The Chronic Consumer

As tax time edges ever closer, I’m seriously thinking about buying some software to help manage my business-related finances and documents. Right now I’m just making do with Excel spreadsheets, but I want something more sophisticated than that. I’m not saying that I need a full-featured business performance management system, but I could definitely benefit from a product that will help keep my records organized and make it easier to do my end-of-year accounting.

Any suggestions out there before I start shopping on my own?

My four-year-old son gets one hour of quiet time per day (30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon) during which he is only allowed to read, draw, color, or play with toys that don’t have batteries. I think it’s important for him to be “unplugged” like this, so I enforce quiet time pretty strictly.

I also make an effort to buy him a good mix of toys that would be appropriate for quiet time, which is why I recently purchased a View-Master 3D Viewer.

I had a View-Master when I was a kid, and remember that I never got tired of looking at my Dumbo, Bambi, and Snow White reels. I figured my son would enjoy the updated version, so long as he had some interesting reels to look at. I hoped that dinosaurs, Thomas the Tank Engine, SpongeBob SquarePants, sea creatures, and African safari animals would keep him busy for a bit.

The updated View-Master is fairly simple for even young children (like my son) to use. Once I taught him which way to put the reels in so the pictures would show up properly, he was able to change them out himself whenever he wanted. The lever to advance the reels is nice and big, making it easy for my son to push it in order to scroll through the pictures.

The View-Master also comes with a clip that can attach to a neck strap or belt loop or whatever, but my son has never used it.

When we first got the View-Master, my son really enjoyed playing with it. But now that it’s been a few weeks and he’s seen all of his reels several times, he has pretty much cast the toy aside and hasn’t touched it in a while — not even during quiet time.

The View-Master only cost $5.99 at Wal-Mart, so it’s not as though I’m out a bundle of money here. But still… it would have been nice for the toy to retain its attraction for a bit longer. I guess I’ll just have to keep buying new reels for it!

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for all those ingenious inventions that people sell on TV. If you’ve ever watched late night television programs, then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. These products are usually designed to make our lives easier or more convenient, and of course I’m all for that!

One of the products I’m currently looking at is this Auto Cool solar powered car fan. It’s a fan that attaches to any car window in order to create an instant solar powered ventilation system designed to keep your parked car approximately 30 degrees cooler in the summer.

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate coming out of an air conditioned place like a mall or a restaurant only to get into a car that feels like an oven because it’s been sitting in the sun for too long. So I’d definitely get some good use out of this Auto Cool car fan!

I ordinarily wouldn’t dream of spending more than $10 on an umbrella, but my husband is a big motocross fan (and rider) and loves any product that bears an MX-related logo. One of the coolest logos out there right now belongs to One Industries, so that’s why I decided to break down and spend close to $30 on the golf-style umbrella pictured here.

(I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, but I took these at night and my interior lighting sucks!)

According to the product description, this One Industries umbrella is suitable for protection against the rain or the sun, and we have indeed used it for both. I think it works much better for rain, however, as the material is too thin to really keep the sun off.

The umbrella is made of “durable light nylon” and has a 30-inch shaft with a manual release button to open the cover. The words “One Industries” are splashed across one side of the canopy, larger “O” logos are placed three more times around the exterior, and then there are a bunch of smaller “O” logos alternating with the word “One” in a pattern on the rest of the nylon.

While the umbrella looked pretty good when it was new, it wasn’t very durable at all. After just a few months of use, the nylon material has become detached from the spokes in several places, which means that it no longer stretches out to the full length when the umbrella is opened. That in turn means the umbrella doesn’t provide good coverage when it’s raining, which makes it all but useless. In fact, we hardly ever even use this thing anymore!

One Industries is usually a name I associate with quality products, but I can’t put this particular umbrella in the same category. I was disappointed at the way it came apart as the result of usual wear and tear (in just a few months, mind you), and think it definitely wasn’t worth spending $30 on. Save your money!

As I’ve stated over and over again on this blog, I just love to shop! Most of the time, I buy fun or frivolous items that my family can enjoy, such as video games, DVDs, and electronic gadgets. I think that’s fine — as long as we have the money to spend and aren’t going into debt over these things.

But when the holidays roll around, I can’t help but think of others and always try to put a little extra effort into doing something that will benefit those in need. That’s why I love shopping at stores that support a specific cause, like the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America eStore.

The AFA eStore sells products such as jewelry, logo items from their Quilt to Remember line, and even a caregivers training program on DVD, with all proceeds going to support various AFA programs. The products are of the highest quality, and any one of them would make a fantastic holiday gift for that special someone in your life. Plus, you can feel good about yourself knowing that your purchase is helping to make a difference in the fight against this terrible disease.

