My favorite websites

I spend a lot of time on the internet during the day. Honestly, I probably spend too much time on the internet. However, all this web surfing has helped me gather a number of sites that are useful to me and probably would be to you, too. Here's a short list:

1. Hungry Girl (www.hungry-girl.com) This website was created by a girl after my own heart: one who loves food but still wants to be healthy. The Hungry Girl offers tons of recipes and tips for anyone who wants to watch his/her figure without feeling cheated. She offers reviews of snacks, dining out tips and healthy remakes of comfort food recipes and restaurant fare. A few days ago we tried the Hungry Girl's recipe remake of blue box macaroni and cheese. It was a good base recipe. (We added a cup of regular cheddar cheese... not the healthiest, but still healthier than the blue box!)

2. Hey, it's free! (www.heyitsfree.net) I became intrigued with the idea of getting free goodies online a few months ago. I found this website, and it is by far the best (and the only one I use at this point). They post freebies daily, as well as news about coupons and in-store deals. My favorite freebies so far: free subscriptions to Oprah and Popular Science magazines, a full-sized roll of toilet paper, and coupons for free chocolate.

3. Mint (www.mint.com) We don't use this site as often as we used to, but I still like it. Mint.com is free financial tracking software. It allows you to get a simple look at your income and categorize your expenses. I recommend trying it. It's not perfect, but it's helpful in many ways. (And it's free!)

4. Hulu (www.hulu.com) If you do not yet know the joys of watching free television (and some movies) via the internet, you should check out Hulu. It is a completely site that compiles full episodes and clips of television shows and makes them available for your viewing pleasure. I love it because we don't have cable, nor do we have a converter box. I love watching Intervention and my guilty pleasure, America's Got Talent.

While I am a Facebook junkie of sorts, I am trying to get more use out of Twitter. I know a lot of people (my husband included) say they just "don't get" Twitter. Twitter is like a very simplified version of Facebook and seems to be more useful when it comes to integrating a cell phone with social networking. I just don't have many friends who post on there very frequently, so it's difficult for me to justify the use.

I'm also currently experimenting with Google Reader. It's a tool in Google that compiles the updates from all the websites you like to visit frequently into one site. I like it so far, but I'm not convinced that it is of more use to me than simply visiting each site individually.

Anyhow, let me know if you have any favorite sites, or what you think of these.

-Meredith