When I was pregnant with Gigi I did so much research about strollers that when I was finally ready to buy, I knew exactly what I wanted. And do you know what? I ended up absolutely loving my Graco travel system. The stroller remained easy to steer, no matter how heavy Gigi got. It had a handle that was higher than most, but was VERY important since I’m so tall (strollers with low handles just cause tall people to have to stoop while pushing). It folded without a hitch, and that was such a blessing when I was a new mom and bewildered with the mechanics of getting Gigi and the seemingly hundreds of supplies I needed to take with me just to make a short trip to the mall. The infant seat had a base that was easy to install in my car and the carrier latched in and out like a dream.

In fact, my stroller lasted all the way to last summer. When I say lasted, I don’t mean that it wore out. I mean that it was so roomy that even up to last summer I was able to take it to Busch Gardens with me when I had my daughter and my nephew along and they could BOTH sit in it when they got tired of walking (keep in mind my daughter is 5 and my nephew 7). It was a really trooper, that stroller. I finally gave it away last fall.

But, back to the fact that I did an awful lot of research before buying my stroller. That was the difficult part. I ended up having to use a plethora of different internet resources to find the reviews I wanted and to comparison shop for the best price. And believe me, I was definitely after the best possible price. The process was tedious.

I could definitely have used the website ShopWiki.com back then. ShopWiki literally finds every store on the internet by crawling the web much like Google, and the results don’t just reference paid listings – everything is included. That means the ability to use ONE site to locate everything you need to know about a particular product. You can find the stores that might have user reviews, and then look for the ones with the best price. My quest for the perfect stroller would have been a whole lot less time consuming. And, I would have known I wanted that Peg Perego highchair (best thing ever!) even before my mother-in–law bought it as a gift.

I have quite an amazing computer desk. It’s large. Very large. It is multi-tiered and has plenty of room for a printer and a scanner and a lamp and piles of bills and paperwork. When I bought it, I was in love with the desk I had at work, which was even bigger – so I was pretty much looking to find as big a desk as possible.

When I moved this last time, I actually had to take the fool thing apart to get it into this room. The doors in this house are narrower. Must be something to do with the house being older. I have absolutely NO desire to have to disassemble and once again reassemble this desk when I move yet again!

So, I have been looking in the local classifieds for sales of used office furniture. I am basically looking for a narrow work station. Now that I am doing less graphic design, I do not need as much table space. I would rather use the dining room table to pay bills and do lesson plans anyway.

I’m actually still shopping around for a new wristwatch. Now that I work at a school, I have needed to see the exact time at any given moment. I know I cannot really count on the wall mounted clocks, since they run on batteries that tend not to be changed as often as they need to be changed. I don’t carry my cell phone into the school with me, and that used to be my primary was of telling time.

I want a high quality, very durable watch. I started by looking at some of the better known brands of high end watches and while I was VERY impressed with how well the watches would perform, I was unwilling to acutely make the investment. Most of them just cost SO much. I’ve been looking at Orient watches lately and they appear to have a solid reputation and are deceptively low priced. I’ve been digging through reviews and thus far they like an excellent choice. Now I just need to find my favorite style.

I like to have a lot of time to buy things. The more time I have to plan, the better prices I can generally locate. I never feel all that great when I’m in a situation where I have to buy something right away – like the day our hot water heater broke and was flooding water through the ceiling of my last house.

Since I know that I am going to make a good effort to buy a townhome this year, I am looking at some of the home items I came out of the divorce having to leave behind. I need a couple of tv stands for our televisions, a guest bed of sorts and quite possible a new washer and dryer. I was supposed to get the washer and dryer I had when I was married, but I somehow let my ex talk me into keeping it at the house so he could use it until I moved to my own place I’m becoming more concerned that as time passes, it won’t be in any shape to bother taking.

So, I’ve got my list of things I need and I am reading reviews, looking for sales and watching prices. I’ll be able to grab the best deal when it comes around. I wish all of life could be like that.

My super great deal this week was on Colgate toothpaste. CVS has several varieties of the 6 oz. size on sale this week 2 for $5. That makes them $2.50 each. I bought three and used a $1.50 off printable coupon I found online – making them $1 each. I paid using $3 in Extras Bucks I had from my CVS vitamin purcahse last week. On top of that, CVS gave me $2 in Extra Bucks for buying the Colgate that I can use on a future purchase in the next month.

So, I “made” $2 on the deal. Actually, it was more like $2.50, because the register spit out an extra 50 cents in Extra Bucks based on my “fall spending”. Nice bonus.

