Did you miss some of the Oscar-nominated films? Here’s your chance to see a discount movie marathon.

Both AMC Entertainment and Cinemark are offering marathons of Oscar-nominated films Saturday, March 6. Once you've seen the films, you can throw an Oscar-watching party on the cheap.

This Deal of the Day comes from Kelli B. Grant at partner site SmartMoney.

Plane tickets might cost more this year, but if you’re flexible on days (and not too picky about destinations), there are both spring break hotel bargains to be had -- and strategies to avoid partying college students.

Airfare for between Feb. 28 and March 31 is up 9% this spring, to an average of $349, while hotels are down 15%, reports Bing Travel, Microsoft’s travel search site. What does that mean for you? Think: travel jujitsu.

This post comes from Jabulani Leffall at partner blog Wise Bread.

In the last few months you've probably been bombarded with things to watch for in 2010: ways to save, what the best vacation destinations are, who's hot and who's not -- you know, important stuff.

You may wish to share some of this stuff via a social-networking site: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace -- you know, the important sites.

These sites are actually important because millions of people use them. And millions, such as yourself, will be vulnerable to scams, trickery and tomfoolery that will at best lead to some embarrassing hijacking of your page or computer and, at worse, help a hacker dial down into what in the data-protection world is called PII or personally identifiable information. We've covered a little bit of that at this blog but never enough.

Allow me to pose this question: Would you walk into a dark alley that says "Check out this really cool video of you and your friends"?

Let’s tootle on over to the Penzo house where, if we’re lucky, Len and other members of the Penzo clan will be engaged in their new brand of family fun.

They’ve become masters of the blind taste test -- a safe and inexpensive activity you can try at home. Their taste tests pit name-brand foods against cheaper, store-brand equivalents. Whenever the store brand wins, that can end up saving lots of money.

Plus, Len’s posts are the most entertaining blind taste test accounts we’ve ever read. (“Too close to call,” Len exclaims at one point. “Nobody can accuse the Albertsons soup of being a laughing stock.” For a more staid approach, check out those done by Consumer Reports.)

Here’s what they’ve tested so far, as reported at Len Penzo dot Com (we’ll get to some results below):

• Blind Taste Test No. 1: Name-brand vs. store-brand cookies (Oreos vs. the Albertsons version), sliced provolone, canned peas, kielbasa, tortilla chips and chunky salsa.

From Mighty Bargain Hunter comes news of yet another useless Facebook application: Buddy Bailout, in which friends confront friends about their bad spending habits.

Is your friend The Fashionista, The Gambler, The Credit Abuser or The Over-Blinged? Maybe he needs a public nudge, with a posting headlined “(Your name here) thinks YOU need a bailout!”

• Video: Retailers caught selling used lingerie

Just think what it will do to the relationship when you post on your best friend’s wall, “Your ride looks great, but you can't afford the gas to drive it. Pimp out your bank account, not your ride.”

Let us channel Suze Orman for a moment and scream with our best Midwestern twang: “Are you kidding?!!!”

This post comes from partner site Money Talks News.

Spring cleaning is an American ritual that traditionally entails dusting places you normally don’t, cleaning out closets, and straightening up places you might have been letting go.

But what about your file cabinet? Before you put your tax paperwork away this year, add something to your spring cleaning list: Eliminate as much paper as possible in your life.

This Deal of the Day comes from Kelli B. Grant at partner site SmartMoney.

Business is slow at the spa. How good are the offers designed to lure customers back in?

Like hotels and restaurants, spas would rather fill empty space with low-priced appointments than have staff members sitting idle. "A room empty for that hour is lost," says Hannelore Leavy, executive director of the Day Spa Association. Some locations are offering a greater selection of short, cheap treatments to entice customers who want, say, a facial but can't afford the usual hour-long service. Others are creating specials for first-time visitors or repeat customers.

The trade-off:

This post comes from Jim Wang at partner blog Bargaineering.

I bet this Devil’s Advocate post, which is part of a series I do to challenge conventional wisdom, is going to ruffle a lot of feathers.

Frugality is a pretty big topic in the personal-finance blogging community because there are so many things you can do to trim a few cents or dollars here or there. You can buy gadgets like a Kill A Watt to find out how much energy your appliances are using and disconnect them when they’re not in use. You can make your own laundry detergent or buy a rack to line-dry your clothes. There have been books filled to the brim with thousands upon thousands of ways to save a few dollars and cents here or there.

However, they never get to the heart of the issue: