The Best of the Beach at Low Prices

Raining today. Sunshine on Friday. This weather report reminds me that its time to pull together my summer beach survival kit. Here are my recommendations on getting the best of the beach at low prices. Save yourself time , money and effort by stocking up on these fun in the sun summer essentials:


Mass Park Pass. Unlimited day use parking pass at Mass state beaches and parks. Great fun to be had at Salisbury State Beach Reservation. Available for purchase at all state parks, the annual pass runs for $35.

Beach Towel. Old Navy's lush and plush beach towel in a nice leopard print is made for sun in the fun. Purrrfect!($12)


Sunglasses (polarized). Get in touch with your inner Jackie O, and protect your eyes from the sun with a great pair of polarized sunglasses from Chili's. Your eyes will never look so good($19)


Sunhat. Yup. Time to invest is a big ole wide brimmed hat from Target so that you age ever so gracefully. ($26)


Patchwork Plaid Beach Bag. Great carry all tote bag from LL Bean for the beach and beyond. Can't tell you the number of people who comment on its cute factor. ($19).


Waterproof Sports Watch. It's good looking. It's waterproof. It's inexpensive. And it's a Timex! Who could ask for anything more? ($15)


Water Bottle. These on the go water bottles from Rubbermaid can't be beat. Great leakproof top. $3.99 for a 20 0z bottle at your local CVS. $9.99 for a 6-pack of the bottles at your local BJs.


Coppertone Nutrashield Sunscreen. Get great skin protection and antioxidants to help reverse those little signs of aging on your face. Great broad spectrum of protection from SPF30 - SPF 70! $9.99 at most mass retailers like CVS, Target, and Wal-Mart . $3 coupon offered by Coppertone attached.

Checking Tire Pressure

Here's a little tip on saving time and effort when responding to "Low Tire Pressure" or "Check Tire Pressure" messages displayed on car's dashboard. Before you head off to the dealership and incur a service charge to fix it, save yourself some time and money by checking the PSI (Pressure per Square Inch) of all tires on your car, including the spare tire buried in the trunk of your car. Don't assume the problem applies only to the car's 4 primary tires. It's often the spare tire that trips the tire pressure warning.

If your car is fairly new, it is likely to have a Tire Pressure Monitor (TPM) system installed. These modules, designed to improve safety and save money, warn drivers of under inflation, leaks, and loss of air pressure within the tire that occurs over time. How does it work? Each tire has a TPM module (usually an antenna within the tire valve), implementing a direct monitor provided by the car's central electronics with a pressure reading by tire and over a wireless link back your display monitor.


A few friendly tips on tire pressure:

- Check your tire pressure regularly for best results on mileage and to maintain the safety of your cars.

- Tires tend to under inflate more in the summer months due to the warmer weather. Under-inflated tires can lead to poor wear on the treads and cause poor/delayed breaking - putting you at greater risk of an accident. Over-inflated tires will give you a bumpy ride. (Hint: Check your ties and scarves. If they have coffee stains, your tire pressure may be too high!)

- Check the Driver side door for the correct PSI (Pressure per Square Inch) for your tires. If this information is not displayed on your door panel, check the owner's manual. Your tires also include a PSI rating. If there is a different between the PSI listed on the door panel and the tire, use the PSI on the door panel. Your tires list the maximize tire pressure allowable; your door panel lists the recommended pressure for your car.

- Don't assume all tires have the same PSI. PSI for your spare tire may be different than the PSI for your four primary tires. Check to make sure each tire is properly inflated for optimal performance and safety.

For more information on tire pressure, check out Car Talk or Ask.Cars.com

High End Wine at Every Day Prices

A walk through my local liquor store yesterday opened up my view about premium wine that comes in a box. I've discovered some great advantages to these wines as I'm trying to optimize my summer entertaining budget: outstanding taste, cost saving, and convenience - the trifecta of a successful party planning.

Since the cost of packaging, shipping, and store is significantly less for the producers of boxed wines,they can afford to sell the wine for less. A $2o boxed wine would be double if sold in glass bottles. Wine can be drunk one glass at a time over several weeks (i.e. an opened box lasts for 4-6 weeks. )With boxed wine being lightweight, portable, and durable, its no surprise that its become wildly popular with boaters, campers, tailgaters, the senior crowd in Naples FL, and yes, even celebrities (Ellen Degeneres and Oprah to name just a few.) And, no special tools required to open the wine. Say goodbye to keeping track of wine opener at your next party!

