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.

I know it is easy to spend money. We are bombarded daily from television and radio ad. Sometimes it seems that every place we go there is someone who want us to give them our hard earn money. This makes it a real effort just to live within our means.

To many of us the temptation is to live above our means. In the past few years we, as a nation have learned we cannot live on credit. We cannot live above our means, it will eventually catch up with us.

I have notice those people who have not been greatly affected the current recession have been living below there means. They had a good cash reserver. They have been saving money.

Tomorrow is one of the biggest days of the year. It is devoted to the women who give birth, nurture, guide and help us all become productive members of society.

Mothers are known by the way they care. Their passions for their off spring will rise to the surface at a moments notice, or even when she sense that something is not right with one of her own.

Daily she struggles to make due with what she has in hand. Then when one of her little ones are sick, she will spare no expense to get them the best possible medical help. Now you put a group of moms together, you will have a very powerful force, that no army on this earth dares to go against.

In this 21st century, I found 5 blogs written by moms for moms to help each other save money one product at a time.

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.

It is getting close. Don’t panic! Mother’s Day is just a little over a week away. May 9th is the day we celebrate the important role mother’s have in our lives. They often go unappreciated all year long. That is why we take one day out of the year to show them that we appreciate all that they do for us.

Did you know there is one website that is solely dedicated to Mother’s Day and helping us show our appreciation to mom? It is called DayForMother.com. For some background for the various traditions surrounding Mother’s Day, this would be the place to go.

Considering the world we live, where there are single parents or both parents are working, it is imperative that there is some kind of day care the the children. Some families use retired grandparents to help the greater good of the family. Others families are not so fortunate, it is a constant struggle until the child is old enough to take care of themselves for one or two hours after school.

Depending on the daycare this could be $100 to $400 maybe even more per week. Then there is the problem of getting the little ones back and forth to school.

Have you considered the YMCA? Yes, the YMCA is a lot more than yes an athletic club. The YMCA has evolved to a community resource center for people of all ages.

This past week, I came across an article from Nielsen Wire about the relationship of health and financial responsibility. The day before that, I got to sit in on a lecture by Dr. Stephen R. Covey. The underline theme of both messages was personal financial/health before professional financial health.

It got me thinking that attitudes carry over to all parts of our life. How we manage our personal, and home finances will tell how we manage our business finances. This will be reflected in our physical appearance.

Yes, you are going to find the occasional person walking around in old torn clothing, with a million dollars in the bank, but those people are the exceptions to the rule. Most of the people I come across can be read by their overall health and dress.

In preparing for today’s post, I am reminded of the old saying, “There are two things that we cannot escape: death and taxes”. Everybody is quick to talk about how the government is taxing them to the poor house. However, very few people are quick to talk about how they are preparing for their own death.

In the past month, I have read in various consumer advocate publications, each one had some very interesting points about saving money. Especially just disposal of your body, after you are dead, will cost as little as $800. The traditional funeral cost can reach $15,000. However, the average funeral runs in the $6,000 range.

Going from living constantly from pay check to pay check to living some money in the bank does not happen over night.  It is a process of changing ones habits and mindset.

When walking the local mall this past week with my daughter, we stopped at a bookstore. There while browsing we I noticed a book. It was titled, “365 Ways To Live Cheap” by Trent Hamm.

I opened the book, thumbed pass the table of contents. It was there I found a quiz. 10 questions that were multiple choice.  So I found the nearest reading chair. Set down and went through each question.

Every so often I head down to the local mall to observe people and stores. It is my way of getting a feel for where people are spending their money. In addition, I get insight as to what stores are selling and what price by observing sales, clearances and placement of products. March 30th was one of my Observation Days.

I like to go mid week because this is when stores let their hair down, so to speak. Sales staff are more relaxed. The clearance items have just been set out. It is a time to find real deals.

This week was unusually busy with Spring Break, had a large group of the younger generation, out and about. Grandparents taking grand kids to the mall to spoil them. Parents taking some time off work to get to know their children better.

Lunch time at the Food Court was as busy as the Food Court the day before Christmas. The only main difference was people were not carrying with them any large bags of soon to be presents. In fact they were very few who had any bags of recently bought items.