I haven't posted this month (except the survey income) so thought I'd try and come up with something to report.

I bought a new microwave (see prior report). I spoke to my friend who fixes appliances and he said don't bother. It is 16 years old and not worth repairing. We'll probably save more in electricity conservation than it would cost to repair. So I went to Wal-Mart and got a GE unit for $55. The first one was damaged when I got it home, but I exchanged it yesterday and the new one works fine. I used it to cook grits this morning. We lost a chunk of counter space, but we'll manage.

I took my wife's van in for service last week. With a coupon, that came to less than $200 which wasn't too bad at all. It recently turned 100,000 miles and is doing fine.

Some guys at my synagogue play in a weekly poker game and have been inviting me to join them for years. I finally did 2 nights ago. Everybody buys in for $20 - it is more about having fun and socializing than making big bucks. We played for close to 4 hours (way past my bedtime) and I lost a total of $7.00 which was just fine by me as I had a fun time. I can't see myself playing weekly, but I will join them from time to time.

My wife's birthday is on Monday. I'll give her her gift on Sunday, probably, since I work late on Monday. I know she doesn't read my blog, so I can share what I got her. We tend to buy each other practical gifts, but good quality/luxury versions. She is always complaining about her bed pillow but doesn't want to spend the money to get a better one and isn't sure which to get. Anytime we travel and stay at a Marriott, she always loves the pillow, so I ordered one from Marriott's website. It was $65 which is extravagant for us, but if she likes it as much at home as she does at the hotels, it will be well worth it.

My wife has been stressed out this week because they have been doing a special project at work and she has had to work lots of extra hours. She normally works part-time, a few hours a week, but this week has worked every day and a few days were 9am to 6pm which she hated, but at least we know it was just for this week. After today, it is back to the usual. The only good thing, which I appreciate more than her, is the extra money those hours will bring in. 50% of her pay goes to her 401K, so this week will give that account a nice boost.

Nothing else comes to mind right now, so I'll stop here. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

DW and I agree that we haven't been eating all that healthy lately and need to get back on track with diet and exercise. I decided to take a trip to Whole Foods today and spend some time exploring some different options, particularly looking for some healthier snack options since that is often our downfall.

I picked up a number of new things to try, a couple of which we already sampled tonight and liked. I was mainly focused on items with little to no saturated fat, no trans fat and no high fructose corn syrup.

The one problem with those things is, of course, that they are more expensive than the crappy versions, but I'm willing to spend a little more for good health. Also, we are working to get back to cooking at home more and eating out less which will save a lot of money. I'd rather spend it on better quality groceries than on high calorie meals out.

I posted awhile ago about how I do surveys for one company that pays me in Amazon.com gift certificates. I get $30 each time I do one, and I've done as many as 5 in a month, so the money adds up pretty quickly. At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it all, but the more I browse, the more I've discovered that Amazon sells pretty much everything. And they have pretty good prices, too. My most recent order, a few days ago, was a scientific calculator DD needs for school, vacuum cleaner bags and an ink cartridge for my printer. After that order, I checked to see if they sell the filters for my aquarium, and sure enough they sell those too. So rather than ordering from the pet supply company I've always used, I'll start getting them from Amazon with my free credits.

The great thing about this particular survey company is I can do their surveys pretty much whenever I want. I don't have to wait to be invited. I log in to my account and there is a list of available programs. I can even do a program more than once, as long as it is still on my list. The only negative is I can only do them until 6pm Monday-Friday and, I think, until 4pm on Saturday. Of course, most of my free time is in the evening. I'd do one every night if I could.

I am not the kind of shopper that retailers love. I buy what I need, and I don't need a whole lot. I'd much rather save and invest my money than spend it on stuff just for the heck of it.

Occasionally, that poses a problem, like when my birthday rolls around and folks ask me what I want. Most of the time, I say I dont' want anything. When there is something I really want, I buy it. Otherwise, I've got all I need.

One of the survey companies that I do work for pays me with Amazon.com gift certificates - $30 for each survey. Well, I did 5 of their surveys last month so I've accumulated $150. Plus, I still had $12 left over from the holiday gift my staff gave me last December (see what I mean). That gave me $162 I need to spend somehow.