Looking back at the ad just now, it looks like the limit was not on three toothpastes, but on three EB deals. So, If I go back and buy one more toothpaste and use another $1.50 off coupon, I should get another $2 in EB. I will give it a try tomorrow.

My friend Kim just got new glasses. She fell in with the current trend of frames that are small, rimless, and rectangle shaped. Everywhere you look people are wearing the same style of eyeglasses as Sarah Palin. Like her or not, she absolutely launched a trend. Seriously, just look around and you’ll se glasses like the ones she wear just about everywhere.

Kim paid way too much for her glasses, though. Way. Too. Much. I told her so, but in a much more tactful way. I’m nothing if not tactful.
I found this pair of very similar looking glasses at Zenni Optical for $23.95 complete. They manufacture their own frames and therefore they are able to offer all of their styles for much less than you are going to find at retail outlets that need to mark-up the merchandise to compensate for the multiple middle men who are involved. Everything on their website is reasonably priced, even the extras like anti reflective coating. Anti scratch coating and UV protection are free. And if that’s not cool enough, they even have an entire line of Holiday frames.

In fact, you can get a complete pair of single vision eyeglasses for $8. Yep, that’s eight dollars. It’s a frugal girl’s dream come true. I probably should mentioned the $8 thing at the beginning of my post.

When I was in high school, graphic t-shirts were in style. They were even more popular when I was in elementary school in the 70’s. The 90’s were a missing decade when it came to using t-shirts to make a statement. I mean, I know they were out there, but they just weren’t all that wild.

I think I made my first conscious statement when I was in about the 6th grade and was wearing braces. I got a shirt with a huge graphic of a smiling face with braces and the shirt said, “Braces Are Beautiful!” Nothing radical, I know. Once I hit high school I wore shirts for my favorite punk bands and tee’s with pithy statements. Sometimes, the name of the bands alone was shocking enough for most of the rest of the world – the Buzzcocks Orgasm Addict shirt and my Circle Jerks shirts got more than a few dirty looks. I suppose that is why I don’t bat an eyelash when I see kids today wearing shirts with semi-offensive slogans.

My kind of crazy t-shirts now days run more along the lines of the 80s t-shirts I found on the Crazy Dog t-shirts website. They’ve got vintage tees with Speed Racer, Voltron, Mr. Rogers, E.T., and others that will completely take you back to your childhood. Well, at least to MY childhood, if you happen to be too young to remember some of this stuff.

My favorite is the one that says “You Have Died of Dysentery.” My family was one of the first in my neighborhood to get a computer. We had a little Apple IIE and we would play the game The Oregon Trail endlessly. It took forever! The whole thing was text based and you guided your little wagon filled with a pioneer family out to the West where they could settle, IF they survived. Mine rarely did.

Shipping is only $4 right now over at Crazy Dog, so you should take this opportunity to check out some of their cool designs.

I may not always post the details, but one of the things I am going to try to do in 2009 is make sure I get at least one amazing deal a week. I can remember years past when I got dozens of free Milton Bradley games or massive boxes of Ziploc reusable containers for $.19 a box. Deals like that used to be easy to find.

Now days you have to search a little harder.

I went ahead and started this week. I’ll call this my first great deal of 2009.

At CVS all Nature’s Bounty vitamins and supplements are Buy One Get One Free (BOGO). On top of that, CVS will give you $3 in what they call Extra Bucks (EB) to spend on a future purchase.

I signed up at the Nature’s Bounty website for their newsletter and they gave me a printable coupon for $2. I also found an additional $2 printable coupon elsewhere.

I found bottles of Potassium Gluconate 595 Mg Caplets at my local CVS for $4.89. I picked up two bottles, used a $2 coupon for each of them and ended up paying $.89 for the two bottles, since one was free. I also received the $3EB.

Essentially, I made $3.11.

I take the Potassium when I have had to take a diuretic or am dehydrated. It also helps when I have a headache or when my high-protein diet causes a potassium shortage.

My laptop is rather on its last legs anyway. I got it when my daughter was very young and she knocked it to the ground one too many times. Still, it works and I use it now to take to the high school with me when I work. I suppose I know that the risk of it being damaged is pretty high there as well, so I may as well use the poor thing. Once I finally get around to buying a new laptop for myself, I surely won’t feel inclined to take it to the high school It’s just a rough environment, full of kids moving too fast to stop and see where they are going.

Here’s the thing, though, I know that with the right laptop case that my laptop will be reasonably protected no matter where I want to take it. I admit that the bag I have right now is all but useless. It came with an old laptop when my ex got a good deal on some used laptops at one of his tech jobs years ago.

