The Chronic Consumer

I would say that a majority of my everyday wardrobe is made up of T-shirts. I sleep in long-sleeve tees in the fall and winter, and wear short-sleeve shirts throughout the spring and summer. I pair them with jeans, shorts, and sweats, and wear them just about everywhere (where casual attire is appropriate, I mean).

So I’m always looking for new tees to wear, which is how I stumbled across the Shirt Woot website. Shirt Woot is run by the same people behind the very popular Woot.com, a site that sells one product — and one product only — on any given day.

The Shirt Woot concept is similar. They sell one t-shirt design in one color per day until the shirt is sold out or until the clock hits midnight. The designs are all original, and they even hold weekly contests where people can submit their own designs for consideration.

All shirts sold on Shirt Woot cost just $10, and standard shipping is free. Overnight shipping costs $5.

I haven’t actually bought anything from Shirt Woot yet, but I check in nearly every day. I’m surprised at how many of their designs actually sell out. I guess I’m not the only one that likes cheap tees!

I don’t ordinarily spend a lot of money on beauty supplies, but I have a feeling that’s going to change soon. I know I’m going to need a ton of anti-aging creams or whatever for my skin because it’s already in pretty bad shape. I look at least 5 years older than I really am because my skin is so coarse and dry, and because of the fine lines I have around my eyes and mouth.

Since I’ve never used these types of beauty products before, I really have no clue what to buy. I would really appreciate any suggestions or recommendations that you might have, and I’ll be sure to review any products that I end up using!

I’m not a huge music fan, so I very rarely buy music-related products. Once in a while, however, I’ll come across a band that I really like, in which case I do start purchasing a few extras.

For the past few years, one of my favorite groups has been Linkin Park. I love that whole “rap rock” sound (or whatever you want to call it) and think that Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda are amazing musicians. So when I was out shopping the other day and saw the Linkin Park — Live in Texas CD/DVD Combo on sale, I couldn’t resist buying it.

This is an old product, dating way back to 2003. Nevertheless, I hadn’t seen it before, so I figured it would be worth the money.

The DVD shows Linkin Park playing at Texas Stadium and Reliant Stadium over two different days as part of the Summer Sanitarium Tour (with Metallica and Limp Bizkit). The guys play 17 different songs, and we get to see the full-length versions here. The songs are:

1. Don’t Stay
2. Somewhere I Belong
3. Lying From You
4. Papercut
5. Points Of Authority
6. Runaway
7. Faint
8. From The Inside
9. Figure.09
10. With You
11. By Myself
12. P5hng Me A*wy
13. Numb
14. Crawling
15. In The End
16. A Place For My Head
17. One Step Closer

The CD contains 12 of the songs:

1. Somewhere I Belong
2. Lying From You
3. Papercut
4. Points Of Authority
5. Runaway
6. Faint
7. From The Inside
8. P5hng Me A*wy
9. Numb
10. Crawling
11. In The End
12. One Step Closer

I already have all of these songs on my iPod, so I didn’t buy this product for the audio CD. I was far more interested in the DVD.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what I expected. For one thing, there were only a few backstage shots, and no band member interviews at all. I don’t know if that’s normal for concert DVDs, but it just felt like something was missing.

In addition, the sound on the DVD seemed to be “canned”, as though the producers laid the studio audio tracks over some concert footage. I could barely hear the crowd, and every single song sounded exactly the same as the radio version. It was pretty weird because I thought for sure the songs would be at least a little bit different.

Overall, however, I guess I can’t complain too much. This CD/DVD combo is on sale at Amazon.com for $13.97, which is what you might expect to pay for the CD alone, so it’s still a good deal. I paid more than that at the store I got the set from, but I don’t feel ripped off or anything. This Linkin Park — Live in Texas DVD definitely could have been better, but I still think it’s something hardcore fans will enjoy.

Valentine’s Day is less than a week away now, which means there’s not much time left to go shopping for gifts. I wouldn’t say you should kick into panic mode at this point, but you should at least start thinking about what you want to buy for your sweetheart.

If you’re stuck for ideas, I recommend checking out the 1-800-Flowers website. In addition to the beautiful valentines day flower arrangements that you’d expect to find there, 1-800-Flowers offers a wide selection of romantic gifts that your special Valentine would love to receive, including teddy bears, gourmet chocolate towers, spa sets, and premium wines.

Personally, this Champagne Indulgences “Love Bundle” caught my eye. It comes with a bottle of sparkling wine, champagne-filled truffles, wafer cookies, chocolate-covered strawberry candies, and a reusable tray, all of which sounds positively divine. Needless to say, I’m going to drop a few hints to my husband this weekend!

Be sure to take a look at all of the other products over at the 1-800-Flowers website, and place your order in time for a Valentine’s Day delivery. You won’t want to miss out on all of these terrific gifts at affordable prices!

