I found a grill which is more reasonably priced than the last one I drooled over. It's a 42,000 BTU Weber grill with over 500 square inches of grill space. Available in sleek black or electric blue for about $550 (or, for some unfathomable reason, for $700 in forest green; note, I didn't say it was cheap), the Genesis E-310 Propane Gas Grill may eventually burn its way into my backyard.

This is made slightly more likely thanks to a gift certificate balance I have at Amazon; I got it by cashing in my coins at my local Coinstar machine. You'd be surprised how much money in coins you might have laying around! I read somewhere, many many years ago, that saving your change is a great way to generate "free" money. I never actually tried cashing those coins in until I was doing a house cleaning a few months ago and had nowhere to put the boxes of coins I'd gathered over the years (and moved from apartment to apartment). When I took the coins to my Coinstar machine the first time, I ended up with over $500.

The second time I ended up with over $300.

I now keep a jar at the door, and when it fills to the top, I cash it in. Normally, to get cash out of Coinstar, you have to pay a 9% fee of the total amount deposited. But if you get an Amazon gift certificate, that fee is waived. Ditto for iTunes gift certificates, Starbucks, AMC Theatres, and nearly a dozen other merchants. It's a great way to recover your coins in one fell swoop.

And if a gift card to your favorite retailer isn't available, you can always get a prepaid MasterCard. Alas, that will cost you $10 just to get the card, and another $5 every time you renew it.

Nope, I'm sticking to Amazon gift certificates. Hello summer grilling season....