THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES.... WAYNE KINGWELL

Border officials caught Kingwell, 40, attempting to sneak from Canada into the U.S. by floating down the icy Niagara River on a rubber raft. After being treated for hypothermia, he told authorities that he had been trying to avoid paying an $85 fee that his credit card company charged for mailing his payment from Canada. (spotted in The Week)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES.... TOBEY MAGUIRE

In an interview with Men's Journal, the Spiderman star revealed that he is a bargain hunter. He's made millions from the movie series and put nearly all of it in the bank. When he travels, rather than take a private jet, he buys the cheapest coach ticket he can find. The only way he'll upgrade to first class, he says, is if he has enough miles. "It's hard for me to justify spending that much money for a first-class ticket," he says. "You know those Lotto winners who win big and then blow through all the money? That would never happen to me."

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES.... ELIZABETH ROYTE

In her book, Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash, Elizabeth Royte attempts to track all of the waste she and her family produces to its ultimate destination, including recycling, computers, mounds of excess plastic and paper packaging, food scraps and even sewage. It's a fascinating read that compels you to more carefully consider everything you dispose of, especially since the average American throws away an estimated 4.3 pounds of trash each day. The goal, although unachievable for most people, is zero waste -- everything gets reused somehow.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... THE ECONOMIDES

In their book, America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money, Steve and Annette Economides discuss how they and their five children live frugally but well. One bit of advice they offer is to decide on your "time versus money" threshold. If a simple phone call will resolve a bank error, for instance, that should be done. But if the resolution of an issue doesn't yield more than $10 or $15 an hour, it's best to let it go and spend that time with your friends and family.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... THE FBI

Since at least 1986, the FBI has been tracking down U.S.-based terrorists who fraudulently redeem Sunday newspaper grocery coupons to fund attacks. During the trial of the men who bombed the World Trade Center in 1992, investigators claimed that U.S.-based cells had raised $100 million by processing coupons through stores they owned in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. According to one report, about $500 million worth of the $3.8 billion in coupons distributed each year are redeemed fraudulently. For more details, see Ben Jacobson's 1998 testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committiee on Terrorism and Technology. In 2006 Jacobson wrote us with an update: "Coupons are still a means of financial support for terror cells operating within the U.S. This has been demonstrated over the past few years by various arrests of terrorist sympathizers within the U.S. who have used grocery coupons to finance their activities."

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... DAVID PHILLIPS

The Davis, California man was excited to see the promotion by the Healthy Choice prepared food company: mail in 10 proofs of purchase and get 1000 frequent flier miles. Getting 1000 miles for ten $2 dinners wasn't bad, he figured, but getting them for ten 25-cent pudding cups was better. "I quickly realized that for 25 cents I was getting 100 free miles," Phillips said, so he bought $3140 worth of diet pudding cups, earning 1.25 million miles, or about $25,000 worth of flights. As if that wasn't good enough, he also donated the pudding to food banks for a tax deduction. (spotted in This is True. Copyright © 2000 by Randy Cassingham. Posted with permission.)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... MSREALITY.COM

"The person who requested this message would like you to be a little more aware of you lack of generosity or reciprocation. He or she feels that you are a little on the cheap side. Cheap people can afford things, but choose to take advantage of the generosity of others, even if those generous people are less well off. The bottom line is this: cheap people alienate others, which can cause them to be passed up for opportunities, and excluded from social events. Is saving a few dollars really worth the long-term loss?" -- from a form letter once available at MsReality.com, a service that sent anonymous emails to inform visitor's friends or relatives of how they were perceived by others

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... GEORGE PEABODY

Although he later became a noted philanthropist, the 19th century banker didn't always find it easy to be separated from his money. The best-known story of his thrift was told by Junius Morgan, who became his business partner in 1854. Peabody didn't own a carriage but would come to work by public horsecar. One day, Morgan told Peabody that he looked sickly and should probably go home for the day. Peabody agreed. Twenty minutes later, while running an errand, Morgan found Peabody standing in the rain. "Mr. Peabody, I thought you were going home," he said. "Well, I am," Peabody responded, "but there's only been a two-penny bus come along as yet and I am waiting for a penny one." At the time, Peabody had more than a million pounds in the bank. (spotted in The House of Morgan, by Ron Chernow)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... CONSUMER RESEARCHERS

