This is a follow-up on my previous post about assessing whether you should contribute to a political campaign. I realized this morning that I never provided a conclusion as to my own personal assessment.

The presidential campaign season is upon us, and that means the media outlets are talking all about campaign financing (and a little bit about the candidates' issues and platforms). It might even get you thinking about whether or not you should give money to you favorite candidate.

I'm not a greenie by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like to think of myself as somewhat practical when it comes to saving money. Therefore, even though I might not be inclined to recycle because people try to guilt me into, I do concede that recycling can be a smart financial move.

Here are a few examples of how I've saved money with recycling.

I glanced at a Yahoo! Finance article this morning that claimed you would save well over a million bucks by not watching TV – for the rest of your life. It's an interesting article, and I encourage everyone to read it for some insights about both the upfront and "hidden" costs of watching TV.

But it did raise my dander up a bit toward the end, especially in the sections related to commercials and "opportunity costs."

After our mortgage, day care is probably the single highest recurring expense we incur at the moment, and during the summer months when we have two kids in daycare instead of just one, our daycare expenses will actually surpass our monthly mortgage payment – principal, interest, escrow and PMI included.