Five Great (Bargain) Finds

Steam Punk Bling

Who says handmade and unique has to be expensive? I bought a pair of these earrings and love them. I’ll be going back for more of this artist’s creations. They turn humble hardware – washers, in this case – into a bit of casual bling. Hard to beat that $12 price tag – especially for something this unique.

 Shoes for Your Man

My son has been asking for shoes lately. And he desperately needs some. He’s 15 though so I no longer provide for his every need – much as I’d like to. I don’t want to raise a “Failure to Launch.” So I told him he has to earn them. Naturally he turns down most opportunities to do this. Weed whack the yard? “I will, Mom.” Mow the law? “Absolutely! In a minute.” But he hasn’t yet. To be fair, it’s easy to get him to vacuum the house or do the dishes. But you have to do a lot of vacuuming to earn a pair of shoes. And I don’t pay for dishes. This is probably harder for me than it is for him. He has delightfully modern tastes in clothes and strong ideas about how to dress. And he looks good in everything. I know he’d love these slick John Varvatos shoes (and they are $49 right now — that’s 70% off!) . I’d love to buy them for him. But I’m trying to be strong. I emailed him a link as incentive.

A Great Solution

Always scrambling for a charger or syncing cables for your necessary gadgets? Me too. That’s why I love these pen-sized flexible Ready Clips from Aviiq. Mix and match to cover what you’ve got and toss them in your purse, clip them to a pocket, or leave them in a glass on the bedside table. You will never scramble – or untangle — again. A set that covers most non-Apple devices – mini USB + micro USB –  is $19.95.  Two Apple docks are $29.95.

An Affordable DSLR

I gave my daughter a DSLR (a Nikon D40) when she was eight. She is now 13 and long ago surpassed my skills as a photographer. In fact she is creating work that people (not her parents) want to hang on the wall. But handing a child a $500 camera took guts. (She still has it and it’s in perfect condition, BTW. She treasures it.) If you want to start smaller – even if it’s you who wants a more capable camera than that point and shoot – GE offers the GE X400 digital camera at an unbelievable price. It has a 2.7-inch LCD screen, 15X optical zoom, a 27mm wide-angle lens and 14 megapixels. And it costs $129. You can pick it up at Walmart or here. (I have one in for review and will do more complete review of it soon.)

A Cute Outfit for a Kindle

I have a Kindle Touch in my purse at all times. Even though I have several tablets, an iPad, a sweet data phone, and several computers, I can’t seem to live without that thing. Is it that it weighs in at 7 ounces? That the battery never seems to die? Or the way I can print to it, get newspapers delivered automatically, and never run out of books to read? I suppose it’s all of that. I like it even better – and worry about it getting into a fracas with my in-purse lipstick — with this cute case Moko on it. And the case only cost $13.