The Journal of Consumer Research, published by the University of Chicago Press, is devoted to academic studies of why and how people chose the products they do. Recent issues have revealed that people are more likely to choose a product that start with the same letter as their first name, especially if they need it urgently, that people are more likely to buy lower-priced items after they go off sale than higher-priced ones, and that people tend to accept a price-matching guarantee as indicating the store has the best price only if it takes too much effort to confirm it.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... NANCY'S DATE

"How cheap was he? He didn't want to pay for a parking lot, so he parked on the street. And, guess what, he got a parking ticket. He cursed and said no way was he going to pay it. Then he put it on the windshield of the car parked behind him. I reminded him that the ticket had his license plate number on it. He said, 'Yeah, but you never know -- nobody reads parking tickets. The guy might just pay it.' " --Nancy, 23, of Boston, in America's Dumbest Dates

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... MISSISSIPPI

Each year the Catalogue for Philanthropy compiles a list of the most generous and cheapest states, measured by how much residents give to charity. The most generous state is Mississippi, followed by Arkansas and South Dakota. The cheapest state (in this case, not such a good thing) is New Hampshire, followed by Massachusetts and New Jersey. But critics such as the Boston Foundation say a different methodology is needed. It says that if you take each state's share of overall charitable contributions and income and adjust for differences in taxes and living costs, Massachusetts jumps from 49th to 11th.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... COUPON PROFESSIONALS

The Association of Coupon Professionals promotes the use of coupons through initiatives such as make it easier for retailers to handle coupons by adding bar codes and educating the public and merchants about redemption and rebate fraud. The ACP says the best coupons emphasize "stock-up" strategies, are about the size of a dollar bill and have a clear expiration date. "A good coupon begs to be redeemed," it says. Each year ACP members get together for a few days at a big city hotel somewhere to talk about coupons. What could be more fun?

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... SNICKERS SHOPPERS

"Humans obey when retailers tell us to buy more. Brian Wansink, professor of marketing and director of the Food and Brand Laboratory at the University of Illinois, performed a study with full-price Snickers bars at a convenience store. The researchers put up a sign that said, 'Buy some for the freezer.' They also tried a sign that said 'Buy 18 for the freezer.' Few people actually bought 18 candy bars, but they did buy 1.5 times more than when the sign simply said 'buy some.' Wansink says: 'Even in the face of zero discount, it still ends up influencing people. It's a really powerful effect.' " -- from an article in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, November 2000

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... OPRAH WINFREY

The talk show host, who is worth about $1.3 billion and has homes in Hawaii, California and Chicago, was quoted in the January 2005 issue of Budget Living as saying, "I still get a little thrill whenever I see those two words: free and discount." Which goes to show -- it's not how much you have, it's how much you save.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... LARRY ROTH

"I believe in a win-win approach to life. Taking advantage of everybody and everything is win-lose. In the long run, as these people accumulate 'free' things that take up space and complicate their lives, their win-lose approach will leave them empty. For example, I recently won a fairly expensive prize that I couldn't use from a store in my neighborhood. It was free, so I took it. Eventually I found someone who could use it, but it took some effort to get this 'prize' out of my life. Even free things are not bargains if you don't need them." -- from The Limits of Cheap by Larry Roth, author of The Best of Living Cheap News

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... C.W. POST

In 1895 the cereal maker distributed the first grocery coupon, awarding consumers a penny off his new Grape Nuts product. Today the Promotion Marketing Association says 77 percent of all Americans use coupons, saving more than $3 billion per year on purchases. It says the most dedicated clippers are people who earn between $50,000 and $75,000 per year.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... NEW AFFLUENTS

According to a poll conducted by Visa Signature, the group most likely to clip coupons are the 7 percent of the U.S. population known as "New Affluents," or Americans age 35 to 54 whose household income is at least $125,000 per year. These consumers tend to have worked hard for their wealth, so are vigilant about spending it wisely. Almost three-quarters of the group say they clip coupons, which is much higher than the national average of 65 percent. Nearly 80 percent said they have a credit card that allows them to earn rebates or perks, versus 38 percent of the overall population.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

