The Chronic Consumer

I’ve mentioned before that I’m going to have to limit the number of reviews I post because I have to save money for school. As a result, I’ve just been posting some shopping news, like the latest bankruptcies and product recalls, as well as a few freebies that people might be interested in.

But that’s kind of boring to me, so I’m going to be doing more reviews pretty soon. Yes, they’re likely going to be for really low-ticket items like snack food, candy, and gum, but I guess that’s just the way it goes. And hey, I might end up reviewing the best weight loss supplement as well, if all my snacking leads to some added pounds!

Oh, and I’ll probably end up reviewing some books, college apparel, and other things that have to do with going back to school. Plus, I shouldn’t forget to review some stores here and there as well. I think there’s enough material to keep this blog going for a long time yet!

I don’t think I’m going to be able to do much shopping for fun stuff in the near future, because today I found out that I was accepted to grad school! Even though the program is comparatively cheap, it’ll still costs me thousands per semester in tuition, which is nothing to sneeze at.

I seriously don’t know what I’m going to do about this blog. I definitely want to keep it going, so maybe instead of focusing so much on product reviews, I’ll spend more time posting coupon codes and other shopping deals — whatever doesn’t cost money to write about. Or maybe I can get another part-time job. I’ve seen a few ads from companies that specialize in insurance lead generation and medical billing — stuff that can be done from home. That might be a good option for me and would give me some much-needed extra cash.

I’m not going anywhere, but I need to rethink the direction of this blog.

We always push the tax deadline in my family, so after scrambling to get things done on time, we finally finished and mailed off our return earlier this afternoon. It turns out that we’re slated to get a bigger refund than I initially anticipated, so we’ll be able to splurge a little and treat ourselves to something nice. This will be a welcome change from all the scrimping and saving we’ve been doing recently, and I’m looking forward to it!

Judging by Jerry’s recent Internet searches for deals on Vegas hotels, I think it’s safe to assume that he would love for us to finally be able to visit Sin City for a weekend. That would be terrific, but I’m leaning towards spending the money on something more practical. I haven’t updated my wardrobe in ages, so that’s high on my list, as is hiring a contractor for more remodeling work around the house.

Granted, neither of the things I want to do would be as fun as a gambling junket to Las Vegas, but I think they’re a bit more sensible at this point. We’ll see!

I’ve really been slacking off in the review department recently. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that I’ve been working a lot more at my outside-the-home job than I usually do, I’ve been busying applying to grad school, and I simply haven’t been buying as many products as I normally would, thanks to the economy.

Nevertheless, I do have several items that I have to review soon, so here’s a quick list (which should serve nicely as a reminder for myself):

• Desert Essence Jojoba Oil
• Mighty Bright Book Light
• DVDs
• Burger King Ketchup & Fries Potato Chips
• Burt’s Bees Pore Refining Mask
• A new diet pill I’ve been trying for the past week or so

I don’t know when I’m going to find the time to write all of these reviews up. It will probably take me at least a couple of weeks to get through them all because my schedule is still full through the end of April!

I know that the economy sucks right now and no one has any extra money to spend. But a lot of great, worthwhile organizations are suffering from a drastic lack of donations these days, so I wanted to take the time to remind you not to forget about your favorite charities.

Yes, it’s hard to scrape together extra cash. I’m not saying you should go out and make a bunch of outright donations if you can’t afford it. Instead, why not buy something useful from the charity’s online store? If you need some new clothes, check to see if the organization you want to support has t-shirts, sweatshirts, or jackets for sale. Ditto with new coffee mugs, pens, pencils, calendars, water bottles, or keychains. You’ll be getting items you love, while still giving a charity some much-needed funds.

How can you come up with extra money? I don’t know… Use coupons when you go grocery shopping, vow to save an extra 10% of your budget this month, shop around for a lower car insurance quote, cancel a few subscriptions to magazines that you don’t need. There’s always a way!

Whether you love to support children’s charities or ones that help animals, promote religion, or protect the environment, don’t let those important causes die out in this economic crisis. Do what you can to help them!

A couple people have voiced their disappointment about the fact that I haven’t been writing true product reviews lately. They correctly pointed out that a majority of my posts are along the Wish List variety, where I simply talk about stuff that I’d like to buy in the future.

The reason for this trend is that I’m suffering from the bad effects of the economy just like you are, and I don’t have a lot of discretionary income to spend on frivolous items anymore. Since I’m spending less, I have fewer things to write about on this blog — but I’m still trying.

In fact, I do have several actual product reviews that I’m going to get to soon. I just bought a lot of small items, including a new acne treatment, new facial soap, tooth whitening strips, assorted books and DVDs, a software program, and more. The reason I haven’t written about them yet is that I like to test them out for a few weeks first, to make sure that I know as much about the products as possible in order to give a thorough review.

Anyway, please bear with me as I try to make it through the tough times here. Believe me, I’d like to be out there buying as much as possible, but I just can’t do it right now. Hopefully things will turn around soon!

One of my dogs has a chronic skin problem that makes her smell really bad. I mean, it’s awful. No matter how many baths we give her, no matter how much odor spray we use, she gets pretty ripe after just a couple of days. The vet says we have two alternatives: pay for an antibiotic that costs $50 a week or put up with the smell. Since we can’t afford the former, we chose the latter.

But that doesn’t mean we’re going to let our house become overrun by the smell. We’re confining the dog to certain rooms and keeping others off limits.

In the off-limit rooms, we’re getting rid of all the old carpeting and drapes that have the odors trapped deep inside them, and we’ll replace those with throw rugs that can easily be washed and Bamboo Blinds or something similar that won’t soak up the smell.

The rooms that the dog is allowed to go in don’t have carpeting, and we’ll start to enforce a “no sleeping on the furniture” policy as far as she’s concerned. And then we’ll keep spraying everything with Febreeze until the odor subsides a bit.

In case you’re wondering, no, the skin condition is not painful or anything like that. It’s just a nuisance for the humans in the house!

Anyway, I hope these changes work!

So the other day I wrote a post about what not to get your girlfriend or wife for Christmas this year. It was meant to be sort of tongue-in-cheek, and as such I mentioned things like appliances and car-related items.

But someone contacted me and said that I was being a bit sexist with my remarks. Apparently, this guy’s girlfriend loves to work on automobiles in her spare time, and specifically asks for tools as gifts. In fact, she’s currently trying to replace the power steering rack in an old car, so she’s hoping to get a DIY manual for Christmas.

Ok, I stand corrected. I admit that ruling out an entire class of gifts based on gender might not be the smartest way to go about your Christmas shopping. Instead, just consider the hobbies and interests of the recipient and make an appropriate choice from there!