Although the tough economy is expected to result in a slight decline in the number of travelers next week, the AAA forecasts that 41 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more for the Thanksgiving holiday.

With money tight, how can you splurge on both travel and turkey? Fortunately, there are some travel deals to be had.

Gas is cheap again...well, OK...cheaper. At least it's not pushing four bucks a gallon anymore. The national average is now $2.07 a gallon. According to the AAA, that's 88 cents less than a month ago, and more than a dollar less than it was a year ago.

Hotels are cheaper. Compared to last year, room rates are down about ten percent. The economy has affected their bottom line, so hotels are hoping to get your business with lower prices. Savvy Frugality tip: Don't like the advertised room rate? Look for a hotel with a half-empty parking lot, and ask the desk clerk what their "best price" is for a room. Chances are they'll cut you a deal. They don't make money on empty rooms.

Airlines are more expensive. Air travel will come at a premium this year. The AAA says on average, flights are about eight percent more expensive than they were at this time last year. Also more expensive: car rentals.

Buses are still a deal. There are benefits to going Greyhound. The bus line's eFares, Priority seating and Advance Purchase Fares can either save you some cash (up to 20 percent) or help you avoid lines at the terminal to purchase tickets. The downside: you're still riding on a bus.

Ride the Rails. Grab Amtrak's Rail Pass and travel anywhere within the Amtrak system. The 15-day pass is good for 8 travel segments (a segment is any time you get on and off a train for a particular trip. For example, if you have to change trains you are beginning another segment) for $389. The 30-day pass is good for 12 travel segments and costs $579. It's slower, but likely cheaper, than taking a flight.

It seems like the cost of everything has increased this year, thanks to the current economic woes of the U.S. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner isn't immune, either. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual informal survey, the cost of the traditional Thanksgiving meal for 10 will set you back about $44.61...an increase of $2.35 or 5.6 percent from last year.

The price of all grocery items has increased this year, and at a steeper pace than previous years, thanks to the high gas prices which only recently started to decline. Still, buying the bird need not cause you to choose between a tasty meal and your child's college education. My family has always managed to get by on the cheap for Thanksgiving, and have a delicious meal in the process. So let's talk turkey and pass along a few money-saving Thanksgiving tips:

1. Go Pot Luck. There is no need to pay for the entire meal yourself. Invite friends and family (or accept an invitation to go to their house) and bring a dish to pass. This way, each person is only responsible for their dish, and that's much cheaper than buying the entire holiday meal yourself.

2. Buffet. It almost seems sacrilegious, but there are restaurants which serve turkey and all the trimmings buffet-style. If you don't have a large family, or you are going single for Thanksgiving this year, why buy all that food and prepare it yourself? If might actually be cheaper to go to a buffet-style restaurant and chow down there. This is especially a great deal if it's an all-you-can-eat place. Con: no leftovers.

3. Turkeys are generic, too. Sure, Butterball is a household name for turkey, but there are plenty of store-brand turkeys out there, too...and they are usually much cheaper per pound. We almost always buy a store-brand turkey. It still tastes great. A turkey is a turkey, right? The generic turkeys also have that pop-up timer, too. If you have a hunter in the family, you might skip the turkey and dine on some wild goose or duck if they had a good season.

4. Be adventurous. You don't necessarily have purchase a turkey for Thanksgiving. There is no law that says you must eat turkey. Some people (certainly not me) don't even LIKE turkey. A nice big roasting chicken, smoked salmon, cornish game hens or a ham will work, too.

5. Be generous. A few years ago, my wife and I volunteered to deliver Thanksgiving meals to the homebound and elderly on behalf of a Christian charity organization. We got the satisfaction of helping others, learning about things we were truly grateful for (no matter how bad you think things are for you, there is ALWAYS somebody else who needs help more than you) and we were offered a Thanksgiving meal back at the kitchen as the charity's way of saying...well, thanks.

Savvy Frugality Recommended Reading: With Money Tight, Layaway Makes a Big Comeback.

Later this month, shoppers around the country will take part in perhaps the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving. The day is known for its holiday shopping bargains. My wife is among those who brave the crowds (she once got into a near-fistfight over a Tickle-Me Elmo at K-Mart), but not me. I prefer to do my shopping online, in the comfort of my own home. What makes online shopping just as good as the Black Friday sales are the promotion and coupon codes which can award shoppers everything from free shipping to several percent off their purchase price. So, with that in mind, I am happy to do a review of FindSavings.com at their request.

Like a lot of coupon code sites, FindSavings.com features discount and promo codes for most of the major online stores, such as Overstock.com, Buy.com, Walmart.com and one that I use frequently around Mother's Day: 1800Flowers.com. Unlike a lot of coupon code sites, the layout of FindSavings.com is very user-friendly, with links arranged by shopping categories, store and coupon type. The coupon types available at the site include free shipping, dollars off, percent off, rebates, sales and free gifts. Depending upon what type of savings are most important for you, that is a big time-saver while you do your online shopping.

If you are looking for a specific item, there is also a search box on the site which will steer you not only to the best promo codes, but to the applicable online shopping sites so you don't have to spend a lot of time opening links and searching for the item.

I spent some time browsing some of my usual online shopping haunts, including Target.com (which features free shipping on some appliances), Borders.com (25 percent off one item), and of course 1800Flowers.com (free shipping, this will come in handy for my wife's upcoming birthday).

