Social media campaigns always try to hijack newsworthy events to make a brand seem relevant and edgy, which is why NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden is the new subject of a series of German lingerie ads.

Blush lingerie released a series of ads that touts Snowden ("There's still a lot to uncover," it reads) and chastises the government ("Dear NSA, intimates — don't spy them, buy them!")

Blush's website goes further with its Snowden support: 

Even offering him a new asylum:

Blush isn't the first brand to jump on the NSA bandwagon. Denny's poked fun at the scandal on Twitter shortly after it broke:

And Las Vegas' tourism board launched a Twitter campaign and bought a full page ad in USA Today reminding the world that while the NSA is breaching privacy, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Here's the rest of Blush's campaign:

SEE ALSO:  A Major PR CEO Said The Industry Is 'Too Feminized'

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This chart has been making the rounds lately — presumably in response to the landmark Same-sex marriage decision from the Supreme Court last week. It's from an August 2012 paper by Michael Rosenfeld and Reuben Thomas. We first saw it on the /r/DataIsBeautiful subreddit section of Reddit.

The chart shows the changing face of how Americans meet each other and initiate relationships. By far the most interesting aspect is the explosive growth in online dating leading to successful real-world relationships, particularly among same-sex partners. 

Also interesting is the declining role of family when it comes to meeting partners, the steady growth of bars as a place to meet partners, and the dominance of your friends as a dating tool. 

Click the chart to enlarge:

See the whole paper here > 

(Via @azizonomics)

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The annual Gay Pride Parade in New York City is always a huge party. But this year the gay and lesbian community had even more to celebrate after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act,  a federal law that deprived same sex couples of federal marriage benefits. 

Officials expected this year's march, the 44th annual parade, to have the biggest turnout ever.

One of the grand marshals of this year's parade was 84-year-old Edith Windsor, who brought the case to the Supreme Court after she was forced to pay $363,000 in estate taxes when her wife died – an amount she wouldn't have had to pay if she and her spouse had been heterosexual.

Needless to say, the historic news of this week's Supreme Court decision made this year's parade one for the books.

Naturally, Edith Windsor was the star of the show.

The crowd went nuts as she passed.

Some had an extra bounce in their step.

Columbia University is known for its top academics and high price tag, but it also has a classically beautiful college campus with the added bonus of being in New York City.

Much of Columbia's architecture reflects the university's commitment to liberal education. All students must go through the school's famed Core Curriculum, a series of classes aimed at creating critical thinkers.

The university was originally founded by royal edict in the mid-18th century as King's College. These royal ties can still be seen in Columbia's crown logo, which appears on flags and gates all over the campus.

Columbia's first class consisted of nine students and one professor, who apparently closed the then-Wall Street based school to go fight the Revolutionary War. The campus was then relocated uptown, to where 30 Rockefeller Plaza is now, before moving to its current location in the heart of uptown Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood.

We recently decided to explore Columbia and see its stunning campus firsthand. In order to get the full experience, we sat in an on information session and followed around a campus tour.

We started on the 1 subway line, which takes you directly to Columbia's doorstep.

The university has its own stop at 116th street. Check out the blue and white trim, Columbia's colors.

Morningside Heights may seem like a normal New York neighborhood...

If you love a wide variety of junk food, there's no better place to be than in America.

But even Americans are missing out on some of the world's tastiest snacks.

A recent Reddit thread asked what products Americans are missing out on.

The community revealed some awesome snacks from abroad that aren't widely available in the U.S. After reading through it, we now desperately want to try these, and have them here.

1. Golden Gaytime, Australia.

This popular ice cream bar is made of toffee and vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate and wrapped in honeycomb biscuits. Redditor user1811 calls it "one of the best ice creams you can get in Australia."

2. Green Tea Kit-Kats, Japan.

"The only redeeming thing is that they can be ordered on Amazon," says user HidesInTowers. "Japan is really onto something with those."

3. Crispy M&M's, Europe.

These delicious treats were discontinued in the U.S. "I get my dad to bring me back a few bags whenever he goes to Europe for work," says TraumaBunny.

4. Doner Kababs, Turkey.

User omar_strollin points out that this kebab is not a meat-and-veggie skewer. It's a sandwich served on flatbread with roasted meat (usually lamb), cucumber, tomato, lettuce, and chili.

5. Tim Tams, Australia.

Tim Tams are chocolate malt cookies layered with chocolate cream and coated in a layer of chocolate. They're often served with coffee or tea.

