I need to buy a new TV. Okay, okay, I don’t really need one, but I’d like to have one.

I’ve moved in to my new apartment and I only have a 11” tube sitting on my coffee table. Granted I don’t watch that much TV, I want a new television because the one I have can’t even hook up my DVD player. My dad took my old TV to use in his bedroom.

I’d like to watch this Everest DVD documentary I just bought from the Discovery store. So I’d like a decent TV. I don’t need the latest, fancy, 1080i LCD with all the bells and whistles. I’ll willing to spend the money, I just want it to last for 5-10 years.

I’ve been shopping around and I realized that there are all these new electronics brands that I have never heard of. Should I buy a brand I’m more familiar with: Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic? Or can I save money without compromising reliability and purchase: Olevia, Westinghouse, Vizio?

I’ve got 10% off at Circuit City through AAA that I’m thinking of using.  Otherwise I will purchase from Costco.  I’ll look into this more when I come back from my honeymoon.

Getting the best deals when you shop online has never been easier. All the information is right at your fingertips. There are many hot deal websites out there that scour the net for the latest bargains. Two sites that I always visit are Slickdeals.net and Fatwallet Hot Deals Forum. If you’re looking to buy something online, make sure you stop first at these sites to see if there are any recent deals.

Another tip on getting the best prices for your online purchases is make the most of the great price guarantees found at online retailers. Many popular online stores such as Amazon and Best Buy offer their customers price guarantees and price protection benefits for up to 30 days after your purchase.

So, for example, say you purchase a new LCD Television for $1000 on Amazon. A few weeks later you notice that the price has dropped to $900. Simply login to your Amazon account, click on a few links, and you will be credited the difference.

Here is a list of some popular retailers that you might shop at:

Amazon: “Amazon.com’s prices for released items will change from time to time based on a variety of factors. If Amazon.com’s price for an already-released item decreases within 30 days after we ship the item to you, we’ll be glad to refund the difference in price if you contact us.”

Best Buy: “If an item you purchased at Best Buy is advertised at a lower price at another Best Buy store in your local area or on BestBuy.com within 30 days of your original receipt purchase (14 days for select categories*), we will refund you 100% of the price difference. Simply bring in your original Best Buy receipt to the customer service counter while that lower price is still in effect.”

Circuit City: “If you purchase an item from Circuit City and we advertise the same item for a lower price within 30 days of your purchase, we will refund 100% of the difference.”

Ritz Camera: “At RitzCamera.com, our low price guarantee assures you that you are getting a competitive, low price. If you find a price lower than ours on the Internet, and you meet the eligibility requirements listed below, you may qualify for a price match.”

United Airlines: Login to your “My Itineraries” and choose “View/Modify” flight info. Click on “Change itinerary” and “Check the price of the itinerary.” If the current price is lower than what you paid for, you will be credited back the difference.

Expedia: “Expedia guarantees you’re getting the best price. If you should find a better price online for the same trip within 24 hours, Expedia will refund the difference—and give you a travel coupon worth $50.”

Travelocity: “If you find a Qualifying Lower Rate within twenty four (24) hours of your booking, we will provide you with the following per booking: One $50 Promo Code for a future “Good Buy” Hotel or Flight + Hotel vacation package booking on Travelocity and A refund of the difference between the price you paid through Travelocity and the Qualifying Lower Rate.”

Zzounds: “If you see a lower, publicly advertised delivered price, we’ll beat it. And if you see a lower, publicly advertised delivered price within 30 days after your order ships, we’ll refund you the difference.”

Guitar Center: “If at any time within 30 days of your purchase from us, you find the identical item in stock and advertised by an authorized dealer at a price lower than what you paid, GuitarCenter.com will fully protect you.”

Starbucks Store: “We will guarantee our prices for 30 days from the purchase date. If you find our price has changed on the same item you’ve already purchased on our site within 30 days of the date of purchase, we will happily refund the difference.”

Baby Catalog: “Babycatalog.com guarantees the lowest price on everything we sell. If you find an item elsewhere (before or within 30 days of your purchase from babycatalog.com), you will be eligible for our “110% price protection” program.”

Abt Electronics: “If you are inquiring about a price guarantee and have already purchased an item from Abt, please contact our customer service department within 30 days at our toll free number 1-888-228-5800”

Boaters World: “At BoatersWorld.com, our Low Prices, Guarantee assures you that you are getting a competitive, low price. If you find a price lower than ours on the Internet, and you meet the eligibility requirements listed below, you may qualify for a price match.”

