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Save or splurge: The living room

To get the most for your money, you need to know two things: when the good stuff is worth paying extra for and when the economy choice is plenty good enough.

By Money Magazine's Andrea Bartz, Ismat Sarah Mangla, Noah Rothbaum and Wilson Rothman

Monoprice.com six-foot HDMI 28AWG cables<br>$4.79 each

3 of 7

Cables

Monoprice.com six-foot HDMI 28AWG cables
$4.79 each

Save or spend: Save

When you're getting your TV or home theater, a salesperson might try to sway you toward audio or video cables from Monster for more than $100 apiece.

Don't budge - a $5 to $10 gold-plated cable will suffice. The Monster cables are indeed able to pass massive amounts of signal, but even the most superduper HDTV (1080p) can pass through run-of-the-mill wires.

Buy them online for lower prices; MonoPrice.com has some of the best deals around.

More value judgments

More value judgments

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Wardrobe

How to look like a million bucks without breaking the bank. (more)

The office

If you're going to take your work home, shell out for a decent seat. (more)

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