With all the choices we have when we go shopping, it can be very overwhelming to pick the right product. Let GoodGuide.com help take away the brain pain.

They rate products on a scale of one to ten based on health, environment, and social responsibility across several types of products including:

• Clothing             

• Electronics

• Appliances         

• Cars

• Food                

• Cosmetics

• Babies & Kids

With GoodGuide, you can choose the criteria that’s most important to you so you can make the right selection for your family and lifestyle. Use GoodGuide’s mobile app (iPhone & Android) for when you’re on the go, or use the Transparency Toolbar when you’re making purchases online.

Learn more about how GoodGuide works 

Do hate going to the store or supermarket? The bustle of people in your store a bit too much for you? Then don’t do it. Click and pick up instead. Choose your stuff online and let the store staff pull them from the shelves so that they’re ready when you go to pick them up.

That’s what I did recently with Sam’s Club. On Sunday, I placed my order online and picked everything up at the store this morning. Efficient. Convenient. Tidy. Neat. And someone else did the heavy lifting.

It’s not only Sam’s Club that does this. So, does The Container Store and…

• Sears

• Walmart

• Nordstrom

• Best Buy

• Harris Teeter

• Lowe’s

• Barnes & Noble

• Kmart

• Home Depot 

This is a short list, but I’m sure there are others.  Do you click and pick up? Let us know how it works for you.

Who can say no to freebies? After all, they’re free. Most times, nothing in life is truly free, so when something (seems) really is free, why not scoop it up, right? Like the little bottle of lotions you find in the hotel bathrooms. Or the freebies you get with GWP’s.  For you less than hardcore shoppers, that means “gifts with purchase.”

Nothing wrong with free, right? Wrong! Well, let me re-phrase. There’s nothing wrong with free stuff when:

1. You use them regularly.

2. You have room to store them.

If your free stuff is taking up much needed space and you’re tripping over them, then it’s time to chuck ‘em…or give them away. Just because it’s free or on sale doesn’t mean that you NEED it.

If it’s free and you hate it or will never use it, what good does it do you?

No doubt, if you’re one of the many people celebrating the big holiday this weekend, you’ve probably already made several trips to the grocery store. Did you happen to have your shopping list with you?

Without a list, you’d likely wander the aisles aimlessly and spend way too much time at the market picking up things that really should not be in your cart.  This is where ZipList comes in, that is, if you choose to use an app instead of writing your list the old school way.

ZipList lets you create a shopping list that you always have access to online.  Basically, it lets you type in what you want and it will figure out from there. You can also add more than one item at a time.  Just be sure that you separate each item with a semi-colon.

You can revise your list on the web or using your smart phone and even share them with others. If you don’t have a smart phone, ZipList lets you retrieve your lists via text message.

Another cool feature is that it let’s you store recipes and add the ingredients to your list in just one click. Talk about a time saver. You can use their Recipe Clipper to “cut” recipes you find online or type in your own.

Prefer going to two separate stores to get your stuff? ZipList lets you assign items to a specific store. Did I mention that this app is free?

ZipList is pretty robust and lets you do more than what is covered here, so check out their FAQs to see if it would work for you. If you are using or have used ZipList in the past, leave a comment telling us what you think about it.

I’m not sure what’s been going on over the last two months or so, but it looks like Jet, Cosmopolitan, and Every Day with Rachel Ray all seem to have on thing in common – they love me! …so much so that they’re just showing up in my mailbox even though I didn’t order them.  Nice for me, right?  Well, this month, the answer is yes.  While they are another set of things I need to recycle, the arrival of the September 6th issue of Jet caught my attention, specifically, the Style section. In this issue, all the way in the back, was a little story about Hauls.

Have you ever seen a Haul video? I watched one for the first time back in March. They’re not particularly interesting, at least, not to me. But to young (mostly) girls sharing – and watching – hauls, they’re pretty popular. Basically, teenagers post YouTube videos of themselves showing off things they’ve just purchased. They explain why they bought this or that and where you can go get your own this and that.

Not only do the teens think this is super cool, so do some major retailers. I discovered this in the Jet article, School Shoppers Help ‘Haul’ Clients Into Marketplace. They report (via the Associated Press) that teens who make hauls are being courted “during the all-important back-to-school season.” J.C. Penney recently gave away $1000 gift cards to well-known haulers with the expectation that they report back to their fans. According to J.C. Penney, “they are the next-generation’s bloggers.They are becoming fashion authories with huge followings.”

So if JCP is to be believed, they are furthering the career of future fashion bloggers, yes?  I’m sure it has very little to 75 million views that hauls videos get . There’s no need to be concerned about over shopping (not to mention over spending, materialism, clutter, etc.), especially when you’re spending someone else’s money, right?

If you’ve never seen a haul before, check out this one that I found on NPR recently. It’s about nail polish. What do you think?

Retailers are willing to take the risk that the reviewers, so to speak — the young girls in this case — will be very honest and their audience will appreciate the honesty.

