Tracking Uncle Sam's spending

If you're bored with keeping track of where the money goes in your household, try out a relatively new government Web site that tracks where your tax dollars are spent.

USASpending.gov offers an easily digestible look into where the government is spending money, with current and historical spending broken down by grants, contracts and loans. It drills further down by breaking it down into congressional districts and by contractors.

For example, I was amazed to learn that the top government contractor so far in fiscal year 2009 -- Lockheed Martin Corp. at $20.36 billion -- has received more money from the federal government than the top assistance recipient -- $18.9 billion to the Department of Health Care Services.