Gather Little by Little

Back in May, we purchased a Nintendo Wii. Not being one to spend money frivolously, it was a purchase I really struggled with. I used to frivolous, and that was one of the many reasons we got ourselves in a bit of a financial mess. But after discussing it with my wife for a long time we finally decided to purchase one.

I was fortunate enough to actually be able to find one and we used our economic stimulus package money to pay for it. The day we brought our Nintendo Wii home, plugged it in and started playing it changed our lives. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.

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Photo by: brewbooks

I’ve mentioned in a few posts in the past that I enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons*. Call me a geek, but it really is an incredible game, much like playing a novel where you are the main character. Recently, Wizards of the Coast (the makers of D&D) released the 4th edition rule set and along with it new rule books and adventures. The new rule set not only makes the game better (or at least in theory) but it’s an incredibly smart marketing move for WOTC (Wizards of the Coast) as it encourages everyone that plays to upgrade their books and adventures. I recently learned what my price for convenience is. Let me explain…

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Photo by: tom.arthur

I have this love/hate relationship with Walmart. I love the fact that they have pretty much everything you could ever want all in one place. I find their stores easy to navigate and the their overall selection excellent. Their prices are hard to beat as well. While they aren’t always cheaper on everything, I’ve seldom found any local store offering a lower price than Walmart.

My wife loves Walmart. We have a supercenter literally 5 minutes from our house which is both convenient and dangerous. My wife even does our primary grocery shopping their due to the low prices.

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Photo by: leafar

This morning I received an email from eBay stating that my email address had been changed. I often get email from eBay, Paypal, and various banks stating things like this, along with requests to update my personal information, and even claims my identify has been stolen and I need to login immediately. Most of these emails come with a convenient link that will take me to wherever I need to go, to do whatever the email is wants me to do. Since I work in the computer industry, I am all too familiar with the phishing techniques used by crooks to trick you into giving them your id, password, and personal information. My initial response to this email was that it was just another phishing email and just about deleted it. Fortunately I didn’t…

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Photo by: chrisscott

While sick last week, I spent the majority of my time reading, working on my StumbleUpon profile and watching TV. One of the shows I ran across on HGTV profiled super high end motor homes. The least expensive motor home profiled was just shy of 1 million dollars.

These RVs were incredible. They included flat panel TVs, surround sound, satellite TV and literally miles of wiring to put it all together. Seats were made of luxury leather and ostrich skin. Interiors had custom LED lighting, mirrors, and real high quality wood. One motor home was manufactured for a couple that had 6 cats. Instead of the area below the floor being used for storage, the area was converted into a luxury suite for their cats, including air conditioning, and a flat screen TV so that cats wouldn’t get bored!

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I previously shared with you that my wife and I decided to purchase her a replacement engagement ring through Amazon.com and we were anxiously awaiting its arrival. We were both excited to see how it would look, but at the same time nervous that it might not be what we expected. After all, we had paid a considerable amount of money for a ring we hadn’t even seen yet.

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This article is the final part of a series on how to get a great deal on a new car. Part I of the series focused on research and selection. Part II helped you determine how much you could afford, determining how much you’ll pay, and getting some initial deals either over the phone or on email. This article, will provide you with valuable information on how to deal with the sales staff, finance team and drive your new car home.

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In part one of this series I focused on research and model selection a key step in the process of getting a great deal on a new car. Research involved selecting the appropriate make and models, researching those using services like Edmunds.com, and getting your financing taken care of in advance and independent of the dealership.

This article, the second part of the series, will outline the next steps including: deciding how much you can afford, setting a cap on how much you will pay, and obtaining competitor price information.

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Photo from: Morgue File

This is the first part of a multi-part series on How to get a great deal on a new car. Watch for future parts over the next two weeks!

Let me first make it very clear that in most cases I don’t advocate buying a new car, but am a strong advocate for buying a used car that is a few years old. This is primarily due to the high level of depreciation during the first 2-3 years. Based on the amount of search engine hits I get daily related to new cars, I would suspect many of you may be purchasing new cars anyway.

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This is a guest post by Linda Bustos who is an editor for Creditor Web, where you can learn about credit cards or chat in the credit forum.

A recent survey by BIGResearch reports that 69% of consumers plan to give at least one gift card this year, and over 50% of consumers hope to find a gift card in their stocking, under their tree or in their email inbox. Gift cards are convenient last – minute fixes for holiday shopping dilemmas and give recipients more freedom to choose what they really want or need. Americans will spend an estimated $26 Billion on gift cards this year, but as with anything, consumers need to know how to shop for gift cards wisely.

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