I've actually managed to spend $56 over the past couple of days, which is rather impressive for me. My wife and I went to Broadway recently to see Avenue Q, so I ordered the soundtrack. My daughter found out the school show this year will be You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, so I ordered that soundtrack so she can start learning the music. And we saw my MIL this weekend, and she mentioned a DVD she'd like as a gift for her birthday, so I ordered that.

And today, I went to Amazon to browse a bit and saw that they offer magazine subscriptions. The past year, I had been getting Smart Money and I liked it. I had somehow gotten a free 1-year subscription (don't remember how) but had decided not to renew it as I didn't want to pay for it. Amazon has it though. $18 for 2 years, so I ordered that.

Only $106 more to spend - until I do another survey.

We are planning to go to Clementon Amusement Park this weekend. It is a fun little park close to our house. We go every year or so.

I know they have discount coupons at some of the fast food restaurants, but since we almost never eat fast food, I didn't know which one.

So I asked. I mentioned at work a couple of days ago that I was looking for coupons and today one of my co-workers came in with them. Subway had them. So we will save $8 on each of our 3 tickets, $24 total. That should be enough for lunch and maybe a snack. Good deal.

We spent the day at Jersey Gardens. For those not from the area, Jersey Gardens is the largest outlet mall in New Jersey. We go there about once a year as we do get some good deals, much better than at local stores or malls. The mall occupies a plot of land about the size of Rhode Island, across the road from Newark Airport.

Anyway, I was looking at the directory while DW and DD were in one store and I couldn't help but think about why people overspend so much. There are just way too many choices of where to spend our money. Years ago, we didn't have such choice and variety. Shopping options were quite limited compared with today.

The directory of shops certainly reflects the typical differences between men and women. There are 33 women's apparel stores, 23 for kids and just 10 selling excusively men's apparel. Got feet? There are no fewer than 33 shoe stores at the mall.

For those who would argue that at least clothes and shoes are necessities to a point that we all need from time to time, the list doesn't stop there. Need some bling? Jersey Gardens has 22 jewelry stores. Want to smell better? There are 9 perfume stores with such creatively varied names as Perfume Boutique, Perfume Forever, Perfume Romance, Perfumania and the romantic French-sounding La Perfumerie. Do we really need all that? Perhaps your cell phone is on the fritz. There are 7 cell phone vendors on hand.

The choice and variations of what to buy and where to buy it, I think, just encourages people to spend more and more money on stuff they probably don't really need. And this isn't limited to clothing and accessories. The same thing is true at the grocery store. In 1970, the average grocery store carried about 9,000 items. Today, that number is well over 40,000. On one supermarket trip, I counted over 200 choices in the cereal aisle alone.

Or go to the toiletries department at Target or WalMart and see the variety of deodarants or toothpastes or shaving creams. They come in every imaginable color, style, fragrance, etc. Women, do you really care if your legs smell like mango/kiwi or strawberry/banana after you shave? Does it truly matter if your armpits evoke spring rain or summer breezes?

There was a great book a few years ago called, I think, The Paralysis of Choice, in which the author talked about how many consumers are completely overwhelmed by the options when they go shopping and are often unable to make a decision, lest they pick the wrong thing.

Oh, to return to a simpler time. Stores were smaller and more manageable. People were thinner (the overabundance of food choices is part of the problem behind the obesity epidemic). And shopping was far less stressful. Plus, shopping was done more out of need and less out of entertainment value.

A family trip to Walt Disney World has become as common as a day at the beach when I was growing up. Many families, however, struggle to make a Disney trip happen and, in the process, spend far more than is necessary. There are plenty of ways to do Disney on a budget. My family of 3 spends about $2,000 for a 9-day trip. I've seen plenty of people spend 2-3 times as much for a 7-day trip. So here are some of my best tips for keeping the trip affordable.

Drive to Florida. This is a perfectly reasonable option for a large percentage of the population. It is a 17-hour drive for us from New Jersey. Doing so saves us about $1,000. We avoid airfare, airport parking, and a rental car.

