The Chronic Consumer

My son went to play at a friend’s house over the weekend, and the other boy had a trampoline. The boys bounced around on that thing for hours, tired themselves out, took a break, and then went right back for more. My son loved the trampoline (that was the first time he had ever tried one).

The problem is that now he’s asking for one of his own, but unfortunately, we just don’t have anyplace to put it. Our backyard is far too small to accommodate one, and every room in the house is too crowded to add something like that.

Maybe we can get one if we ever move to a single-family home, but for now, it’s a no go. Sorry, buddy!

My husband spends a lot of time in the garage working on his motocross bikes and our son’s ATV. Over the course of the years, he has amassed a pretty impressive collection of hand tools that allow him to make minor repairs and adjustments.

Recently, however, he’s been thinking about buying some air tools so he can tackle a few bigger jobs instead of having to take the bikes to the dealer for expensive overhauls. These tools would be a big investment at the start, but I think we’d end up saving money in the long run. It’s worth a shot, at any rate, so I’m going to give my husband the green light on this idea!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand all the kiosks that are set up at one of the local malls around here. It used to be that those booths and carts in the middle of the walkway were just put out on a temporary basis for special events like craft sales or whatever. But now, they’ve more or less become a permanent fixture, making it impossible to go shopping without getting accosted by 50 different vendors on any given day.

These kiosks offer everything from cell phones to Crocs sandals to mens gold watches, and I admit that I can occasionally find good deals on these products. But I hate having to walk around with my head down, trying to avoid eye contact with the vendors so I don’t get stopped every 10 feet by yet another sales pitch.

I wonder if these kiosks are common to all malls or if this is just a Midwest thing. I don’t recall seeing these when I went to San Diego and Honolulu, so I have no idea….

I love shopping online for most things, but one thing I can’t stand about the process is when websites offer limited shipping options. You’d think they’d want to offer their customers the best deals on shipping in order to build good will and loyalty, but that’s simply not the case at all.

For instance, this morning I wanted to order a motocross t-shirt for my husband and was all set to pay the $19.99 asking price — until I saw that I would be charged $12 for shipping! WTF???

It turns out that the website only shipped via UPS, which is why the charges were so jacked.

Obviously, I didn’t go through with the order. There’s no way I would pay that much for shipping on a $20 item. Plus, that site has now essentially lost my business since I’m not even going to bother checking for merchandise there anymore. Why would I when I’d just end up paying so much for shipping?

How hard would it be to stuff the tee into a big envelope and mail it through the post office? It would cost $5 tops, and would probably result in more sales for the site.

Well, whatever, it’s their loss. I just had to vent for a minute!

I was looking online for a new acne wash tonight when I came across something called Asso Soap. I’ve never heard of this stuff before, but I read that it retails for over $100 per bar.

Why so much? Because it contains actual bits of 24k gold, which I guess is good for acne-prone skin.

I’m all for trying new products that will help me control acne, but there’s no way I could afford to pay that much money for a bar of soap! Luckily, I’ve seen some sites that sell Asso Soap for just $25 or so, which is far more reasonable. Maybe I’ll give one of those places a try when I have some extra cash available.

24k gold soap… sounds very interesting!

I’ve been looking at a few different products that are supposed to help alleviate PMS symptoms. I suffer from some really bad periods, and while I won’t go into details here, suffice it to say that I dread my monthly visitor more than you can imagine.

Midol has never done much for me, but I’ve heard some good things about the benefits of using progesterone cream. Apparently, progesterone helps balance out the amount of estrogen in the body, thereby canceling out the negative effects of excess estrogen.

There’s really a lot of information to take in, and I don’t want to post anything misleading, so I recommend that you check this stuff out for yourself if you’re interested.

As for me, I’m willing to try anything at this point. Creams, pills… it doesn’t matter. As long as I get some relief from my PMS symptoms, I’m in!

Even though I no longer live in the town where I went to high school, I still like to support my alma mater whenever possible. This usually takes the form of donating money to the athletic program or making contributions for various causes such as field trips.

But I also enjoy showing my support by doing something as simple as wearing my school colors when I attend sporting events. Although the school sells some apparel at their booster store, their selection is pretty limited, which is why I usually end up buying stuff from PrepSportsWear.com. They have everything from golf shirts to messenger bags to scrubs, and offer their products for pretty reasonable prices. You can get stuff personalized with the sport or club you are/were in and/or you class year. (I typically just buy products marked “alumni”).

Anyway, I recommend checking out that site if you want apparel and accessories featuring your school logo!

One of my cousins is full-figured and has a hard time finding nice clothes to wear. She can’t buy anything off the rack at the mall because the stores there seem to think that everyone falls in between sizes 2 and 12. So she has to try to find stores that specialize in plus size clothing — but there aren’t too many of those in the area. And when she does find the right kind of store, she quickly discovers that the apparel they sell isn’t exactly trendy, making it even harder for her to dress the way she likes.

I told her that she needs to start shopping online for this stuff. I’m sure there are plenty of websites that cater to the full-figured crowd, and they’re bound to have a better selection than what she’s seeing locally. Once she finds a few websites with attractive plus size clothing, all she has to do is bookmark the pages so she can go back whenever she needs something new. Sounds simple, right?!

Is it just me, or are product labels becoming increasingly difficult to read because of the extremely small print size the manufacturers use? I like to read about products before I buy them, whether we’re talking about nutrition info on food packages or fabric care instructions on apparel, so this trend towards smaller print really bugs me.

On second thought, maybe it’s not even the manufacturer’s fault… maybe it’s just a case of my eyesight getting worse as I age.

In any event, I am now thinking of buying one of those portable reading magnifiers to carry around in my purse. That way, I can just pull it out and use it whenever I come across some small print that I want to read. Hopefully that will solve my problems!

I was browsing around at Amazon.com this morning and noticed that they’re having a DVD blowout sale right now, which means you can get savings of 40% or more on your favorite movies or TV shows. I wasn’t planning on buying anything until I saw some of the prices. For example, they’re offering all seasons of Seinfeld for $22.99 each — 54% off the regular list price.

I also saw a deal on The O.C. that was simply too good to pass up: Each season is being sold for a mere $16.99 — a whopping 72% off the list price of $59.98 per season. I promptly ordered all four seasons at that rate before the notoriously fast Amazon price changes went into effect. What a great deal!

If you’re looking to add to your DVD collection, I recommend heading over to Amazon.com today. I have no idea when the sale will end, but it could be very soon so take advantage of these prices now!!