Remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about setting up a budget for our daughter for school clothes and school supplies. The post was titled, Back to School – A Dad’s View. Well, a few days ago, we gave our daughter her money and went shopping for school supplies.

We chose to do the school supply shopping on a Thursday evening. I would pick up our daughter at the Boys and Girls Club, then my wife as she was getting off work. Then we would go out to dinner before shopping for school supplies.

It can be quite intimidating walking down the paint isle at Home Depot. Especially for someone like me who hates to paint. It is not that I do not mind the work. It is that I have been around some people who can do it so neat and fast. I feel like I am back in kindergarten doing figure painting.

I was ask to the cost of paint to paint a room in a clients home. So my first stop was Home Depot because it was the closest to where my client lived.

Like any dad, I want to see the best for my children. When it comes to buying for back to school supplies and clothes it can be a bit of a tug of war. This increases as they get older. Girls more so than boys. I am talking about staying within budget!

I am talking about the definition of basics. Last year I did not see what was wrong with the backpack my daughter had from the year before. The concept of a needing a messenger bag to carry over a perfectly functional backpack was beyond my understanding.

How does The Shopping Nazi relax and unwind after a long hard week? Go Shopping? Yes, go shopping, but just any place. I like to go shopping at yard sales!

I am not into extreme sports. I do enjoy time with my family and friends. However, in the summer time when it gets close to Friday every muscle in my body starts to twitch. My thoughts start thinking of where I might in search of a yard sale, and what I might find.

It is summer time. Most of us has already booked our summer vacation. Some have gone through a travel agent. Then there are those who have listen commercial William Scanter and used PriceLine.com to get the lowest rate. But does PriceLine.com really give the lowest rate?

In a effort to look a where to go for the best deal I took the major online booking websites and gave them a task. A couple that is 40 years want to spend 2 nights in San Francisco leaving Boise ID. They are going to book their room for August 14th, 15th. A mid August weekend. Now let us see who has the best rate!

It was like last week we bought our daughter her first a MP3 player for $39.99. It was not what it cost us. After sales tax, carrying case, and mp3 our cost was well over $50 and still going up.

That is why I want to take today and look at hidden or unexpected costs. We have chosen only the 5 most common hidden cost over and above the price tag. Some are expected. Some are hidden and unexpected. All are over and above the price tag.

I have not lived through too many Memorial Days that have been rainy and overcast. Even the local weatherman, this Memorial Day, was not believable when he said we could BBQ our hamburgers and hot dogs.

Instead of heading out for a leisurely time at the park, we were forced for an alternate place to spend some quality time as a family. The gloomy rainy overcast eliminate any outdoor Memorial Day activity. The only alternative that was left was to walk the mall.

Driving up to the parking lot packed, we found it packed like the middle of the Christmas shopping season. It looked like we were not alone in wanting to get out of the house. Many would be Memorial Day hikers, bikers, and picnickers were driven to the Boise Towne Square Mall, just because of the drizzling rain.

Saturday at the Western Idaho Fairground was what was billed as the third annual Idaho Largest Garage Sale. There was no garages for sale. There was 100 yards by 100 yards of parking lot set aside for people to sell and others to come and buy those hard to find items.

Shortly after 8am, the whole family piled into our Dodge Caravan, and headed to the Western Idaho Fairgrounds. In route we stopped at the local Winco to get a quick snack before heading to our Saturday morning adventure.

This is only the third year of this giant garage sale. It has become a yearly family event for us. Each year we more then saved what we paid in gate entrance fees. This year was no different.

We live in an interesting location. We live within 5 miles of  three different Wal Mart’s in three different directions from our place. All three are Super Centers, in an area that is not really consider a dense populated area; Boise, Idaho.

You would think that each Wal Mart would carry the exact same thing as the other. Not so! It depends what we are going to Wal Mart to buy determines which Wal Mart we drive to first.

The newest Wal Mart that is north of us is the newest. They have more household goods like blenders and clothes. When it comes to electronics they have the minimum. The pharmacy seems to be larger than the others.

If you have not noticed, the price of gasoline is on the rise, again. I am seeing over $3.15 per gallon for the cheap stuff.  That means everything that I buy from clothing to toilet paper is going to rise. The family income is going to stay the same, if not lower. This is making it harder for everyone to live, again.

We have already cut our driving to a little as possible. We are down to one tank of gas for 2 weeks.  I take my two wheeled peddle driven bike whenever I can. This is becoming not enough. We are having to pay more and more to drive our family vehicle the minimum.