Costco Membership is it Really Worth the Cost?

So my Costco membership finally ran out today, I'm really not too big on the whole bulk buying of stuff as most of the items expire before I can even use them.
First off, what really bugs me about Costco is that when your buying in bulk your really not even saving anything...your actually buying more at a higher price. What is nice is that on the price tags of most items it lists cost per unit/grams/ml. This is a great tool in figuring out if your better off buying stuff elsewhere, in the majority of the cases you really are better off especially in the toiletry products and condiments section.

So why even go there? Well, I paid $50 dollars for my membership and received a $25 dollar gift card. I probably went there about 25 times in the year and maybe purchased items about 15 times. I went there with my girlfriend the majority of the time and I guess it was really something to do, you could spend about 2 hours there sampling food, checking out new products and just staring at people (trying to figure out why they have 10 4L bags of milk in there cart). Overall it wasn't that bad, they do offer products you can't find anywhere else and if you purchase items with their coupons it sometimes ends up cheaper then elsewhere. I wouldn't pay $50 dollars for it again, only if it came with a giftcard I would.

High Thread Count Sheets Worth Every Penny?

Yes I am a guy and I do know what the meaning of Duvet Cover, Euro, King, Standard, Flat, Fitted, and Boudoirs. I was introduced to high end sheets about 4 years and have never looked back. I use to sleep with sheets from Wal-Mart, one of those packages where you get everything including the comforter for around $50 dollars. I thought it was completely fine and a great deal. Then one day I slept on a high end $3000 dollar set, wow was there ever a difference. I thought it was normal to toss and turn, never knew good sheets could make you rest easy at night.

My quest to find nice sheets led me to go to Linens N' Things and purchase the highest thread count they possibly sell. That was my first mistake, the $3000 dollar set I slept on had only 300 thread count yet felt a million times better. I was always under the assumption the higher the thread count the better the sheets, that is the farthest from the truth. I guess it all depends on the quality of the cotton, the better the cotton the softer the sheets. Try to get at least Egyptian combed cotton, don't get so fixated on the thread count as the cotton is the real determent of the softness quality.

I couldn't afford the $3000 set but did find a few brands that offered fairly good value. Ralph Lauren offers some very nice sheets, they have a few lines so be sure to stick with the top two. Also Calvin Klein makes sheets too, I have heard they are made by a high end French company that sells their own sheet for lots of $$$.

Sports Cards Worth Absolutely Nothing

I remember when I was 5 or 6 bagging with my parents to purchase a pack of sports cards every time we went to the store. When I think back to it, I really wasn't collecting my favorite players or collecting to trade with friends. I was collecting to what I thought was "investing" for my future. I practically opened the pack of cards or sometimes didn't open the pack and place them in a box. I can recall that at one time an Mickey Mantel rookie card sold for $50,000 dollars at auction. I would think to my self, wow in 30 years all these cards will be worth so much.

Well I don't see that being the case, my cards are actually worth less then the day I purchased them. I am better off burning them as fuel then trying to sell them, its almost like I have Nazi German currency with hyper inflation in full force. I will be lucky if I can get $100 dollars for 12,000+ cards I have, inserts and rookie cards that were once worth $25-$50 dollars are now worth $2-$7 dollars.

What happened to the sports card industry? Did they price themselves beyond the general public demand? I remember I purchased a pack of cards about 7 years ago cost around $8 dollars maybe 6 cards in the entire pack. Every single card was an insert card. How am I suppose to know if its special card if every card has piece of jersey, stick, basketball or baseball in bedded in it? No wonder they cost so much now.

Fix Your Television, Stupidly Placed Speaker With Strong Magnet Too Close

Well I finally did it, I placed my 20" television on top of my 10" sub woofer and completely messed up my TV(Actually, its my girlfriends television on loan). I always knew never to place the speakers too close to the television or it would mess up. I guess I wasn't thinking, turning the television on and off didn't work or waiting a few days. I thought the TV was a goner for sure until I googled it and found out there is a fix to this.

What you need is a drill and pretty power full magnet. Now somehow securely place the magnet on a drill bit attached to the drill. Position the drill bit with the magnet about 1 to 2 inches away from the television and turn on the TV and drill and move the drill around the damaged area. It should completely go away, looks almost like degaussing on your old CRT computer screens. I'm so happy there was a fix, I would have hated to replace this TV. $100 stupid mistake I guess.

Power Washer, Are All Made Equal?

