By BETHANY CLOUGH, Fresno Bee

Some moms choose to work full time. Others become full-time moms.Lately, a category in between is gaining popularity, even inspiring a new term: mompreneur.Mompreneurs are women who run their own businesses -- usually out of their homes -- while juggling the duties of motherhood, said Ellen Parlapiano, who trademarked the term and is co-author of several books on the subject.

If forking over $40 to $100 to fill your tank each week is painful, imagine spending $50,000 a week to fuel up a fleet of trucks.Crippled by rising diesel prices, trucking companies are finding creative ways to be more fuel efficient.

A coupon for $2 off a calzone could be the key to a business keeping its doors open when economists drop the word "recession" and worried consumers snap their wallets shut.That's the kind of advice decades-old companies that have weathered tough times say will help businesses survive. Now is not the time to hide and hope it blows over, these entrepreneurs advise.

Investors aren't the only ones gravitating to gold.California prospecting groups that scour the foothills and mountains for the increasingly precious metal are seeing a bump in membership. Members said it's driven in part by the rising price of gold and the attention surrounding the precious metal.

Beleaguered consumers can count on rising grocery bills for the foreseeable future, as fuel and grain prices continue to spiral, experts say.