“You may be eligible to receive rebates from your state or territory for the purchase of new ENERGY STAR qualified appliances. These rebates are being funded with $300 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Under this program, eligible consumers can receive rebates to purchase new energy-efficient appliances when they replace used appliances.”

Each state is running their own program. California just started their Cash for Appliances program yesterday, and it’s much better than I thought it was. Some states have already ended their programs (sorry!).

For example, on a $500 front-loading washer that we were looking at, certain CA residents (by zip code) could get $300 back in rebates! That’s $200 from the state of California, $50 from WaterEnergySavings.com (PG&E + local water utility), and another $50 from PG&E. This is on top of the potential water and electricity savings that you’d would get from switching away from an old top-loading washer.

Click on your state on this map for more information. Here are some frequently asked questions.

Entrance fees to all 392 national parks will be waived during National Park Week, April 17th to 25th. Parks will also offer additional family friendly activities and special offers on tours, lodging, food, and souvenirs. A listing of parks and promotions is available at www.nps.gov/npweek.

Normally, 146 of 392 national parks charge entrance fees ranging from $3 to $25. The other 246 do not charge for admission. [Press Release]

*Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.

Through April 30, you can bring up to 2 knives per person to Sur la Table and have them sharpened for free. A good way to keep quality knives for a long time, as I hear those sharpening steels often aren’t enough. You may need to leave them there for a couple days. Locations mainly in larger cities, lots in CA.

Here’s a another Sharebuilder promotion, which will give existing customers 5 free real-time market trades. (New customers should grab their free $50 sign-up bonus with code 50WCFA first and then come back).

Log into your account, click on the “Accounts” tab and then the “Promotions” tab below it. Enter the promotion code HVC09NY and you should see the following confirmation:

Thank you your promo code has been accepted. Happy New Year!

You should also receive e-mail confirmation. To double-check, visit this page when logged in and you should see 5 free trades good until 8/1/10. Credit to flaredup from FW.

These real-time market trades are handy if you want to sell any of your shares, especially any small positions you have, without paying $9.95 a pop.

Vanguard is offering a free PDF download of the recently published book Elements of Investing by Malkiel and Ellis. It looks like it might have been meant for Flagship members, but is currently open to everyone. From the Amazon reviews and table of contents, Elements of Investing is targeted at investing beginners, intended to provide a brief overview of basic investment principles like diversification and focusing on the long-term. Thanks to 2million for the tip.

Burton Malkiel is also the author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, the classic book that was the very first investing book I read when I started this blog in 2004. Perhaps his new book will be the start of a great financial revolution for you as well?

Looks like AT&T Wireless is offering folks a $20 gift card if they sign up for automatic payments on a Mastercard. Good for covering part of those iPhone monthly fees!

You will receive a confirmation email in 1-2 days and your Gift Card will arrive in 4-6 weeks. It’s that easy! Log in today.