Spire USA sells laptop bags that are designed to last a lifetime. They invite you to use the bags under the roughest conditions you can imagine. I like the idea that someone out there is still making a product that is meant to last instead of engineering it so that they can try and get your repeat business when you have to buy a replacement a couple of years later. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes I think the shrinking quality of consumer goods is happening on purpose and that the end consumer is getting screwed.

I LOVE this review on the Spire website. It’s from one of their customers:

“I’m currently working in the Northern Kuwait desert — it’s one of the most inhospitable regions in the world where not even scorpions survive. My Meta has now survived six months of daily use. Through thick mud, blazing heat that can reach 150 degrees, and merciless sand storms the Meta has faithfully protected my laptop. Not only has the Meta failed to break in any way, it still looks like new!”
JW, Meta Owner

Sounds like I’ve found a way to take my personal laptop into the high school with me without feeling like I’m risking its safety. Now, if only I’d had one of these bags back when my daughter kept knocking it to the ground.

Besides the idea of supporting our troops more often, which I just blogged about earlier, I have two more things on my list of resolutions for 2009. I am not going to make things so hard for myself that I fail in keeping the resolutions. I want to set myself up to win, so two more are all I am going to add to my list:

1. Start using coupons again
I used to make a game out of it. I got a small thrill when I would be able to combine a store sale with a store coupons and a manufacturer’s coupon. I took the time at least once a week to comb sales flyers and couponing websites. I am going to make sure this is a part of my life once more in 2009.

2. Get Back In Shape
I lost 10 pounds in about 11 days. I am only weighing myself once a week. That way I won’t get panicky if I have a little fluctuation from one day to the next. However, I do plan on making weight loss a weekly occurring all though the next year. A little bit at a time, I plan to look like I did before I met my ex husband. That was a good place in my life – the before him time. ?

I have been carrying Coach bags for about 15 years. I’ve not bought a new one in at least eight years, though. The bags I have are the classics that were made in the United States with glove-quality leather. They have lasted through abuse and many years and still look wonderful. I’ve never had to be particularly careful with them and they retina both their youthful looks and their sturdy construction. My favorites have been my Willis briefcase style bag and my handy Rambler’s legacy bag.

So, I noticed that this past month Dillard’s had been offering their Coach bags for 30% off. I took a couple trips in to look around and finally ended up with the black leather and brass Julianne. Ideally, I wanted the smaller black leather Sabrina, but even after calling around to several stores I could not locate one.

So, I took the bag home and that was when I started having my second-thoughts. First of all, the Julianne is bigger than any purse I have ever carried. Even with nothing in it, the bag is a tad awkward. It’s comfy, but it’s just plain big.

Then, as I went about my way doing Christmas shopping I noticed how MANY people are carrying Coach bags – it seemed like every 4th woman I passed was carrying Coach. Most were carrying the cheesy fabric “Signature” bags that scream, “I own a Coach!” When I began carrying coach, I did so for the streamlined simplicity of their styles, the unsurpassable quality of the leather, and the fact that carrying a Coach was still something rather unique. I do not want to be just another face in a sweltering crowd of Coach devotees.

And then there is the fact that Coach bags are all made in China now. Not only have they largely come away from using quality leather for their new designs, they are farming the work out to Chinese factories. I like to buy American in general, and when it comes to Coach, there is something absolutely special about their New York craftsmanship that is sadly long gone now.

So, I took the Julianne back to Dillard’s. I will just get out my classic bags and give them a little TLC with some milk oil. One needs a new D-ring, but the local Coach store can send it off for repairs, so there is no need for me to buy a new one. I’m good with the old, American-made, understated Coach bags I already own.

As I did some last-minute shopping this week, I saw that many stores were already offering their holiday merchandise for 30%-50% off. Traditionally, the day AFTER Christmas is when you can count on Christmas merchandise hitting 50% off.

So, since most stores have already priced holiday things at a deep discount, what is in store for the day after Christmas? Consumer and retailing experts are saying that this year the day after Christmas could look like another Black Friday.

JC Penney will have jewelry at 70% off. Sears is going to offer Craftsman tool chests at 50% off and 75% off on electronics. I’m anxious to see how much more places like Target and Pier 1 discount their Christmas décor. Maybe I will even be able to find Black Friday-esque prices on MP3 players and flash drives. The ones I went after on the actual Black Friday sold out before I could get to them.

I’m not sure I will bother to venture out on Friday. I really don’t need anything. Of course, that is part of what is going on with retailers this year. Buyers are looking at want versus need, which is something I have always done. It’s just a more prevalent attitude now.