My favorite - Black Box Wines of California

Digitial BookStore Debut

Discovered a new digitial bookshop website that's worth checking out - Scribd. What iTunes did for music; Scribd plans to do for the written word. Think of this website as a social network for , readers, booklovers, publishers, writers, and information sharers at large. Feature rich in social networking tools, Scribd also offers books, magazines, powerpoint presentations, resumes, legal briefs, sheet music, recipes, and other sorts of documentation.


As a book lover, you can enjoy sneak previews, current great reads, exclusives from best selling authors, "first look" excerpts from new writers, etc. So, before you head out to your local independent bookstore, check out the latest BookPages, or go online to Barnes and Noble or Amazon, check out Scribd. It will help save you time in deciding what to read next and save money since the sneak previews and excerpts are substantial.


As a writer, you can upload your documents and share with it with the community (millions of readers) or only those people you use for free. Most popular document formats are accepted. You can also sign up decided to sell it within the Scribd estore.

Scribd's system is designed to allow any document available on its site to be read on different gagdets (e.g, a computer, a mobile device, or an electronic reader like Amazon's Kindle.). With this type of versatility, its no surprise that Scribd is positioning itself as THE online destination for readers.

Free Chocolate on Fridays

Fridays just got a little sweeter. Mars Snackfood is giving away a quarter of a million full-size packages of chocolate on its Free Chocolate Fridays, now through September. Visit Real Chocolate.com every Friday where the first 250K consumers can get a coupon for a full size package of their favorite Mars product (e.g., Twix, Dove, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Milky Way, or M&Ms.) One coupon per email address; 4 coupons per household.

The Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act is part of a new campaign to highlight its chocolate made with 100 percent cocoa butter at a time when Hersey's has switched to cheaper ingredients to manage its costs during this economic downturn.

Let's hope the auto makers launch similar campaigns!

Your Next Summer Read

Long or short, serious or light, contemporary or classic, what makes a great summer read is a matter of personal taste. It's quite a challenge to figure what to read next. I'm not sure what Oprah's planning on reading on her Kindle III, but I've pulled together my list of 2009 Good Reads of Summer by some of my favorite authors to help you find your own good book to read this summer.


The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafron. Highly touted page turner that explores the themes of obsession, art, money, love, and good and evil against the backdrop of 1920's Spain. If you're in the mood for an old-style good read, you might also want to read Zafron's previous novel Shadow of the Wind - a great read about murder, madness and doomed love.


The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larson. The highly anticipated follw up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Edgy and fabulous and I've been told wraps up with an ending that leaves you saying "Wow".


Very Valentine by Andrianna Trigiani. Colourful cast of characters showcase tricky family dynamic at play in Manhattan and Italy in a story about heart and humor. It's a chic flick book of the highest order. If you like this book, check out some of the author's other books such as Lucia, Lucia or Big Stone Gap

The Last Secret by Mary McGarry Morris - A thriller about the consequences of one family's crimes of the heart. Mary McGarry Morris is also the author of Songs in Ordinary Time - an Oprah Pick of the Month (but don't hold this against her. She is really a terrific writer!)

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. This historical novel brings to life Boston's troubled past in 1918-1920 from one of America's finest crime writer. Lehane is the author of some other great Boston based mystery novels including Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone.

Wish Upon A Hero

Everyone has wishes. Anyone can be a hero by granting one by. Now there is a social network site focused on helping others where anyone can post a wish or a need, which in turn is answered by someone who offers to help make the wish come true. Check out WishUponAHero recently featured on ABC World News with Charlie Gibson. No wish too big; no hero too small. It's the ultimate do a good deed, pay it forward, feel good about yourself kind of website.

Wishes are wide in range and include anything from range from books and puzzles for a bedridden mother of 5, cloth diapers for a new mother, a birthday card and $1 for a 7 yr old with ADD, to helping fund raising efforts for a police officer with cancer. Hundreds of wishes are posted daily. You choice which wishes you want to grant. (Be careful. It's addictive._

I think what's great about this site it provides you with a direct simple efficient way to give someone a moment of happiness, make an impactful difference in someone else's life by granting a wish, or spreading a little good old fashion random acts kindness. Nice. Very Nice. Check it out.

Be Someone's hero today. WishUponAHero.com

Book Reviews

Beach and Books always seem to go together just like popcorn at the movies or beer and wings at the local pub. Whether you've got a trip beach planned or just hoping for a lazy summer day to curl up with a good book, I've pulled together a list of my favorite book review sites so that you'll have an easier time figuring out what to put in your book bag this summer. Enjoy!


Goodreads. Great site to get recommendations on books to read by people just like you.


