Search results for shopping
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Posted
Nov 01 2007, 04:38 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
You live in a world of bling and expensive restaurants, $400-a-month car leases and 3,000-square-foot homes. Welcome to the financial Matrix , where "it’s always Black Friday and it’s always the Presidents Day Sale." " The Matrix will do everything it can to keep you , because its existence depends on your continued function as a shopping unit," brip blap writes in a clever take on the science fiction trilogy. Morpheus asks: "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real?" The dream in brip blap's Matrix is the 9-to-5 world, and it's a nightmare. You can find the real world and weaken the Matrix by putting a halt to inordinate spending. But remember, as Morpheus said, your eyes will hurt because you've never used them before.
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Posted
Nov 02 2007, 12:05 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Blogger Meredith H. Kaiser describes her education about the power of advertising in a wonderfully entertaining post called " You're ugly, poorly dressed and uncool -- basically a loser " at SavingAdvice . It seems that Meredith was always cognizant of advertising's potential. As a teenager, she was convinced that subliminal messages to buy popcorn were flashing on the movie screen. Several years later, she got the real lowdown from an ad executive stranded with her on a grounded plane: He schooled her about product- placement pollution in movies. "I’m sad to see the opportunity that artists have to inspire wasted on one more explosive chase scene in a certain brand of car whose logo gets as much screen time as the lead actor," she writes. Now she's acutely aware of the prompts to purchase all around us (we hope her cynicism about TV news is misplaced) and their not-so-hidden message: If you don't own this, you're a loser.
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Posted
Oct 29 2007, 09:19 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If the Toys “R” Us Big Toy Book is here, can Christmas be far behind?
Well, yeah. Fifty-eight days behind. But face it: No matter how much we whine about too-early holiday marketing, retailers aren't going to change their ways. We're the ones who have to change, i.e. adjust our reactions to the hype.
"Beebegurl," a Smart Spending message board reader, pays no attention to the retail calendar. In a thread called “Christmas Gifts,” she wrote that she shops for her grandkids long before holiday hysteria sets in. This allows her to look around "without pressure and at my own leisure and make a rational decision."
The most rational decision of all? Once she finds the perfect gift, she waits for it to go on sale. "I never ever pay retail for any toy."
Clearly, Beebegurl rocks.
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Posted
Nov 26 2007, 06:00 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly . I had dinner with a friend the other night. Over pasta and clams, we talked about life and money. She told me about her brother. "He's a compulsive spender," she said. "He spends money even when he doesn't have any." "What do you mean?" I asked. "Well," she said, "for one thing, he spends his money before he gets it. For example, when he was still working with Big Computer Company Inc., somebody told him he was going to get a raise. But instead of waiting for the raise, he started spending as if he already had the money. He never got the raise." I nodded. I've done that in the past. I used to be a compulsive spender too. For years, I was addicted to shopping. I got a rush out of buying new stuff. I especially liked buying new books and movies. But, actually, I didn't care what I bought: It was the act of buying that made me feel good. Sometimes on the drive home from work, I'd stop at a department store just so I could buy
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Posted
Dec 05 2007, 07:15 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Partner blogger J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly alerts us to a Web site that reduces one of the pains of shopping. PriceProtectr will alert you if the cost of an item you've purchased drops, so you can pocket the difference if the store has a price-protection policy. PriceProtectr monitors prices at 70 different stores. J.D. says he hasn't paid much attention to price-protection guarantees -- up until now. "I don’t pay close attention to ads, and I’m certainly not going to keep going into a store for 30 days after I buy something just to save a few bucks. But PriceProtectr sounds like a great way to make this process painless," he writes. He notes that yapta provides a similar service for airline tickets.
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Posted
Jan 16 2008, 02:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
China has taken it on the chin for contaminated pet food and toys, but that developing country has taken a huge positive step by banning thin plastic shopping bags. Those white bags are annoying -- they're more common in trees than bird nests -- and wasteful. "While people seem to be more aware than ever about global warming, they don't make the connection to plastic being made from petroleum," writes Betsy Teutsch of Money Changes Things. In the United States, only San Francisco and about 30 Alaska villages have made the move.
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Posted
Mar 05 2008, 09:15 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Which deal sounds better: buy one item and get 50% off the second, or get 25% off each of two items?
What's more attractive: a low monthly payment or a high one?
Are deals like "six for $10" capitalizing on people who are bad at math?
Smart Spending message board reader "SC CDF" started a thread about "math games" that retailers play with consumers' heads.
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Posted
Feb 05 2008, 06:46 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We've applauded personal-finance bloggers who have sworn off clothes shopping for a month or a year. Those goals are baby steps compared with the challenge of not buying anything new for an entire year. Ryan Healy called readers' attention to this idea in a recent post at Debt Reduction. (Here's a little link love: He read about it in a post at The Blog of Tim Ferriss.) It's the brainchild of 10 San Francisco friends who are concerned about consumerism and its damage to the planet. The group called itself The Compact and pledged to buy only used stuff for a year, with the exception of toiletries, medicine and food.
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Posted
Apr 18 2008, 03:47 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The scramble is on by major retailers to get you to spend your tax refund or tax rebate check with them. (By the way, contrary to what many people believe, you don't have to pay that rebate back.) Cathy at Chief Family Officer informs readers that Kroger Co., which owns Kroger stores and a boatload of other chains -- will give you a 10% bonus if you turn that refund or rebate into a gift card at one of its many stores. (For a complete list of stores and a detailed description of the offer, read the press release here.) Sears Holding Co. has announced a similar bonus for Sears, Kmart and Lands' End stores. But are these really good deals?
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Posted
Apr 22 2008, 03:18 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
An article at MSN Money about things you should buy only when they're new prompted Mrs. Nespy at Mrs. Nespy's World to come up with her own top 10 list. Among her items: child car seats, helmets, mattresses, children's shoes, makeup, hot tubs and many car parts. She also offers an action plan if you really can't afford to buy these things new.
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