Spirit Hoods are a unique gift. Credit: SpiritHoods.com
I find teens are the easiest people to buy presents for because when you ask them what they want, they have a long list! Day five of the Bargain Babe Hot Holiday Gift Guide is devoted to buying for these almost-adults.
We’ve also suggested electronics gifts, gifts at Sears, toys for kids, and mens’ shavers. Coming up are gifts for kids, teens, men, and women. There will also be a day devoted to unique and quirky gifts, and we’ll finish the gift guide on Dec. 9 with a roundup of the best overall gifts.
Don’t forget to enter to win a $100 Sears gift card as part of the Gift Guide! Contest ends Monday, Dec. 5!
What is it with teen girls putting
By Mike Barclay of 10 Cents Worth
nati/flickr
If you’re anything like me, music is a large part of your daily routine. The problem with being an avid fan of music is that there is always something new that you want and buying albums can become pricey. At $1.29 a song, and anywhere from $9.99 up to $19.99 an album (the higher price is usually for a box set), even if you only buy one album a week, you’re still looking at $40-$80 a month for music. So how do you fill the craving without breaking the bank?
Buy songs, not albums
In the era of CDs, you had to buy the whole album to get the one song you wanted. With iTunes, it is easy to avoid spending $11 or more on a full album, and instead spend $1.29 for the song you want. What sense does it make to get an entire album, when you’re only looking for 1 or 2 songs? Not much.
Trade with friends
There is a way to get music for free if you think about it. Do your friends have the exact same music collection that you do? Probably not. I’m constantly going over to my friends’ houses and trading music with them. If you’re technically savvy, you can sync your iPod to a friend’s iTunes account and add music from their computer to your player. Ask your friends if they want to share music. There’s nothing better than free.
Use the internet
It used to be that in order to compare prices you had to go from store to store. Not any more! Now we have websites to find the cheapest price possible.
GetCheapMusic – Pretty simple really. Go to the site, type in an artist name that you’re looking for, and it’ll pull up all the information about the CD’s that you’re looking for. It also gives you an option to “compare prices.”
LegalSounds – You might not be able to find the latest CD, but the site sells songs for $.09 a piece and has quite a bit of music. With this pricing you can get roughly 12 songs for the same price you’d pay for one song on iTunes.
SwapTree – I’ve mentioned this one before, but it applies just as much to music. It’s a bartering site for all things media. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather swap CD’s or some other object that’s of the same value, than shell out cash.
Internet Players
Another option is to listen through a music share site, a few of which I review below. You won’t be able to download songs directly to your hard drive, but you can pretty much listen to anything you want.
GrooveShark – This site is free to sign up and create an account. Then search for any artist or song and add it to your personal playlist.
Pandora – Plug in a band you like and the site will pick similar artists and songs. Give Pandora feedback whether or not you like its selections and the site customizes your streaming “radio” station.
If your budget doesn’t allow splurges on music, look hard and you will be able to satisfy your hobby without breaking the bank. Is there anywhere else you get music for free or cheap?
