Category: shopping

We Still Have Gift Cards Left Over From Our Wedding.

Even though it was over 2 years ago, we still have a pile of gift cards sitting here in my desk drawer with various amounts still left on them. Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Cost Plus – we have some money to spend at a whole bunch of different stores. The problem is that we don’t need or want anything, so we have nothing to spend them on. And they are not worth enough to sell the cards themselves on Ebay, so we just hold on to them, waiting until we want something from one of these stores. And this is partly the reason why I like gift cards even though there are some bloggers who think they are a bad idea. But I agree with LazyMan on this one – I think they are a good idea, especially for the recipient. Here’s why…

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shopping

By David

Money Mistake Monday – The I Bought Way Too Much Music Syndrome.

photo from stock.xchng.

Back in high school, I was a guitar playing athlete who loved music. I mean LOVED music – I think I bought every tape that came out from anyone making rock music. Moving on to college, when that miracle called a CD came out, I bought every one of those too. By my second or third year in college I had amassed about 600 cassette tapes and about 350+ CD’s, requiring 2 bookcases and a giant CD rack to hold them all. Looking back on it now, I cannot believe how much money I wasted on some of that music which I probably only listened to a handful of times.

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shopping

By David

Customer Service At Its Best – Thanks SmugMug.

The other day I wrote about different ways I had wasted money in 2007 and how one of the ways was that I was charged for another year of photo storage by SmugMug.com…even though I had not used the account in 8 months or so. I had forgotten I even had the account – until I was charged for another year. It was my fault as I should have been paying more attention to my open accounts, and I was resigned to the fact that I had to pay the $29.95 for another year even though I don’t use them anymore.

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shopping

By David

Buy Nothing Day Is Friday – Are You Participating?

This Friday, known as “Black Friday”, is normally the day when every retailer on the face of the planet puts some crap that none of us really need on sale…just to get us to buy some of it. People actually get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping – something I have never understood and never will. While I can understand some parents feel the need to get THE toy this holiday season, most of the stuff that retailers put on sale are things that are just newer versions of items you already own and do not need to replace. If your television already works, why buy a new one just because it is on sale? Anyway, the alternative to this mass consumerism day is “Buy Nothing Day“, which my wife and I have taken part in for a few years by purposely not buying anything. Sure, we still have to pick up a few presents for our families before Christmas, but we certainly don’t need to go out on Black Friday to get them. Besides, we do a lot (most, actually) of our shopping at Amazon.com (like Punny Money), which provides us a tax-free and shipping-charge free experience.

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shopping

By David

Confessions Of A Recovering Consumerholic.

The following is a guest post from Paid Twice, a blog about one family’s journey to eliminate their debt, and beyond.

I admit it. I am a sucker for small mom and pop type businesses. I literally grew up working in one, a small restaurant owned by recent immigrants, who since my mother worked there as a waitress from the time I was 8, let me wash dishes at 14 and move up from there until I left for college at 18. So I have always had a soft spot for the local, independent type restaurant or store, and in my younger adult years, used to patronize those types of establishments quite frequently.

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shopping