Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

I am up to my eyeballs in end of school year hoopla. Parties, friends kids promotions, my daughters promotion, graduation ceremonies all across town Girls Scout Awards, end of year plays and performances, the list of events seems to be endless. Too much to do, in too little time. I think I will ignore most of it.

On top of chaos from the end of year hoopla, our home office has been besieged with a technology melt down. My brand new Mac Mini died…. Really. Can you believe it?  Apparently it was a hard drive failure. Mac was pretty good about it. When we took it in they fired it up looked at the screen and the tech said, “Yep you need a new computer”. It was all of 3 weeks old. I still have to wait several days for a new one. I am getting additional RAM installed.

But I had just got all my files and work transferred from the Dell to the Mac and it’s systems up and running when it went kaput. Several articles have been lost, leads, emails, and contact names. But thankfully, it was only a couple of week’s worth of information. When the Mac died it was enough for “the kid” to hear my extensive vocabulary of profanity. I had ceased cussing when I became a parent. But this brought all that back.

Thankfully we had kept the 8-year old dell. It is still working. My daughter’s 5-year old Sony laptop is still working. Our 1-year old IMac is still working. Our 3 year old HP laptop is still working and our contact files are backed up in our Blackberry’s. WE thought we were okay.

But then….
My husbands 6 month old Blackberry Curve died that same day too. That company was pretty good about replacement too. The problems it created are a major hassle for us. But my solid as a rock web dude handled it all in stride, maintaining his cool through the technology crisis… That is until our HP laptop screen went black and also failed to operate. Did I mention it was on the same day as the other two technology failures? This pushed him over the edge and “the kid” also heard his extensive vocabulary of profanity.

Thankfully we got the HP working again. It’s the main computer we use to send out Bargain Alerts and our weekly e-Newsletter. But we cannot close the lid or we will lose the screen again. Eventually the HP will go into the shop for repair.

I guess my daughters 6th grade promotion present has been learning Mom and Dad know how to cuss and do so in stressful situations. Not my idea of an ideal promotion present. What a week.

I hate housework. But it’s the daily chores that irk me the most. With my busy days, trying to work them into my daily routine isn’t easy.

I rise at 6am, turn on the kettle, fire up the computer and while I am waiting for everything, I do any remaining dishes from the night before and clean the sink and counters. I do not have the time or patience to wait for a product to work. I am waiting for my morning cup of joe.

We use to use fancy, expensive cleansers for our sink. But recently we went back to a tried and true old time cleanser…. Ajax cleanser. It’s cheap around $.89-$1 instead of the $2.50-$4 I was spending on the sprays.

Not ever store carries this old time household staple any more. We came home with Comet a few weeks ago thinking it was a similar product when we couldn’t find the Ajax. It is not.

In fact as cleansers go I would say Comet sucks. It took over twenty minutes of scrubbing and waiting for it to leave my sink yellow instead of a bright white and I used twice as much to get that result. Ajax cleaned my sink in under 3 minutes with minimal scrubbing and I used less cleanser.

Sometimes new isn’t better. Your mom and grandma probably used Ajax. The oldies come in cardboard containers, not plasic bottles. Plus with Ajax I use less cleanser to get the job done, so it’s easier on the environment. Cheaper, better … in my house Ajax rules.

Every month I get an e-mail from some under educated, self righteous, discount shopper who is under the impression that price is what makes something a bargain. This person complains a store I have recommended is not a bargain because of the pricing.

Wrong!  A bargain has to do with value, quality and what the real worth of an item is. It is not a cheap item for cheap.

A new 2007 Lexus ES 350 at $20,000 is a steal, unheard of and should make any buyer cautious. That’s cause you know Lexus construction and quality put it up in the $30,000 plus range. So you can’t compare it to a Hyundai. But if you could get a Lexus ES350 for $27,000 when the MSRP was $33,400, you’d know you had a good deal.

Anyone can buy cheap. There are 99 Cent Only Stores, Walmart’s and Targets everywhere. You don’t have to do your homework, know the market place, understand construction or content to shop at these places. These kinds of stores have a range of goods from okay quality to super cheap. They have a place in our culture and yes I do shop them (except Walmart).

You can’t compare the goods theses stores sell to the rest of the retail world. I wouldn’t expect Chanel quality and design inside a discount store. I wouldn’t expect to find designer showroom furniture inside a Macy’s.

If you see an item “all over town” and then see a similar item at an outlet for a designer furniture showroom… it is not the same item. Real designer showroom furniture is not all over town. It is not mass produced. The copies are massed produced and all over town.

If you think the Vera Wang dress that you can now find at Kohls is the same quality Vera Wang dress you’d get at an upscale boutique… then you are not thinking. It is a lower quality dress with less attention to detail, lower quality fabric and construction. It may still be a cute, well designed dress but, it is not the same in quality.

If you are looking at high-end designer furniture and comparing it to furniture found at Pottery Barn, you are looking at two completely different items. The quality is different, design and construction are different.

You pay for quality.

The old adage, “You do get what you pay for” is true. I don’t consider price until I know about the product I am looking at. When I research a store and review it, I always tell you how or why the product is there and where it originally came from.

If you haven’t shopped high-end showrooms, boutiques or stores, you should; even if the product is out of your range. Ask the sales help questions. Learn why it is priced the way it is priced…the quality, design and construction.

Otherwise you’ll end up comparing apples to bananas and being an under educated shopper. Knowing the market place will help you get the best quality and save you money.