It's no secret that Christmas is going to be tough on a lot of people this year. The news if filled with stories of lay offs and downsizing. It's sickening really. Well I looked through the net and my brain for some ideas on how to save some money this holiday season. There are alots of ways  to do it and if you can then why not.

1. Just buy for the kids. Every year my wifes family were all exchanging presents. There are just too many of them. Buy for the kids and forget the brothers and sisters. Christmas is for the kids and I am sure we can all sacrifice. If there are lots of kids then draw a name or two and buy for one or two of your nieces or nephews.

2. Wrapping paper is such a terrible expense and who needs it really. If you are going to buy some then get to a dollar store and buy the cheapest you can find. Why spend money on something that is gone in sixty seconds Christmas morning. We use the bags like in the picture above and reuse them the next year. When you are shopping some stores will give you a bag or two with your purchase. It's enviro friendly and cheaper to reuse them each year.

3. The experts are pushing to buy used. An Ipod is an Ipod and who cares. Check places like Ebay, Craigslist or a second hand store. Trust me you children are not going to care two seconds after they get their mitts on their present. In most cases they won't even know. You can save a ton of money this way and still get some decent presents out there.

4. Make your own gifts. For those that are handy you can make your own gifts and save. Picture frames, bookshelves or knitting etc. It's endless.

5. Budget and stick to it. I know it's hard but you have to do it. Have a set amount of money and use it. That means searching things out and planning but you will be amazed at how you can save.

6. Finally, shop online. Search out online coupons and deals. Find websites where you can order and pick up your item later. Find websites that offer free shipping, retailers should be bending over backwards to ship for free this holiday season. How do you save? By not wasting gas driving around the mall parking lot, not paying for parking and not wasting your money by eating at fast food places while shopping. Think about it.

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Just how ugly is that window? I don't know if you can see it or not but there is an aluminum storm window on the other side of that ugly wooden frame.

I have read that up to 35% of your heat loss can be through your old draughty windows. This old window was draughty for sure. My wife used to have a cold nose when she was sitting on the couch watching tv. Can you imagine how much heat I was wasting and how much money I was spending? I think I would cry if I really knew the exact number over the past few years.

I should have done this years ago but I finally got around to replacing this window with a new vynil picture window. It was a bit of an expense but think about the savings. I already can see that it is warmer in the house. By a lot. The furnace is not running as much and it really is warmer, especially in the living room. By investing in a new window I am saving a ton in my heating bill. It will be interesting to see what it is compared to last year.

The added bonus, it also adds curb appeal to the house. It is like night and day when you pull up to the house now. By adding a window I have really increased the value of the home. That is if I ever decide to sell it.

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I may have blogged earlier that I bought the student in my house a laptop computer. I spaced on the purchase and left it too late to get any "back to school" savings. Now I need to replace my desktop and a notebook is the way I am going to go. The Christmas commercials have already started and the "holiday specials" are starting to show up on all the websites. I have seen ads for Toshiba notebooks and internet specils for the Sony Vaio.

I am not going to miss out on any savings this time around. I am going to research laptops and start keeping an Excel file of prices, specs, shipping costs and any coupon information I come across. You can save this season but do your homework.

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I forgot about the November Name Cheap Codes, sorry for the space. FIRSTSNOW seems to be it for the rest of this month. Use that code for the Discount Price: $8.81 domain name registration at Namecheap.

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I heard an interesting story yesterday on The Howard Stern Show. Robin was talking about how a new rash of store closings were going to make those gift cards you are holding onto worthless. If you have been holding onto some gift cards you might want to check into store closings to see if you have any. Once that store is gone you have yourself a piece of plastic worth nothing.

If the chain itself isn't closing then you might want to make sure the actual store near you isn't one of the ones being closed. It wouldn't be worth your while to have to spend $30 on gas to redeem a $25 card. If it happens you can always sell them on ebay but that's a pain. Do some investigating and do your shopping a bit early.

Here is a link to a thread at my chat forums The Labrador Retriever Chat Board. And here is the Snopes Stores Closing page for all of you Spooky Mulder Types.

Here is a partial list of some of the happenings:

• The Ann Taylor chain of women's clothing stores is expecting to close 25 Ann Taylor and 39 Loft outlets in 2008 (out of approximately 960 stores), with another 53 store closure by the end of 2009.
• The Caché chain of women's specialty apparel stores closed 14 underperforming outlets, but is still has 295 stores across the country and is still opening new stores.
• The Charming Shoppes chain of plus-size women's apparel
  

  stores has closed 150 of its approximately 2,360 outlets.

