I would have to say that I’m a cautious shopper and that I don’t usually try something without first consulting my friends. You see, I believe that their opinions are very important in that they help me to pick out the best products on the market based on their experiences that they have shared with me.

For example, when I decided that I was looking for the best coffee maker and best coffee pot on the market, I knew that I would have to ask my friends for their opinions so that I would have some basis to compare with the advice given to me by the sales clerk in the store. I just want to make sure that I was as educated as possible as to which were the best coffee makers on the market so that I would make the best decision I came to my purchase.

I also find that getting opinions of others helps you recognize when the sales clerk either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or is flat out lying to you. I realize that most sales clerks are honest, but having a warning system to advise me if something isn’t quite right is invaluable when shopping.

So next time you’re in the market to buy something new, ask your friends for their recommendations in the usually you will buy a good product the first time.

I have found that in my adult life that I have made an effort to find ways to stretch the dollars that I have into as much as possible.  This has included everything from looking in flyers for sales, cutting coupons and taking advantage of specials whenever possible.  But I have also figured out something else that works that I would like to share with you that I learned at my local hair school.

You see, I accidentally went into the local beauty academy to ask about their spa packages if they had any.  The helpful woman behind the desk gave me a pamphlet detailing what they offered and their prices.

When I got home to read it, I realized that the beauty school gave deep discounts as we would be guinea pigs for the students.

In fact, that is all I do now - for letting the students practice on me, I can stretch my dollar even further than before - and I haven’t had a bad experience yet.

I was watching a television show last night about the new HD televisions.  They were demonstrating the differences between this new technology and the old tube-style televisions.  I was shocked at how small they were and that they could be so much clearer than my Sony television right in front of me.

What I did learn from the program was that they were not perfect.  You see, unlike the glass TV screen protection that the old tube televisions had, these ones were more likely to be damaged if you weren’t careful.

They recommended on the program to buy a TV screen protector to ensure that the flat screen televisions would last as long as they are rated for.  It not only made sure that the screen would not be disturbed, but it also made it much easier to keep the screen clean.

So, I think that when I take the plunge and get a new television, I will make sure to get something to protect the screen - what can I say, it was good advice.

For the past few summers, I have taken a job at a local greenhouse.  Not only does it let me get out of the house, but it allows me to learn how to take better care of the plants I have at home.

The greenhouse that I work at provides a number of training seminars over the growing season to the staff so that we are better prepared to answer the questions that our customers ask us.  We have studied many subjects in the past including tree selection, lantana care, proper amounts of water to give plants.

But today, our training session covered the topics of traditional landscaping designs versus the new landscaping design ideas.  We were presented with a number of real world examples in the presentation and we will be better equipped to give good advice when it comes to landscaping.

Well, my break is over… time to get back to work.

I have always been one that needed to find the best deal possible on whatever I do.  Whether that be getting a discount on a car purchase or getting cheaper concert tickets, I am driven to get a deal.

So when our family went down to Disney World, I didn’t want to have to pay full price for the Disney World tickets.  This is going to be especially important considering I wanted to visit at least a couple of the attractions and I knew that without a deal, I would have to buy new tickets for each one.

When I explained my situation at the ticket office, the clerk suggested that I could take advantage of Disney Hopper tickets-it was a simple add-on to the tickets I was going to buy that would allow me to visit as many attractions as I would like in one day at all I would have to do is buy tickets one time.

So that is exactly what we did and we saved a bundle on money doing it.  If you are heading down there, you can click here to learn more about purchasing Disney Hopper tickets.

One of the biggest challenges our company faces is that the competition could get wind of what we are working on as well as find out about our customers.  We have taken as many precautions as possible to prevent it, but unfortunately it still happens.  We have tracked the culprit down to the lack of voice encryption that we have on our cell phones.

After asking our cell phone carrier about mobile phone encryption, they really didn’t have any answers for me.  Undaunted, I decided to look online to see what was available.

After much searching, I was able to find some gsm encryption software that would work with our phones.  I ordered licenses for each one of them, and hopefully this will get rid of all our problems of our private conversations getting out.

If the new software isn’t the answer to the problem, I might have to dig deeper - we might just happen to have a mole in our ranks.

I am involved in a joint venture partnership that is in the process of buying and flipping homes.  My stake in it isn’t that much, but I thought that it would be a good way to make my money work a little harder for me.

We have been working on our current house for the past two months, and it looks so much different than when we started.  New floors, paint, and appliances can be found inside, and it is one of the nicest houses that I have ever seen.

We are just about ready to sell, and we will be putting it on the market on Monday.  The inside of the house is clean, but we thought that we would spend some money to get professional house washing and concrete cleaning before it is on the market.

So, a pressure washing company is cleaning the house right now as we speak, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it is done.  We are looking at making a tidy profit on it, and with it being clean, we might even be able to squeeze a little bit more money out of it - we’ll just have to see.

It is definitely the sign of the times when everyone is rushing to find their place online.  When we see many businesses online that is one thing, but we are seeing more and more organizations make their way online.  A good example would be the church I attend.

Our church wanted to have an online outlet to communicate with the members of the church in an easy fashion that would not be a lot of money.  Also, they wanted to have an easy platform that would be used by most of the congregation (we have a lot of younger couples in our church), so they decided to go with MySpace.

They used one of the many religious MySpace layouts that you can find online.  Someone tweaked it a bit so that it had the picture of our church on there, but it looks great.  The response has been good too - it has made it very easy for us to all stay in touch.

I am amazed at all the free or inexpensive information and tools that are out there now online. Everything from lots of free web host choices to inexpensive domain registration companies, to books. Finding information on just about anything has never been easier.

In the main, I think this is a good thing. It means that competition and is alive and well on planet Internet. But I can’t help but wonder where all this information is leading? The larger the Internet becomes, the more it resembles a beast with a voracious appetite. Or is it Internet users who have the voracious appetite? Either way, there is more information available today than ever before.

Sadly, libraries and their physical books are losing their influence. Teachers at the high school level bemoan the fact that they must insist that research paper resources include books and periodicals. I don’t know how this will play out in the future, but I wonder if it will still be considered a bargain if we lose physical book appreciation and libraries become extinct?

When we first moved back to the States from Germany, after my military husband’s three month training in Arizona, we lived in a rural area in south central Pennsylvania. Our house was owned by a couple who had gotten themselves into financial trouble and in order to prevent their home being foreclosed upon, they entered into an arrangement with the local bank. The couple and their two children moved in next door with his parents, into a three-bedroom trailer. Talk about tight quarters.

It was an uncomfortable arrangement from the start, especially when the husband of the couple would regularly stop by and invariably say goodbye (long after over-staying his welcome) by saying, “Hey! Don’t take no wooden nickels.” But there were perks. A full size pool table came with the house, since Mr. Wooden Nickels had no place to store it. And, truth to tell, he didn’t think he could get it out of the basement since they brought it into the house before the doors were hung.

Another bonus was a water softener, which neither my husband nor I had ever owned. And that water definitely needed softening. But the chemicals were so expensive! Here’s a cost-saving tip if you live in an area where hunting is commonplace. By a salt lick at the local hardware store and drop that into your softener. Does the job at a fraction of the cost of the “standard” stuff. Just ask your hardware store manager.