A new site was pointed out to me this weekend for folks looking to buy hockey supplies. HockeyShopper.com does the online comparison shopping so you don’t have to. Check out the feature products or search. You can also browse and search by catagory.

This is perfect for all of us who shop online for the best deal. I wish someone would set something up like this for brewing equipment! When I was setting up my kegerator years ago I had to make a spreadsheet to add up everything and calculate total cost! For hockey supplies its all there!

Peace,
Tony

A few weeks ago our microwave started acting up. The light would be on and the turntable would turn when the door was open. It wasn’t cooking because boiling water stopped boiling as soon as the door was opened, but it was still troubling to have it run like that.

Then one day it just stopped running all together. The light would come on and that was it. Man, now we had to get a new microwave!

Hang on there just a quick second! Marrying into a family with a brother that used to take apart stuff like this for fun once again shows its worth. My brother in law took a quick look under the case and found a switch that was corroded out, faulty. He pulled that out, showed me what I needed to go get and where to get it.

Sure enough, after waiting a couple of days for the appliance place to get the part back in stock we are back in business!

The total cost of the repair came to less than five dollars not including the bit of gas it took to drive to the store. Had we bought a new one we would be out well over $100, and had we found a place to repair it we would likely have been out at least $50.

Looking inside to see where the problem was saved us a lot of money! Before we though out things like that it pays to look inside to make sure it isn’t something relatively easy to fix, like this was.

Peace,
Tony

A quck and easy way to transfer a pattern to a pumpkin you want to carve is by using a tooth pick or nail. Tape the pattern on the pumpkin and poke holes through the pattern along the line you want to carve. Even better, wait until the pumpkin carving stuff goes on clearance after Halloween and buy them for next year. Saves upwards of 75% off the original price. We have several sets, and have just wore through the first.

Here is Val’s latest carving:

Heehee. No, we’re not leaving it in our front yard without us right there.

Yes, she did carve a couple more traditional ones that the girls drew. We had them draw on construction paper what face they wanted on their pumpkins.

Roasted pumkin seeds are also a good treat!

Peace,
Tony

Our blacktop driveway was starting to look a little shabby and in need of a sealing before it looked like the rest of the neihbors. Earlier this spring we were thinking about hiring it out, but I began seeing coupons for more than I was willing to pay off the regular price. Yeah, “New customers save $100 on sealing the driveway!”

NO.

I bought four buckets of the best sealer, the squeegee brush thing (or two), and pourable crack filler for well under $100. One day I filled the cracks, the next day I put the first coat, and as per the directions regarding a better seal, did a second coat the following day.

It looks really nice and it was pretty easy to do. I would highly recommend doing it yourself.

Peace,
Tony

The local radio stations have been running deals on half price gift cards and other offers. The best one we just used last weekend. It was for a two night stay in a cabin at a water resort north west of Wisconsin Dells by an hour or so.

We had our little minivacation for the summer! This cabin had two queen size rooms, a kitchen, large dining/living area and then a loft with four twin beds and a 3/4 bath! To sweeten our deal we invited my brother and his family along. All eight of us stayed very comfortably in the cabin. We wore the kids out at the water park, put them down for bed in the loft and played Euchre and caught up on each others lives!

As an added bonus, we drove up to the Leinie Lodge for a tour, about an hour away, but it gave my kids time to nap a little and recharge the batteries.

In terms of money spent, the certificate cost just under $150, had we done this with no certificate, the cabin and waterpark passes would ring up in the range of $500+ for all eight of us. Not to bad of a score, if I do say so myself.

The station that my wife listens to the most has really good deals on Wednesday mornings at 8:20. That is how I got the resort one, but I’ve also picked up a days worth of activities at Crystal Cave and buy one get one tickets to the local RenFest.

Its worth a look at the station websites to see if they are running similar promotions.

Peace,
Tony

Get out to the local stores, folks, its summer clearance time. We ran to the local K Mart, (yeah, I know, but still, we were looking for something specific that we couldn’t find else where) last night and found all sorts of fun things for 50% or more off.

We’ve been looking for a Slip n Slide for the girls to try out, since we both had fun with varients of them growing up. At a full price of more than $10, it wasn’t worth it as a whim purchase. On 50% off, though, that is more reasonable. We also picked up a couple of squirt guns, less than a dollar, and some pool ducks. Regularly they were almost $5, we got them for $1.64. The kids like rubber duckies.

Oh, it gets better, really it does. I like to wear button up shirts that are long enough to cover my belt line and more, and they had decent cotton short sleave button up shirts at 60% off. Regular price $16.00, I got two for $4.80. Nothing like having a $5 cover shirt! Here I was thinking the $9 Hawiian shirts at Steve and Barry’s was a good deal!

Lets not even start on the big summer toys. We’re still looking at the swing set they have out front. Its higher and a bit more sturdy than the one we have now. The kids, if they swing together, can rock the thing almost on top of themselves. The display model is going for $100 off and we’re seriously considering it.

