Category: Shopping

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Found the Cutest Bird Feeder!

I was looking for a hummingbird feeder, but came across a different, adorable bird feeder and I really want to buy this one! What do you think? Hummingbirds or regular songbirds?

I just liked the idea of a tree having a window with an angel or fairy looking out the window at the birds. I think I would have a fairy in the window instead of an angel, but I can switch that out myself if I buy it.

I already have two beautiful, glass hummingbird feeders, but I was thinking that if I bought one or two more that I might attract more hummingbirds to my yard. I have two in the Dogwood tree, where I can see it from my living room window.

I was thinking about putting a new one in the oak tree by my kitchen window. But maybe I’ll do one for the songbirds, instead. My only concern about feeding songbirds is that it attracts squirrels. I don’t like to encourage squirrels in my yard, because they are so destructive. I had a lot of trouble with them getting into my attic and chewing through some electrical wires. That cost me several hundred dollars to pay an electrician to come fix that, plus they could have started a fire!

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Pumpkin Decorated like Cinderella’s Coach

I found a photo of a pumpkin decorated like Cinderella’s coach and it gave me the idea to do this at home. I bought 3 pumpkins at Fred’s Discount store for only $2 each. I also found this little plastic Cinderella doll and the rhinestone crown in the toy section of K-Mart for only $3 for the doll and $6 for the crown. I can’t find the Prince Charming doll anywhere locally and I shopped all the different store toy sections looking for him. Maybe I will check Amazon and see if the Prince Charming is available there. I would not mind paying another $3 to have Prince Charming greeting Cinderella.

 

I’m going to embellish my pumpkin with bling and put it on my porch so the kids who come trick or treating can see the vignette and I won’t be too worried about teenagers vandalizing or smashing my pumpkin like they did last year when I had it closer to the road. I dare them to come up on my porch and try that shit!

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Going Shopping for my Pumpkins Tomorrow

September is almost over and the grocery stores have got their first deliveries of pumpkins for Halloween. The ones at Kroger are $10 for medium sized pumkins. That is not a bad price, but I am going to check WalMart’s prices before I buy anything. Most of the time I don’t shop at WalMart, but I want to buy three pumpkins this year. If the pumpkins at Kroger are $10 each, that’s $30. But if they are only $5 at WalMart, then I will be saving $15 so that might be worth it.

I’m going shopping for my Halloween pumpkins tomorrow. I’ll check the WalMart price, then I’ll drive by the church pumpkin patch and see how much money they are are charging. The last time I went to the church lot, the pumpkins were huge but very expensive. The cheapest one they had was $20, and I did buy one from them last year because I was trying to support the church youth group. But this year my budget is tighter and I want to buy as many pumpkins as I can get for $20 – not just one big one.

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Great TV Commercials This Month

All the advertisers have really stepped up the TV commercials so they can get as much of our Christmas shopping money as possible. I have really noticed an increase in car commercials – every brand, but especially the luxury cars like Lexus.

Here is what I don’t understand. How many people really think that buying a car for their loved one is a good Christmas gift? How many people really can do that anyway? Wouldn’t that be a once in a lifetime kind of thing for anyone but the most wealthy, privileged family?

I can tell you that even though my parents were financially successful, buying a car as a gift was never ever something anyone in my family would ever consider. It’s just not done. My parents will spend a lot of money on great Christmas gifts, but a car is a practical item that is handled separately from gifts. It really does not matter how many nice car commercials they show in December, I will not be buying a new car for anyone as a Christmas gift. It will never happen.

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Pay More Than the Minimum Due

Ever since I got my very first credit card – thanks to J. C. Penneys! – I have tried to pay off the entire amount due on the card every month. I was using my card for convenience, such as wanting to go shopping a few days before the day I actually get my paycheck. I can still go shopping, put the purchase on my credit card, and then when I do get paid I can send the money to the credit card company.

Sometimes I use the credit card to buy more than I can afford, and when I do that I know in advance that I am agreeing to pay interest charges on that money until I pay it back. I don’t like to pay interest charges, but that’s the price I have to pay for not waiting until I have the cash in hand to make that purchase.

When I get my credit card bill, the amount of interest that I am being charged always gets my attention and makes me feel guilty. Call me old fashioned, but I do not like to owe people money. It is not a good feeling. So, I always pay more than the minimum amount due when I get the bill – even if I can’t pay the whole amount like I prefer, I can still put as much money toward paying off the balance. If all I pay is the minimum amount then the balance does not go down to zero. It’s really just simple math.

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Laundry Drama

Now that the glow of a new purchase has worn off, the new washing machine that we bought is starting to bug me. There are a lot of things wrong with it. It works – the clothes get clean. But there are a lot of things about this front loading washer that I hate.

In the first place, the settings do not allow you to select a cycle that just rinses one time and then spins it dry. So, if you open the door and find a puddle of soap suds, you have to run an entire hour long cycle again just to get the excess soap out of that load. That is a waste of water, electricity and time.

Next, the drawer that you pull out to pour in the soap bleach and fabric softener is too high. When a short person is pouring bleach into that drawer, it can very easily splash back right into her eyes. That is extremely painful and dangerous.

Next, the drawer has three channels for adding the liquids and they are very shallow. When pouring any of the soaps, bleach or fabric softeners into their proper channel, it is very common to have a lot of splash into the wrong channel. It really pisses me off to be pouring bleach and have it spill over into the fabric softener channel. That means during the rinse cycle there will be bleach coming out and onto my clothes and that won’t get properly rinsed out. Since there is no separate extra rinse setting, that mean you have to wash the entire load over again.

I hate that it takes a full hour to wash a single load of clothes. It does not matter if the washer is totally full or you have only a handful of undergarments that need to be washed by themselves, it takes an hour. That is way too long – especially for a small load of undergarments. Those should only take about 20 minutes to wash. An hour is way too long.

I hate this washer and hate the so-called engineers who designed it. I would never ever buy a GE front load washing machine again and hate to be stuck with this awful one. If I could sell it and get even half my money back I would rather buy a new washing machine that put up with this crappy one much longer.

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Summer Clearance Bargains

I visited the department stores yesterday and they were all gearing up for the Fall and Winter seasons. I browsed through fall fashion of sweaters and cardigans in oranges and browns and tried on winter boots and scarves. But I’m not exactly ready for the fall season. I like summer and wish it can last forever.

On the way out of the mall, I happened to stop by a Home store. The Home store put their summer goods on clearance. They had nice patio furniture, grills, and fun summer home accessories at half-price so I took the opportunity to make my summer last longer by purchasing some summer items. I decorated my house with blue throw pillows, breezy curtains, seashell candles and voila, I feel like summer days are not quite over – usually we have nice weather until November. Then we never know from one day to the next what temperatures to expect. It can be 70 degrees one day and then 36 degrees the next!

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Every Girl Needs a Pair of Cheap Sunglasses

cheap sunglasses

There are kiosks in all the malls selling designer sunglasses. I know some people are paying $300 – $500 for a pair of sunglasses. That’s just crazy!

There are plenty of inexpensive sun glasses that look fabulous on a girl. You just have to figure out your face shape and then what shape of glasses frames and lenses look good on you.

And then, there are those wonderful cheap sunglasses that look good on everybody! I have a pair of RayBans and they are my favorite sunglasses!