free to choose

I’ve recently had to take my son to have a new pair of eyeglasses made before he goes off to college. I also asked the optician to give me a copy of the prescription. My plan was actually to enable him to order a spare pair online. I hear eyeglasses cost a fraction of the price at ZenniOptical.com.

He was pretty reluctant to part with the PD (or pupillary distance) reading though. This is the distance between the pupils of the eyes, center to center, in millimeters, and its a reading that’s needed to ensure our eyeglasses fit us.

Apparently there is a growing trend of opticians reluctant to part with your PD reading. How’s that? Could it be because they don’t want you taking your prescription to an online store to have their eyeglasses made very inexpensively?

So many opticians are either already or beginning to charge to divulge the PD. They’re entitled to charge for their eye test service, of course, but I don’t think they should hold your prescription, or your PD, to ransom. The customer should be free to choose who they wish to order their eyeglasses (and frames) from, especially if it’s from someone who can supply them at an incredibly low prices.

on the blink

Wouldn’t you know it? Barely a few days after school started, the monitor of my son’s laptop decided to go on the blink! Ya, definitely not good since he’s already on a budget and now has to go bargain hunting for a new laptop.

These days, you can’t be in college and not have access to a computer any more. So I guess he’s going to have to readjust his budget and see how he can work in the extra cost of that new laptop!

gold for the kids

As kids, I guess it will be safe to say that most of us grew up collecting stamps. For some strange reason, almost everyone I knew was an ardent stamp collector in their school days .

One of my ex-classmates later traded in his stamp collection for gold coins. What can I say? A rich kid like him would naturally be able to dabble in something that none of us can afford.

He says he’s planning to pass along his collection to his kids when they come to age. And of course, that’s a fantastic idea if ever there was one because as we all know, gold is always a good investment!

love to shop, love to save

I have to say this. If I was a noob at coupons before, well, I’ve recently realized how much I’ve been missing out. Guess there’s no better time than now to make up for lost time.

Right now, I don’t have a car so I have been doing quite a bit of my back to school shopping for my kids online. Trust me, since I’m fairly new at this, I’ve spent a lot of time researching and comparing prices.

And this site that I found, at Savings.com, has sure saved me a lot of time and money. I can compare prices there and their coupons have really helped me to save more than I dared to imagine.

I just ordered a backpack from eBags using a coupon from this site and I’m not planning on stopping there. I have a bunch of other things on my list that my son needs for college, so you know I’ll be scouring their site for more coupons.

Savings.com is packed with coupons for all of my favorite stores (and probably yours too!). Quite honestly, I could do with any savings I can get as I’m way over my budget right now and every little bit helps.

what better investment

Whenever I go to the bank, I have this bad habit of tuning in to the conversations at the information desk if I happen to be sitting near it. It’s to while away the boredom of waiting my turn. Lately, I’ve been overhearing some interesting queries about buying bullion.

Some want it for investment, others as gifts and others want to purchase some as keepsakes for his children and grandchildren. Gold is a great form of investment as we all know by now. For those who have some money stashed away and want a stable investment, I guess there’s nothing better!

Shopping for cheap auto insurance

Our weather’s been really freaky lately. I try not to go out in the evenings when there’s usually these sudden electric storms causing traffic jams that go on for miles. A short trip could take hours if you’re caught in one of those.

All it takes is a storm like that and drivers, instead of slowing down, will tend to speed up. Sometimes there could be 2 or 3 traffic accidents on one stretch of highway. Terrible! And then traffic is backed up for miles. Some of my friends who work in the city will take like 2-3 hours to reach home!

In these economic times, it’s wise to not only go shopping for cheap auto insurance but also for comprehensive coverage, maybe even against an act of God. I drove by a car that was struck by a falling tree the other day and it really got me thinking that no matter how carefully you drive, things like this can happen.