Then there is the pools. Those little inflatable ring or pole pools, clearancing at more than $100 off for the big ones… tempting, very tempting.

All this with a month and a half yet left to the season. Work the clearance aisles, folks. There are deals to be had, so long as you were planning on getting it in the future. We don’t mind dropping a buck or two on a frivolous whim but more than that takes a step back for discussion. Yes, in fact, I have been to look at that swing set twice already. We’re still considering.

Of course this goes back to the paradigm shift and knowing what you really need, versus what you want and can afford. We’re at a place where we can have a little fun, but I still like to be stingy. No sense paying full price for something that will be clearanced in a month!

Peace,
Tony

We really like going out to eat. Its fun for me because I get to sit down for most of the meal. I don’t have to get up to get something from the fridge every two minutes, I don’t have to scamper around getting things prepared, and the best part, I don’t have to clean up after the meal! How can someone NOT like eating out?!?

Of course, it gets very expensive very quickly. We usually get out to eat between once a week and twice a month. Something that has made it much more bearable is Discover’s Cash Back Bonus rewards. We use our Discover card exclusively. In fact most of our expenses go on the Discover card. Here is the secret, though. We pay it off. Every month. No exceptions.

With all our shopping on one card, we rack up some decent cash back bonuses.  They have partnered up with many restaurants, so we’ve been getting gift cards for going out through them. It is already money we have spent, returned to us with a discount. Some are $25 cards for $20, or $45 for $40.

The best payback I’ve gotten using the gift cards is finding my shoes and my wife’s winter jacket on clearance, 75% off, and using the $25 gift card I ordered for $20! Does it get better than that?!?

Peace,
Tony

I know it isn’t just my kids that end up with a rats nest on their head when they wake up, and combing and brushing girl’s hair was an absolute mystery to me. My wife had to show me how to work out the snags without pulling most of the kids hair out. We found something to help at the store, but it was (if I recall correctly) around $3!

Huggies and others have a great product for spraying on your kids hair to help with detangling and smoothing it out after a long nap. Detangling spray squirted on dry hair really made a difference in smoothing out those knots. There were two down sides. First, the cost. Second, the stuff was thicker than we’d prefer and left our girls hair looking greasy and in need of washing.

Of course we came up with the perfect solution:

Once the spray bottle is empty, take your kids conditioner and squirt a long squeeze into the bottle, add some warm water and shake it up to mix it. Instant detangler for a fraction of the cost. I’m all about re-using as much as we can to cut costs.

We’re on the same spray bottle that we bought two years ago. The best part of this, we can adjust the amount of conditioner to balance getting the knots out without leaving icky looking hair.

Give it a try, save a few bucks.

Peace,
Tony

Our garden is growing like mad this year. We redid the lay out and made some raised beds from some left over redwood that was at my in laws back yard. Last year, the garden was an eye sore. One big square with a few plants in there. We didn’t use it very efficiently, but the bunnies and deer did. We were still able to get out a bunch of Zucchini, tomatoes and some peppers for salsa.

This year, even though we have less actual growing area, we are going to get a much larger yield. Not only that, our layout is just pleasing to the eye. It LOOKS nice, and by gum, that makes me feel better about going out back!

This year we planted tomatoes, more zucc’s and summer squash, hot peppers and bell peppers, corn, cilantro, beans, and leaf lettuce. I’m most excited about the leaf lettuce! (Probably because I can eat it now.) We just have a four foot by four foot bed with the lettuce in, but I can’t keep up on eating it as it grows! Its great, I’ve never had lettuce be so flavorful and tender. I typically go through a head of lettuce a week, too, so its not like I’m not having my greens.

Before lunch, I run out with a scissors and a bowl, give a section a bit of a cut and bring it back in. It doesn’t take much to fill my bowl! Mmm… today I had some left over taco meat that I put on it with salsa and ranch dressing, don’t forget the cheese!

So, for two or three months, how ever long it lasts, I will be saving the $1.39-1.49/head a week. As soon as the rest of the veggies come ripe we’ll cut even more from the shopping list. What makes it so much better is knowing where it was grown.

Lets not forget how much the kids enjoy helping work in the garden, too!

Peace,
Tony

I haven’t had a chance to try this out yet but it comes from a very reliably source. My mother in law read a tip to clean the shower of soap scum and scale cheap and easy. The trick, she says, its to get a bottle of clear shampoo and some baking soda.

Place some shampoo on the wash cloth or better, a mitt, with some baking soda and work that into a lather. Scrub the walls of the shower with the mix. Apparently you can feel the scum breaking down! From the sounds of it, a dollar store bottle of clear shampoo (the kind with out any conditioners that would gum up the works) and some baking soda could replace the harsh expensive shower cleaners.

Since I have a wonderful test facility in the next room I will take before and after pictures of the technique and report back if it works. Also, since I clean so regularly*, this test may occur within a month or two.

Peace,
Tony

*sarcasm alert