I talk a lot about debt and money and credit cards here, but this video really sums it up a lot better than I could. It’s just…so…funny! So many people just don’t get it - “Don’t buy stuff you can not afford.” I laugh out loud every time I watch this, because I know there are people out there who don’t get it. “Where would you get this saved money?”

My son’s birthday is in a few weeks, and I’ve been mentally stockpiling gift ideas for a while now. Every time he says, “I want that!”, I’ve replied, “Put it on your birthday list!” I keep my own list in my head of course, so when my sister asked me what to get the boy for his birthday, I told her he wanted a copy of Night At The Museum. It’s either already out on DVD, or coming soon. I took him to see it in the theaters and we both loved it - such a cute movie, and somewhat educational as well, since it shows a lot of neat exhibits from the museum.

Also on his list - Guitar Hero! I need to check into how much that’s going to run us. Maybe we’ll split it up with my mom - one of us buys the game and one of us buys the guitar.

College isn’t that far off in this household. I’ve got a daughter going into 6th grade this fall, which means she’s halfway done with schooling…her schooling before college, that is. We expect our kids to go to college. Actually, it’s not an option. Study what you want, but you WILL go. LOL! A lot more schools are adding courses that are less traditional, but definitely more interesting, especially for a generation that’s grown up texting and playing video games at home. Collins College in Tempe AZ has classes that teach you how to make video games. How cool is THAT? My kids could be the creators of the next big hit game…now that’s something to brag about.

Not interested in gaming? How about visual communication? Film and video production? My kid could direct the newest hot video on MTV! What would make me more proud…for my kid to be elected to Congress, or for my kid to be a hot video director? Hmm…

I called around yesterday to a few local places that rent moonwalks and inflatable waterslides for parties and events. Most of the places were home businesses, and boy oh boy, was it obvious! People, just because you work your business from home is no reason to be unprofessional. Getting some of the information I needed was like pulling teeth! Kids screaming in the background, loud TV’s blaring, and people who didn’t try to promote to sell themselves at ALL. Annoying, to say the least.

I did pick a company, and not just based on price alone. The man was pleasant and professional on the phone. He’s provided the info I needed and we’re really looking forward to the rental. All I need is a few folding chairs and table out in the yard for food, and we’re good to go!

I don’t think I’m making it to that Kohl’s grand opening sale this weekend. In fact, the only major shopping we did in this house was the purchase of a hockey helmet for my husband. If you didn’t know, let me be the first to tell you that hockey is a very expensive sport. I hope all of the players who hit it big bought their parents new cars, and new houses, because I know first hand how much cash those parents put into the sport when the pros were kids, like my son.

My husband needed the helmet so that he could do a parent/player Skate N’ Shoot with my son. I tried to find one on eBay - but no luck.

My son also requested new hockey socks - they’re like legwarmers that are worn over the pads. He wants some in the Tampa Bay Lightning colors, but the pro shop was sold out. eBay, here I come. Again!

My daughter went to a birthday party on Saturday, that included a trip to the mall for shopping. Each girl at the party was given a gift card, and my daughter used hers at Limited Two and picked out a very cute little outfit - almost girly girlish, considering her taste in clothing. She also bought a little headband to go with it, and she’s been wearing it to school everyday. Do I have a little shopaholic in the making?

I’m not sure if I’ll be around to blog this weekend - my husband and I are off for a little weekend of Florida vacation fun! We’re celebrating our anniversary in the same place we honeymooned - Orlando. Since we’re not taking the kids, we’ll be stopping at Downtown Disney to get a few trinkets to bring back home for them…which is what we did on our honeymoon! We went to the Christmas shop and got Catherine a special baby’s first Christmas ornament for our tree, and a family ornament as well…awww!

BuyMeBlog has been nominated for best shopping blog in the brand new Blogger’s Choice Awards. If you like reading this blog, please consider giving me a vote!

My other nominations:

I am up for hottest mommy blogger on Simple Kind Of Life.

3DayMom is up for best charity blog.