Cooking.com: “We will guarantee our prices for 30 days from the purchase date. If you find our price has changed on the same item you’ve already purchased on our site within 30 days of the date of purchase, we will happily refund the difference.”

Golfsmith: “Golfsmith.com will match 100% of a published price on a stocked item PLUS an additional 15% of the difference from a competing web site on any identical, in-stock item. Just show us the lower price within 30 days after purchasing the product from us and we’ll refund the purchase difference plus 15 percent of the difference as a credit to your account.”

Smart Bargains: “We are confident that our prices on footwear are the lowest online, but if you find another qualified web site that offers a lower price, we’ll refund you 110% of the difference between the lower price and our price.”

Overstock.com: “Overstock.com guarantees that our prices are the lowest you’ll find anywhere online. You’ll know you’re receiving the best deals available on thousands of quality products. And if you happen to find a better online price out there, and meet the qualifications listed below, we’ll give you the difference.”

Simple Human: “We want to make sure you never pay more at simplehuman.com. If you find an identical simplehuman product at another retailer for a lower price, we will gladly match that price.“

My car was running on empty this morning so I went to go fill up before I began my commute to work. I noticed that the Vons supermarket near my apartment sold gas. Actually it’s the first time I’ve seen a fuel station at a Vons grocery store.

As I pulled up to the pump I saw a sign that said “Vons members save 3 cents per gallon on gas.” Sweet! The gas right now is $3.29 a gallon, so it’s only saving me like 1 percent. But still, I’m not complaining. Combine that with 5% back with my credit card and I’m good to go.

Check here if your local Vons or Safeway supermarket has a fuel station.

I wrote last year about my plans to put together a cheaper-pedic mattress based on ideas from this Fatwallet thread.

Well, I purchased the combo for my new apartment and I am happy to report that I am loving it. The cheaper-pedic foam mattress is an effort to get the same feel of a Tempurpedic mattress at a fraction of the cost. This is what the mattress consists of:

1. Base Layer: 5” Firm Topper, Queen 60×80″ (J.C. Penny Catalog Number: RN725-5805A, $109.99)
2. Top Layer: 3” Sensus® 5lb Queen Memory Foam Mattress Topper (SleepWarehouse $289.95)
3. Zippered Cover for stackup.

The J.C. Penney topper acts as the supporting base, and the expensive Sensus is where you get the memory foam action.

I tried it out for a few days and found it to be a little too firm. The 5lb density Sensus is very dense, heavy, and supporting. I like to sink a little bit more when I sleep. So I went to Walmart and bought a cheap 1” foam topper for $39.99 and placed this inbetween the two layers. Now, my cheaper-pedic mattress is perfect. It is very comfortable, and pretty comparable to the Tempurpedic mattress I see at the mall.

My dad visited my new apartment and he loved it as well. In fact, he loved it so much he asked me to buy him a set too. Hopefully my fiancée is also going to love our new bed. She prefers mattresses that are firm, so I think it won’t be a problem. Now all we have to do, once she moves down, is buy a queen bedroom set to put the mattress onto.

I received an interesting e-mail yesterday from Sallie Mae, the company that oversees my student loans. They periodically send out e-mails telling you to consolidate and blah blah blah, but good thing I read yesterday’s e-mail.

I don’t know how long they’ve been partnered together but it looks like Upromise and Sallie Mae have joined forced to help you pay back your student loans. I’ve had a Upromise account since college and I’ve accrued a fair amount of money on it. It looks like now I have the option to direct my money towards paying off my student loans.

For those that have never heard of Upromise, it’s a free program that gives you kickbacks every time you make an eligible goods or service purchase. So for example, if I buy orange juice and deodorant at the grocery store, 5% will go towards my Upromise account. It’s not much, but over time you can accrue a decent amount of money. I have all my supermarket cards and credit cards registered under Upromise.

You have different options to choose from in terms of what to do with the money you accrue. You can apply it towards a 529 student savings account, you can request a rebate check, or now you can apply it towards your student loan balance. Sweet!

Look here for more details.

Flexo over at Consumerism Commentary recently purchased a Martin D-15. It’s a great solid mahogany guitar. I actually prefer it over the more popular DM Road Series. Regardless you can’t go wrong with Martin guitars.

If you’re shopping around for a new guitar, let me give you an awesome tip. Check out Buffalo Bros Guitars down in Carlsbad, CA near San Diego. They have an “upgrade policy” that can’t be beat. You can purchase any guitar from them and when you decide to upgrade to a more expensive/better guitar, they will take back your old guitar and credit you the purchase price.