Well, after 4 years of procrastinating I decided to take the plunge and purchase a power washer. The only reason why I haven't purchased one is I am moving to a condo. I was suppose to be in the condo 4 years ago, after a developer change and a bunch of delays I will be moving into it very shortly.

I always thought it would be a waste of money to purchase a $200 pressure washer and then have to sell it once I move. For the last 4 years I have been borrowering friends power washer and annoying them greatly when I would take awhile to return it.

Well after browsing a Zellers store to kill time (Does anyone feel this is one the worst managed company? HBC Company in general is Ok. But anytime I go there, the place looks like a disaster...boxes everywhere, shelves never stocked, employees on cell phone, cashier talking amongst themselves well ringing you in, etc.)

Anyways, I happen to see that the Power Washer were 50% off the lowest ticketed price. They had electric ones ranging in price from $25 to $99 for a gas one. I thought to myself at this price I might as well take the plunge and buy one, at least I could clean up my house before I sell it and not loose too much money on the purchase. Looking at all the box I noticed that all the Coleman power washer were store returns and looked well used. Then I noticed one which was not opened and was only $40 for 2200psi.

The brand was Ikra and made by a Germany company. I thought perhaps even if its a cheap-o brand I am sure it would be better then any China made power washer. I grabbed one and well on the way out with it I saw someone walking in to return it. My stomach literally dropped and I thought for a minute I should return it right now but I decided to at least give it shot as Zellers has a 90 day return policy. I went to the website Irka.de and googled it but could not find any information on it.

So how is it? I have borrowed a $300 dollar Simoniz power washer my friend purchased at Canadian Tire and really it isn't that much different except the $260 price difference. Overall, its a pretty good buy and from what I have heard of the condo there's a car washer port so perhaps I will be able to keep on using this pressure washer.

Selling On Kijiji Will I Ever Use Ebay Again?

I have been selling random "Good Junk" on eBay for close to 5 years now. Back in the day I use to look on ebay but the thought of buying/selling over the internet seemed too risky. Eventually I took the splunge and decided to sell on there after I had seen how much I could get for some of my "Good Junk".

The problem with selling certain things in Canada is that Canada Post is rediculously expensive. Sometimes it is extremely hard to compete with American sellers, especially if all your customers are American. How can someone compete with someone who charges $4 dollars for 2 business day shipping and you have to charge $14 dollars for shipping that takes anywhere from 10-16 business days. What if the item is heavy or a weird shape? Don't even bother, the buyer would pay more for shipping then it would to buy it.

I always wished there was a site where I could meet people locally to sell items and it would be free. I heard of Craiglist.org but my city's listing was absolutly pathetic, a good day would have maybe one listing or perhaps two...so imagine how many people were going there.

Then I heard about this website by eBay called Kijiji that was completly free and was easy to use. The first day, I listed about 5 different items that were way too big or heavy to be listed on ebay. I got about 6 emails that day, I ended up selling 3 items on that day. I didn't really want anyone coming to my house so I arranged to meet people at the world's greatest Canadian Invention Tim Hortons. I bet the people working there thought I was weird coming in there 3x, sitting done and not ordering anything...I guess I should have arranged that everyone meet me there at the same time.

Anyways, I think I will continue selling certain items on eBay. Depending on your city some items just don't sell or would be better off sold on eBay for a higher price. If Kijiji is available in your city I would highly suggest trying it out, I could imagine within a few years time it could get bigger then Craiglist in certain cities.

Frugal Living Blog And Your Talking About The Movie "300"

My very first blog ever and instead of talking about something frugal, I decided to talk about the movie "300". Well I finally went to go see the movie last week. I have always been a Frank Miller movie fan, I must admit that I have never read one of his books. Well I thought this movie was pretty good but...yes there is a but. I thought there would be more gore in it.

Yes, I know it was very gory but after watching Sin City I was expecting in your face, micro-zoomed, every single human muscle fibre seen up close and personal. What I did see was a lot of killing from a distance, yes it was the most individual killing I have ever seen in a movie, but I guess I thought it was going to make my stomach turn.


Sin City made me sick to my stomach, perhaps I thought this movie would make me violently ill. But for whatever reason I did not feel that way anytime during the entire movie...I guess my expectations were too high for the "gore" factor. What really bothers me is that I do not like gory movies. I can not stand watching horror films and think they are waste of time and money. I guess my mindset was made up before watching this movie, that I really did not allow it to sinkin.