Are you spending more or less on your Christmas gifts this year? Whether or not you are actually feeling an economic pinch, studies have shown that the panicked atmosphere surrounding the concept of spending in the United States right now is making most people perceive the need to slow down when making non-essential purchases.

However, I also see that when it comes to buying gifts for friends and family, a lot of people tend to make allowances. I know I spend as much, if not more, on my daughter this year. I spent more for my nephew and my father and my one living grandmother. However, to even things out I have a lot of friends and family who all agreed to skip gift exchanges this year. So, it is quite possible that if I add things up, I will find that I spent less on my overall total.

When I do buy a gift, though, I like to buy something significant and high quality. That’s why it was like a breath of fresh air to see that Kmart is showcasing the fact that they have over 25,000 high quality gift ideas that each cost less than $25. And, since most of us can find a Kmart store in our own neighborhood, that means that last minute gifts from Kmart is a convenient stop during these last few crazy days of errands.

In my case, I had *thought* that my best friend and I were not exchanging gifts for our daughters. She called today to tell me she had Gigi’s gift ready and wanted to bring it buy before Christmas. Oops, that means I need to run out and get something tasteful, meaningful and inexpensive for her daughter. Kmart has a great selection of LeapFrog Leapster Learning Games, so all I need to do is add Kmart to my list of places to go this afternoon.

One last thing for all of you who were wise enough to stay home on Black Friday – Kmart is currently running their Black Friday Make-Up Sale. They have a ton of items on sale, like Craftsman tools and Norelco shavers, for prices akin to those you can find on Black Friday. You can only find those prices in the stores, though, so take advantage of their holiday hours of 6 a.m. to midnight.

My daughter loves her Barbie dolls, as well as the similarly-sized princess dolls put out by the Disney Store. She has always wanted me to buy her Bratz dolls as well, but I have been reluctant due to the fact that the dolls portray girls with too much makeup, belly shirts, and high heels.

I gave in this Christmas and got her a Bratz Chloe Styling Head Torso. She wanted a styling head and this was the best price I could find (a mispriced item I got for $14.99 – about half of the retail.)

Interesting, then, to read the news that there may be an end in sight for the Bratz line of dolls.

MGA Entertainment Inc., who produced the Bratz dolls, has just been told by a federal judge yesterday that they can no longer make or sell all 40 dolls in their Bratz line. That includes the abovementioned Chloe. This is a response to Mattel’s claim (Mattel makes the Barbie line of fashion dolls) that Bratz creator Carter Bryant developed the dolls while still employed by Mattel.

Mattel and MGA have been fighting about this for years. Lately, the question the court has been wrestling with is whether only the first generation of Bratz dolls infringed on Mattel’s copyright or whether all the dolls in the line were in violation.

MGA will be allowed to wait until after Christmas to begin removing all Bratz dolls for retailers’ shelves.

So, now the question for consumers is: should we run out and buy a few dolls to keep put away in boxes and kept as collector pieces?

I’m here in Florida this particular Thanksgiving, but whenever I make it back up north for Thanksgiving, I’m surrounded by family. I have my mom and sister here, but nothing like my huge family up north.

I’m thinking about Thanksgiving today, because my family here is celebrating today, Saturday. The family tradition of someone being very ill each Thanksgiving played out as usual this year and so we simply moved the festivities to today. I can smell the onions and celery parboiling in the rich broth that I will use for the herbed dressing. The free-range, organic turkey is in the oven and making the entire house smell amazing. I could go on and on.

One thing that is different about Thanksgiving up there is that during hunting season, family gatherings inevitably turn to conversation about hunting. Various family members own a lot of wilderness land and take game hunting seriously. I have always benefitted from the meat they fill my freezer with after a good season. I miss that part of living closer to the bulk of my family

So, in my own wandering way Thanksgiving makes me think about my family and their penchant for hunting and hunting stories (the one that got away, the most points, etc.). Well, not so much my dad as my uncles and numerous cousins. But that is beside the point.

Now that I have linked Thanksgiving with hunting season, let me also link Black Friday to hunting. The Nikon Black Friday Promo is their Ultimate Hunter’s Package brought to you by Nikon Sport Optics, NikonProGear.com and Lee and Tiffany Lakosky (of the Outdoor Channel’s “Getting’ Close”):
-ProStaff 3-9×40 Riflescope with BDC Reticle
-ProStaff Laser Rangefinder
-Silent Technology Rangefinder Case
-Mastering a Long-range shot with BDC DVD
-$50 NikonProGear Gift Card

When you buy the package together, you end up saving $144.90. Hurry, though, this pricing will only last through Cyber Monday on December 1.

Isn’t it a breath of fresh air to see a Black Friday promo that is not focused on toys or televisions?