6. Spezi orange soda, Germany.

"It tastes a lot more like actual oranges then the thick sugary orange soda in the U.S.," writes ProfBatman. "More artificial tasting than Orangina, but less artificial than Sunkist."

7. Black Currant Fanta, United Kingdom.

" If you're American and haven't tried it imagine drinking a Blue Tootsie Pop (without the center)," says TheRedTornado.

8. Kapsalon, The Netherlands.

This Dutch food item includes fries, topped with gyro meat, then grilled with a layer of gouda cheese. The concoction is then covered in salad greens. Its name means "hair salon" because the inventor of the dish owned one, according to dwerg85.

9. Callalo soup, the Caribbean.
The soup is made from Dasheen leaves, garlic, onion, peppers, okra, and sometimes coconut milk.

"You can't get dasheen leaves in the U.S.," writes ConstantlySlippery. "I've tried it with spinach but its not the same."

10. Paprika-flavored chips, Europe.

"Barbecue is not the same!" writes killahbabekiss.

11. Erdnuss Schokolade, Germany.

These sugar-coated chocolate candies are "like 1000x better than M&M's," writes berline-calling.

12. The McAloo Tiki burger, India.

This meat-free burger is made from potato, chickpeas, and bread.

SEE ALSO: The Dumbest Customer Complaints Of All Time

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Which tech executives bring home the bacon?

The New York Times put together a list of the 200 highest paid executives in the world. Twenty-eight of them run tech companies.

Marissa Mayer and Larry Ellison are some of the highest paid individuals. Activision Blizzard's Robert Kotick makes the highest base salary which exceeds $2 million, although he's not the highest paid overall. Surprisingly, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg didn't make the cut.

Sprint Nextel's Daniel Hesse made $11.1 million in 2012, down from $11.9 million the year prior.

Compensation breakdown:

• Salary: $1,200,000
• Bonus: $5,002,457
• Perks: $167,334
• Stock: $3,560,070
• Options: $1,214,695

Tibco Software's Vivek Ranadive made $11.3 million in 2012, up from $11.3 million the year prior.

Compensation breakdown:

• Salary: $542,656
• Bonus: $306,000
• Perks: $101,945
• Stock: $10,342,500
• Options: $0

Corning's Wendell Weeks made $11.5 million in 2012, up from $7.4 million the year prior.

Compensation breakdown:

• Salary: $1,197,308
• Bonus: $6,265,910
• Perks: $572,297
• Stock: $1,749,994
• Options: $1,668,623

A student at the University of Virginia spent the night in jail after Alcoholic Beverage Control agents mistook her carton of bottled water for a 12-pack of beer.

Elizabeth Daly, a 20-year-old rising junior at UVA, was buying cookie dough, ice cream, and bottled water for a sorority fundraiser in April when she was approached by a group of six men and women in street clothes, The Daily Progress reports. Daly was bringing her purchases to her car.

According to The Progress, the plain clothed ABC agents suspected "the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water to be a 12-pack of beer." After one agent jumped on the hood of her car and another pulled out a gun, Daly freaked out and tried to speed away. She told police that she and the two roommates she was with could not identify the agents as law enforcement officials.

"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform," Daly told the police.

As Daly attempted to pull out of the parking lot, the agents began to break the windows of her car. She eventually was charged with three felonies and spent a night in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

The local county attorney told the Progress that Daly's account of the night was "factually accurate." All charges against her were dropped last week.  

According to the Progress, Daly was charged with "two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and one count of eluding police, all Class 6 felonies carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $2,500 in fines per offense."

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A wealthy Manhattan couple is suing an Upper West Side grade school for allegedly conspiring to rig a school fundraising auction, according to The New York Post.

The lawsuit claims parent and socialite Michelle Heinemann helped her son and his classmates at the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine create a painting with paper hands for a school auction. 

The Heinemanns did not attend the auction, but told organizers that they would place the winning bid on the project, for up to $3,000, according to the lawsuit, the Post reported.

When the auction ended, though, the winning bid for the painting was $50,000 — allegedly driven up by a first grade teacher, according to the Post.

Now, the couple has pulled their son out of school and is asking for $415,000 plus damages to compensate for tuition costs and their 5-year-old son's chauffeur who drove him to the elite school each morning, the Post reported.

The Heinemanns' lawsuit also reportedly says that their son, Hudson Cornelius, was never happy at his posh kindergarten. According to the lawsuit, he was "under-appreciated," and once "relegated to the role of 'door-holder' and ordered to hold the door for all of the other students."

