The Chronic Consumer

OK, now that Christmas is over, it’s time to deal with some holiday returns and exchanges. I’m sure a lot of you are in the same boat, where you received an item that didn’t quite fit right or isn’t quite to your liking. Now you have to brave the malls yet again and fight through the crowds of other folks going through the same thing.

I have a few returns of my own to make. Unfortunately, they all involve online orders, which makes the process a bit trickier. There are lots of emails to write or phone calls to customer service centers to make so I can get return authorizations and whatnot. I feel as though I should have some kind of document management system in place to keep all the paperwork and correspondence straight. As it is, I have to label the various emails with different colors to show which ones belong to which product return. It’s a bit of a headache, but I guess that’s the price I have to pay for shopping online!

Anyway, if you’ve got returns or exchanges to make, I hope you get through the process unscathed!

One of my friends is a big Sarah Palin fan, so when I saw that Amazon.com was offering “signed copies” of Palin’s latest book America By Heart, I thought this would make a terrific Christmas present.

Unfortunately, I do not know much about buying autographed items. Apparently, just because the publisher or retailer — even ones as supposedly trustworthy as Harper Collins and Amazon — calls something a “signed copy”, that doesn’t mean the signature is authentic. Too bad I took Harper Collins and Amazon at their word and didn’t do any research until after I already made the purchase because as it turns out, what I bought was little more than an autopen “signature” that is neither authentic nor worth anything at all. Here’s a copy of the signed page. The signature looks exactly like other ones that have been posted, which shows that it is indeed an autopen.

Obviously I cannot give something like this to my friend, so I guess I will keep the book for myself. That sucks, but at least there’s a lesson in here. In the future, I will thoroughly investigate the authenticity of any “signed” product before buying it. Too bad I’m stuck scrambling for a last-minute present now though .

I hate to admit it, but my family wastes a lot of food. This usually happens because we are too tired/lazy to cook dinner after a long day of work and school, so we end up eating at restaurants a lot. Then the groceries we purchased at the beginning of the week end up going bad, which means we have to toss them out, and the cycle goes on and on.

To combat this a little bit, I’m going to try following food storage guidelines more closely. I was just reading this page from Virginia Tech and was surprised to learn that even just putting something like a loaf of bread in the refrigerator can extend its shelf life by a week or more. Call me clueless, but I thought only the freezer yielded those benefits! Now that I know better, I can start doing things the right way and hopefully save more money in the process.

Do you think passing off beauty supplies to close friends or family members is acceptable? I do, but when I casually mentioned this to a friend, she thought it was gross. To put it in context, since I no longer have a problem with adult acne, I’m giving my high school-aged cousin a couple tubes of salicylic acid products that are practically full. My friend thought this was the nastiest thing she ever heard. But why?? It’s not as though the products were applied internally or contain any germs from my old zits, right? Plus, the things were expensive — like $15-$20 per tube, so I couldn’t bear to just throw them out.

Personally, I think my friend is overreacting. How about you? Is it OK to pass on beauty supplies like this?

If you’re anything like me, then you probably don’t know very much about life insurance. In fact, all I know at this point is that I don’t have any — but that I better get some to protect my family in case the unthinkable happens.

So I’ve been looking around a bit, and now have the following question: Is term life insurance better than permanent life? I have heard pros and cons for both types, but am still not sure which would be better for my situation. I think I’m going to have to have a consultation with an agent before I actually purchase any insurance because the last thing I want to do is get locked into a policy that doesn’t suit me.

Add this to my ever-growing “To Do” list!

I just read a Wall Street Journal article about how parents can deal with their kids’ “pricey tastes”. The author says that just telling kids you can’t afford something is not likely to put the issue to rest. So when your pre-teen or teen suddenly wants a $150 pair of Diesel jeans, what can you do?

The author recommends making kids pay for the purchase themselves somehow. This could either be through an after school job (for older kids) or by selling old or unwanted games, CDs, clothes, etc.

In all likelihood, this is going to be an issue for me later on. Chances are, my son will want some expensive name-brand item at some point, and I’m going to have to figure out what to do. Currently, I’m torn about what to do. On the one hand, I think it’s outrageous to pay $150 for jeans. On the other, I can clearly remember being in high school and desperately wanting the same kind of name-brand clothes that all the popular kids had. My family was not rich, so I had like one pair of Calvin Klein jeans (what? Those were in back then!) instead of 4 or 5 like other girls. In other words, I would certainly be able to empathize with my son.

If he came to me begging me to buy him the best acne products to clear up his skin, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But buying name-brand clothes is a whole different ballgame. Fortunately, I still have a few years before I have to deal with this kind of thing!

Hey, if you’re a Cybill Shepherd fan or just like getting free stuff (and you own a Kindle), then head over to Amazon.com right now to grab Shepherd’s memoir Cybill Disobedience. It’s FREE right now, but I don’t know how long that will last. I just happened to check for the book because I was watching some Moonlighting DVDs and decided to run a few Google searches to see what ol’ Cybill has been doing recently. I saw the book on Amazon, saw it was free, and downloaded it immediately. I haven’t read it yet, but from the reviews it sounds pretty interesting. The book is about 10 years old, though, so it’s not as though you’re getting a new release or something like that. Still, free is free, right?!

Usually I’m all about saving money whenever and wherever possible. I love a good bargain as much as the next person, and my rather limited funds makes it imperative that I take advantage of all the discounts I can find.

But I’ve learned the hard way that cutting corners on car insurance isn’t always the smart play. Doing so can lead to unanticipated complications if you ever get into an accident and actually have to make use of your policy. I’m saying this after spending the past two years with a cut-rate, no-frills outfit that was NEVER available to talk me through problems I was having with my policy.

So now I’m looking at going back to a well-known company that can provide customers with a truly comprehensive policy at reasonable rates, and that won’t give them the runaround when it comes time to submit car insurance claims. After all, insurers are supposed to be there in customers’ time of need in order to help, not hinder, the process.

I can’t wait until my current policy expires so I can change providers!