http://theshoppingnazi.com Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://theshoppingnazi.com/gas-grills-win-again/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/gas-grills-win-again/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:47 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7758 The aroma from steaks cooking rises from the grill and migrates over to my nostril. The noise of children playing in the background. Adults laughing over something funny. Country music playing. All of these individual things brought together making the Saturday afternoon barbecue  perfect. If I was to tell you the grill generated its’ heat from a short fat white tank of propane, you may discount the whole barbecue experience. I know other folks who would raise their voices in protest. They would complain saying the steaks should of have been cooked on hickory wood chips or charcoal briquettes at the very least. Anything less would be an abomination to the meat. I must confess there was a time when I would of have been in that number of purist. I thought natural wood or charcoal was a must to enjoy the only true barbecue experience. Now like so many others I have surrendered to the little white tank filled with the flammable gas called propane. In times past I attended a gathering, where salmon was taken fresh off the boat, driven 30 miles in a cooler and placed on a grill. That grill was fired by a special blend of oak and hickory [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/gas-grills-win-again/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/#comments Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/ We have just come out of an really mild winter. Some of the projections for summer suggest this summer is going to be a real hot one. That means our utility bills will be headed upward from air conditioning. A lot of it is attributed to global warming. It was our daughter who just this last week reminded me that today is Earth Day. Earth Day is all about each one of us being responsible citizens of planet earth. We should do everything possible to protect our environment. The most impacting place we can start is our kitchen. It is the kitchen where the most energy is used and has the most waste is produced. A few weeks ago, I received an email from The Saving Lady from MySavingPlace.com. In her email she outlined ten things we could do to make our kitchens greener. She felt these ten things were so important enough to share them. After reading through them and talking to my wife and daughter, we decided they were important enough to pass them on to you. So below is the ten things we all can do to make our kitchens greener, on the Earth Day 2012. 1. Use Healthy Eco-Friendly Cleaners Many [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-kitchen/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-kitchen/#comments Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:00:32 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7426 What was I thinking? This week I have been doing a week of basic tools. The basic home tools turned out okay. The basic car tools was not so bad. Tools for our tech was easy. Tools for the kitchen should be a book. There are so many tools used in the kitchen! What was I thinking? Here goes! A rule of thumb for purchasing anything is comparing quality with the price. Then you factor in how often you will be using the item. There are certain pans we use everyday, then there are items we may use once a month. If you remember a while back, I wrote a post about a The Grocery Shopping List. In that post I wrote how important it was to input from the entire family as to what they like to eat. Just as important is having input from the entire family is how they like certain things fixed. Our daughter likes pulled pork. We have found it is easier for the cook it in the slow cooker. The taste along with ease of cooking has made it a family favorite. The reason we do this is because some like their pulled pork [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-kitchen/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/flooring-painting-remodeling-planning/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/flooring-painting-remodeling-planning/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:00:56 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=5860 Any Do-It-Yourself project is made or broke in the planning stage. Like an old friend once repeated over and over again, “Proper Planning Prevented Poor Performance”. Just in planning can be expensive. Going to the library looking through dozens of magazines for the perfect bathroom design. Then going from one hardware store to the next to find the right faucet or right color of paint. Then there is how is it all going to be arranged. Like so many people have told me, as the project was starting to come together, they started making little changes. A walk outlet over the vanity needed to be moved 12 inches to the left, because it was to close to the sink. There was no place to put the toilet paper holder. The bathroom door was swinging the wrong way. All of these do at to the cost of a remodel real quick. There has been two invention in the last fifty years to help us with our planning. For us weekend contractors who want to paint a room to a bathroom or kitchen remodel there is a free programs to help us plan. Those two inventions are the computer and the internet. Professional contractors [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/flooring-painting-remodeling-planning/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/refurbished-and-certified-are-they-a-good-buy/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/refurbished-and-certified-are-they-a-good-buy/#comments Fri, 13 May 2011 12:00:12 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=5449 On television there is this commercial where a well dress lady comes on and talks about certified pre-owned cars. Her whole pitch is that they are so like new you are getting new most people cannot tell the difference. Her closing line is, “Why pay the difference when you can’t tell the difference.” About 4 blocks down the street of the car dealership that is promoted in the commercial is a recently build dealership of just certified pre-owned cars. Instead a mixture of several makes and models, these are just Nissan’s. This raises the questions, “Are they really good as new, without paying the price of new?” I found a website that offers Apple Certified Refurbished MacBooks that boast 27% saving off of new Apple products. They say the difference is their MacBooks are sourced from recent returned or canceled orders. Each MacBook is refurbished by Apple, undergoing a stringent process where the unit is inspected, tested, and restored to original factory settings and conditions. The MacBooks are then given new stock keeping unit (skus) numbers and are sold as refurbished. All Apple Certified Refurbished MacBooks include the default cables, accessories, dvds, and manuals and carry the same 1 year limited [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/refurbished-and-certified-are-they-a-good-buy/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/pots-and-pans/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/pots-and-pans/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:00:21 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=981 Call them pots and pans, or cookware both terms mean the same thing. Either way buying new cookware is not something you do every month or even every year. The last set of cookware we bought has lasted us about 15 years. I still have the old cast iron set of cookware my mother brought out from Arkansas when she married my dad. About once or twice a year, I will pull down that old cast iron deep dish fry pan. Then I bake a pineapple upside down cake. Afterwards it goes back on display. I don’t know what criteria goes into your considerations for new cookware. Is it price? For some people that is a big one. Some people must have their cookware the right color, to match the rest of the kitchen. Some are attracted to a particular style. What ever type of cookware excites you it must be functional and last more than just a year or two. My choice in cookware is on the lines of functionality. I do not want stuff sticking to pan when it should not. I want the cooking experience to be as pleasurable. When I go out with clients to help them in the [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/pots-and-pans/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-kitchen-blender/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-kitchen-blender/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:00:43 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=4069 Blenders are usually something you get as a wedding present. It last five to ten years. Then you go down to K mart or Wal Mart and get another. Buying a kitchen blender, to many people, sounds like a rather simple task. However, the required functions of a blender can make a big difference as to what type and brand of blender needs to be chosen.  Different types of kitchen blenders does different functions better than others. You will see in stores two basic types of blenders. The jug or jar counter blender which is the most common. Then you have what is called the stick model which is sometimes called a hand or immersion blender. The jug or jar type of blender is easily spotted because is sits on a counter top with some kind of jug or jar sitting on top. The size of the jar sitting on top can be from a small size for individual small batches to larger servings to 48 ounces or larger. Of course you can find blenders whose jar capacity in between these sizes. The more common uses are include blending pancake batter, sauces, puddings, dressings, smoothies, and frozen drinks. Any foods with more solids [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-kitchen-blender/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-microwave-ovens/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-microwave-ovens/#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:00:25 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=3667 Like anything else, I want the best price for the best possible quality. This is especially true when it comes to a household appliance that I am going to use everyday. That is our microwave oven. We got our current counter top model about 4 years ago. It has been faithful. We have had to clean it when things explode or spill inside. All in all I must admit it has been a very faithful part of our kitchen. The microwave oven’s history can be traced back to the early 1945. That was when Laurence Marshall was on the edge of financial ruin with his company named Raytheon. At that time Raytheon start to develop a cooking oven that used radio waves. It took until the 1970′s that Raytheon and other U.S. manufacturers started to mass produce the microwave oven as a desired household appliance. It sold for starting at $200 and up to a couple thousand dollars. Today, we see three types of microwave ovens; counter top, exhaust hood combo, and built in models. Because of their flexibility, in where they can be placed, the counter top models are the most popular. The microwave oven comes in three basic sizes; large, medium and small. Most manufactures will [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-microwave-ovens/feed/ 1 http://theshoppingnazi.com/paper-shredder-recon/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/paper-shredder-recon/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:00:51 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=3355 I remember a time as a teenager we go through the neighbors trash just to see what we could find. This was at the local dump outside a small town, in northern California. People saw us and thought we were looking for old aluminium and copper to sell at our version of the recycling center, in 1968. In addition to the  aluminium and copper we found old love letters, adult magazines, and credit card numbers. Of course we only used what we found for our amusement. Today, there are unethical people going though other people’s trash, before the garbage man comes to get information for identity theft. This could be a credit card offer, or a bill from a life insurance company, or even an electric bill. You see adding up these bits and pieces of information, along with the internet can yield enough information for identity theft. It was in Germany 1935 the first machine run paper shredder was developed. Because of the Cold War the paper shredder grew in popularity through out the 1950s. It was in 1959 the first crosscut paper shredder was invented. The crosscut shredder take paper and cuts it into strips, and cuts those strips in multiple directions to create confetti. It was after [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/paper-shredder-recon/feed/ 1 http://theshoppingnazi.com/dvd-player-recon-sonys-dvp-sr200p/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/dvd-player-recon-sonys-dvp-sr200p/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 15:08:09 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=2904 Last week when I walked into the place where I get my haircut, I was greeted by the owner. In her hand was a plastic shopping bag that containing a DVD player. As she raised the bag to my chest level she said, “It doesn’t work, I need you to fix it.” I took the DVD player and started to look at it. After about five minutes, I realized it was time to replace. the drive motor for spinning the DVD’s was burned out. What caused the DVD motor to burn out was the thin medal case pressed down on the drive assembly not letting it to spin. In general budget models will provide a “good” picture, the only real difference it the case and name on the outside. It is difficult for most “everyday consumers” to discern the difference in picture quality between different DVD players on TVs 27-inch or smaller.  The holds true for the sound quality if the sound is reproduced only by the TV’s speakers. If you want to know the technical details of how a DVD player works and what you should be looking for in a DVD player that meets your needs go to TimeForDVD.com. Since the DVD player [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/dvd-player-recon-sonys-dvp-sr200p/feed/ 10