Some Useful Online Shopping Links
Our website has now outgrown the size allowed by the free website providers (I guess we've gone on a lot of vacations!), so we've had to start paying a monthly fee to keep our photos available for people to enjoy. Because of that, we would like to ask a favor of our visitors.
If you are going to be doing any shopping online, we would appreciate it if you could use the links below to visit the online shops. They will pay us a small commission on anything you purchase. We do a LOT of buying online, and we have provided links to companies that we have been happy with.
Or, if you have found our website to be especially useful or enjoyable, and you would care to make a donation towards its upkeep, you can donate via PayPal by clicking on this button:
Travel
When we are planning a vacation, we always visit the websites of Expedia and Travelocity. They are both good for finding airfares, reserving hotels & cars, and researching your travel destination. We think Expedia is better organized, and often has the best price, but it's a good idea to check both websites. Travelocity has a great feature called FareWatcher which will email you whenever the fare changes on a flight you're interested in. Lastly, Hotwire has some great deals on last-minute travel.
Sometimes I find better deals on specialty travel sites. For cruises, try CruiseDirect. For car rental, we like Priceline, Budget, Thrifty and Dollar. And if you need just a few more frequent flyer miles to qualify for a free ticket, you can use Mile4Sale.
eBags, Magellan's and Luggage Online are great places to find the luggage and travel accessories that can make travel easier. We especially like our Eagle Creek packing aids that help fit everything in the luggage, and keep it organized while going through airport security.
Books, Videos & Music
Amazon and Barnes & Noble are both great sites for finding new & used books (such as travel guides to vacation destinations), music, movies, etc. And you can register with them to be notified whenever something becomes available that you are likely to enjoy. But if you're just looking for maps, then you can't beat Maps.com.
Computers & Electronics
You can find good deals on computers and accessories at CompUSA. And TigerDirect has great bargains on "last year's models" of electronics.
Buy.com, eCost, J&R and Office Depot have great prices for computer hardware & software, as well as other types of consumer electronics, and music & video. They're good sources for all those travel-related electronic gadgets we bring with us, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, noise-cancelling headphones, travel-size speakers, and PDAs. If you need more RAM memory for your computer, try Crucial Technology, and when your printer needs more ink, go to 123inkjets.
Health & Beauty
We often use Drugstore.com for our health & beauty supplies. For vitamins, House of Nutrition seems to have the best selection and prices.
Wine, Beer & Liquor
Wine.com has good prices on wine.
Pet Supplies
For pet food, litter and toys for our cats, as well as feeders and seed for the birds in our yard, we always shop at PetSmart (which seems to always have a better selection and better prices than PetCo).
Toys & Hobbies
You'll find a great selection of hobby supplies, toys and games (for kids of all ages) at eHobbies, eToys, or KB Toys.
Miscellaneous
For everyday department store shopping, everyone already knows about WalMart. For something a little more upscale and unique, visit Sharper Image. For all your favorite catalogs in one place, try CatalogCity. And for getting high-quality (yet inexpensive) prints made of your digital photos, we think the best place is PhotoWorks. For gardening tools, be sure to visit Gardener's Supply.
The following sites can help you save money by finding better deals on services that you're already using. LowerMyBills handles things like credit cards, insurance, and long distance phone service. GetConnected specializes in internet service (ISP) and cable TV service. LetsTalk specializes in wireless cell phone service. And TracFone offers prepaid cell phone service with no contract or monthly minimums.
Web Hosting & Domain Registration
I did a lot of research when I was ready to select a new Web Hosting company. I wanted company that had been in business for a long time with a lot of customers, and one that was profitable, so they wouldn't be going out of business. I wanted a company that had been proven to have reliable servers with fast response time. And lastly, I wanted all this great service without paying much! Only one company, 1&1 Internet, met all those qualifications. It is the largest Web Hosting company in the world, and even their "basic" package provides an incredible 50 GB of storage space for less than $5/month!
Timesharing Information
The Timeshare Gateway website is a great source of information on buying, selling or renting timeshares.