• Money leaks that are draining your finances — LearnVest
• Top 10 DIY jobs homeowners should avoid — Wise Bread
• How to end your smartphone dependency — The Jane Dough
• Could reducing your stress make you more attractive? — HuffPost Women
• Budget-friendly wedding gifts you’d actually want to get — Broke Girl's Guide
• Tips for successful yard sale — Bankrate
• Real retirement advice from real people — Free Money Finance
• Make your own expensive cereal — The Billfold
• Customer loyalty programs that pay off — Real Simple
• Genius idea: shoe rack for the pantry — All You

We've always known that Steve Jobs was a visionary and have heard of his legendary business acumen, but we have never really seen him in action.

However, we caught a glimpse of his negotiation skills in email correspondence between Jobs and media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son, which was released by the US government in relation to its price-fixing lawsuit against Apple. In the emails, we see Jobs successfully convincing James Murdoch to get HarperCollins, a News Corp. subsidiary, to sign a deal to sell its ebooks in iTunes. Quartz has the email exchange in most of its entirety, but let's take a look and dissect one of the emails Jobs wrote.

Read on to see the email.

Although your résumé is definitely important, the cover letter can also be a make-or-break factor. Before you even get an interview, your application will have to impress the recruiter or hiring manager, so perfecting your cover letter is key to earning a face-to-face meet. Here are some tips for the perfect cover letter that will catch any recruiter's eye:

• Tweak your tone for every company. Don't send generic cover letters that can be used for any job application. You want to make sure that the tone of your letter fits the type of firm you're applying to. Is the company looking for someone with sass or someone more serious? Figure that out on your own, and tailor your letter to what suits the company.
• Make a case. You won't be able to get to this on your résumé, so be sure to make the case for why you're the right person for the job on your cover letter and why you want to work for them. A good way to sell yourself is to connect your experiences with the job description. List your skills and experiences that match the type of candidate they are looking to hire.
• Be different. Don't repeat everything on your résumé in your cover letter. The letter is your chance to shine and show a bit of your personality. Repeating what's already been said just takes up valuable space.

Read on for more.

When it's time for a holiday weekend, everyone's looking forward to the extra day off — as well as the sales and discounts. Memorial Day is no different. We know it's a little early, but don't you know the early bird catches the worm? Or, in this case, bags the biggest discounts. Here are a couple of great sales going on:

• Amazon: Up to 60 percent off on footwear and accessories.
• Bath & Body Works: Four for $15 or six for $20 on antibacterial hand soap. Ends June 2.
• Dell: Use code 0H9Q3PQ6L3744C to get an extra $50 off a Dell Inspiron 15z Ultrabook.
• Disney: 30 percent off swimwear.
• Ecko: 50 percent off sitewide with code 50VANDALS.
• Eddie Bauer: Use code HARBOR for free shipping on purchases over $99.
• Best Buy: 10 to 30 percent off major appliances.
• Home Depot: Memorial Day savings on a variety of items.
• Macy's: 20 to 50 percent off and free shipping on purchases over $99.
• Perry Ellis: 40 percent off all online purchases with the code PEMEMORIAL.
• West Elm: 20 percent off rugs, 20 percent off select bedroom furniture, and over 250 new markdowns.
• REI: Save up to 30 percent on clothing and outdoor and sports gear.
• JC Penney: Lots of online sales across many categories.

Keep watching this space, because we'll be updating this as more Memorial Day discounts are announced.

There's nothing more frustrating than an mailbox full of junk mail, so make dealing with junk mail one of your Spring resolutions. To start with, here are a couple of sites you should visit:

• Catalog Choice: With over a million users and counting, this is a free and easy way of cutting down your catalog junk.
• Direct Marketer's Association: You can request one of the over 3,600 companies under the DMA's umbrella to stop sending mail to you. This includes credit offers, catalogs, mail offers, and magazine offers.
• OptOutPrescreen.com: A bunch of credit reporting companies started this website to soothe the frustrations of consumers. This is a good site for opting out of those endless credit card offers.

If you're done checking out the above sites and the flow of junk mail from certain retailers still hasn't stopped, you can also try manually contact the culprits. If you have the time, you can phone the companies to opt out of their mailing lists. Or if you prefer, you can dig around on their websites to see if you can be removed from their list online.

Remember to note on an Excel sheet or Google doc details of the companies you have contacted and the dates you spoke with them so you'll know when to follow up.

If you've moved to a new place, you might find yourself inundated with the previous tenant's mail. First, you should communicate to the mail carrier that you're receiving a previous tenant's letters, says Sue Brennan, a spokesperson for the US Postal Service. You can do this by telling the carrier in person, leaving a note in the mailbox, or writing the word "moved" on the ex-tenant's mail.

