FReeper Canteen ~ Online Shopping 101 ~ November 22, 2005

22-NOV-05 | Gummy News

[GummyIII]

Gummy Style!

Newsflash:  Gummy Hates to Shop November 22, 2005 I hate to shop.  I know. You are thinking, "She's not normal."  Perhaps I should clarify.  I hate to drive to a busy mall or store, get out, fight the crowds, look in umpteen stores for the best bargain, and come home with nothing but achy feet and head.  When Al Gore invented the internet, he did it for me.  Honest. (Psssst....He would have told you that, but he's afraid you wouldn't believe him.) OK,  you've guessed it...I do all my shopping online.  Below are my best tips for online shopping. Oh, there is ONE drawback, gentlemen...you can't wait until Christmas Eve to shop.  It's a good thing I believe in Santa Claus! He brings me my present EVERY year. (Hint:  if the animated background bugs you, hit the "stop" button on your browser.)

We Support Our Troops!!!!  Thank you for your service!!!

Shop Online Safely Use credit cards. The big three credit card issuers, American Express, MasterCard and Visa, have a zero liability policy. You pay nothing for unauthorized transactions if you notify your financial institution. For extra fraud protection, sign up for MasterCard's SecureCode or Visa's Verified by Visa. These are password challenge programs for online shopping. Look for signs that online purchases are secure. At the point that you are providing your payment information, the beginning of the Web site address should change from http to shttp or https, indicating the information is being encrypted. Your browser may also signal that the information is secure with a symbol, such as a broken key that becomes whole or a padlock that closes. Never enter your personal information in a pop-up screen. When you visit a company's Web site, an unauthorized pop-up screen created by an identity thief could appear with blanks for you to provide your personal information. Legitimate companies don't ask for personal information via pop-up screens.  Keep your computer secure for safe shopping and other online activities. Protect your computer with spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, pop-up blockers and a firewall, and keep them up to date. Go to http://www.staysafeonline.org and http://www.onguardonline.gov to learn more about how to keep your computer secure. Or use El Gran's wonderful site:  Canteen Resource Center. Disclaimer: Not suitable for Grinches or Scrooges. Santa reads this news, too!!

Tips for Saving Money and Sanity Try online coupons. Many online stores provide regular customers with promotional codes. These codes are entered during the online checkout process. They save you money, just like a traditional coupon. Coupon Cabin, Current Codes and Naughty Codes are three websites that list promotional codes for online stores. (Google "promotional code" and the name of the store from which you are purchasing.  Others may show up.) Promotional codes usually offer free shipping or a reduced price. Often, online stores offer multiple codes, but you'll probably have to use one or the other.  Use disposable e-mail. You must register an e-mail address with stores when you purchase online.  The store e-mails a confirmation of your purchase and, often, tracking information. Additionally, it may send you promotional codes. But it may also send you unwanted e-mail.There are a couple ways to handle this. You could create a new e-mail address. A number of sites offer free e-mail, including Hotmail (www.msn.com), Yahoo (mail.yahoo.com), Techemail (www.techemail.com) and Netscape (www.netscape.com). Or, sign up for a disposable e-mail address. Free services such as spamgourmet and Sneakemail allow you to create a temporary e-mail address. They forward mail to your "real" one. Sign up for a temporary address before making a purchase. When you've received your purchases and are satisfied with them, you can eliminate the temporary address. COMING NEXT WEEK:   All I want for Christmas is.......... Gummy News is produced  as a service to our troops.  Volume 1, Number 1.

Comparision Shopping 101 Yahoo, Inc., Shopzilla, Shopping.com,  Google Inc.'s Froogle.com, PriceWatch, PriceGrabber, NexTag and ShopLocal are a few of the top contenders for online comparison shopping.  Take the time to see how each one works.  Most will sort by price, look for items within a price range, and look for specific brand items which you specify.  Many of the above sites have ratings for you to check the product.  Other sites are cnet.com, zdnet.com, consumersearch.com, epinions.com, PCMagazine, BusinessWeekOnline, ConsumerGuide, and many others.  Also, many of the consumer online sites offer customer reviews.  Use those in conjunction with other reviews. For example, Amazon.com and Circuit City's online store are two sites with customer reviews. Best viewed at 1024x768,  medium text size

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Okey Dokey!
My life is really good at Thai Cooking..
Maybe you might wanna Ping him?
Good Luck!
Ms.B

[stand watie]

chuckle!

doesn't rewally make sense to do the turkey thing for TWO eaters.

it also reminds me of my long ago married daze.

VK used to say "take me someplace REALLY FANCY for dinner & i'll provide the dessert".

i NEVER turned THAT offer down either. (chuckle!)

free dixie,sw

[luvie]

Wow....that sounds really good...and different. SW...maybe this one is what you are looking for!

Did ya eat too much? Standard procedure, ya know!

[stand watie]

THANKS, dear lady. i just may do that.

free dixie,sw

[luvie]

She had the right idea! LOL!

We'll probably go to the cafeteria here that has a really great Thanksgiving dinner every year and I'll bring my leftovers home and have them for supper.

[GodBlessUSA]

Your so nice to give me a Woo Hoo after I behaved like a brat. :)

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Good evening!
*HUG*
Ms.B

[HiJinx]

Same here,the only problem is ,that I am only off today and really need to get the housework done today.~sigh~

Know that feelin'...can you imagine trying to keep the house ready to show to prospective buyers day in and day out?

And the one day we let it go, we get a call at work saying that someone's coming to look at the house! Yark!

[GodBlessUSA]

I would love to go out for a Holiday. How nice that you eat and then have no dishes. I'll probably be cleaning for hours. :) Do you have a place in mind that you two will go?

[Mrs.Nooseman]

LOL.

it's all part of the fun here at the Canteen.;)

[Kathy in Alaska]

GRRRRRRR....just saw SMA Preston, but at Camp Hovey, I think Laura said. (I miss my tivo so I can go back a listen again) And it is Tuesday's newscast. I'm confused. I didn't see you tx. Is this the footage you shot, and aired earlier?

[GodBlessUSA]

Is Thai cooking similar to making stir fry but with more spicy ingredients?

[Mrs.Nooseman]

Yikes,that must be a nightmare.

I have to get it all done today for Thanksgiving, my next day off and one never knows who will show up.

[luvie]

Rats, Kathy, I just turned it on...did I miss his story? I knew I would do that! GRRRRRRRRRR, too!

[Colonel_Flagg]

I will do my best!

[luvie]

Isn't that the way it goes? If ya want to sell it, just keep it messy and you'll have more people looking at it! LOL! It's gotta be hard keeping everything looking perfect!

[La Enchiladita]

Hi, Gals!

I'm freaking out and happy at the same time that the holidays are here. Traffic has already thinned out locally, as folks take these 3 days off prior to Turkey Day. We are STILL having Indian Summer... for about 10 days now ... it's very pretty though, I like seeing the mountains so clearly under the blazing blue sky.

One of our finest (an Army guy from CA) has been actively FReeping today, and I'm trying to entice him over to the Canteen ... wonder who that could be?

[luvie]

You always do your best! I'll be here....

[HiJinx]

{{{Hugs}}} back atchya!

I really need to think about heading for home...it's starting to get real quiet here in the office...

[Lady Jag]

AND...



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