DON'T MISS: This Quiz Will Make You Realize How Bonkers The Contemporary Art Market Is

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This week, MyBankTracker spoke with Ali Evans, a recent graduate of Harvard University. He majored in economics as an undergrad and will be starting work at Bain & Company this coming fall.

Ali is amazingly savvy with personal finance, so we talked to him about how that came to be and how it will influence his post-college plans.

MyBankTracker (MBT): Why did you choose to major in economics?

MBT: What do you ultimately want to do with your degree?

AE: My economics degree will probably help me as an investor. My end career goal is to be somewhere in between investing and management. I probably wouldn’t work on hedge funds or anything like that, but I would, for example, want to work at a firm that purchases companies that are in bad shape and turn them around.

MBT: You mentioned that you always had a knack for money and personal finance. Tell me more about that.

AE: I’m pretty intense about that stuff. When I was a kid, I had a safe in my bedroom, one of those little box safes. It was my version of the piggy bank. I never really trusted bank accounts, because you needed to have your parents on the account and I didn’t want them to be! So I used to keep a log of every time I took money out.

MBT: Did you earn money as a kid or was it allowance?

AE: I used to do a lot of odd jobs like cut grass and shovel snow. Basically anything I could do, and I always had a job through middle school, high school, college.

MBT: When did you get that safe, middle school?

AE: I got it when I was about 10.

MBT: You started when you were young! You weren’t joking around with money, even as a kid.

AE: I grew up in Michigan, and because it snows so much, my cousin and I used to shovel snow all day from like 6 A.M. til it got dark. We would each make like $70 or $80 and then I would save half, and then with the other half I would buy video games, candy, or whatever. That’s how I primarily made money when I was a kid.

MBT: You sound like you were pretty strict with money, did that carry over with you in college?

AE: For the most part. I’m less strict now than I used to be, only because I have more money now. When I was growing up, I didn’t have a ton of money, and I had a car in high school, so that was a big expense. When I was in college, I worked a lot. I saved a ton of it and I paid for school with a lot of it, but I would still go out with my friends and spend. On the whole, though, I’m pretty strict.

MBT: Do you track your expenses or use personal finance management tools?

AE: Yeah, I check my Mint everyday. (laughs) I combine Mint with my own Excel spreadsheets. I make spreadsheets for everything, it’s just an easy way for me to organize my thoughts. I have a record of most of my budgets, my balances and accounts. I use Mint to track things in real-time. The bigger monthly and yearly data is all on Excel.

To be honest with you, I don’t think most people my age — actually, not even just people my age — most people aren’t this way about money. For me, it’s what works.

MBT: I know you have some student loans you have to pay back, what are your repayment plans with those?

AE: I have about $10,000 in student loans. I’m in deferment until the end of the year, and I’m going to start payments then, but I’ve already saved up about a third of the money and plan to pay it off early next year.

MBT: You are in ridiculously good financial health!

AE: (laughs) I hate debt, more than anything. I always pay my credit card bill off every month, no matter how much it is. I hate debt. My goal is to pay off my student loans interest-free, but if not, with very little interest.

I’m going to be making way more than the minimum required each month; my goal is to have all $10K paid by next March or April. That’s another reason why I’m working this summer, so I can save money to pay back my loans faster.

MBT: Where does this “I hate debt” mantra come from?

AE: Both my parents had significant debt as I was growing up, so maybe I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. My mom had a lot of consumer debt and if you only make minimum payments, it just compounds on you. My dad had business debt and mortgage debt, since we got hit pretty hard by the housing bubble.

MBT: Are you worried about how the economy is going to shape your finances in the future?

AE: I’m a pretty big saver, so I’m not too worried. I have an investment account, I have retirement money saved up. I have a Roth IRA, which I have to give my parents a lot of credit for, since they told me about that and I started it my freshman year of college. I don’t have a ton of money in these accounts, but I do contribute to them monthly. I have a pretty standard rule, I contribute 15% of my income, after taxes, to my savings, whether it be for my loans or for retirement. I think I’ll be alright for the future.

MBT: Do you have any big money goals you’re working towards?

AE: My first goal is definitely to pay off my loans. I’m planning on going to business school down the road, so I definitely want to save some money for that as well.

I don’t have any big ticket items I want to buy. I would like to travel and do more outdoor activities like hiking and camping, but other than that, nothing huge. I just want to be at the level where I have enough money to be comfortable doing the things that I like to do.

