You can get a lovely vintage paper doll from Stampington and Company as a free download. I'm guessing you'll be happiest if you happen to have a colour printer, as this little French dollie is very much in colour.

http://www.stampington.com/artisan_avenue/2010/january/download.html

Here's an article from the National Trust for Historic Preservation website that features ten ways to make environmental changes around your house for ten dollars and less each. http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/green-tips.html

Be sure to pay attention to the note at the bottom about how CFLs and dimmer switches don't play well together.

I was chatting with my doctor the other day, who lives in a city I'm thinking of moving to. She mentioned that the property taxes are high, about twice as high as where I currently live. Since the houses are also quite a bit cheaper, this isn't necessarily as bad as it sounds.

Then to my surprise I discovered a program for Marylanders that freezes property taxes at an affordable level. It's based on income and should be helpful to anyone who makes sixty thousand per year or less. Called the Homeowners' Property Tax Credit Program, the program is something you have to apply for every year, but it's well worth the trouble as it can cut tax bill by a substantial amount for qualified Marylanders.

For instance a Maryland resident whose household makes 20,000 per year would pay no more than 780 dollars per year. A household that earns 30,000 would pay no more than 1,680.

You can get all the details and see the chart here: http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdatweb/htc.html.

Ritas is giving away free Italian ices on March 20th. This is obviously to celebrate my birthday, although they say it's to celebrate the first day of spring.

Get the details and decide for yourself here: http://www.ritasice.com/events-and-promotions/first-day-of-spring.aspx

Mark your calendar for Ben and Jerry's free ice cream cone day, coming up next month on the 23rd. You don't need a coupon or anything. Just show up at participating stores.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=272404657314&index=1

If you or a family member are going to college or university in the 2010 – 2011 school year you should fill out a FAFSA, which is the first step in determining what kind of financial aid the student qualifies for. I believe this includes loans, so even if the student isn't hoping to get a grant or a scholarship, they should go ahead and fill out the form.

You'll need to have done your taxes, or have a fair idea of what's going into them, and the sooner you fill it out the better.

Here are a couple of older posts I wrote about FAFSA. http://shoestringliving.com/content/getting-help-tuition

http://shoestringliving.com/content/time-fill-out-your-fafsa

You can access the form directly here: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Fannie Mae is running a super sweet special on their REO. Foreclosed homes that close before May first, 2010 are eligible for three and a half percent in help from Fannie Mae.

This money can be used three ways. It can be used towards closing costs, which is always a boon. Or it can be used to buy Whirlpool appliances, which is also awesome as some foreclosed homes have been stripped of their appliances, or it can be used in a combination of these two ways.

So if a home you're getting needs a washer and dryer, you can get those then put the rest of the help towards closing costs. Talk about win/win.

You can get all the details here: http://www.fanniemae.com/homepath/incentive/index.jhtml

This is a short clip about a new program to help some people who are facing foreclosure. The video is a little wonky. The news station had some technical difficulties towards the beginning but if you hang in there you'll get the info.

Here's a good article from Mike Holmes, of Holmes on Homes, regarding ways to do routine maintenance on your home and avoid having to do big repairs later. He goes over a number of items found around the home.

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2469732

I was looking at the Freebie blog and was pleased to discover that Amazon has free content for home viewing. Current offerings include the pilot to Caprica, which is amazing. Take a look and see what you can find.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dv_sparkle_free?ie=UTF8&docId=...