There’s a Citi (formerly known as Citibank) commercial on television right now in which people are talking about ways to save money, like biking to work. One woman shares, “[I] take hotel shampoo bottles when I travel. Haven’t paid for that stuff in years!”

Now, here’s where I’m concerned: Those bottles have maybe an ounce of shampoo in them. Either this woman travels very frequently, or she washes her hair very infrequently.

My new plan for getting through the recession is to enter a lot of sweepstakes in the hope of winning free stuff and thus saving money. Today I entered (or re-entered) two contests for free mobile phones, one for free household appliances, one for a vacation to New York, and three for free computers. Granted, in the time I spent entering those contests just now, I might have had just as much luck walking outside and waiting for a free phone, computer, or household appliance to fall out of the sky.