When I am trying to decide to buy online, or at a local big box store, I am influenced by two factors. First is how quickly can I get it delivered. Two is what the total cost will be after shipping and taxes. Most of all I look for free shipping because the cost the shipping usually makes the difference.

This is especially true during the weeks before Christmas. A lot of online retailers offer deep discounts along with free shipping. The deceptive part is when looking at the products webpage. The free shipping could mean it will take 5 to 7 days to get to your door. Any faster shipping requires payment of mor money.

Five to seven day delivery is okay if I am getting something for dear aunt June, for Christmas. If I am ordering something that I need now or within a couple of days, then we have a problem. Fortunately, we have available some solutions for getting an online purchased within a couple of days, and still not have to pay something like $12.95 or more for it.

Black Friday is billed as the biggest shopping day of the years. We are told if you want to get the best deal of the 2011 Christmas shopping season, it will be on either Black Friday or Cyber Monday. In reality this is not always true.

This year I went to Wal Mart as an observer. I want to see what it was going to be like at midnight. This is when Wal Mart and a few others started Black Friday sales. What I observed and experience will remain with me the rest of my life.

It was the witching hour. It was midnight, when both hands of the clock strike the twelve. This is the moment that separates both November 24^th and 25^th of 2011. The moment that separates Thanksgiving Day from Black Friday. Suddenly the crowded store turned from a bunch of lookers to a school of hungry Paraná feeding. They weren’t just swimming around. It was as if the Parana were feeding on an injured water buffalo.

Sneaker Net is where you save information on a flash drive. Then you pull the flash drive out of your computer. Walk in your sneakers over to a second computer, then put the flash drive in the second computer. That my friends is Sneaker Net.

In comparisons to other methods Sneaker Net is a fast and simple way to transfer any data from one computer to the next. Then only real limitation is that you have to have physical access to both computers.

Compared to what we have had in the past to transport information manually from on computer to a second, the flash drives is better than sliced bread. Like sliced bread they do go bad after a while. I have two flash drives setting on my desk that my none of my computer will not read the information on them.

A flash drive is great for our taking a Power Point Presentation with me when I go to speak. I taken any printing I want done to the printer on a flash drive. I have one flash drive with troubleshooting programs for when I am working on a computer.

The 4th of July weekend has come and gone. We have pasted the Summer Solace. The days will start to get shorter for us in the northern hemisphere, but not colder for a few more month.

We are half way through the year 2011. On the average we do more shopping in the second half of the year than any in the first half of the year. There is still almost two more months before our children are back in school. Then there is Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now lets us take a look at some of the things we can expect to same money on in July.

You will start to see major retailers reduce their inventory with announced or unannounced sales on swimsuits, flip flop, and other summer gear. Talking about sandals, I noticed that Payless shoes store are having a 50% off sales on sandals.

I love to retell shopping deals that I have been told. This is especially true if  the process they used to save the money was in a way that did not cost them very much money.  Today, I would like to share with you events that took place when Mrs N saved a lot of money on a new purse.

Mrs N was in need of a new purse her old had broke a strap. Her back up purse was in not much better shape. So after work on one Tuesday she decided enough was enough she was going to get a new purse.

She did not have much money because it was a week before she was going to get paid. She couldn’t spend much time driving around town because her weekly gas budget was some what limited. She, also had time restrains, she had to pick up her daughter at the Boys and Girls Club.

Last week I received a phone call from a gentleman who is in his mid 60′s. He was calling me for help in finding a cell phone.  He was looking for a cell phone that is just a phone. He did not want any 3G or 4G. He does not text  or want take pictures.

As strange as it may sound, it is harder to find just a cell phone. At the end of 2010, it is much easier to find a handheld computer that is also a cell phone.

Even though it is just a few days before Christmas,I set out to find just a cell phone. My hopes weren’t to high. I just wanted to see if I could find just a cell phone.

The long time example of an untrustworthy salesperson is the used car salesman. He is trying his hardest to sell you this one owner car without an engine. Then there is this one story of an used car salesman that sold this little old lady in Utah a semi truck so she could drive to Florida and visit her sister.  The logic was she could pay for the truck by hauling vegetable to Florida and oranges back to Utah.

My biggest pet peeve is any salesperson who gives out miss information. I don’t care if they are know it our not. Their miss information hurts the customer and the owner of the store. Oh yes, it does leave a bad taste in my mouth for that specific brand I was miss informed about.

A couple months back I was visiting our local All-in-One store. When I say All-in-One stores I am referring to stores like Fred Meyer, Wall Mart, Shopko, or Target. I was looking what they carried as far as LCD televisions.

If you read yesterday post about Halloween Costumes you saw where I visited them of the specialty stores in Boise, Idaho.

Today, I want to look at some of the other places where to get a good Halloween costume, without spending a whole lot of money.

Yes that would be Wal Mart, Target, and Shopko to some extent. Wal Mart, Target, and Shopko sell costumes, candy, and other items for Halloween. They having been displaying and selling since the start of the school year. This gets the kids and parents thinking about Halloween. Then the kids can start pressuring their parents for that all important Halloween costume.

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.

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.