It is possible for an average working person to purchase nice things. The key to do this is with credit. With credit a person can for instance afford to buy an $800 set of furniture. The ideal way is to purchase it on a 12 or more months no interest financing plan. Which mean that you will not incur any financing charges as long as you have the item paid off at the end of the lets say 12 month period. The best thing to do is take the total of the purchase, before I mention $800 for furniture and divide it by the length of time of the financing plan, before I used 12 months as an example which will give you the total amount that you will need to pay each month in order to pay it all off on time. In the example I used the monthly payments would come out to about $66.67. How affordable is that? Never just pay the minimum payment requirement, because at that rate you'll never have it paid off and eventually incur those financing charges. You must have it all paid off by the financing period. If you do not you will be hit with a huge financing charge that is cumulative from the date that you made the purchase. Which really does hurt. But the idea is to make the system work for you. Be smart about it. And don't take on too many purchases that you can't handle.

Another smart shopping method is after you've made a purchase keep track of the store you bought it from or similar stores weekly sales ads to see if any of the items you've purchased have gone on sale. Also keep a look out to see if their financing plans have changed, what was one week a 12 month financing plan could now be an 18 or 24 month plan and that could mean more of a savings for you. Most stores will match other stores financing offers so if you see a really great financing deal at another store bring their sales ad to the store you bought it from and see if you can get them to match it for you. You should be able to get price and financing matches for sales on items within your items refund period sometimes it may be 15 or 30 days, take a look at your receipt to be sure.

I know sometimes getting credit can be tough especially if you've never had any. You might find that you've applied almost everywhere and have been denied. It may take a while to get to the point where you you are no longer being denied. And if you maintain good credit you can get credit anywhere. To start off you may want to think about applying for a credit card with a company like Capital One which you can do so at capitalone.com. (That's where I got my first credit card from.) The interest rate may be pretty high for first time cardholders, like sometimes 25%, but if you pay you balances off every month you won't have to worry about that. So don't spend more than you have the ability to pay off. A credit card is not free money. You will have to pay for those purchases. Give it about 6 months between getting your first card before you apply for a card somewhere else. There still is the possibility that you will be denied at other places, plus getting denied several times withing a short period of time does not look good on your credit report. Then later on I would look into getting a cash back rewards credit card. Again making the system work for you. Getting money back for using their credit card. How awesome is that? But don't get carried away. Again pay off you entire balance every month.

One last piece of advice I have for the smart shopper is to clip coupons. You can pick up the Saturday or Sunday news paper to get coupons or you can even print coupons offline that you can use in the store from places like coolsavings.com. Why should you have to pay more than you have to?

The things we've dreamed of owning is not impossible. Remember make the system work to your advantage. And be smart about it. I have benefited greatly from this method of shopping. I hope that if anyone does end up reading this that they take the information I've provided into consideration. I was just mulling over all this stuff in my head and felt that I needed to write it down.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the movie D.E.B.S. Since then I've watched it four times and I am dying to watch it again. However, the problem is that I don't want to wear it out to the point where I don't want to watch it anymore. It has everything I was looking for in a movie experience plus more. I was skeptical about watching it in the first place. It didn't get very good reviews but something inside of me told me to watch it anyway. I want to see more of the story or to be able to find something else to keep me occupied while I give myself a buffer between viewings. I love it when this kind of thing happens. I feel like I've discovered something that so many are missing out on. But in a way I like having something that is just mine. That I can indulge myself wholeheartedly into. I stopped myself tonight from watching it once more but who's to say that I can keep doing so?

In 2004 their was a pilot made for a new show entitled "Nikki and Nora" starring Christina Cox and Liz Vassey that was set to air on UPN. However the episode never aired and the show never had a chance. It was about two New Orleans detectives who were partners on and off the police force. From watching the pilot I could see the show had a lot of potential. By the time I was finished watching it I wanted more. It really is a shame that it didn't get picked up.

You can check the pilot out yourself at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z2Z-JLz8wmc

Well once again I am watching my Buffy seasons 1-7 dvds from start to finish. I really love this show. And what is really exciting is that Joss Whedon is releasing season 8 in comic book form. I normally wouldn't be all interested in comic books if this particular series wasn't written by Joss Whedon himself as well as a several writers from the show, but they are and that's what makes me so excited about it. It's not like fanfic, it's a continuation of the actual story, the way they wanted it to be told.

What is it's meaning. We are born, then go through 12 years of grewling school getting picked on and having our parents mess uss up with their own problems. Then we graduate and are expected to know what we want to do with our lives. They say go to college you'll figure it out, but what if you don't? Then you have to get a job and work 8 hours a day 5 days a week for the rest of your life. Then if you have children they go through the exact same process that you did but now you have to worry about messing up their lives while your still figuring out yours. Then the process for them goes on and they have children of their own and by now your old and still working until you can retire. Then you retire and just wait for your dead to come. What is there to look forward to in that? I just don't get it.