And while finding a cure for Alzheimer’s is the ultimate goal here, it’s important not to overlook the fact that those currently suffering from this debilitating illness need the best care possible. That’s where your financial support, either through direct contributions or purchases at the eStore, can really make a difference.

I have spent some time looking around the AFA eStore and currently have my eye on one of their special “heart of care” pendants. I think it’s a beautiful design, and love the fact that it’s made from non-tarnishing rhodium sterling silver because that means it will be very easy to care for. I’m planning to order one of these for myself in the near future. After I get it, I’ll be sure to post a full product review here for you to read!

Anyway, I hope that you’ll consider shopping at the AFA eStore this holiday season so that your dollars can be put to good use. Check out the site today — and if you see something you like, buy it!

I still haven’t bought a winter jacket this year, even though I really need to get one. I’ve been using my old jacket for 10 years, and it’s looking pretty ratty by now. I usually buy my outerwear outerwear from J.Crew or Eddie Bauer, but I didn’t see anything on their websites that I would want to wear. So I’m going back to a brand I haven’t worn since high school: LL Bean.

I’m glad to see that the LL Bean catalog features all the classic styles that I like. I’m not very trendy when it comes to clothing, so I prefer timeless stuff that I can wear for years and years.

After browsing through the site for a bit, I found a couple of jackets that I definitely could see myself wearing. The frontrunner for now is this waterproof Rugged Ridge Parka, pictured below. I like the style and color, plus think it would be plenty warm enough for blustery Chicago weather. It’s listed at $149 with free shipping, which isn’t too bad. I think I’ll look around for a discount code or something before ordering, though. Does LL Bean ever have sales? I don’t shop there enough to know….

Anyway, this jacket is now on my Wish List. Check it out:

As you can tell from several of the product reviews on this blog, I just love buying gadgets. Of course, these types of items usually run on the expensive side, making it all the more important for me to shop around and find good deals before shelling out any cash. That’s why I’m glad I recently added TechBargains.com to my feed reader.

TechBargains.com is the place to go for the latest coupon codes, rebates, and deals on things like discount computers, digital cameras, and other popular tech products. Different search functions and a clean layout make it very easy to find exactly what I’m looking for on the site. What’s more, I can even request deals on specific products, and the TechBargains team will do their best to come up with something for me.

I also like the way I can personalize alerts to fit the products I’m most interested in. For example, if I’m currently shopping around for a new phone, I can set my preferences so that I receive only notices of cell phone deals so I don’t have to waste time weeding through everything else. Pretty cool, huh?

And unlike other deal sites, TechBargains.com is updated 24/7 (including weekend and holidays), so I’ll never miss out on great sales. Plus, as I said, I’ve subscribed to the site’s RSS feed, which means I get the scoop the minute something new pops up.

If you’re as addicted to buying tech products as I am, then you just have to check out TechBargains.com today. I’m sure it will become one of your favorite sites!

My son is getting to the point where he can start playing easy board games with us. So I took him shopping a few weeks ago to choose a new game for family night. After looking through the selection at Toys ‘R Us, he settled on Operation. I had a feeling that the game would be a bit too difficult for him because the recommended ages are 6 and up, but he’s not quite 5 yet. Nevertheless, that was the game he had his heart set on, so I decided to go ahead and get it for him.

Operation has been around since 1965, and is a game that I remember seeing around as a kid (even though my family never had it). The board consists of a picture of a patient on an operating table. There are oddly shaped holes placed around the body, and inside each one are small plastic pieces depicting various ailments: a bucket of water for “water on the knee”; an ice cream cone for “brain freeze”; a pencil for “writer’s cramp”; a horse for “charley horse” etc. There are also two decks of cards (Doctor and Specialist), and some play money.

To begin the game, each player gets one Specialist card, then you take turns drawing from the Doctor cards. The Doctor cards tell you which ailment you have to try to remove with a special pair of tweezers attached to the board. You have to pick the plastic ailment piece out of its hole without touching the sides of the board.

If you succeed, you earn the dollar amount designated on the Doctor card. If you touch the side, a buzzer goes off and the patient’s nose flashes with a red light. You lose your turn, and the player holding the Specialist card gets a chance to perform the operation — for double the original price.

As expected, my son has a lot of trouble removing the ailment pieces cleanly. He hates the buzzer sound, so when it’s his turn, we switch the board off and just let him try to take the piece out any way he can. When he gets older, we can play according to the rules; but for now, I think this is fine.

We’ve played Operation several times since we bought the game, and we do have a lot of fun with it. The pieces are very easy for adults to remove, so there’s not much of a challenge in that way. However, some of the pieces are very hard to grip, which makes for a bit of competition now and then.

Overall, I think Operation would is a great game for older children to play amongst themselves. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a family game because it really is too easy for adults, but I’m sure a group of kids could have fun with it. I think it was definitely worth the money!