Indibound.org. The book portal for independent booksellers across the country. Enter your zipcode and get recommendations from local booksellers in your area.


Bookbrowse - Truly a booklover's community. Great review site and hand-picked recommendations for read-alikes (e.g., if you like this book, try this one.)

TimesOnline - London Times Online Arts & Entertainment section has a great book review section. You'll get a great understanding of what books are flying off the shelves in the US and across the ocean.

BookListOnline : Book reviews from the American Library Association. Who better than a librarian to recommend your next great read?

Dedicating this blog post to Colleen P - the reader of readers always in search of her next great book.

Is your spice pass its prime?

Are your spices pass their prime? Cleaned out the spice drawer today. Found it hard to figure out which spices were no longer fresh. And at $4-5 a jar, I wasn't tossing alot out until I figured out what was still good. Sharing my research on how to figure out what's worth keeping.

1. Check the bottles for "Best Used by" date.

2. If you have McCormick spices, go online and use McCormick's Fresh Tester. Enter the code found on the spice jar's bottom to discuss how fresh the jar. (sad for me - my double fine dried mustard is older my marriage by 8 years!)

3. If you have Spice Islands, Durkee, Tones, Dec A Cake and Trader Choices spices, you just need to know the life of spices and how how to decode the series of black numbers and letters (not the UPC code) printed on the bottom or side or the spice container. The first number indicates the year of the decade the spice was produced. The second letter refers to the month (e.g., A - January, B - February; C-March, etc.)

General Guidelines for the Life of Spices - Spice Freshness
Ground Spices : 2-3 yrs
Whole Spices: 3-4 yrs
Seasoning Blends: 1- 2 yrs
Herbs: 1-3 yrs
Extracts: 4 yrs

Stamp Out Hunger

Saturday May 9 is the annual Letter Carrier's Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Keep your local food pantry stocked by supporting your mailman's "stamp out hunger" food drive this Saturday, May 9th. Your mailman/letter carrier will be collecting donations of non-perishable food items (e.g., canned meats and fish, canned soups, pasta, vegetables, cereal, rice, etc.) for further distribution to food banks and pantries in your local communities.


So, get in touch with your inner boyscout, and help make this food drive a success. All you need to do is place your food donation in a bag at your mailbox on May 9th before your mailman/letter carries arrives. He'll pick up the items for delivery to the pantries and food banks.

Interested in learning more or spreading the word, check out these links:
HelpStampOut Hunger - About the Cause

Help Stamp Out Hunger - Press Release

AFL-CIO Blog

Money Saving Gardening Tips

All I ever learned about gardening, I learned from Stevo. Thought I would share some of his great money saving tips for gardening.

Plan. Start early, plant seeds. Plan out your garden needs so you don't over plant. Start plants from seed. rather than buying your plants. For higher quality vegetables, consider planting organic seeds.

Buy smaller plants. If you're short on time or don't have the space to grow from seed, purchase smaller plants rather than larger plants for your garden. Smaller plants range $1-2 while larger plants range $4-5. Smaller plants will grow, they'll just need some extra nutrient-rich soil and water to thrive.

Swap plants. Limited space or hard to grow soil conditions? Coordinate your plantings with a good friend and neighbor. Minimize the overlap on similar plants. Trade seeds, slips/cuttings, and your garden's bounty.

Check with your local Arboretum, Conservation District, Botanical Gardens, or 4-H Club ! They usually have special sales a few times a season on plants that are well taken care.

Buy plants at the supermarket. Local supermarket chains often plants at lower costs than local nurseries. Example: 1 6-pack of pansies at the supermarket cost me $1.79; at the local nursery, it costs $3.79.

Plant perrenials. Perennials tends to cost slightly more, be a little less colourful, but return every year. Plant once, enjoy year over year.

Go green with garden care. (1) Spray vinegar on your plants to kill the weeds. (2) Rid your garden of unwanted insects by combining 1 tablespoon of dishwashing soap with one cup of cooking oil, then adding 3 tablespoons of this to one quart of water. Spray this mixture directly on to your plants. Line your garden bed with old newspapers to suppress the growth of weeds. (3) Use old popsicle sticks as plant markers (4) Use old coffee ground as fertilizers. Swing by your local Starbucks for a free 5lb bag.

Join a Garden Club. Terrific way to gain valuable tips and get free plantings from other members.

Check Craigslist. Enter "free plants" in the search box and click. You'll find several offerings for free plants and gardening materials. I checked the local Craigslist board, and found 7 offers for free garden related materials!