Stay offsite. Disney has many wonderful hotels, but the rooms are small and expensive. The surrounding areas of Kissimmee and Lake Buena Vista are filled with endless hotels, timeshares, townhouses and condos where you can get similar rooms or much larger properties for less than Disney charges. We've paid as little as $37/night for a 2-bedroom, 2-bath condo. There are many websites where you can research options including vrbo.com, skyauction.com and disboards.com (a great discussion forum for all things Disney).

Eat breakfast in your room. Since you are driving, you can pack non-perishables like cereal, pop-tarts, granola bars, etc. Then you can visit the supermarket upon arrival and buy milk, juice, yogurt and other perishables. Breakfast can cost $1/person or less. Compare that to a restaurant where $6-8 is typical.

Stick to counter service restaurants. Unlike many amusement parks where the fare is limited to hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fingers and fries, the Disney parks house many excellent counter service restaurants where you can feast on Asian noodle bowls, sushi, grilled salmon, rotisserie chicken and more. The advantage is the prices are quite reasonable compared to table service restaurants. You also get in and out more quickly leaving more time to enjoy the attractions. A great site that lists every menu for every Disney restaurant (with prices) is allearsnet.com.

Share food. Most restaurants have generous sized portions that can be shared. The 3 of us will often get just 2 entrees and an extra side. Saves money, avoids wasting food and discourages us from overeating. Another secret is that you can order things that aren't exactly on the menu. For example, if there is a burger and fries meal, you can order just the burger and save a couple of dollars. Then just share someone else's fries.

Drink water - tap, not bottled. We're always amazed how many people we see at Disney drinking bottled water, at $2.50/bottle. That, or soda, is a real budget buster. Tap water is free and plentiful.

Since you are staying offsite, it is easy to dine offsite occasionally. Routes 535 and 192 are loaded with every type of restaurant you can think of from national chains to local chains to independent places. If we take a break from the park mid-day, we may grab lunch outside. Or if we have a non-park day or cut out early one evening, we'll do dinner outside.

Visit the Disney outlet stores for souvenirs. Our favorite is the shop at Orlando Premium Outlets, just a few minutes from Disney property. They have overstock and discontinued styles at nice savings. It is all genuine Disney stuff, just cheaper.

As I said, we spend about $2,000 for our trips, and we could easily trim that if we needed to. We collect Disney memorabilia so have a larger than average souvenir budget. For everyone else, though, it would be quite doable on about $1,600 for everything, and that's for 9 days. Seven days would be even less. And a 4th person would only add about a few hundred to that total since transportation and accomodations wouldn't increase. Just park tickets and food.

We hardly ever go to a shopping mall. We do most of our shopping at stand-alone stores like Target and Wal-Mart or a couple of large strip centers in our area.

Last night, we dropped our daughter off at Girl Scouts and didn't feel like just going home, so I suggested we wander around the nearby mall. This is a mall that I've been going to since I was a child. It has certainly changed over the years, as I think all malls have. It really struck me last night how incredibly upscale it has become. Very little to appeal to folks of average means, or folks like us of above average means who choose to live below those means.

Years ago, the mall had Woolworths and an independent book shop and a little cafeteria and a craft shop and such. Today, it is populated by Coach and Godiva and Abercrombie and Brooks Brothers and the like. Very few stores that we would ever set foot in and even fewer that we can afford to shop in. Other than the food court, there was very little there that appealed to us.

What also struck me was that the average customer looked to be no more than 25. Surely all these teens and young adults can't be earning nearly enough to truly afford the prices of these stores. It isn't hard to see how so many people get so deeply in debt if this is where they are choosing to shop.

I miss the simplicity and down-to-earth shopping that we had years ago. There was a great book a few years ago called "Trading Up" that talked about this phenomenon of how as our nation has become more prosperous, everyone has upgraded their normal level of goods. Instead of Maxwell House coffee, its Starbucks. Instead of a Buick, its a Lexus. Instead of vacationing at the shore, its Cancun.

I'm not sure what my point is, but I can tell you that I won't be visiting the mall again anytime soon.