This past week, I (along with several of my co-workers) attended an out-of-town conference for several days and I have to tell you, it's really good to be back! Not that I didn't learn a lot and wasn't grateful for the opportunity to spend quality time with my fellow Savings.comers, but sinking into my own bed, with my own pillows last night was a welcome relief from strange hotel rooms and crowded airplanes.

So in honor of that, I give you this week's finance blog round-up--the "Home Again" edition:

Today, let's talk about free. Although Savings.com has a great selection of software deals, what better way to save than to pay nothing at all, right? For smaller projects that require less expertise, there are many free graphics programs out there. I've compiled a select few that I've tested and used--none of which are of the illegal download variety. But all are perfectly legitimate scaled-down alternatives to full-featured (and full-priced!) graphics software packages that I've picked up on through the years.

Playing sports is a great way to get some exercise, have fun, and bond with friends. Whether you're playing a pick-up game or on an organized team, there are tons of different sports to choose from. However, sometimes we get bored of playing the same sports over and over. Here are sports that are fun but a bit--uh, unusual...

Printing is not an easy task. There are so many things that go into the process--from the design to the final production. Yes, we can always use Microsoft Paint on our computers, make a design, print it out and create a simple postcard to send to all family and friends. If you want to invest in a quality product, however, it doesn't necessarily have to cost a lot in terms of time or money.

For that reason we decided to feature Overnight Prints as our featured store of the week.

So you may have noticed by reading the blog posts at Savings.com that most of us here have some level of expertise on a given category, and we do our best to save folks money on the items we are knowledgeable about. When I asked myself what is my area of "deal" expertise two things sprung to mind: motorcycle parts/maintenance and beer. The first is a bit niche, so we'll table that and focus on how one saves money on beer.

While wine-colored toenails are optional, men everywhere are getting manicures and pedicures. And why not? Sure beats craggly toes at the end of the bed. With 30% of salon clients being male, we thought we'd give you guys some DIY tips for the perfect home mani/pedi.

Enjoy.

I recently had to fly across the country on short notice for a funeral. I found a round trip ticket to New York for a little over $700 on Virgin America and considered myself lucky, as other airlines were showing prices of $1200 or more for a similar last minute trip. When I returned from my travels, I got to wondering if I has been too hasty in buying that Virgin America ticket, and if I could have gotten a better deal if I had investigated so-called bereavement fares from the major airlines . My conclusion: probably not.

At Savings.com, we work HARD. But we also like to play hard as well. After months of meetings and research and coding and testing, we launched the new and improved website. And last Friday we celebrated our accomplishment with a red and white themed party.

It's that time again: Top 10 Deals time! Don't play coy. We promise we're just as excited about this week's Top 10 Deals as you. So without further ado:

Think back to the crappiest car you've ever driven. Now think of how nice it would have been to get $4500 to trade in your hooptie for a sweet new ride. $4500...that's more than my last car was worth! Our favorite blog posts and articles from the past week are themed around the Cash for Clunkers bill that was passed by the Senate last night. So, without further ado, here are our favorite clunker-related posts of the week.

A recent post over at Walletpop detailed the story of a cash-strapped zoo in Gaza that painted a donkey to look like a zebra. They say necessity is the mother of invention, but often frugality plays a large role as well. I polled my Savings.com colleagues about their favorite savings hacks (also dubbed "frugal ingenuity" by Derek).

Here are the results:

Much like we've seen with gas prices, the recession can be your friend when it comes to baseball ticket prices, too.

Major League Baseball was certainly grateful when the recession waited until the end of the 2008 season to rear its ugly head. Despite attendance dipping about 1% from 2007, America's wealthiest sport saw its revenues climb half a billion dollars. Luckily for sports fans, that trend will not continue.

By the beginning of the 2009 season, most teams had already downed the proverbial stiff drink and prepared to offer creative ways for their fiscally weary fans to enjoy an affordable trip to the ballpark.