It was Columbus Day, 2007. I know this because that's the day Sears was having their giant 50% off every coat in stock sale, and therefore, the day I headed up to the mall to buy myself a new winter coat.I searched every rack at Sears, looking for the perfect coat. I wanted a down jacket with a hood because the winters get so cold in northern PA that no other filling but down feathers will ...

I've been itching to get a wireless adapter for my laptop to take advantage of the public Wi-Fi internet hotspots in my area. But there were a few decisions I had to make first before settling down on the best wireless network adapter for my own needs. And those decisions required that I do a little research first to find out what my different Wi-Fi laptop connection opt...

Dogs and kids killed my kitchen floor linoleum. Dogs and kids killed my kitchen floor ceramic tile, and I thought ceramic tile would be indestructible, until I tested it out on dogs and kids. So when I walked into Stone Mountain Flooring Outlet to try out ANOTHER flooring material for my kitchen, I said, "I want something that dogs and kids can't destroy. And I'...

I'm nowhere near as green as I am frugal, and I just won't spend the extra money to save energy if it's going to save me money to spend the extra energy. Make sense?And these new-fangled flourescent light bulbs have just been too expensive for me to get over the cost barrier of them. Four dollars for one light bulb when I can buy 4 light bulbs for $2? Are they ki...

Once my daughter moved away to college, I was able to begin saving for my own retirement. I took advantage of the 401K plan offered at work for the value of the employer match, but I have a relatively small window of time left to build up a giant nest egg for myself, so I started looking into IRAs to supplement my 401K. My company doctor told me, "Our 401K plan is garbage. Put al...

We killed our old dishwasher at work with a broken glass. So it was replaced with a Whirlpool 24" Built-in White Dishwasher, which is available at Lowe's for $298. The product purchasing decisions for the house that I work at are made by the house manager, and depend upon the amount of money available to spend and the personal product preferences of the management. This Whirlpool dishw...

Manufactured homes have special needs when it comes to replacing appliances, especially furnaces and water heaters. If not properly vented, carbon monoxide from those two appliances will build up quickly in a small mobile home. This is not the place to cut cost corners.Now some people think that they can save a few hundred dollars by going to Sears to buy a replacement water heater and installi...

When I was negotiating a deal on a new 2007 Ford Focus from the dealership last September, I told the pressuring salesman exactly what I could comfortably afford for a monthly car payment: $150. I had a sizable cash down payment to work with, 50% of the negotiated car price, but if he couldn't figure out how to keep that financed monthly payment within my own budgeting c...

Some of the people I work with have cerebral palsey and need staff assistance to transfer in and out of their wheelchairs and onto toilets, shower chairs, living room recliners and into bed. Now I'm a strong woman, but I'm not THAT strong, and 70 pounds is my maximum dead weight limit. Beyond that weight, I risk developing pulled muscles and herniating discs, and I'm endan...

The biggest concern that I have with the leather seats in my car is UV damage from the sun that would bleach out the color and crack the seats. So I kept my eye out for a leather cleaning product that specifically protected against sun damage. And I found Armor All Leather Protectant Gel at Giant Eagle, my local grocery store, for $9.99.Armor All Leather Protectant Gel blocks the UV rays t...

The vintage 1969 built-in exhaust fan over my stove had burnt out years ago. And the vintage 1969 coppertone range hood that served as a sorry excuse for a light bulb cover was the ugliest piece of equipment still left in my newly remodeled kitchen. I hate putting a lot of money into my mobile home structure because mobile homes don't appreciate in price over time like houses do. So th...

As many of you may already be aware, as of February, 17, 2009, televisions are going to stop broadcasting in analog when they make the switch to 100% digital broadcasts, and those of us who use rabbit ear or rooftop antennas can't pick up digital broadcasts. To make the 2009 analog to digital transition less expensive for people, the government is offering $40 TV converter box coupons,...

For the money, Wal-mart ColorPlace Flat Interior Latex paint is an excellent bargain at just $7.97 a gallon. I picked up two gallons of a "Salt Fork" color (a light bronze) to paint several walls in my mobile home, and I couldn't be happier with the coverage of this paint. It takes two coats to properly cover stark white walls, but I find that's true with every paint...

I really enjoyed playing Sims 2 on my Compaq Presario laptop, and with 256MB of RAM, the game ran smoothly. But then I added the Open For Business expansion pack, and I could hardly get the game to run at all. The game froze up constantly, taking five minutes or more to perform the simplest series of actions that used to run smoothly. I went on-line to find out if anyone else was havi...

I recently purchased an inexpensive, 3.9 lb. Black & Decker 12" Trimmer/Edger. This is actually a "Bump Feed Trimmer", not an "Automatic Feed Trimmer", which were more expensive. I don't need an industrial strength weed eater for my small yard. I just needed enough horsepower to trim about 70 linear feet of regularly growing hay-like weeds, and&nb...

My ex and I have been divorced for twenty years now, but my daughter fills me in on the things that I really need to know. "Mom, Dad laid the same kind of laminate floor in his dining room as you have in the hallway, but his floor has these big gaps in them and yours doesn't." Uh-huh, uh-huh, see now, he should have listened to me and spent the extra money on an Armstrong Laminate...

I have honeysuckle bushes and yews in my yard that are over twenty years old and that grow prolifically. When they were young and small, it was relaxing to me to use pruning shears to trim them. But after spending several hours trimming hundreds of little overgrown twigs on one of my honeysuckles last fall and picking up several painful blisters and scratches as a result, I'd had ...

My bathroom sink was getting clogged again. I could tell because it took forever for the water to drain after I washed my hands. Now I've taken those drain pipes apart before to thoroughly clean them out, so I can tell you from frequent experience that the only things clogging my bathroom sink are soap scum, toothpaste and hair that has matted into the blackest, foulest smelling p...

My dream phone would let me call everybody I wanted to, local and long distance, for free. Not for $20 per month or $20 per year, but FREE. Ooma is a VOIP service that uses your high speed internet connection for telephone service. I'd heard of Vonage before, and Ooma sets up very similarly to the way Vonage does. You purchase the Ooma hub, connect that to your cable modem, a...

The Invacare Mariner Rehab Shower Commode Chair is a popular choice for portable shower chairs where I work, and can be purchased from Sherman Oaks Medical Supply for $665. But being the one who has to work with the Invacare Mariner Rehab Shower Commode Chair every day, the manufacturer could have done a better job with the design because I have a few complaints about it.These chairs ...