Source: Etsy User TerraViam

• How to feed a crowd on a budget (don't overspend for a Memorial Day BBQ) — All You
• Systems for managing your mail — Real Simple
• Ways to buy jeans on the cheap — Wise Bread
• My husband embezzled millions and I paid the price — LearnVest
• Are men with wives who make more insecure? — The Jane Dough
• Stress ruled my life, so I left my corporate job behind — HuffPost Women
• Learn anything in 20 hours with this four-step method — Lifehacker
• What it cost her when her boyfriend died — The Billfold
• When to use last names — Corporette
• Does having multiple bank accounts encourage overspending? — Mint

It's important to accept the right friend requests, because the strength of your LinkedIn network depends on who your connections are. You want to make sure you're comfortable with your connection having access to your network. Adding and accepting a LinkedIn request is a gesture of trust, and it should be made with careful consideration.

Now that you're more careful about who you add, the next step is to clean up your friends list. You may not have been too picky in the beginning while you were building up your account, but it's time to weed out the connections that you don't want or need. Here's how to go about deleting your contacts:

1. Log in to your account, and hover over "Contacts" on the top bar of your profile. A dropdown menu will appear, and you should click on "Connections."

2. You'll be taken to your address book. Click on the hyperlink "Remove Connections" which you can find in the top right-hand corner of the page.

3. You should be in the "Remove Connections" page. You'll see the address book on the left side, and you'll have to click through each alphabet letter (connections are grouped by last names) to see which connections you'd like to delete. When cleaning up your list, check to see if your contacts meet these qualifications. If they don't, consider deleting them. Check the boxes next to the names you want to delete, then click on the blue "Remove Connections" button to remove them.

• The key to a successful life — HuffPost Women
• Donate it or ditch it? — Real Simple
• How to prevent a windfall money mistake — Wise Bread
• Why parents pay for their child's college education — The Billfold
• eHarmony dabbles in matchmaking . . . at work — LearnVest
• Convince your boss to let you work from home with a recommendation — Lifehacker
• What quitting on maternity leave may mean for your finances — Credit Sesame
• How to finish what you start — DailyWorth

Source: Etsy User ingredientsforlovely

• Confessions of a trust fund baby — LearnVest
• Questions you should ask at every job interview — Wise Bread
• Are women apologizing for earning more than their husbands? — HuffPost Women
• Should you play the lottery? — The Billfold
• How to make your first day a great day — Corporette
• Today’s housing market – what you need to know — Credit Sesame
• How to let someone down easy — Real Simple
• Why it's always worth asking for a hotel upgrade — Lifehacker
• How to ask for a raise — The Jane Dough

Peppering your conversations with "like" can seem like the norm or even cool in high school, but when it comes to the working world, it can discredit your professionalism. You might as well throw in a "whatever" or "as if!" while you're at it. It disrupts the flow of your conversation, and also makes you sound unsure of what you are saying.

However, this doesn't mean that you can't use the word at all. The word "like" is properly used in some instances:

• You're comparing the similarity between two items: This shirt is like the one I have.
• You favor something: I like him
• You're giving an example: A sport like football.

Here are some things you can do to curb the use of the filler:

• Record yourself: Try to record yourself talking on the phone with a friend and watch how often you say the word. This will make you more aware of how much you say "like." You may start automatically noticing your usage when you're talking.
• Make a conscious effort: Make an effort to stop saying "like" in all your conversations. The more you practice, the more second nature it'll become to you.
• Join Toastmasters: Join your local Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, which most definitely will include the banning of the use of the word "like."
• Slow down: You may be interjecting the word "like" in your conversation as fillers because you need more time to process your thoughts before you speak. Start slowing down your speech and take pauses when you need them. People often worry about pauses making the conversation uncomfortable, but it actually shows that you're thinking before you speak, which is always a positive trait.