As part of my preparations for the Super Bowl party I hosted last weekend, I stopped into a gourmet food store to pick up some different snacks. Two of the items I grabbed were from the Pretzel Pete Gourmet Pretzel Nuggets line: a bag of Honey Mustard flavored pretzels and a bag of Garlic & Cheese flavored pretzels.

Flavored pretzels are some of my favorite snacks, so I was really looking forward to trying these. I’d never even heard of Pretzel Pete before, but I’m definitely glad I discovered them! I found their pretzel nuggets to be some of the best I’ve ever had!

I’m specifically talking about the Honey Mustard variety, which I absolutely loved. The pretzel nuggets are a good size (not too big or too small), and they’re not too hard on the teeth (unlike Snyder’s, which I used to eat pretty regularly). The honey mustard flavor was just perfect — not too overpowering like with some other brands — which made for a very tasty treat.

I wasn’t as fond of the Garlic & Cheese flavor, as there was a bit too much garlic for my liking, but my husband enjoyed it.

The bottom line here is that I will definitely be buying Pretzel Pete snacks again, even though I have to go out of my way to the gourmet food store to do so. If these are available near you, I recommend that you try them!

I make my living as a freelance writer, and while the bulk of my work is carried out online, I do quite a bit of stuff for local customers as well. I occasionally have to meet with my clients, which means that I have to actually get out of my pajamas and try to make myself look somewhat professional.

Towards that end, I buy a lot of business-related accessories, such as a briefcase, leather portfolio, nice pens, and, most recently, a silver-plated card case (pictured above) from RedEnvelope.com.

This card case is meant to keep your business cards nice and fresh as you carry them around. There’s nothing worse than pulling a dog-eared card out of your wallet or purse and having to offer that to your latest acquaintance! So I thought it would be a good idea to buy one of these cases.

The case can hold up to 10 business cards, and measures measures 3 3/4″ x 2 1/4″ x 1/4″. It’s a perfect size for slipping into a blazer pocket or purse, and looks very nice right out of the box. I opted to have my case monogrammed with my initials for an extra $5, bringing the price of the card case to $27, which is not too bad.

Unfortunately, after just a few weeks of use, I’ve noticed a major problem with this card case. It scratches very easily!!!

I’m not hard on my accessories at all, and I generally treat them carefully, so there’s absolutely no reason that my card case should have all of these scratches and scuff marks already. This just comes from carrying the card case in my purse, which is where I think most women would carry such a product.

The scuffs aren’t deep or anything, but they don’t come out either, so now my card case looks pretty crappy. I wish my digital camera was good enough to show you the details so you could see for yourself.

Because of these scratches, I don’t even use the case anymore, which means I’m out $27 (plus shipping). Needless to say, I’m not pleased about this.

As a result of my experience, I would caution you against purchasing this item unless you’re prepared to be extremely careful with handling and storage. But in my opinion, it’s simply not worth the price.

While out buying supplies for this year’s Super Bowl party, I decided to stop in at a new gourmet food store a few miles away from my house. While in there, I came across a lot of products that I’d never seen before, and ended up buying several new snack food items, including Deep River Kettle Chips.

Deep River Kettle Chips are made by a Connecticut-based company called Deep River Snacks, and come in a variety of flavors such as Salt & Vinegar, Salt & Cracked Pepper, Sweet Maui Onion, Mesquite BBQ, Rosemary Olive Oil, and Original Salted. Since we’re going to be having lots of dips at the Super Bowl party, I just went with the Original Salted flavor.

The party spread is already out, and I’ve had a chance to sample the Deep River Kettle Chips. They’re actually pretty good, both on their own and with cheese or sour cream & onion dips. The potato chips are quite thick, so they hold up under the weight of the dip, and they’re not too greasy either.

However, I don’t think Deep River Kettle Chips are quite worth the extra money that they cost, as they’re not that exotic. Perhaps the flavored varieties are a different story, but as far as I’m concerned, I don’t think I’ll bother buying Deep River Kettle Chips again. They’re good, but not gourmet good.

With so many major national retailers offering their own store credit cards these days, consumers have more payment options than ever before. Some of these options can actually save you a lot of money if you use them the right way, but some are better left untouched.

For example, I’m sure we’ve all been offered store credit cards with enticing sign-ups such as “Save 50% instantly” or “$30 off your next purchase”. The stores don’t mind offering these perks because they figure they’ll recoup the money in interest charges so long as consumers keep using the cards.

That’s why I like to wait until I have a major purchase coming up before I even consider signing up for a store credit card. After all, getting 50% off a washing machine or flat-panel television set is worth far more than getting 50% off a pair of jeans. So those offers do have value if used wisely.

Some stores also offer debit cards, where purchase costs are taken directly out of shoppers’ checking accounts. Debit cards are great because you don’t have to worry about interest charges, and usually there’s an additional nominal discount for using the store’s debit card.

Of course, if you have a good rewards program (such as airline miles) through your regular credit card, then you should use that payment option instead of these others.

Either way, I hope you don’t just use cash to fund your purchases, as you can definitely make your money go a lot farther with one of these other options!