So for example, you purchase a Martin D-15 for $800, and a few years down the road you decide that you really wanted a Taylor 710ce instead, Buffalo Bros will deduct $800 from your purchase price of the new guitar. When you upgrade the only requirement is that you spend $100 more on the new guitar. And obviously your old guitar can’t be broken, but normal wear and tear is fine.

I have a couple of friends that have purchased from Buffalo Bros, and a couple of them have upgraded. They have competitive prices, similar to Sam Ash or Guitar Center, except with much better customer service.

Purchasing a guitar can be an expensive investment. Fortunately, this upgrade policy will insure that you’ll end up with a guitar you really like.

If you’re in the Carlsbad area, you can also stop by the Taylor guitar factory. I’ve been on the guided tour and it is really neat. Plus they give you free coasters.

So I just purchased 72 bottles of wine for my wedding. I bought 36 bottles of a Chardonnay and 36 bottles of a Cabernet Sauvignon, enough for each table at my reception. I’ll probably buy some more right before the wedding.

I shopped around and found out that most grocery stores give you a ten percent discount when you buy six or more or a case of wine. So I ordered 72 bottles from my local grocer. When the store manager called and told me that the shipment had arrived he said that he had six cases waiting for me. For some reason I had thought only six bottles came in a case instead of twelve. I told the manager he made a mistake and that I needed twelve cases.

I drove over to the store and the manager was scrambling to put together six more cases of wine for me. He managed to get them ready and I went to check out. But at the register the cashier asked me how many bottles I was planning to purchase and I told her 72. She looked over at the twelve cases and told me that I only needed six cases because each case has twelve bottles. Oops! I apologized for the misunderstanding and for the extra work I had made them go through. They probably thought I was trying to sneak out with twice as much wine.

Beringer Founder’s Estate Chardonnay = $6.30
Beringer Founder’s Estate Cabernet Sauvignon = $6.30
Total Price + Tax = $491.02
Credit Card Reward (5% cash back at grocery store) = $24.55

That’s a lot of wine.

The church is reserved, the restaurant is held with a deposit, and the invitations our out.  This past weekend, my fiancée and I finished making and sending out our wedding invitations.  Praise the Lord.

Now we’re looking for frugal wedding favor ideas.  Since we both love coffee and tea, we thought we would do something with them.

We could buy these espresso cups and fill them with chocolate covered espresso beans.  But we were thinking that it might be a pain to fill all of them and then bring them to the reception.

Or we could buy personalized tea bags from here, here, or here.

Hmm…It would be nice if we could make something personalized for under a dollar each.

I went shopping with my fiancée yesterday for a bridal veil and we were both in sticker shock! We couldn’t believe a piece of fabric with a plastic comb and some plastic beads glued to it could cost hundreds of dollars. We saw one veil that cost over two hundred dollars. The cheapest one we found was around $75 and it still looked like an elementary school student put it together. I told her that we could probably make one instead and it probably wouldn’t be that difficult.

So off we went to Michael’s craft store and looked for the materials we needed. We went to the wedding section and found completed veils for $20. My fiancée will have some free time soon so she decided that she would try to make one herself instead. So here are some of the materials she bought and their cost:

Tulle fabric - $4.99
Veil combs - $2.99
Lace Ribbon - $0.99
Plastic pearls - $3.99

Other things she needed was scissors, needle and thread, and a hot glue gun.

We searched online for some do-it-yourself tips and found some great websites:
Making a veil.
Bridal veil and headpiece.
Making a bridal veil.
Instructions for making a bridal veil.

Make Something
Personally crafted gifts are often the most thoughtful presents. Bake cookies, make a collage in Photoshop and frame it, make a scrapbook, write a sonnet, make a calendar, Altoid optical mouse or headphone amp.

Wine Or Champagne
Wine is a elegant gift to bring to a party or to give to a friend. You can find great buys at Trader Joe’s. You can also get good deals on Champagne.

Board Games For Families
Hours and hours of fun, and more wholesome than video games. I personally love the more interactive games such as Cranium, Catch Phrase, Taboo, and Guesstures.

Use You Miles/Points
If you travel a decent amount for business or even for leisure, use the miles/points you accrued to give gifts. You can redeem them for magazines, gifts cards, certificates to restaurants, and obviously free airfare or hotel stays if you have more miles/points than you know what to do with. See what you can redeem at United, American Airlines, Delta, Hilton, Starwood, etc.