Do you have a personal story you’d like to share with MyBankTracker? Let us know and your story could be featured here!

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Wendy's just launched its new Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger. 

The sandwich is composed of a beef patty, warm cheddar cheese sauce, bacon, tomato, lettuce, red onion, and honey mustard on a toasted pretzel bun. 

So far, reviews of the burger are pretty positive. 

Breton Fischetti, Business Insider's Business and Audience Development Manager, tried the burger and said it was delicious. While the bun was the stand-out component, Wendy's also added premium touches. 

"The burger had mixed greens instead of iceberg lettuce," Fischetti said. "This gave the burger an upscale feel, almost like something from Shake Shack."   

He snapped this picture of the burger for us:    

SEE ALSO: 12 Snack Foods That Americans Are Totally Missing Out On

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The Fourth of July is almost here and that means Wall Streeters will be heading east to the Hamptons. 

They won't all be driving or taking the train or the jitney. Instead, some of them will fly just because they can.

We've been keeping an eye on the airport traffic at the East Hampton Airport (KHTO) via FlightAware.com.

There's a lot of activity there and we expect it will be picking up more in the coming days. 

What's more is you can also look up who owns the plane or helicopter on the FAA's data base using the "n-number."

During our search, we found a Bell 430, a twin-engine helicopter (N432HF), partly owned by hedge fund/private equity firm Tiger Global.  Tiger Global's founder Chase Coleman is not on the flight, though. 

It's scheduled to take off at 5:23 p.m. EDT from Newark and land at 6:17 p.m. EDT, according to FlightAware.com. 

The other owners of the helicopter include Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA Trustee, Mark B. Grier, Greenfield Rotorcraft Holdings, Joseph S. Plumeri, Park Avenue Helicopter, Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Air Bon Jovi, FAA records show. You can see photos of the helicopter here >

Check out the helicopter's FAA registration (Click to enlarge):  

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Almost seven months to the day after Superstorm Sandy submerged South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, The Village Voice held its free 4 Knots Festival at the port this weekend. 

The music festival was a welcome sign in the area, which was hit hard by the storm. The piers and port were packed as thousands of people showed up for the festivities. 

It's been a slow road to recovery, festival organizer Stephen Dima told Business Insider.

"On the night of the storm, the Seaport was under nearly seven feet of water — none of us have ever seen that," said Dima, who has been organizing events at the seaport for a decade. "The infrastructure in the area was destroyed. Everything that was on the ground had to be removed, gutted and/or rebuilt."

The festival contained a healthy mix of music, from the hip-hop stylings of Fat Tony to the harsher tones of White Lung. But the headliner and main draw was Kurt Vile and the Violators.

Vile, a former forklift operator at the Philadelphia Brewing Company who recently released his latest album "Wakin On A Summer Daze" to major critical acclaim, is a fast-rising star. He and his band the Violators rocked the last set and made the day truly worthwhile. 

On our way down to the waterfront we spotted this amazing cab.

There were a lot of people, but also plenty of volunteers on crowd control.

The bike check was packed.

It’s that time of year again. The kids are out of school and you really want to spend time with them and make wonderful memories, but a vacation is out of the question. You can’t get away and, even if you could, it’s way out of your budget.

Uncle Sam took more than his share, or your calculated share, anyway. Credit card bills are bleeding you dry, and you can’t put more on plastic. So you crawl under the covers and hide, wishing a solution would surface.

Here it is.

Look on the bright side, sunshine. For a beautiful time creating memories with your loved ones, you need only two days and some imagination.

Try these staycation ideas for a grand time (without spending a grand!).

11 Staycation Ideas for the Money- and Time- Strapped Family

1. Hit the road in your own city, armed with cameras and snacks.

If you’d be willing to visit a strange town, pretend yours is just that. If you live in or close to a metropolis, it’s easy — there are always places you don’t often see that should be fun to explore. If you live in a rural area, hit Google Maps and then the road. Fill your time with laughs, snapping goofy pictures everywhere you go.

2. Go on a city- (or county-) wide scavenger hunt.

Make a list for the family and get on the road with clues to help you find everything on it. The more obscure you get, the longer the hunt will take – great for bigger kids, but not so fun for the little ones, so plan accordingly.

3. Go to a motel in a neighboring city.

If your timing is flexible, bid on rooms via Priceline, or try calling and negotiating lower rates with the manager before accepting whatever they offer. After all, the goal is to save while you stay, right?

