The Chronic Consumer

Unlike with other sports, motocross fans can’t just walk into the Sports Authority or Sportmart and find tons of products featuring their favorite riders’ names and team logos. Heck, these types of items aren’t even widely available at bike shops, so I guess I’m not surprised that mainstream sporting goods stores don’t sell them. But you can purchase fun MX-related products if you know where to look — and that would be Smooth Industries.

Smooth Industries was started several years ago by a couple of guys who were already involved in the Motocross industry in a limited capacity. They saw an opportunity to sell licensed MX merchandise, and Smooth Industries was born.

So what types of products can you get from Smooth Industries? Very cool items such as the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit football pictured above, bedding sets, pillows, sleeping bags, backpacks, school folders, pencils, aluminum lunch boxes, pajamas, umbrellas, coolers, chairs, and even refrigerators.

The three riders that Smooth Industries has licensing deals with are Jeremy McGrath, Travis Pastrana, and Chad Reed, so almost all of the items feature one of those guys. There’s also stuff from a few of the teams, such as Makita Suzuki, L&M Racing, and Monster Energy/Pro Circuit.

I’ve ordered a couple of things from Smooth Industries before and have been satisfied with the quality of the products. My only complaint is that the stuff they sell runs on the expensive side, which is why I don’t make purchases more often.

Anyway, check them out if you’re interested in some of the things I mentioned in this post!

From time to time people ask me how I earn extra cash for all of my frivolous purchases. I haven’t worked full-time since before my son was born, and I don’t plan on rejoining the rat race anytime soon. My husband makes decent money, but his paychecks really just cover our mortgages (yes, that’s plural) and daily expenses. If I didn’t make extra money on the side, we wouldn’t be able to afford all these extras.

First of all, I have a home based business built around freelance writing. I blog, write keyword articles, write advertising copy, and create sales brochures for various clients, both online and in person. This takes up the bulk of my time and represents the bulk of my monthly income.

Second, I serve as a part-time consultant to a company that I once worked for. I spent several years at that company, and became friends with the owner. We parted on good terms, and at the beginning of this year he got in touch with me about becoming a consultant. I help him with various projects (mostly human resources stuff), give orientation presentations to new employees, and also occasionally cover for office drones who are on vacation. I’m required to put in two office days per month (about 4 hours per day) and receive a flat fee as well as hourly pay for whatever work I do beyond those 8 required hours.

Third, I tutor three girls (sisters) once a week at their home. Their mom is a friend of a friend, and she wants the girls (ages 5, 8, and 10) to learn Japanese for some reason. The public school system obviously doesn’t offer anything like this for kids their age, so the mom asked me to do it. Even though my Japanese sucks, it’s good enough to teach beginners. I get $60 for one hour of tutoring (all three girls at the same time). This gig is actually kind of a hassle for me because the girls tend to run a bit wild during the lesson, but the money is too good to pass up.

All three of these income streams provide me with a nice chunk of change to spend on movies, DVD box sets, dinners out with my family, and other treats that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to buy. I’m always busy because of this schedule, but the result is worth it!

Like most people, I love buying souvenirs whenever I go on vacation. I simply can’t pass up the gift shops at major tourist traps, and even hit the stores before even seeing the main attraction.

Of course this means that my house is positively overflowing with all the junk that I’ve accumulated over the years, and this presents a whole different problem because I can’t bring myself to throw the stuff away. Never mind that I have absolutely no use for a huge ceramic ashtray; the fact that it has “Branson, MO.” emblazoned on it is enough to make me want to keep it.

So now I’m forcing myself to buy edible souvenirs instead of the more traditional stuff. Whenever we go somewhere, I try to find out what kinds of regional foods are popular there so I can make appropriate purchases. For example, in Hawaii, I bought chocolate covered Macadamia nuts. In Florida, I bought alligator jerky. In Wisconsin, I bought cheesecake. You get the idea.

I recommend trying this approach if you feel you’ve got too many leftover trinkets from your travels. It really does help cut down on clutter!

I don’t like to make a big production out of lunch. I’m usually hard at work on my various blogs at that time of day, so I just want to grab something quick and tasty that I can eat right at my desk while I keep working. That’s why Lean Pockets Subs are some of my favorite lunch products of all.

Lean Pockets Subs are pre-made frozen sandwiches that you heat up for 2 minutes in the microwave. They come in awesome flavors like Pepperoni Pizza, Meatballs & Mozzarella, and (my personal favorite) Philly Steak and Cheese, and are relatively low in fat and calories.

Unlike a lot of frozen foods, Lean Pockets Subs actually heat up perfectly. The bread is soft and chewy, and the inside gets heated evenly so you never have an area that’s still frozen or whatever.

A Lean Pockets Sub, a bag of baked potato chips, and a can of Diet Coke is my idea of a great home lunch. I have this very combination at least 3-4 times a week, and I never get tired of it! Check out Lean Pockets Subs for yourself if you haven’t tried them yet. They’re quite tasty!!

As a consumer, I’m more likely to make a purchase or give feedback when the retailer sweetens the deal by throwing in a freebie or other incentive. For example, I fill out surveys at the mall for free coupons or promotional pens, I test drive cars for free t-shirts or restaurant gift certificates, and I always look out for buy-one-get-one free type deals.

I’ve gotten a lot of cool gifts this way, which I can then keep for myself, pass on to friends and family, or even put up on eBay. Not bad for a few extra minutes of my time!

Although I buy a lot of things, I always try to live within my means. I pay cash for purchases whenever possible and only finance big-ticket items when I’m offered a great deal, such as low interest rates for a year or whatever. If I can’t make my purchase within those guidelines, then I force myself to wait until I can save enough money to get it done.

I know a lot of people who go into debt to buy nice things, and then end up having to take out a cash advance or other loan in order to keep a roof over their heads. Don’t be like that!

Most major sports websites, such as ESPN.com, SportingNews.com, Yahoo.com, Sportsline.com, and others offer free fantasy football leagues to anyone who wants to join. Usually the free versions come with just the basic functions and don’t provide live scoring updates, which means you have to wait until Tuesday morning to see if you won your matchup or not.

I’ve been playing fantasy football for four years, so I can tell you that waiting that long is not fun at all. That’s why I usually pay the extra $10 or so to enhance my account with the live scoring feature.

First of all, yes, I know I can simply get a pen and paper and add up the scores myself. I did that all through my first season of play and have nothing against people who want to keep score that way. But this method doesn’t make it very easy to check out other matchups in the league, which is important if you’re near the top and are angling for a playoff spot.

Second, I think that having live scoring updates saves a lot of time in the end. When I was manually keeping score, I would check box scores constantly, and then add — and re-add — my totals to make sure I was 100% correct. With live scoring, I just hit refresh on the league page and I have up-to-the-minute totals for each and every matchup in the league. Very easy.

So if you’ve got an extra 10 bucks to spare, I say go for the live scoring option. The price averages out to less than $1 per week, which is not bad at all!

We’ve been redecorating my son’s bedroom in bits and pieces. We started with wall hangings and shelving, and now we’re finally ready to move on to furniture. We’ve gotten rid of the rocking chair that had been in there since he was a baby, as well as some of the plastic storage containers that we were using for his toys. We’re buying a bureau and a night table next.

After that, we’re going to look at bunk beds. We’re not planning on having another child or anything; my son has just expressed an interest in getting a bunk bed because he loves the idea of climbing up a little ladder and sleeping so high off the ground.

Anyway, that’s still a couple months off, but I’d like to start shopping around now just to see what kind of prices we’ll be looking at.