The Chronic Consumer

Being the chronic consumers that we are, my husband and I can’t help but shop for things even when there’s really little chance that we’ll ever make a purchase. For example, we’re kind of tired of the area that we live in now and would like to move sometime within the next five years. There are a handful of places we’d seriously consider relocating to, including Florida and Arizona. In the past, we’ve even talked about moving to Las Vegas, but eventually ruled that city out because we just don’t think we could live responsibly with so many temptations within reach.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop us from checking out Las Vegas Luxury Condos whenever we get into one of our relocating moods. We love imagining the kind of lifestyle we could have if only we had the money to spend. Everyone needs something to dream about, right? We happen to like thinking about the great places that we might be able to call home someday!

You can add Kohl’s to the growing list of national retailers that are having huge summer sales right now. With Kohl’s Bonus Buys, you can save 60-70% off their entire line of sandals, 70% off their entire stock of diamond jewelry, 60% off their entire stock of children’s sleepwear, 45-60% off women’s active apparel, and 20-50% off their entire stock of personal care items. Bonus Buys are good from now until Tuesday, July 17.

Kohl’s also features savings of up to 70% off men’s, women’s, and children’s summer apparel. Plus, from Thursday, July 12 – Tuesday, July 17, you can get $10 in Kohl’s cash for every $50 you charge on your Kohl’s card for in-store or online purchases. If you buy online, there’s free shipping for all orders over $75.

Kohl’s is one of my favorite stores for buying clothes for my son. Their kids clothes are pretty good quality and are always cheap — even cheaper than Wal-Mart for many items (and much better than Wal-Mart clothes, IMO). I’ll definitely be stocking up on stuff in the next few days!!

I drink nothing but bottled water, even when I’m at home. We have a monthly contract with a supplier that delivers those huge five-gallon bottles a couple times per month, plus I also buy 160z. bottles of water that are convenient for car trips or whatever.

Although I love drinking bottled water, the expense sure does add up. That’s why I’m thinking about purchasing this nifty little water bottle filter that I saw over at PureWater2Go.com. The filter fits into some standard plastic 160z. water and soda bottles, and treats ordinary tap water for most of the impurities that make me want to drink bottled water in the first place.

This particular filter is reusable for up to 40 gallons of water and only costs $7.95. It’s definitely worth checking out!

The Gap is having their summer sale, a.k.a. the Really Big Sale, right now. For a limited time you can save up to 60% on men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel, so if your family likes Gap fashions, this is the time to shop. This includes jeans (example: Boot Cut Curvy Jeans, Reg. $68.00, on sale for $29.99), tops (ex. Simple Camo, Reg. $16.50, on sale for $7.97), swimwear (as low as $9.99), and outerwear (jackets as low as $24.99).

Plus, as always when you shop online at the Gap, you get free shipping on orders over $100 (for Gap card members, the free shipping kicks in on orders over $50) and you can return unwanted items to retail locations near you so you don’t have to deal with return shipping.

This would be a great time to start shopping for back-to-school fashions, so check out Gap.com today! (BTW, their site is super slow today — it’s been taking more than 10 seconds to load every page over there. Annoying!!)

Earlier this year, my husband and I wanted to go shopping for a custom mailboxes to replace the plain one that we have, but we soon realized that we didn’t even know which store to go to. We tried a local hardware store first, but they just had a few selections — all plain, just like the one we were trying to get rid of. Then we went to a huge home improvement chain, but didn’t see anything that grabbed our attention.

So we still haven’t found a nice mailbox yet. We’ll keep looking, but I doubt that we’ll find a store around here with a large enough selection for our tastes. I think it’s time to take the search online and see what the web retailers have in stock!

In general, I have to say that I really love Amazon.com. I can buy virtually anything from that site, and I’m almost always assured of getting lower prices from Amazon than anywhere else. However, one thing I can’t stand about them is the way their prices change without notice!

When I check a price on a certain product, all it shows is the List Price (usually with a strikethrough to show you what a great deal you’re getting) and then the Price that Amazon actually sells it for. The Amazon price is always lower, of course, but shoppers are never told if the lower price is the result of a special deal or sale or if it’s a long-term price, and we’re never told when that price is liable to rise.

For example, earlier last week I mentioned how I wanted to buy this Victorinox SwissMemory knife/USB memory stick combo tool. I posted that entry on July 3, and the Amazon.com price at that time was $30 (as noted in the post).

Well, I just went back to Amazon.com yesterday (7/7) to actually make that purchase and a few others — only to discover that instead of $30, the Amazon price on that item is now $47.99!! That’s still well below the listed MSRP of $132, but it’s a whopping 60% more than what I was expecting to pay!!

Uh, no thanks.

If I had known on July 3 that the $30 price was temporary, I would have snapped up the item there and then. As it was, I thought had plenty of time to take advantage of that price and am now not getting the Swissmemory tool at all .

My mom has been spending most of the summer getting her backyard in order. She really wants to turn it into a nice place where friends and family can gather to have parties and barbecues or just to chat with each other.

Towards that end, she’s currently got contractors building a very large deck, and as soon as that’s done, she’s getting professional landscapers to come in and plant trees, bushes, flowers, and maybe even a water garden. I can’t wait for all this work to be done because I’ve seen the plans for everything and know that the yard will end up looking fantastic!

Plus, what I’m really excited about is the fact that my mom has been talking about getting an outdoor fireplace as well. Outdoor fireplaces represent not only the latest trend in backyard furnishing, but also will allow us to enjoy the yard for many more months out of the year than just the summer.

I’m going to be helping my mom shop for many of the products that we’ll use in her backyard, including the patio furniture, lighting, grill, and the fireplace. I’ve been doing some online price comparisons and will try to visit some home improvement stores this weekend to see how they stack up to Internet stores.

If I come across any great deals, I’ll be sure to let you know!

(Click photo to enlarge.)

If you like intimate apparel from Victoria’s Secret, then you’ll want to get over to their website or take a trip to the mall sometime soon. That’s because their huge Semi-Annual Sale is going on right now, which means you can save a lot of money by stocking up on bras, panties, swimwear, bath products, and everything else in the store.

I really like Victoria’s Secret underwear, but their prices have gone up so much over the years that I now limit my shopping to the semi-annual sale where I can get panties for $2.99 each, bras for $11.99 each. Not bad at all! I also like Victoria’s Secret bath products, and will definitely be taking advantage of their sale on lotions, gels, and spritzes. 5 products (mix ‘n’ match) for $19.99? I’m there!

Plus, you get free shipping on all orders over $100 by entering the code SALE at checkout. I’m definitely not going to be spending that much, but thought I’d put it out here for you anyway.

You’d better move quickly because the Semi-Annual Sale ends July 9.

Happy shopping!