4. Make it a movie marathon day.

Choose flicks that the whole family can watch together and enjoy. Start after breakfast and have a little family exercise break in between. Oh, and make it a PJ Day to really relax and enjoy!

5. Drive to anywhere.

Don’t use a map. Don’t have a destination. Just plan to drive in a direction for X hours, then stop and explore and stay where you are. If you can spend the night, BONUS! If not, that’s ok. Have fun exploring your new locale, taking pictures and snagging souvenirs.

6. Go to a waterpark.

It’s likely that your city, or one nearby, has a waterpark. What better excuse to jump in the water than saving money? If you can’t stay on vacation for a week or so, a day at a waterpark may be the next best thing.

7. If you can’t park it, raft it.

River rafting is another amazing excursion, and one that’s often cheaper than waterparks. Check for restrictions on ages if you have little ones, but many river dock rental places have options for the younger clientele.

8. Go camping.

Even if you can’t head to a nearby mountain range (bonus points if you can!), you can still hang with the neighbors and have a neighborhood camp-out at home. Or go it alone with just you and your loved ones. Either way, pack up the tent and make a rule to not go inside for anything.

9. Host your own neighborhood field day.

Make it complete with hilarious games and amazing prizes — and don’t forget the pictures! Top off the afternoon with a cook out and ice cream sundaes.

10. Call for a Blackout Day (or weekend).

Turn off all electronic devices for at least 24 hours. Spend the entire day focusing on the fun you’re having with your favorite people. If you’ve got tweens or teens, this may take something like a molar extraction to get going, but you can do it — and make it enjoyable for them.

11. Call in a cleaning service.

Yeah, this one’s for the moms out there. Why do we love going on vacation? We love feeling pampered. But if you can’t go and be pampered, bring the pampering home to you. Check Care.com or Craigslist for a cleaning service that’s reasonable. Let them worry about the dusting, sweeping, mopping and bed making for a week.

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Unlike the brutish Americans or Brits, Canadians are generally thought of as gentle people who cause little offense when traveling abroad.

Flightnetwork.com, a Canada-based booking engine, believes that Americans like to pass themselves off as Canadians when traveling abroad, doing what they call "flag-jacking."

So they spoke to a body language expert, Mark Bowden, and came up with some tips for how Americans can pretend to be Canadian when traveling abroad.

From the obvious donning of Maple Leaf gear to more subtle body language and gestures, we've compiled some of their tips — along with our own — here, in honor of Canada Day.

Wear Canada's maple leaf prominently.

Make sure the flag gear you're wearing is a bit dirty and worn. (A brand new flag is an immediate giveaway that you're "flag-jacking.")

And don't forget your Roots Canada gear.

The minds at UK-based design shop Little Riot have created a pillow that might be just what your relationship needs.

Romance is complicated just by itself, and when you add distance to the equation things rarely get easier.

This is where Pillow Talk comes in.

Pillow Talk is an Internet-enabled pair of pillows that talk to each other anywhere in the world. When your long-distance paramour is sleeping, your pillow glows in response. When you put your head down on yours, it sends a signal over the Internet to light up the other as well.

Plus, you can wear a wristband that measures your heartbeat and beams it to your partner's iPhone or Android device so that he or she can hear your heartbeat.

Ain't that just the sweetest?

You and your beloved will be able to buy Pillow Talk soon. The project has been approved by Kickstarter but the company writes that "we have to meet certain criteria before we can launch our campaign. We are in the final phases of product development but should be ready to kick things off soon."

Check out the video demo below:

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Sure, Central Austin has some amazing places to eat smoked meat. But what about the areas outside the city limits?

Lucky for us, the towns near Austin boast some of the finest barbecue in the country. Here are Zagat readers’ four favorite places to go to for some BBQ grub outside of Austin, plus one favorite in town (no list would be complete without Franklin).

5. City Market

633 E. Davis St.

Food: 27
Decor: 15
Service: 19
Cost: $17

This “classic, old-time BBQ” spot in Luling is a “must-try” for its brisket, ribs and sausage served up by the pound on butcher paper and wolfed down at communal picnic tables; don’t expect much in the way of decor or service, but do “expect a line.”

4. Smitty’s Market

208 S. Commerce St.

Food: 27
Decor: 14
Service: 15
Cost: $18

A “mecca” for “BBQ aficionados,” this Lockhart butcher shop set in the original site of the Kreuz Market is cherished for its “superb” brisket, “thick pork chops” that “rock your socks” and links “to die for” (a good thing since “your arteries may never recover”); all comes served straight from the pit in an “old-time, fire-seared” setting abetted by a friendly staff and cold beer.