Vote for GeekySpeaky as best geek blog.

My husband is up for best sports blog. Vote for The Hockey Dad!

Diet products are a dime a dozen, but this hoodia thing intrigues me. I think it’s pretty amazing that a natural product has been shown to help with weight loss. It makes you wonder what other, undiscovered plants and herbs are out there that can help us lose weight, or fight disease, or even cure cancer.

It’s March, which means all of those college grads will be sending out announcements soon! If you know of someone graduating with a degree in the medical field, a nice gift is something they can use in their new job, like a cute pair of scrubs, or a Littman stethoscope. If you know of a business school grab, how about a new briefcase or a flash drive for their laptop? Personalizing the gift to the grad is a neat way to let them know how proud you are!

When I was growing up, my mom was involved with a market research firm - they’d send her products to try and surveys to fill out, and I always got to help. Once the internet came along, companies stopped doing market research by mail, and now they do it online! I’m signed up at a few different survey companies, like Synovate and MySurvey. MySurvey is my favorite because I earn points for answering questions, which can be turned into cash. The last time I turned my points in, I got a $100 gift card! If you’re interested in signing up, drop me a note in the comments for this entry and I’ll send you a referral form

If you’re like me, you probably don’t think much about insurance. We have health insurance through my husband’s job, and just pay it and forget about it…until we need to use it! Car insurance…same thing…pay it, and cross our fingers we don’t need to use it! Shortly after we got my husband’s new car, I did need to file a claim with our insurance though, and it’s times like that, when you appreciate having a great car insurance company. Between my company and the company of the woman who hit me, I was in good hands. I got a rental car, our car was repaired to our specifications, and everything was done quickly. We’ve never had to file a claim through our home insurance, but I could only hope for as good of an experience!

Another insurance most people don’t think about is travel insurance. My mom and I used it once and we were so glad to have it. Our plane going to London was delayed, and we missed a whole day of our tour. In addition, the airline lost our luggage. Our insurance covered the cost of new clothes and we didn’t lose the money we paid for the hotel in London that we didn’t use.

There is even pet insurance now - with people treating pets like a member of the family, it was only a matter of time. I know a friend who got a puppy and had to pay out for some major surgery on the dog only a few months later…I know it’s rare, but that kind of situation reminds you that pet insurance may just be a good thing to have!

St. Patrick’s Day may not be a big holiday in your house, but for me, it always was growing up. After all, my name is Colleen - how much more Irish can you get? I always knew that on the morning of March 17th, there would be a green carnation waiting in the fridge for me. My mom got them at the hospital where she worked - in the gift shop - and would always bring one home for me to wear to school. I usually got an Irish themed gift too - one year was a stuffed dog dressed like a Leprechaun, and another year was a music box that played “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”.

I’ll be wearing my green all day on Saturday - how about you?

I’m attending a conference in June, and there will be a keynote speaker…someone relatively well known in the blogging world. You may have heard of him in fact, his name is Robert Scoble, and he was hired by the company putting on the conference to speak to the attendees.

At other conferences I’ve been to in the past, the speaker is usually someone in the company - the CEO or some award winner - so at the very least, it will be interesting to hear the perspective of someone who isn’t involved in what I do from day to day. That said, I’d rather hear from someone a bit more inspirational, but then again, I’m not footing his speaking fee either.

There’s a company that provides motivational speakers for conferences just like the one I’m attending - and they have some really big names. How about Jay Leno or Tracy Morgan speaking at your next conference? (Side note: on a recent episode of 30Rock, Tracy’s character gave a speech at a fundraiser, and he made the whole thing up. Hilarious!) I think it would be fantastic to be able to hear how a big name in the biz got their start…and it would certainly inspire me!

Not only am I a history geek, but my love extends to geography as well. We had a globe in my house growing up, and I could stare at it for hours. We don’t have it anymore….but then again, I’m sure a 25 year old globe is a bit outdated! I always wanted a big wall map - either one of those wallpaper style maps that takes up a whole wall, or a big framed world map that we could use pins to make the places we’ve been, and the places we want to go to. I might just find what I need from this company that provides mapping services for business.