In the coupon section, I found a great deal at Restaurant.com: save 60 percent on a $25 restaurant gift certificate, plus receive a free $10 gift certificate. Price? Four dollars. That certainly makes eating out much more affordable, especially this time of year.

I did notice that there are some discount codes which have long since expired, but this is something I have noticed at most other coupon and promo code sites. Just make sure that the promo code you are trying to use is current and up-to-date.

Online shopping is not only a way of beating the holiday crowds at the mall, but it's a good way to save money as well. FindSavings.com helps make that a bit easier.

I came across an intriguing headline while doing some of my personal finance reading today. It was over at MSN MoneyCentral and it really caught my attention. It was "The Biggest Mistakes Poor People Make".

According to Liz Pullium Weston, there are seven money mistakes that poor people make that ensure they will stay poor, such as paying too much for rent or a mortgage, confusing needs with wants, only making minimum monthly payments, failing to budget, having no emergency savings and spending retirement savings.

Well...yeah, those things will guarantee that poor people will stay poor, but they didn't all really address my own personal situation a few years ago, when I was REALLY poor. I wasn't just poor, I was "po"...I couldn't even afford the extra "or". The worst part: it was really all my (and my wife's) fault. Worse yet: they are mistakes that so many other people make.

Spending every last dime you earn in one week...and you're paid every two weeks. Well, what do you do when you spend your check in one week, and there is another week until you get paid again? You either play the "float" by writing checks for money you don't have and hope they won't clear by the time you get paid again (but bank processing times have gotten faster, so that won't even buy you time anymore) or you use a payday loan lender, which charges hundreds of percent of annual interest. Good way to stay poor.

Buying things because they are a "good deal". "Wow, look how much money I saved" you might say. But, you couldn't even afford the amount of money you did spend, because you're broke. Good move, Wisenheimer. Now you're even more broke.

Ignoring bills. Every day, bills would come in the mail and I would toss them on a heap and ignore them. I couldn't afford to pay them, so what was the point? The point was if I had contacted the bill collectors and worked out a payment plan, the mail would have stopped coming, or at least they wouldn't have been as threatening. Plus, I was damaging my credit and racking up extra fees. Stupid.

It's "their" fault I'm poor. I was poor because my boss didn't pay me enough, because the bank charged me fees for bad checks, because the bill collectors were overcharging me, because I didn't have enough education, because my parents never taught me how to handle money. At least, that's what I used to think. The real reason was it was really all my fault. Don't have an education? Get one. Don't make enough money at your job? Get another one, or start your own business. Born into a poor family? So what. Millionaires, U.S. presidents and famous actors were also born into poor families. You can get ahead, too...but no one is going to hand it to you. You have to work for it.

Spending more than you earn. If I was to write a book about how to get ahead, it would be the shortest book in existance. It would be one page long, and contain just one sentence. That sentence would be: Live below your means. If you spend less than you earn, suddenly you have more money to use to get ahead. It really is than simple. "But, I don't earn much money to begin with" you might say. That may be true, but whatever you earn, you can still live on less. People all over the world do it everyday. In some African nations, the average annual salary is $300 a year. Not a week, not a month, but in one full year. You're much better off than that. You can live on less than you earn. If you can't, either increase your income, or find areas were you can cut back. Five years ago, I took a job which paid 20 percent less than what I had been earning. I still managed to cut my spending even further, and my family begain to live on about 75-80 percent of what I was earning. It wasn't fun, it wasn't easy, but we did it...and we're better today for it.




Savvy Frugality Recommended Reading: More Employees Getting Scrooged This Christmas.

If you're like me, you check your retirement savings, your stocks, grit your teeth and say "I'm in it for the long haul", and try to forget about it until the next time you check your stocks. After all, I have about 25 years until retirement (although I hope it's actually less), so there is time for the stock to bounce back, which it will...eventually.

But what about those college savings for Junior? Perhaps he's like my kid...13 years old and ready to attend college in five years or less. All of a sudden those stocks don't look so inviting, and every "economic meltdown" story in the news is driving the stock price lower, and eating up your gains. If you're looking at sending a child to college in five years or less, and you want to lock in your savings before losing the rest of the tuition and book money, there are a few sensible, although very conservative, moves you can make with the kid's college cash.

1. Get rid of the stocks. If you're really concerned about having some college cash left in five years or left, preserve the money you have now. Things are just to volatile on Wall Street right now to risk cash you'll need in the short term.

2. Stash your cash. Those high-yield savings accounts at online banks are suddenly looking like a better deal. Sure, they only pay 3-4 percent interest per year, but that's better than LOSING money.

3. Adjust your 529. If you have a 529 state-sponsored college savings account, shuffle your investments around to more conservative options, like bonds...or the fixed asset option which pays a set (but lower) amount of interest each year.

4. There are always U.S. Savings Bonds. These are an old-school savings option. The interest rate on Series EE and I bonds are low, and you need to hang on to them for at least five years to make it worth it, but again...you're not going to lose your cash.

5. Buy a CD. Certificates of Deposit at the local bank or credit union are another safe option. There are varying lengths of time you have to hold the CD, usually ranging from 6 months to 3 years. The higher the dollar amount of the CD and the longer you hold it, the higher the interest. Again, your cash won't go anywhere, and it's insured in case your bank tanks (provided your bank is FDIC-insured).

I had been buying shares of Wal-Mart and Devon Energy for my son's college fund. I'm not selling them (I don't have many shares), but I'm not buying more, either. For now, the kid's cash is going into an Emigrant Direct savings account at 3 percent interest per year.