• Buy these household items from the flea market: Instead of bucking out for high-priced living essentials, head to your local flea market or garage sales in your community for all the things you need.
• Don't send a work email late at night: Many people often tune out of their work life once they are home. There are a lot of people who either resolve to not check their work emails after work, or not to respond to any work emails until they're back at the office. You're most likely not going to get a response if no one is waiting on you, so hold off on emailing until you're back at your cubicle.
• Organize your mail with style: There's nothing more unsightly than piles of mail in your home, so try to find a better way to organize them that serves a dual purpose — make your home look neater, but more stylish at the same time.
• Watch who you add on LinkedIn: Don't feel bad if you decline someone's request — it's something that happens often, and you're only hurting yourself if you weaken your network. Adding and accepting a LinkedIn request is a gesture of trust, and it should be made with careful consideration.
• Reuse Disposable Items: Don't throw away those so-called disposable items. Find other uses for them, and you'll save a lot of money over time.
• Keep your bachelorette short and sweet: Make it a one-night affair, or if you do choose to stay somewhere for several nights, plan to have just one "all-out" night and a couple more casual, low-key evenings. Try an at-home barbecue, a nostalgic sleepover, or your own DIY version of a wine tasting to keep the festivities budget-friendly.
• Fold a shirt in two seconds: To save time (and pain) when folding clothes, learn this technique that will help you fold one shirt in two seconds.
• Decorate your grad cap: One of the most entertaining parts about a graduation is seeing all the great grad cap ideas people come up with. While "Thanks, mom and dad" is pretty sweet, it's the creative ones that catch our attention time and time again.
• Clean the coffee grinder with stale bread: All you have to do is tear stale bread into chunks and throw them in the coffee grinder. Grind it for a few seconds, open it, and you'll see coffee bits sticking to the bread, which you can then dump out.

Source: Sarah Lipoff

The weekend is finally here, but don't get carried away and start spending like there's no tomorrow. No matter what you do this weekend, there are plenty of ways to save, so be sure to keep these budget-friendly tips in mind.

If you're grocery shopping . . .

Practice simple tips like buying store brands, not falling for supermarket tricks that get you to spend more, and avoid overbuying. If you bought too much, you can share them with a friend before it goes stale. Be sure to skip the nongrocery items because the prices are often marked up!

If you're looking for a good book to read . . .

Go to your local library and pick out a book to read. If you rather read from the comfort of your own laptop or Kindle, check out $1 ebooks by indie authors on Amazon.

If you're going to do some dry cleaning . . .

The weekend is the best time to get your chores out of the way, and if you're thinking of doing some dry cleaning, be sure to do research to scout out a dry cleaner's that will give you the best bang for your buck. You can even dry clean your clothes at home with certain products. Check out other tips to help you save on your dry cleaning!

Read on for more ways to save this weekend.

Is your coffee grinder in need of a cleaning? If you have some stale bread on hand, it's the perfect ingredient for a grinder quick-clean. All you have to do is tear up stale bread into chunks and throw them in the coffee grinder. Grind it for a few seconds, open it, and you'll see coffee bits sticking to the bread, which you can then dump out.

• He made $570k last year, but he doesn't feel rich — The Billfold
• Guess how many women now take their husbands' names? — HuffPost Women
• So you say you want to be a landlord — LearnVest
• Places teens (and adults) can learn about money — Wise Bread
• How to spot fake online product reviews — Real Simple
• Destink wet laundry left in the washer with white vinegar — Lifehacker
• Your loneliness is hurting your job performance — The Jane Dough
• Best markets for home values — Bankrate
• Safely stash your plastic at home — Credit Sesame

Who doesn't need more money? We've given you many ideas to earn extra income, but sometimes there are intangible factors you may or may not have control over that affect your salary. Thankfully, we have scientists hard at work in their labs trying to figure out the answers for us. Here are various results of research studies of the things that impact income:

• Height: An Australian study found that 6-foot men earned $1,000 more than guys who were two inches shorter. "Taller people are perceived to be more intelligent and powerful," says the study.
• Regular exercise: People who work out regularly, according to a study in the Journal of Labor Research, earn nine percent more than their couch potato peers. Perhaps your monthly gym membership is literally paying off.
• Popularity in high school: Being well-liked in high school isn't something we can change right now, but if you were one of the cool kids, you're in luck. A National Bureau of Economic Research study says people who were among the top fifth most popular students in high school, earn a 10 percent premium on salary four decades later compared with the bottom fifth.
• When you marry: College-educated women who marry past their 30s make more income, while men who marry earlier see more financial benefits, according to a study by the National Marriage Project. One reason could be: women who marry earlier tend to have kids earlier as well, which forces them to take a break from their career during a period when they'll see a lot of growth. As for men, perhaps those who marry earlier tend to be more secure and confident than their single friends, leading to higher productivity.

Read on for more.

• Ways to save on amusement and theme park tickets — All You
• Lower your voice to sound more authoritative — Corporette
• Stop going into credit card debt for the sake of “points” — The Billfold
• How I cut my spending in half to take a job I loved — LearnVest
• The basics of budgeting — DailyWorth
• Real world princesses who don't need Disney glitter — HuffPost Women
• How to enjoy a budget-friendly Summer in Paris — Broke Girl's Guide
• 2 investing concepts everyone should know — Wise Bread
• How to pay off student loans — Real Simple
• How to get rid of ants — Lifehacker