3. Franklin Barbecue

900 E. 11th St.

Food: 28
Decor: 11
Service: 19
Cost: $17

Originally a trailer, this brick-and-mortar BBQ upstart in East Austin is “giving the big names a run for their money” with some of the “finest brisket in the entire state of Texas” plus pulled pork and other “exceptional,” “simple smoked meats”; the modest space opens at 11 AM and closes whenever the eats run out, which is usually early.

It happens every year: Summer rolls around, and you make awesome plans for picnics, concerts, and cold drinks on a rooftop.

Then fall comes along, and you haven't done any of it.

We came up with a helpful list of 33 quintessential New York summer activities that make staying in the hot and sweaty city on the weekends not only tolerable, but positively enjoyable.

Bonus: All of these double as warm-weather date ideas.

Did we miss one of your favorite things to do in NYC in the summer? Add it in the comments!

Chow down at Brooklyn Flea's Smorgasburg, the weekly food festival that takes place on Saturday afternoons on the Williamsburg and DUMBO waterfronts.

Find out more about the Smorgasburg event here

Walk through the MoMA's new Rain Room. The installation of falling water pauses in areas where it detects a human body, so you can walk through (virtually) unscathed.

Find out more about the MoMA Rain Room here

Watch one of Bryant Park's Monday night movies for free. This summer, they have classics like 'Willy Wonka' and 'The Women' playing.

Find out more about Bryant Park's movie nights here

Starbucks has been testing its own fountain drinks in Atlanta and Austin, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Starbucks has been making an effort to be known for more than coffee. The company started testing the soda a few months ago in Seattle. 

The drinks are made fresh with carbonates and include flavors like lemon ale, spiced root beer and ginger ale.

The Wall Street Journal reported that at one Atlanta location the cost for the beverages was $2.45 for a tall, $2.95 for a grande and $3.45 for a venti.

The sodas are already generating some positive buzz. 

Melody, of starbucksmelody.com, reviewed the sparkling root beer and called it "crazy good...I just couldn’t stop."

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Yearbooks are supposed to be a space for students to reflect on their time at school and celebrate their accomplishments of the past year.

However, for some students yearbooks have become a source of humor and humiliation, as simple typos create entirely new meanings for their year-end sendoffs.

Through Reddit, we've found some of the most cringeworthy examples of yearbook typos from around the country. Some are funny and some are mean, but all of them are certainly not what the author intended.

Warning: Some of these typos are not safe for work.

Her intentions were certainly in the right place.

Mom and Dad were just trying to say congrats!

Actually, flapjacks would make finals a lot better.

The dealnews staff published more than 6,000 deals last July, which we've analyzed so that we can offer our readers a bit of advice while planning purchases this month.

And it's a particularly important month to do so, since a number of sales will appear to be better than they are.

So in order to protect your wallet and spend your money wisely, be sure to read through our July buying guide below for everything you need to know to shop smart this month.

SEE ALSO: Here's What You Should Or Shouldn't Have Bought In June

Shop Independence Day Sales For In-Season Items

The Fourth of July is an excellent time to score a discount on summer items while they're still in-season, which means you can finally find a deal on a grill during the holiday weekend; gas grills in particular experienced above average discounts last year.

Summer clothing will also see strong price cuts, with stores taking up to 62% off on average. Also be on the lookout for extra coupons that slash up to an additional 50% off sale prices. That said, keep in mind that the prices will only continue to drop as the season progresses; patio furniture, for example, saw better discounts in August last year.

Wait Until Labor Day For Bedding Sales

The one "usual suspect" for holiday weekend sales that we actually recommend skipping in July is bedding; for the past three years, Labor Day sales have taken much stronger discounts on these items than Independence Day promotions. If you wait until September, you'll find a much higher number of Editors' Choice sets, too.

Tablets Are So Hot Right Now

July is primed to be an excellent month for Android tablet deals, as we've recently seen an influx of high-quality discounts. In fact, the number of Editors' Choice deals on tablets quadrupled in the month of May, and the stream of sales has held strong through June.

While it tapered off slightly last month, there was still double the number of Editors' Choice deals than normal. Slate shoppers should look for sales from stores like Staples, Lenovo, Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart. And if you're open to a refurbished or used model, then both Android tablets and iPads are fair game; keep an eye on CowBoom and eBay for these top-notch used deals.