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Every Christmas season I take a look around and see items that will get bought and given just because it is Christmas time. Many of these gifts will end up in a closet, a drawer or some other storage location. Our houses become simply storage locations for the number of trinkets and other items we buy over the years. Did we really need that gum ball machine or that grill cheese sandwich cooker?

Buying the Right Gifts
I ask myself a few questions before buying gifts each year.
1. Where will this item be in 6 months, will it still be used?
2. Do I, or this person really need this gift?
3. How long with the novelty of the item really stay novel. (Will we still love that collection of Simpson Pez Dispensers 5 months from now?)

Be Environmental
By buying unneeded gifts and presents, we encourage producers to produce more of these items that just fill up our closets and our drawers. I’ve been in so many houses that seem just to be full of junk from the eighties. It can really be hard to let go of those atari game systems or Ebay is a great way to unload all that stuff you have accumulated over the years. Often I’ll have an ebay garage sale and just unload everything I’ll never use. I use the time test, everything I haven’t picked up or used in 6 months gets sold.

Is your house full of unneeded stuff?

Chocolate Portraits for $110,000? Every year Nieman Marcus releases a catalog of their holiday gifts, but one section stands out above the rest, their fantasy gifts, gifts which are not only unusually expensive, would really make you wonder.

1. a dragon topiary made right on your land $35,000.
2. portraits created from chocolate syrup $110,000.
3. a tree tent $50,000.
4. the butterfly two-seat aircraft from The Flight of the Monarch $80,000.
5. a classical music concert by the Kirov Orchestra for you and 499 friends. Regis Philbin hosts the concert. $1.59 million. Piano is yours after the show.
6. a two-person Neiman Marcus edition Gem Triton submarine $1.44 million
7. the Swami conversational robot $75,000
8. a Vertu phone designed by Frank Nuovo $73,000.
9. your own plane in the Rocket Racing league $2 million.
10. an online media wall for $100,000.
11. ten acres at the Ameya Preserve in Montana for $2.3 million
12. 2008 Lexus IS F special-edition $68,000.
13. a custom necklace $1 million.

Who also thinks that the chocolate syrup is the most extravagent item on the list? Is anyone actually buying these unusually expensive fantasy gifts. If so, you could always think about buying me the 2008 Lexus IS F special-edition.

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Here in the United States, viewing weekly ads has developed as a traditional Sunday activity. The newspaper comes on our front porch filled with weekly Walmart, Target and ads from everywhere possible. The question is, do these weekly ads from Walmart, Target, Best Buy etc. really point us out to savings or do they point us out or do the ads get us to buy things we don’t need at prices that really aren’t discounted?

Finding Weekly Ads
A site like Spoofee.com updates every week with new ads for US Stores (in case you don’t recieve the newspaper). Most often than not, viewing ads is much faster as you can view the ads in text format rather than having to look pictures.

Are Ads Really Cheaper?
Before you run off to buy that Camera you saw advertised at Circuit City, do a price comparison. Currently Circuit City has a Camera advertised for $199, a Canon SD1000. If you would use Shopping.com and did a search, you would realize that Circuit City sells the same Camera online for only $189 with free shipping. Always do an online price check before buying something out of an ad.

Online Price Comparison
Three Sites make the top of my list. Kelkoo.com, Shopping.com, and Pricerunner.com.
With these search sites, you can search directly for an item and compare prices among a long list of stores. After the comparison and look back, what was cheaper, shipping and buying online or running out to the store to buy the item. Though for many going to Walmart, Target or Bestbuy gives us something to do, we have to deal with lines, stress and high gas prices.

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We all like wearing the top name brands, but if you’ve ever visited their stores, you know that you pay top dollar to buy something from Diesel, Louis Vitton and the like. So we all love the clothes they make, but we don’t want to pay top dollar for them. Why not buy our clothes from Thailand?

Buying Clothes from Thailand?
If you shop for clothes on ebay, like I do, you’ll notice that you can get many clothes for much less than retail price. Take this White Long Sleeve Sinner Shirt by Diesel being listed on Ebay for $26. Take a closer look at the item location, Naivang Muangpear, Pear, Thailand. Is this a good deal or will you be getting Thailand counterfit clothing? Hard to say. I just orded a black Diesel shirt for $23 plus $10 shipping from the same seller. In a few weeks I’ll know whether I order Thailand counterfits or real Diesel quality.

Are Counterfit Items Really So Bad?
There is of course two sides of the story. There are those original creators of the clothing who lose plenty of money to counterfit sales. Why why real Oakley Sunglasses when you can get fakes for $10? However, who is really buying these counterfits? Most people who buy the $10 fakes probably could never afford the real thing. Why not let some poorer people feel good about themselves? The problem arises when the counterfits are exactly the same as the real thing. This involves anything electronic. What is the difference between a burned dvd and an original, almost nothing.

Get Real Name Brand Clothes for Less
So we want real name brands, but not counterfit and not shipped from Thailand or anywhere in the world. Try second hand shops. Many times you can get used named brand clothing for up to 90% cheaper by shopping in these second hand shops. I managed to get a really nice FCUK sweater for $20 that would normally cost $100.

Try discount clothing stores. My favorite store is Marshalls. When a store doesn’t sell all their clothing, they sell it at a extremely reduced rate to store like Marshalls. Most of the time these are name brand clothing. Take the 7 for all Mankind pants I bought for $20 in Marshalls that retail at $150.

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