Shopping While Saving Money & Time!

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Sorry for missing last week’s post!  My book’s deadline is July 1st so I am racing to get it completed.  Time is just flying–I cannot believe it is summer already!  Nicolas is very close to walking, which is great.  But it also means he is very close to running!

 So on with the Top 10 Savings list…

For those of you who like to research products before you buy them, check out www.consumersearch.com.  This website “reviews the reviews”.  So instead of having to surf and search for other people’s opinions on different items, www.consumersearch.com does the legwork for you.  They have experts for a variety of categories–from kitchen appliances to gym equipment to automotive and electronics reviews. They read the reviews, come up with a general consensus, and present their findings in a short article as well as an informative info table.  Talk about saving time, money and hassles!  I use this as a jumping off point so that I don’t have to look through every model of every brand–it’s a huge timesaver!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: reviews, top 10
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Saving Big on Appliance Repairs

Monday, June 9th, 2008

Hello!  For those of you on the East Coast, I hope you are surviving the heat.  It’s rather hot here, even by CT standards!

The featured Top 10 website this week is Repair Clinic, found at: http://www.repairclinic.com/.Repairclinic.com is a way to save a lot of money by avoiding the repairman! It’s a free website that helps you diagnose common (and not-so-common) appliance problems and can sell you the factory-authorized part to fix it.    It has an easy to use Parts Detective to help you identify the broken part in your fridge, washer, dishwasher or a number of other appliances. And if the Parts Detective doesn’t work, they have Repair Gurus on staff for you to contact—for free! With over 500,000+ parts in stock and an easy to use DIY website, it is a time and money saving. Most recently, we used www.repairclinic.com for a dishwasher whose handle decided to break.  We went through the Parts Detective, located the part, and within 2 days, it was fixed with a screwdriver and cost $45.  You can’t get a repairman in the door that fast!They also sell things like dishwasher repair kits and such if your racks are looking a bit rusty.  They are friendly, helpful and reliable–definitely worthy of the Top 10!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: appliances, top 10
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Truly free downloads

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Hi everyone!

 Sorry for not posting last week.  Last Monday we returned from visiting family in France and it has taken me a week to get caught up and get my house back together again!  In addition, with knee surgery tomorrow, it has been Super Turbo around our household!

So back to the Top 10 list…

 As far as software is concerned, I absolutely love www.download.com.  This site belongs to CNET, which also does computer hardware and software reviews.  The beauty of www.download.com is that you can search their software database for whatever you are looking for–whether it’s anything from money management to wine cataloging to you name it.  Downloads receive reviews from both the editors as well as the public so you have both sides of the story. 

 Some of the software is trial period, some is outright free, and all are spyware tested.  Why is spyware tested important?  Because a lot of “free” programs are subsidized by placing spyware in the program so that your shopping habits and/or personal info can be sold to other companies.  Not cool.  With www.download.com, you know exactly what you are (or aren’t) getting.

So the next time you are looking for a software program and don’t have the time to scour the Internet or run to Best Buy, try www.download.com and enjoy the time and money saved!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: software, top 10
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