http://theshoppingnazi.com Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://theshoppingnazi.com/spring-cleaning-your-closet/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/spring-cleaning-your-closet/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/spring-cleaning-your-closet/ It is amazing what golden treasures can be found from the simple act of cleaning out the bedroom closet. Treasures get pushed back to the rear of the closet out of shear neglect. Other treasures are put back to the rear of the closet for safe keeping. Still other treasure are put there we don’t want to acknowledged their existence. Clothes get the honored place at the ends of the wooden hanging rod just because they are not worn. It was a week ago when I got tired of wrestling shirts and pants that looked vaguely familiar. I knew many of them could not of have been mine. The pants were two, three, and four inches narrower in the waist than what I wear. The shirts were so tight they felt like plastic wrap around my chest. All those strange articles of clothing were placed in one big plastic garbage bag. The following day my wife escorted the bag to the local thrift store. As much as our closet needed a good old fashion Spring cleaning, I have seen other closets in much worst conditions. The first one that comes to mind is the closet of the mother of a friend. This closet was off the [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/spring-cleaning-your-closet/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/homework-and-study-areas/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/homework-and-study-areas/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:00:18 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=6115 For many school children Summer is ending this week. Malls were packed this weekend with the last minutes back to school. Along with going back to school it means there will be homework. The quality of homework will depend on the environment the homework is done. Doing homework or any kind of studying on ones bed or in front of the television on the coffee table will only lead to low quality homework. I look the quality of study are will promote the same quality of homework. If we want our students to do the best, we need to have the best possible area. I found some great recommendation for the ideal study area at About.com. What impressed me the most it does not take a lot of money to create the ideal study area. Have a space that is devoted to studying: I have see some families who did not have space for their student to have their own personal desk set. Instead they cleared off the kitchen table and devoted it for X time for studying only. In fact the area around the kitchen table was to be a quite zone. Remove potential distractions: Some people can study well with music playing in [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/homework-and-study-areas/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-pillow/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-pillow/#comments Sat, 14 May 2011 13:00:47 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=5397 It was a couple weeks ago when I woke up my neck muscles were so tight I could not lift my head off my right shoulder. When I complained to my wife about my neck hurting, she reminded me that we were over due for new pillows. That prompted me to start doing some research for new pillows. Since we spend about 1/3 of our life sleeping, I was going to take some time looking the perfect pillow. If you realized it or not how we spend this 1/3 of  our life does greatly affect our attitudes, our emotions, as well as how we deal with people during the remaining  2/3. There is a lot to be considered in getting the perfect pillow to spend the 1/3 of our lives. This is from what is inside, to firmness, to the cover and size of the pillow.  FILL or PILLOW TYPE Natural Fill Pillow - Natural fill is considered feather, down, or a combination of both. Down is not a feathers. Down is the fluffy insulation under the feathers that keep ducks and geese warm and protected from outdoor elements. Experts consider natural fills are best for conforming to your head and [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-pillow/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/thrift-store-furniture-shopping-for/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/thrift-store-furniture-shopping-for/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:00:04 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=3752 I have gotten comments from various people, that new furniture was out of the budget.  Then I have heard from others that what they have seen in thrift stores is nothing but flea infested crap. This is one case where the truth is middle ground. First off, not all thrift stores are the same. Within a 6 mile radius of our home is at least 6 different thrift stores. Each is run by a different non profit group like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and etc. All of them sell furniture. Some more than others. There is no guarantee as to what they will have available on any given day. The furniture maybe worn, but clean. It was about three years ago, we were looking for a coffee table. When we moved. Our old coffee table was just to big for the place we just moved too. Since we our savings was drained from the move we could not afford a new coffee table. So one Saturday morning we started cursing the local thrift stores. Like when I go shopping anywhere, I have a set plan and objectives. Price, specific item and quality should be three things that set in every shoppers mind before [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/thrift-store-furniture-shopping-for/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/mattress-recon-intro/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/mattress-recon-intro/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:33:47 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=3446 Next to marriage and underwear the mattress you sleep on is the next personal thing in your life. It has been my experience that what on individual sleeps well on is another individuals restless nights sleep. So when asked to help buy as mattress, I had to start with the basics. The number of different types of mattresses far exceeds the three Goldilocks came across in the three bears cottage. I below is a basic overview of the different types of mattresses.  