• The Circuit City chain of retail electronics stores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2008.
• The CompUSA chain of consumer electronics stores was sold to the Gordon Brothers Group restructuring firm in December 2007 and began liquidating all 103 of its outlets in January 2008.
• The Dillard's department store chain closed 20 outlets in 2008 and said it expects more store closures in 2009.
• The Disney Store chain was reacquired by the Walt Disney Co in March 2008; Disney has since closed 98 of its 322 North American stores.
• The Eddie Bauer chain of casual apparels stores shut down 27 outlets in the first quarter of 2008 and planned to close a few more stores by the end of the year.
• The Ethan Allen chain of home furnishings stores closed 12 retail design centers and two service centers in 2008.
• The Foot Locker chain of shoe stores chain closed 274 outlets (out of more than 3,700) in 2007 and another 60 in the first quarter of 2008, with more such closures likely.
• Whitehall Jewelers acquired the remnants of the Friedman's and Crescent chains in early 2008 after that combined company entered bankruptcy, then Whitehall itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2008 and began liquidating and closing all 373 of its remaining stores.

Read more »

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So I broke my own rules this week and wasted about $20. I did it on buying cheap weather stripping for my doors.

The weather stripping around my two steel doors was rubber type with a flat edge that fit in a crack in the frame and covered the space nicely. It had become worn is all and was letting a good breeze through. I didn't check the kind I had and went out and bought the cheapest ones I could find.

The problem, the new type didn't fit right and was letting in more cold air than the worn out ones. I went back out to another store and bought the right ones which fit like a glove and my doors have never been so air tight. It's like night and day now.

So, check to see what your old weather stripping was like and if it worked then buy the same kind. Take an old piece with you the store and find the same kind. If it worked and just needs replacing then get the same kind.

If the old weather stripping didn't work then do yourself a favour and don't cheap out. The foam types or cheap rubber ones with sticky backs are not made to do the job of a quality steel door weather stripper. They are generally for added protection around draughty areas and will do you little good. Spend the extra money and do the job right the first time.

Trust me, you will notice the difference in the amount of cold air coming through which will translate into savings on your heating bill.

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So I play video games. A friend and I get together once a week over the winter and play some sports games on the xbox to pass the time and drink some beers. He has to step up to an xbox 360 as some of the sports games are no longer coming out for the old console. We were looking at his options on a couple of websites last night and with Christmas coming there are bound to be some sales and bundles coming out over the next few weeks. Bundles are when they throw games in with the price to entice shoppers. So I told him to look around the web and in stores and see what different bundles are out there as it seems some have different offers that others.

The same can be said about a lot of products as we head into the shopping season. Look around and see if there are any specials for buying.

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Well it took long enough but when I filled up this week gas was finally below .90 cents a litre. I hadn't seen prices like that for a long time. I hope it keeps up the monthly gas bill was becoming a bit of a killer. But if the high gass prices taught us anything over the past year was that we have to change our habits and we can change out habits and save money.

So lets not give up on those things that we did to save money when the prices were insane. Not that they are coming back down you can see that you can save money all the time but just switching up your driving habits or arrangements just a bit.

If you are looking for a chat forum to discuss polictics, current events and humor and fun please stop by Barely Hanging On Forums.

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A few friends of mine are off on a four day golf trip down south, all inclusive and three rounds of golf for under a thousand. How did they find a steal of a trip like that? They went online and sniffed around some last minute vacation websites and since it didn't matter when they leave they were on their way to great savings. It doesn't matter if you are heading out to a down south resort all inclusive vacation or if you are booking las vegas hotel reservations. If you can leave on the drop of a hat then you can totally save money by check out last minute deals or sell off vacation websites.

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I was leafing through the endless pages of my insurance policy the other day and was wondering when mine is up for renewal. It's a few months away. I am absent minded sometimes and forgot that I had renewed this year. I went to the companies website and you can sign up for a feature where they mail you a reminder prior to the insurance coming due. The best part of this is that you can look over your existing policy if you are happy or give yourself a bit of time to look at getting other insurance quotes. Either way you will have peace of mind that you are getting the best price for your insurance. If your company doesn't have that feature maybe add a notification to your planner software a month ahead of time to give yourself enough time.

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