I was amazed at how many uses there are for maps when I started exploring the site - whether you’re a pizza shopping needing a good local map for delivery, or a builder wanting an exterior map to show homesites for a new neighborhood, they’ve got a map to fit every need. Here’s another cool use for a map…making a layout map of a resort, a college or school campus, or a large entertainment venue. The company will use hundreds of real photos from your location to craft a map that’s not only visually pleasing, but accurate as well. Have you ever been to a hospital and gotten lost in the maze of corridors and vague signs? For a visual person like me, it would be much easier to have a map of the hospital, and LocationMaps is currently working with hospitals in the UK to make maps to avoid confusion in the future. The company also provides internet mapping services - instead of sending your customers to Google maps (and effectively having them leave your site) you can add mapping to your site. This will provide your customers and clients with mapping info right on your site, including how to get your locations, and embedded mapping.

How many times have you shopped on Amazon and been tempted by their free super saver shipping option? You need to spend at least $25 to get free shipping, and I’ve gone back and looked some more plenty of times, trying to find a small item to buy to save myself the shipping. Sometimes, I get lucky, other times, I get discouraged.

The Amazon Filler Item Finder was created with buyers like me in mind - it’s a search function that will find items of a specific price for you so that you qualify for free shipping:

Certain items at Amazon.com qualify for free shipping, but sometimes purchase fall short of the minimum $25 needed to recieve the free shipping. Enter the amount you need to get free shipping in the box above to see a list of products that will get you free shipping.

You can search by categories to narrow down your search as well:

Baby, Books, Classical, DVD, Electronics, Kitchen, Music, Office Products, Outdoor Living, Pet Supplies, Photo, Software, Sporting Goods, Tools, VHS, Video Games

There’s also a version for Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.jp, and Buy.com.

Technorati Tags: Amazon, filler item finder, Buy.com, free shipping, super saver

My mother went to Chicago this weekend and came home with gifts for everyone. She got my son a neat hockey puck to display, that has the original six NHL teams listed on it. (Jim noted that we’ll be going to three of the original six cities this June - Detroit, Toronto, and Montreal.) My girls got gifts from the Hershey’s store - white and dark chocolate Kit-Kats, charm bracelets, and necklaces. The kids also got paper hats from the Hershey’s store that say ‘Factory Worker’ which they wore all through dinner!

I spent my afternoon pricing items for a yard sale I’m having next weekend. One would think pricing used items to sell in my driveway would be an easy task…but no, it’s not. You’ve got to price the items high enough that having a yard sale is worth your time, and low enough to reflect that the items are used, and this is a sale in your driveway, and no, you are not a Target or WalMart. There is no bag, there is no receipt, and you do not have a return policy.

Nothing annoys me more than people who price their things too high at a yard sale. I’m not a haggler. I don’t try to whittle someone down to a nickel. I do expect a fair price though, for all of the reasons mentioned above. I’m hoping that because my yard sale is for charity (to raise money for my 3-Day walk) that people won’t try to chew me down on the price.

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

Stop laughing, I’m serious! I have half of a closet in my bedroom set aside as a “gift closet”. When I find great deals, I buy things for the gift closet. When I need to come up with a birthday gift, a hostess gift, a get well soon gift - voila, the gift closet. I don’t do that for everyone - close friends and family get something personal. But how many times has your child brought home a birthday party invitation, and you’ve had to make a special trip to the store for a gift? For a child you don’t know?

I’m going to be perusing the big Disney outlet 70% off sale for additions to my gift closet. You can get $5 flat rate shipping there right now with the promo code “SHIPFIVE”.

The family is off to the mall tonight as soon as Jim gets home. We’re going to do dinner and drag the kids into Bombay Company and Kirklands in search our something for that family room wall. And we all know how much kids love shopping for boring “house stuff”! I’d much prefer to leave them at home, but it’s not an option. My son is already asking me “How long will we BE at the mall?”

Oh yes, it’s going to be fun.