There is probably nothing more frustrating than shopping for car insurance.  There are so many different insurance companies offering the best deal, the best coverage, and the best customer service.  So where do you begin? Many companies like esurance.com and Progressive offer comparion tools between insurance companies so you can compare pricing and coverage.  If you own a home you can get the best discount by having your homeowners and car insurance with the same company.     

As much as we all hate to admit it, summer is almost over.  Yet the great thing about labor day weekend is the end of summer sales on sporting goods.  Right now Dick’s Sporting Goods is offering 10% off on online orders.  The discount includes everything from Callaway irons to Magellan navigation systems.  Some items even qualify for free shipping.  Bicycle car racks on Amazon.com are reduced up to 56% depending on the model you need to fit your car.  Rei.com has discounted selected camping, cycling, and paddling gear up to 30% with clearance items being up to 50% off the regular price. 

This past weekend I visited my best friend in Ohio where we went to Jungle Jim’s Supermarket.  This isn’t just grocery shopping but really an experience of every kind of food and beverage from all over the world.  The beer and wine selection just completely blew my mind.  I have re-named the aisle of beer at Jungle Jim’s, “beer heaven.”  There was a buffet style salad bar of nothing but olives.  On one side of this massive store were long huge aisles of food divided by country of origin.  I spend far too much time in the Eastern European cookie and chocolate aisle.  I bought some beer from London and Belgium.  Some Droste Pastilles chocolates from Holland (thanks to my Dutch friends for bringing those to me several years ago!)  Hit cookies and Ritter Sport from Germany.  The yummy Walkers shortbread cookies from Scotland.  The great thing is they have everything from the U.S. too.  From acne treatment cream to Dutch chocolate to all the European beer you could ever hope for right in the same store!         

I read an article online that said despite the declining economy many are still splurging for luxury items.  The No. 2 selling automobile right now is the Lexus LX SUV starting at $74,700.  I guess I wouldn’t mind car pooling with the person who bought it.  I have friends the shop for items like luxury watches, flat screen tv’s, and costly home improvements.  I just visited a friend that purchased a monster flat screen plasma tv for about $4900.  And they are planning to pave their long driveway with stamped concrete for the bargain price of about $6000.  I guess if you can afford it then why not right?        

One of the best ways to improve the performance of your PC is to upgrade your computer memory.  Last month I upgraded the memory of our computer to its maximum of 2 GB.   All of my programs including space hungry art software is running much faster.  There are so many other great improvements but a flat screen monitor would also be a great addition to any system.    
 

Shopping for Father’s Day?  Here are some great ideas to find that perfect gift.

Your dad likes to build or fix stuff:  air tools

Your dad loves music:  XM satellite radio

Your dad is the outdoorsy type:  Gift Certificate to REI 

The Sports Fanatic:  NFLshop.com or Dick’s Sporting Goods

For that dad that’s hard to buy for:  Gift Certificate to his favorite restaurant or steakhouse, a leather wallet, or Swiss Army knife. 

For about 2 months now I have almost completely eliminated soda from my diet.  First of all I think its too expensive and really just bad for your health with all the caffeine, sugar, and sugar additives in diet soda.  I’ve always been a water drinker so I’ve been re-filling one of the plastic water bottles you buy at the gas station like Ice Mountain and Dasani.  I thought I was doing a good job of not being wasteful by re-filling the plastic bottle but now it may be harmful to my health!   I’ve found out that if the plastic bottles are used more than once they release a harmful chemical called Bisphenol-A or BPA.  Scientific research in rats has shown that BPA from the plastic bottle gets into your water and mimics the hormone estrogen in the body.  Seriously ladies, do we all need any more freakin’ estrogen in our body?  Lately, I’ve noticed difficulty losing weight and have been doing acne treatment for some increased facial breakouts.  Both of these symptoms could possibly be from a higher estrogen level.  Higher estrogen levels have also been linked to breast cancer which is enough for me to want to go out a buy a BPA free water bottle.  I haven’t seen any research on BPA levels and its affects on humans but Wal-mart has pulled baby bottles containing BPA.    I plan to purchase a BPA free plastic water bottle from Amazon.com today.  The possibility of increasing estrogen levels with my plastic water bottle drinking is just not worth it to me. 

About 4 years ago my husband begged me for a new television.  And not just any television but a 56″ widescreen with HD capabilities and all the cool bells and whistles that came with it.  We had actually purchased a 52″ model but a mistake at the store landed us the much better 56″ Mitsubishi that now sits in or living room.  So now all the best tv’s are plasma, flat screen LCD panels, and even the fancy plasma lift that hides your plasma tv in a cabinet.  A remote then automatically raises the tv out of the cabinet for viewing pleasure.  I think one of those would be perfect in our bedroom! 

For the longest time I hated Valentine’s Day.  Even when I got valentines day gifts I still thought it was a silly holiday created by greeting card companies in order to keep making money.   What is so personal and special about mass produced greeting cards anyways?  And do Valentine gifts really matter?  I guess for me, they don’t but that is just me.  If it matters to the person you love then why not buy them something special. 

As I mentioned before in a previous post, I am honestly a horrible shopper.  Out of everything I need to shop for I seem to have the most trouble finding clothes for myself.  Since I’m in my early 30’s I can’t shop in the junior section anymore and the misses section looks “too old.”  Over Thanksgiving weekend my husband and I did some serious shopping at Circle Centre Mall where I found a great turtleneck sweater at Gap.  The sweater is called the jersey turtleneck and I got it in ”ivory frost” for only $29.50.  This sweater is great because its not too thin, too thick, too long, or too short.  In fact, its just right.  It is a soft stretch knit cotton with ribbed cuffs & ribbed turtleneck.  Today I wore it to work and got a lot of compliments.  My co-worker even asked where I got it and was going to buy one for herself.  For once, I shopped and found something great.  There’s nothing like a great sweater.  Find it here at Gap.com