The Chronic Consumer

So do you have a game plan for Black Friday yet? I’ve got a basic idea of which stores I want to hit at which times, so hopefully that will make the day a bit less stressful. I am definitely not looking forward to dealing with all the crowds, but I just can’t pass up the chance to score some amazing discounts!

Anyway, my husband wants to check out some Xbox 360 games at one of the smaller stores at the mall, and I need to find an ipod battery since my Mini has been acting a bit wonky. After that, we’re going to go to the toy store to buy a few stocking stuffers for our son and my younger cousins. And finally, we’re just going to check out a few department stores because everyone in the family needs winter clothes (sweaters, long-sleeved shirts, etc.).

We’ll probably grab lunch while we’re out, then hit the video store before coming home to spend the rest of the day vegging out in front of the TV. Hopefully we can make it back home by 2:30 or so.

Anyway, if you’re going to brave the crowds and weather tomorrow, I recommend that you come up with a plan of attack first. This will save you time in the long run, and will lessen the chance of forgetting something while you’re out there!

With Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight one of my favorite products of all time, Stove Top Stuffing Mix. I absolutely love Stove Top, and eat it pretty much year round, so I always have some sitting in my pantry.

While I usually prefer the Chicken flavor stuffing, I also like the Turkey, Cornbread, and Savory Herbs varieties, depending on what my main dish will be. No matter which flavor I go with, the preparation is equally quick and easy, and the result is consistently great. There’s just no easier side dish to make than Stove Top Stuffing!

Right now I’m partial to the flex-serve canisters that allow you to determine how many servings to make. Sometimes my husband doesn’t make it home from work in time for dinner, so on those nights when it’s just going to be my son and me, I make a little less. When we can all sit down together, I obviously make a lot more.

I also love the way Stove Top can be used in casseroles and other recipes. One of my family’s favorite wintertime meals is the Easy Chicken Bake featured on the back of the canisters. So easy and delicious — it’s the perfect comfort food!

My family will definitely be having this with our turkey tomorrow. How about you?

I am so not ready for winter this year! I still need to buy a winter jacket, hat, gloves, and a scarf, and while looking through my closet today, I saw that I could use a new pair of boots too. They don’t have to be sexy boots or anything like that; I just want a pair that will keep my feet relatively warm and dry as I slog through the snow.

I’m actually partial to duck boots and loved the Sporto brand back when it was popular. But I haven’t seen that name around in years, so I don’t even know if that company still exists. However, I saw that LL Bean makes duck boots, and since I’m planning on ordering my winter jacket from them, I might as well toss in a pair of these while I’m at it. They’re not that expensive, so what the heck!

While I usually try to cook (relatively) healthy meals for my family, there are some days when I simply don’t have the time or energy to spend an hour in the kitchen getting dinner ready. So I always have a supply of Chicken or Hamburger Helper varieties on hand for those nights when I’m pressed for time. One of my family’s favorite flavors is Cheesy Hashbrowns.

I know some people might think that hashbrowns, cheese, and ground beef doesn’t exactly sound like an enticing combination, but it’s surprisingly good. (Just remember that I am an avowed processed cheese lover, so that might have something to do with my reaction here!)

The package comes with dehydrated shredded potatoes and a cheese mixture. After browning some ground beef, you add the potatoes and some water to the skillet. Once the potatoes get re-hydrated, you’re supposed to flatten the mixture and cover the skillet so the potatoes have a chance to brown. Meanwhile, you add milk to the cheese mixture to make the sauce, and once the stuff in the skillet is done, you pour the cheese mixture over it and serve.

Very easy, just like all the Hamburger Helper varieties.

The only problem is that I rarely ever get the potatoes in the skillet to brown evenly, so the final product never looks quite like the picture on the box, but it’s still very edible. I recommend trying Hamburger Helper Cheesy Hashbrowns if you haven’t already!

When I was growing up, I knew a girl who took horseback riding lessons in Lake Forest. She had lessons every Saturday, and was even good enough to enter competitions by the time we got to high school. One year the school’s yearbook staff decided to do a profile on her, so there’s a huge two-page layout in the book with pictures of Sheila out at the stables in her horse riding apparel, which I thought was pretty cool.

Looking at the pictures now, I can’t help but wonder Sheila’s equestrian clothes came from. There certainly weren’t any local stores that she could have gotten them from, so I guess she had to purchase them out by the stables.

Of course, these days you can buy equestrian clothes and equipment online, which I’m sure makes the whole experience a lot more convenient. I guess it’s just odd to think that there ever was a time when I didn’t know how or where to buy something. I’m just so used to looking everything up on the Internet first now!

I bought the first generation PlayStation Portable from Sony for Christmas a couple years ago. Even though I know there’s a new generation of PSPs available on the market today, I figured I’d go ahead and review my old one because you can still buy this style at used/refurbished prices and because there’s probably not a significant performance difference between the two versions.

The Sony PSP is a very sleek device that looks good and delivers excellent gaming qualities. It has two sets of control buttons (one on each end of the device) that mimic the buttons on a standard PS2 controller. There’s also a small joystick under the directional buttons, and an L and R button up at the top of the device.

I’ve found that the buttons are easy enough to use, but was never really able to get accustomed to the joystick. As a result, I avoid playing games that feature heavy joystick usage and just stick to easier games.

The best part of the PSP, in my opinion, is its nice, wide 4.3-inch LCD display. The colors and graphics are very sharp, and the screen size is bigger than any other handheld out there, which makes for a better overall playing experience.

The PSP can also play videos, which is an awesome feature. Of course, the files have to be in MP4 format, which requires some tweaking and converting, but I’ve gotten used to the process and can now rip any DVD in my collection into something that can play on my PSP. Very cool!

Games for the PSP aren’t as family-friendly as the ones available for Nintendo DS, so I don’t recommend this device for children under the age of, say, 7, but other than that, I think the PSP is a quality product that is well worth purchasing.

Remember how I told you I need to buy some small-business software to help keep my financial records organized? Well, I was out at one of the national computer superstores today, and didn’t really see anything that I liked.

They either had programs that were far too sophisticated (and expensive) for my needs or that were completely unrelated to my type of business. For example, I don’t run a nursing home here so I obviously wouldn’t get any use out of the assisted living software I saw!

A couple of people have written in and told me to use Microsoft Money for straightforward home business transactions. I’ve tried Money in the past (just for my household budget) and didn’t like it too much, so I’m don’t want to use it again.

I guess I’ll just have to start searching online for the kind of software I need.

Have you heard that PayPal is now offering a browser plug-in that lets you access your PayPal account from any site on the ‘net? I just discovered this a couple days ago when I was signed into my account to make a withdrawal.

According to the info on the site, the plug-in would allow you to shop more easily by auto-filling information like name and address, alerting you to potentially fraudulent sites, saving your receipts, and checking your current balance from anywhere.

This sounded good, so I tried downloaded the plug-in and installed it in Firefox.

It sits up at the top right-hand corner, and is just a “P” logo. There’s a drop-down menu that allows you to do any of the things I mentioned above, and I guess it is kinda cool to be able to check my balance instantly.  I haven’t used it for shopping yet, so I’m not sure how effective it is in that respect.

The only problem I’ve noticed so far is that there’s no logout button in the plug-in. That means if you share a computer, you’ve got to go to your actual PayPal account page and sign out from there, otherwise whoever uses the browser after you will be able to access your info.

That seems like kind of a silly thing for the developers to overlook, so maybe it’s in there somewhere, and I’m the one missing it!

Anyway, check out the PayPal plug-in if you’re a big online shopper like I am.