“Shopping” Archive
Feb
25
I’ve been meaning to put up this post for weeks now, so my apologies for giving people a late start. A few weeks ago I was contacted by the nice folks at Mint.com–a site which I highly recommend if you don’t like Quicken or Money–about a contest they are running which I know will be of interest to many of my readers.
The specifics of the contest can be found here, but the gist is that Mint.com will select the best video/best text submission from folks who detail their holiday overspending. The winner will get their credit card bills as of December 31st, 2007 (up to 5K) paid in full. The best part is that you DON’T have to be a user of Min in order to enter or win the contest. Since a majority of folks who answered my weekly poll used credit cards to pay for their holiday spending, surely there should be some entries coming from my readers.
The deadline for submitting an entry is March 15th so there is still plenty of time to try and win. In addition to winning the 5K, you will also get free, personalized credit counseling. It costs nothing to enter so I think I too will give it a try. I wonder if my holiday overspending from years past, which I am probably still paying for still qualifies for the contest 
Dec
12
As you might imagine, my Christmas shopping will be very limited but not non-existent this year. I will be getting a few, select things for my daughter for her to enjoy this Christmas, including a contribution to her college fund held at Vanguard.
That said, I realize some of you are in a better spot financially at the moment than I am and may still be Christmas shopping. Here are some sites I have found useful in the past and present:
Price Comparison Sites:
Bargain & Cash Back Sites:
Once again, the Nintendo Wii appears to be the most desired electronic gizmo this holiday season. Finding on in stock at any of the online retailers appears to be very difficult. Checking the sites constantly can be a source of frustration and wasted effort. Well, it looks like there might be a solution to that problem.
There is a site called WiiTracker, that purports to show the real-time availability of Wii at a plethora of online retailers. There is even an RSS feed available so you can get updates on retailers that have the Wii in stock via RSS.
Good luck with the remainder of your shopping and please be responsible when using your credit cards this holiday season
Apr
29
Although my days of online shopping and buying things I “want” are behind me for a while, there are still things that I need to buy, such as plane tickets to visit my daughter and other members of my family, clothes for me (as I shrink in size) and my daughter (as she grows) and pet food for my dog. What I have recently discovered at Ebates is that I can get some cash back on these necessary purchases. For most common merchants the rebates are 3-5%, but I have seen some sites offering as much as 20% cash back for purchases made online. If you shop online at any of the most common sites out there, I promise you some value can be derived from Ebates. I can assure you they pay out as I have gotten two checks from them since signing up. Give it a try!
Apr
23
Tricia, over at Blogging Away Debt had an excellent post last week about how to get coupons for products you actually use. I thought it was a great idea and decided to write to some of the companies who make the healthier foods I now eat as part of my healthier lifestyle. Much to my surprise (probably not Tricia’s), I managed to get coupons for 5 of the 6 companies that I wrote to, ranging from a regional chicken producer all the way to a beef jerky manufacturer. The moral of the story, once again, is that you never know what you might get when you ask for something. DONT BE SHY!
Apr
21
If you are an automobile commuter like myself, you have obviously noticed that gas prices have risen sharply in recent months. In fact, 
as a recent MSN Money article points out, gas prices have risen on average, more than 33% since January. Here is what prices look like at my local gas station here in Seattle. I can tell you that two months ago, the cheapest grade of gas was in the $2.40 range, so you can see that prices have gone up astronomically since then. So what exactly is going on here, you ask? It sounds like there are several factors, when taken together, have resulted in both higher demand and a lower supply, a classic ecomomics example of how prices increase.
Usually, we see the peak demand for gas occurring in the summer, where demand tends to be higher due to people travelling throughout the country via automobile. This year, demand appears to be following a different trajectory. According to the American Petroleum Institute, demand reached a record high in the first quarter of the year, reducing inventories and driver prices higher.
That said, it appears there are number of significant supply side issues driving prices higher:
- Suppliers must shut down refineries for weeks to transition to producing cleaner, “summer blend” gasoline
- Several major refineries in Texas, California and Indiana have suffered fires or other unplanned outages in recent weeks
- Ethanol, a major ingredient in more than half of U.S. gasoline has become more expensive for suppliers
- Political unrest in oil producing nations, including Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, have driven crude oil prices higher in recent week
So where will gas prices head this summer? Some pundits are predicting stability in the marketplace and that prices will drop several cents below where they were last summer. Others, myself included beleive that prices will only head higher as demand continues to increase. While there is a decent bus system here in Seattle, it is clear to me that most people still commute via automobile each day and once vacation season starts, things will only get worse. From my persepctive, gas prices are now at a level where I will commute via public transportation at least twice per week until my structured weight-loss program ends; then I will commute at least 4 times per week via public transportation.
How, you might be asking, can you find cheap gas prices in your neighborhood. Here are some good resources to find the gas bargains in your area:
Happy bargain hunting!
