I love shiny and new.

It may have something to do with being a bit (not obsessive) of a germaphobe:

• Buffets bother me because you have hundreds of people grabbing food-serving utensils, many of who haven't washed their hands for days (if not longer). If that's not gross enough, who hasn't seen the same food-serving utensil dropped into the food itself, only to be dug out and used like nothing happened (why not drop a used Kleenex in the food, seriously!).
• I don't understand people who use the restroom, go wash their hands, then instantly gross-up those clean hands by grabbing the restroom door handle on their way out. Have any idea how filthy that door handle is - how many people have used it that didn't wash their hands? I especially shutter at the people who do this at a restaurant, then they proceed to have a finger-licking good time eating their food (along with whatever was on that door handle). YUM!
• Along those same lines, I don't understand people who don't wash their hands before eating. In addition to the door handles they've come in contact with, there are handshakes, gas pump handles, keyboards, etc. that are just crawling with nastiness.

So yes, as you can imagine, shiny and new is always a welcome thing to me. :)

Despite this, like I mentioned earlier, I'm really not obsessive about it. I love shaking peoples' hands and hugging, and I do occasionally eat without a good hand-washing. In addition, when it comes to saving a buck or two, I really have no problem accepting something that's seen better days.

Buying pre-owned, or used stuff sometimes just makes sense.

I stumbled across a great article that gives some very good arguments for items that you might want to consider buying used.

On the flip-side, this article discusses 10 things you should never buy used.

I think you'll find them both as useful as I did, germophobe or not!

Labels: shopping

Today, I stumbled across something I had no idea was possible.

Using a bit of search-wizardry, this page provides you links to tons of items on Amazon.com that are being sold at as much as a 90% (yes, that's 90%) discount!

I looked around a bit at some of these offerings thinking they might all be junk, but many times I was pleasantly surprised at what was actually available.

If I hadn't blown my 'play' budget on sand castle toys and beach balls (for my upcoming trip to Florida), I would have been all over some of these deals. Wow!

Go get some stuff, but save some money too!

Labels: amazon, money, shopping