Related Articles by Zemanta

• J.C. Penney, others turn to YouTube ‘haul’ videos for help (usatoday.com)
• Young Fashionistas Take Over YouTube (360prblog.com)
• Back to Campus Shopping Season (theretailmuse.blogspot.com)
• Major Retailers Latch on to ‘Hauler’ Viral Videos (abcnews.go.com)

Gift cards can make great gifts…if you use them.  Otherwise, they take up room in your wallet and any flat surface you have available.  Not a fan of the card you received?  No worries…sell them to GiftCardRescue.com and they’ll send you a check within 2 days.  Not in the mood to sell?  Exchange it for an Amazon.com gift card that never expires.  Not a bad deal, huh?

Click here for more info

Ever heard of YouTube? Stupid question, I know.  I have an account and I bet almost everyone reading this article has one, too.  Sometimes, the videos are funny and other times, not so much. And, sometimes, they are just unexplainable.  Take, for instance, the popular YouTube craze called Hauls.   In these videos, people show off the junk, er, stuff they buy.  Why?  Because they can.  Would you believe that lots of people watch these haul videos?

I heard about this a few weeks ago on Marketplace (American Public Media), and like the host, I’m baffled by why this would be interesting to anyone.  Why watch someone talk about the things they bought and the reason why – especially when you don’t know them?? Is this another way to “fit in” by watching and getting what the popular kids buy?

Could it be just one more way to encourage over spending and over shopping?  Could today’s haulers turn into tomorrow’s hoarders?  Yes, I know there’s a difference between hoarding and over shopping, but there’s a line between the two that some people dance over.  Perhaps I’m looking at this too negatively. Perhaps these girls (and boys) are doing product reviews so that we can make the right purchases. Right?  Still.don’t.get.it.

You be the judge.  This video by beautycakez was viewed about 8,000 times.

I got a beret which is like a hat…

The next thing I got is just a MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural.  I just wanted another one because I have one right now and I’m not really close to finishing it, but I just wanted to make sure I had one for when the school year starts.

I’ve always done a lot of my shopping online.  I can take my time to browse and comparison shop, but only recently did I begin to appreciate the value of looking for online promotion codes. Over the past 6 weeks, I have saved over $70.00 with online coupons on items we were prepared to pay full price for.

So, on top of finding exactly what I wanted at the cheapest price, here is what I saved:

• Fabric to cover a chair – $19.50
• Winter coats for the kids – $10.00
• Pictures to share with friends – $20.00
  
• Water filters – $12.00
  
• Baby shower gift – $10.00
  

The next time you shop online, look out for a promotion code field.  That’s your clue to do a search for the store name with the word coupon (for example “Fabric.com coupon”). Some promotions also include free shipping or free gift wrapping!

Photo Credit:  Bing Images

Hoarders may sound like they are shopaholics, but while there are some similarities, there are some differences between the two.  First, let’s start with what hoarding is:

“Compulsive hoarding is a common and potentially disabling problem, characterized by the accumulation of excessive clutter, to the point that parts of one’s home can no longer be used for their intended purpose.” [The Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living]

Dr. April Benson, a therapist who works with compulsive shoppers, describes a shopaholic as “one who practices chronic, repetitive purchasing that provides immediate short-term gratification, but ultimately causes harm to the individual or others.” [Interview with Stopping Overshopping Expert, Dr. April Benson]

Dr. Benson also notes that shopaholics may “use shopping as an attempt to fill an inner void, manage their feelings, repair their mood, or pursue a ‘perfect’ image.” That said, while the overshopper accumulates and buys items to feel better, the hoarder holds on to things that you and I may very easily regard as trash.

Hoarders can feel that an item is extremely special – almost like a part of them – and develop an unhealthy attachment to it.  The item(s) may not bring them joy at all.  In fact, they may become more nervous and on edge because they are uncertain about how to manage the vast volume of things they have. In addition, they may become very distressed when faced with the decision to throw out something that they feel is valuable.

I suspect that no matter what the similarities or differences are, neither situation is easy to overcome.  It must take a great deal of perseverance, patience, and courage to control the extreme desire to buy or hoard.

If you have a hoarder or an overshopper in your life, we’d love to hear your story.

Get More Information About Hoarding

• Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living
• Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
  
• Squalor Survivors
  

Get More Information About Overshopping

• Shopaholics Anonymous
• Interview With Stopping  Overshopping Expert, Dr. April Benson

Interestingly, after writing my article yesterday, The Thrill of Thrift Stores, I found a related blog post today by Professional Organizer, Stephanie Calahan.  In her comments, she mentions 11 questions you can ask yourself before you commit to buying something.  Here are a few that I use personally and tell my clients to etch in their minds…

#2 Do I already own something that can fulfill this purpose?

#5 Do I love it?

#9  Do I have a place for it?

To see the other 8 questions, click here.  They will help you avoid going home with an armful of items that you may not know what to do with.  Less stuff = less clutter.

Get More Information