Grab Bag Money Mi$er:

Click on the icons to take you to the respective websites.

1. Ever looked for a flight on Expedia or Orbitz but had to check Southwest or other “discount airlines” separately? No more.

SkyScanner.com will check them all for you.

2. Wondering if the rent you’re paying/contemplating is fair in your area?

Rentometer.com tells you if it’s out of line or not.

3. Ever tired of your hideous credit card fees/cell phone/cable bills but can’t face the hassle of chasing down the details and doing better? Get ‘er done at

BillShrink.com takes 3-4 minutes to profile what you need and then shops for your best contract.

4. Is your bank offering you mouse pads and fridge magnets but you pay for checking and get lousy interest rates? I’m on it…

FindaBetterBank.com will compare account offerings based on your profile.

Grab Bag Give a Memory:

What a great gift this makes…

Cavalia is in San Francisco right now, returning to Los Angeles mid-January. You don’t even have to love horses to love this show.

If you haven’t seen it, book it. If you have seen it, I’ll bet you’re booking again. I went today for my third time in five years.

It is exciting and ethereal and much like witnessing a fairy tale unfold.

Enjoy. 

Grab Bag Sweetness:

Who DOESN’T love a good massage? Saw this awhile back, but it’s always enjoyable.

Grab Bag Dirty Looks:

Finally a little cosmetics-issue love from mainstream media! I’ve kinda been feeling like I’m sitting in the corner talking to myself and people maybe think I’m a bit crazed, but now the message about chemicals in cosmetics is disseminating a bit more widely.

Hopefully consumers and manufacturers will start to listen.

Last Tuesday’s Today Show featured the co-authors of

and their story is worth hearing and worth sharing:

YEAH to these ladies, to the Today Show, and to you for listening and considering making changes where you can 🙂

Grab Bag Greeting Tip:

If you’re still in a quandary over the Send/No Send on Holiday Cards, this may just tip the scale for you.

Although there are loads of online stationery companies to choose from, TinyPrints.com is my favorite.

Not only do they have a HUGE range of designs in cards, invitations and announcements, but they offer great personalized gifts with flair. On top of that, I received some INCREDIBLE customer service from these guys.

It could not have been easier, so the hassle factor for you is no longer an argument. I even had them print every envelope with the recipient’s address as well as my return address. For Pete’s sake, they’ll mail them out FOR you if you don’t want to personalize them… but you’ll have so much extra time, why don’t you scribble how much you love me on my card?? 🙂

As for going green… and you know I like to try whenever possible, I say this is an exception. Let’s reduce the impersonal, pointless and needless use of paper and keep holiday greeting cards. Plus, Tiny Prints prints their cards on 30% post consumer recycled paper. Admit it… we all love seeing holiday greetings brighten our mailbox…. the rest of the year all we get is bills, ads and catalogs.

Family not together for a photo? Go with a collage design. AND, they’re having holiday specials right now. Do you need any more reasons? Just DO it.

Grab Bag Boy Toy (for girls, too!):

If you know a cool auto/tech geek… or really anyone who needs to store digital libraries of movies, photos, or music, back up hard drives, or move files, pictures, documents, etc. from one computer to another, why not park one of these under the tree?

The smaller ones are 4GB thumb drives… the bigger ones house 500GB hard drives. See these and many, many more at Flashrods.com

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Word Tease from Playwithyourmind.com… find two words within each nonsense string of letters. The order of the letters must stay left to right, and letters may only be used once.

Example: PBALCAKY yields PLAY and BACK.

Play with these on paper… when you have your answers, click on the puzzle and the answers will appear 🙂

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

The TSA is just such an easy target….

Thanks to Patricia E. for these 🙂