Shopping for a mattress, should not be done in a hurry. Innerspring Mattress – The innerspring mattresses is the most common of mattresses. I is contains coils of wire as the support structure. Around the edges is a border stiffer wire. The border wire supports the coils, helping to retain shape and reduce sagging. Fabric that covers the mattress separates the springs with a tough padding. Each spring is interlinked to prevent sagging. Memory Foam – Visco elastic memory mattresses are constructed of billions of open cells, designed to respond to the body’s pressure points and temperature. Water Bed – Water bed mattresses became popular in the 1960′s. Many people find that sleeping on them is a wonderful experience. [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/mattress-recon-intro/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa_recon_shopkp/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa_recon_shopkp/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:00:57 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=1367 The other day, I was cruizen through the local Shopko. I was walking along the back isle when I look over and saw some futon couches, chairs and other furniture. Normally, I would not them a second look. Many years ago, we bought a futon couch. That was one of the biggest mistakes we ever made. Within one week, the cushion filler had moved away from where were sitting. This resulted in our backsides resting on the black metal futon frame. Not very comfortable. I know it had been a few years of I figured it would not hurt to check out the sofa’s in Shopko’s furniture section. Surely the quality has improved. I was willing to get a big box All-in-one store a second chance. They offered several stylish futon frames and three different cushions in three varying degrees of softness. They were priced accordingly. They ranged from $99, 129, to $149. However, I did not like the material that was on the cushion. It looked and felt like it would absorb any liquid or dirt that fell on it. Shopko did expand to include more than just futons. In the store was three 5 and 6 foot sofas. The highest [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa_recon_shopkp/feed/ 2 http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa-recon-rc-willey/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa-recon-rc-willey/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:00:11 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=1567 A couple weeks ago, we did our first Sofa Recon at a Mohr Furniture for Less, local furniture store. Yesterday, we did our second one this time it was at RC Willey. I want to state that we showed up the local RC Willey at 1 pm on a Thursday afternoon. My wife and I were dressed casually, we had just came from the gym. We walked through the door and was greeted by an elderly lady. This reminded us a Wal Mart, and that was where the similarity ended. The first sofa we saw had a price tag of $999.99. This was quite different from the last place we went. There the first sofa we saw was about $600 less. The style was much different, but the quality looked about the same. Something I have noticed is that no matter what you are looking to buy each major store will not usually have the same exact thing. The may be from the same manufacture, but the color or some feature will be different. Buying furniture from different retailers is no different. The least expensive sofa we saw was $699.99. It was cloth and a style my wife did not [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa-recon-rc-willey/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa-recon-part-1/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa-recon-part-1/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:21 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=1459 My wife and I decide that we need to buy a new sofa before the end of the year. Our current on is past worn out. It is stained. One of the spring’s sticking into a cushion. It has been quite a few years since our last purchase of a sofa. I felt that we need to start with the basics. Fabric, style, as well price are important consideration. Since it cost a few hundreds dollars we are going to some extensive recon before buying. Some of the place to start will be online, local thrift stores, and furniture stores. I even put a posted a question about buying a sofa or couch on SavingAdvice.com. This will give us some ideas as to what is available. Then we will come closer to finding the perfect sofa at the perfect price. This last weekend, we had some time. So we stopped by Mor’s, a local furniture store. There we found a friendly sales lady, who was willing to answer our questions. Over the next 30 minutes we asked a lot of questions as we looked at what they offered. Sofa or Couch – A couch is defined as a bed for resting [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/sofa-recon-part-1/feed/ 8