Spend your earnings prudently. That was the lesson drilled into John Rockefeller by his Puritan parents. While attending Brown University, the future founder of Standard Oil was known to other students as the rich boy who trimmed his frayed cuffs, soaked two-cents stamps apart, and pressed his trousers beneath his mattress. He also wrote down every cent that he spent in a little book he carried in his pocket, and he would later insist that his children do the same. (spotted in Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, by Bernice Kert)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... ARISTOTLE ONASSIS

The late billionaire once explained: "Since I am known as a rich person, I feel I have to tip at least $5 each time I check my coat. On top of that, I would have to wear a very expensive coat, and it would have to be insured. Added up, without a topcoat, I save $20,000 a year." (spotted in The Portable Curmudgeon)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... LESLIE WARE

Since 1994 Leslie Ware has been writing the entertaining "Selling It" column on the last page of each issue of Consumer Reports. Ware reports on packaging (often submitted by readers) that stretches the limits of credibility, e.g. "new and improved" boxes that are actually smaller and cost more, painful fine print that invalidates the screaming text above it or junk mail that tries to pass itself off as a parking ticket or official government notice. The best of Selling It has been collected in Selling It: The Incredible Shrinking Package and Other Marvels of Modern Marketing. It's a book that no dedicated deal hunter should be without.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... RICHARD AND PETER WALKLEY

Richard and Peter, who live in Hemel Hempstead, England, earned about $19,000 last year by taking advantage of discrepancies between posted prices and scanned prices at a chain of British supermarkets. The stores offered any price-mismatched items free; the Walkleys carefully looked at every item in the store and used the guarantee to claim large quantities of grocery store products, including 19 cases of beer. (spotted in News of the Weird)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... JACK WELCH

In 2002 the business mogul's wife filed divorce papers that revealed that General Electric had been giving him about $2.5 million in perks each year, including the use of a Manhattan penthouse and jet and limo travel, even though he no longer worked as CEO of the company. This in addition to his $9 million annual pension. Welch agreed to write GE a check each year to pay for the perks. Observed one shareholder watchdog, while noting that Welch and other CEOs could easily afford to pay for the perks that corporate boards give them for nothing: "If you're very, very wealthy, nothing you buy will give you as much of a charge as getting something for free."

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... HEYDANEK, WOOLFORD, BAUGH

In a 1979 issue of the Journal of Food Science, Menard Heydanek, Geoffrey Woolford and L.C. Baugh of the Flavor Technology Department of the John Stuart Laboratories at Quaker Oats published a paper entitled "Premiums and Coupons as a Potential Source of Objectionable Flavor in Cereal Products" (we think coupons make everything taste better!). The researchers found that the standard plastic envelopes used to keep the coupons and toys from touching the cereal are adequate protection for a year or more.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... JIM MILLER

During one NFL season the Chicago Bears quarterback was suspended for the final four games because he tested positive for taking the banned steroid nandrolone. Miller said he had run out of his regular brand of a dietary supplement, which aids muscle recovery after workouts, and used some of another brand he had sitting around the house that contained the banned substance. "It's going to sound funny, but I was waiting for the first Tuesday of every month to go purchase my normal stuff because GNC offers a 20-percent discount," he said. Miller earns $400,000 a year, the NFL minimum for a sixth-year player. The suspension will cost him a fourth of his salary, or $100,000. (spotted in the Chicago Tribune)

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... JUDGE ROBERT ANDREWS

Circuit Court Judge Robert Lance Andrews of Broward County, Florida cut a request for legal fees by the New York firm Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling to $294,000 from $1.4 million in a class-action suit involving a cruise line accused of padding port charges. The 80,000 customers who had been overcharged each received coupons for $10 to $60 off their next voyage (essentially worthless when you consider the cost of a cruise), so the irritated judge ordered that a quarter of the legal fees, or about $70,000, be paid with the same coupons.

THE DEAL DUDE SALUTES... MARK WELLER

As executive director of Americans for Common Cents, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that fights to keep the penny alive, Weller testified before a U.S. House banking committee as to the many reasons why the coin should be preserved. Chief among them, he said, is that eliminating it would allow merchants to round up to the nearest nickel, costing consumers an estimated $600 million annually. The penny is also a moneymaker for the U.S. Treasury. "The penny costs only .7 cents to make, so the Treasury makes .3 cents on each penny minted. This seignorage amounts to over $40 million each year." (spotted at pennies.org).