It amazes me sometimes when my children make their lists for their birthdays that they can often end up with some pretty crazy items on their list.  But quite often, they also have reasonable requests as well and I do my best to buy them those things that they want for their birthday.

With my son’s birthday coming up, I made sure to ask him what he wanted.  I had to cross off the horse and race car, but there were some reasonable requests.

I thought that his idea of getting Thomas the train and brio train tracks was a perfect idea as we would have the room in the new house that we were moving to to have room for him to play.  Price wise, it fit well into the budget while also leaving some money left over for some clothes as well.

I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he gets the Thomas the Tank Engine gifts he asked for - I bet he will be really excited!

One of my biggest challenges as a parent is keeping up with the amount of money that we spend on sporting goods each year.  You see, I have three kids in sports and if you are a parent in the same situation, you know how much it can cost to buy all the equipment that they need and seem to grow out of each year.

Lately, I have been looking online to get my discount baseball equipment, but it has become harder and harder to get what I need.  I guess most people have realized that the Internet is the place to find the good deals, therefore I am competing with more people over the same equipment.

But that might change with the new cheap sporting goods store that is opening this fall.  I am just hoping that their prices are truly cheap, and not some gimmick.  I guess I will have to wait and see - it would be nice to save some money for a change.

I have to admit that I am a bit weird, but I love office furniture.  There is just something about having that perfect desk in your office matched with one of those comfortable office chairs that just brightens my work day.

But where do you find good deals on office furniture?  That is sometimes one of those tricky subjects as you see many flyers from the office supply stores in town advertising computer desks at a discount because they have a truckload sale, or it is just that time of year when students go back to school.

One of the best places that I have found is online.  The advantage is that you can get the desk or chair delivered to your home and you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get it there (this is especially true if you drive a car and not a truck) as well as the prices found online tend to be much cheaper than at the store.

So, the next time that you are looking for some great deals on office furniture, take a look online - that is where the real deals can be found.

With my brother’s wedding quickly approaching, I have been trying to find the perfect gift for the newlywed couple.  They have been living together for the past couple of years, but they will be moving into their new house once they are married.

Even though they have asked for cash, I don’t think that is quite appropriate.  I wanted to buy them something that would serve them well in their marriage, and after thinking for a long time, I decided that I would buy them something for their kitchen.

I decided to buy some All Clad cookware and Shun knives so that they could create meals easily.  Both of these products are the top of their class, and the prices were within my budget for their gift, so I hope that they like what I bought.

One of the things that we get to pass on to our children is teaching them how to shop for things.  Some good examples would be how to pick out the best produce, what type of hamburger to buy (extra lean of course), and what stores have which items.

My wife thought that it would also be a great opportunity for us to teach our kids about using coupons.  You see, she is a bit of a thrifty shopper, and she seems to find coupons for just about everything including grocery coupons.

She started them off with something simple that they could relate to - she showed them where they could find toys coupons and what stores accepted them.

We still have a number of years to teach them before they move out of the house, but so far, it looks like they love learning how to spend money - I wonder if that will change once they are spending their own.

I have recently joined the world of online bargain shopping. I have always been a little bit scared to give out my credit card number to an online store, so I have just never purchased anything online before.
I have been looking at buying my son a new TV for his birthday and I was just not finding what he wanted for a price that I could afford. A coworker told me that I should look online, and reluctantly, that is what I did.

I decided to do a search on cheap LCD TVs and I was amazed at the prices they were selling them for. It was finally something that I could afford.

I took the plunge and gave them my credit card number, feeling in my heart that they were scamming me and I would never see the TV.

Much to my surprise, the TV arrived in great time and my son is so happy with it. I am in trouble now, though, because there is so much shopping to be done online.

While we were at the jewelry store a while back looking at anniversary rings in diamond and gemstones for my mom, the clerk asked if we knew that we were wearing our wedding rings the wrong way.

We both asked what she meant and she then told us that  the fourth finger on the left hand according to tradition and whoever passes on these silly rules,  supposedly holds the vein that hooks directly to the heart. By wearing your wedding ring first, closes to your heart it represents that your husband is closest to your heart also.

Neither my mother or I had heard this before and both agreed that it meant more to us the way we wear our wedding bands now. This led to the clerk telling us that with solitaire rings, diamonds are the most popular stone to have which is what both of us have as our engagement rings…… and we wear them closest to our hearts.

I will have to admit that I am a complete moron when it comes to motorcycles.  Sure, I know how to ride them, but beyond that, I really cannot tell the difference between different bikes - honestly, I don’t care.

So, when I wanted to buy another motorcycle for myself, I knew that I would have to enlist the help of a professional to get the bike that I desired.  I had done this in the past, so it wasn’t going to be anything new for me.

About a week ago, I hired my Cycle Trader, Chuck to do some bike hunting for me.  He had found the last five motorcycles that I bought, so I knew that he would do a good job.

I called him today to see if he had found any leads on the bike that I was looking for, but so far, no luck.  Thankfully, I am pretty patient, but sometimes it is not fun to wait.

I have decided that it is time for me to get a new computer.  Mine has been very good to me for the past five years, but honestly, it is time for an upgrade.  It is running a little too slow for my liking, so I think it is time for it to be retired.

But, it has been a long time since I have looked at desktop computers and I wonder if it is still better to build PC or get a factory assembled one.

Well, whether it is cheaper or not, I am just like a little kid who likes to build their computer.  So that is the route that I will take.  While looking at the components, I noticed that you can build a small computer instead of creating a hulking machine - and I think that I will go that route.

I think I will have to look closely at the tradeoffs between the size of the machine and its’ power before I finally buy all the components I need.  But, I am already getting excited that I will get to build a computer again - it has been too long.

I found the greatest website the other day. A friend told me about Kijiji and I decided to go and take a look. I was shocked and amazed at the bargains I found on the site. I figured, at first, that it would be more of a computerized garage sale than it would be of anything useful to me. Boy, was I wrong, and I am glad that I was.

I found some great equipment on there. I found things that I would never find at a garage sale and yet, I found them at garage sale prices. I would have to say that my best deal yet, was the purchase of two skid steer buckets with teeth. I needed these and I was going to buy them brand new within the next few weeks.

I have saved myself hundreds of dollars already and it has only been a little over a week. I promise not to be a skeptic anymore, as my friend was right and there were some really great deals. I have found great deals every day and I will admit that this is now my absolute favorite website.