Ok...California isn't in the lead on this. New York is. There was litigation in the NY Courts that led to what is known as their "Amazon Law" that lets NY force Amazon to collect NY sales tax by virtue of NY based third-party sellers having partnership agreements with Amazon. VT, MA, RI, IL, CO, GA, CT and now CA have since filed legislation to mimic what NY did. THIS DOESN'T mean the states can now compel remote sellers to collect their tax! It only applies where that seller has a partnership agreement with an in-state business pushing sales through their website. THAT said, we all owe the USE TAX. It's the law. I find it interesting that many of the same folks who rail about Democrats trying to raise taxes (which happens to be factually inaccurate) don't seem to care about breaking the law, resulting in budget deficits that leave states short of operating revenue that lead to discussions of the need to raise taxes! You can't complain about your kids getting a crappy education, the roads being bad, bridges failing, etc. if you don't pay the taxes you lawfully owe! That's as unpatriotic as you get. I find it hard to understand how the masses on the right fall for the complete ruse that they will somehow benefit from the Gov't giving tax breaks to the uber-wealthy and to Corporations who are buying those tax breaks with lobbying dollars. It's been proven to be bull time and again. Oil companies are reaping record profits while enjoying ridiculous tax breaks and shifting the burden of the shortfall to the rest of us! PLUS, we now have the privilege of perpetuating their ownership of the U.S. Government by our paying them $5.00/gallon! If you understand anything about investigative tactics in police work..."follow-the-money" almost always leads you back to the perpetrator. While there's plenty of blame to dole out on both sides of the aisle, it doesn't take a genius to figure out which major party is the prime offender. What can be said about this but wake up America! What happened to government for the people, by the people? The Constitution says "people" not "corporations!" As for the uncollected sales tax issue, there is an effort called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project aimed at encouraging Congress to lift the Supreme Court restrictions on requiring remote sellers to collect tax for the states in exchange for the states simplifying and making their laws more uniform so that it doesn't cost businesses so much to comply! Unsurprisingly, the bill continues to stall due to opposition by the majority of Republicans who don't want to be "perceived" as levying new taxes even though the taxes are already legally due and are just being criminally ignored. Thankfully this year there is some Republican support. Rep. Senator Mike Enzi of WY is cosponsoring the bill this session with Senator Richard Durbin of IL. Until REAL campaign finance reform is adopted and publicly funded political campaigns are MANDATORY and Corporate lobbying $ prohibited, this country will NOT be truly free.

I got out yesterday with a good friend (another "enabler") & got some bargains...ornies at Target 50% off...which is ok by me...cause I buy some for next Christmas' exchanges. And a plaid cotton tablecloth...which will work for red t'scape, too! Ohhh, the Christmas dishware killed me...cookie jars, platters, etc. etc. I love my Winterfrost Pfaltzgraf beautiful Christmas dishes so I left them alone...but had to go back later in the afternoon & buy 4 salad plates & 4 soup/cereal bowls...they were called "Birchwood Chalet" holiday 2010..spent $19. I'll post a link...loved them, of course, cause of the simplicity of pine branches & cones...yikes, I'm "jeannespines," remember! T'scape coming soon! The reason I went bk was meanwhileb at another specialty store I found a beautiful cookie jar ... called Woolrich Winter White...the ladies booth had 50% off everything...so I bought it for $10...thought it would be WONDERFUL with the dishes at Target...so stopped & bought them. But I broke it as I had unloaded to the stairs & knocked over a wonderful "iron" angel I had bought for my gardens...needless to say, I now have a "bowl" ...not a cookie jar! I wanted to cry! So, that was my after Christmas shopping...exchanged a few things...DH got me new flatware & used it on Christmas & it spottted & changed color in dishwasher (altho said dishwasher safe)...they took it back, no problem & I picked out an Oneida Portfolio "Tortola." ... washed a place setting last night in dishwasher & came out fine.... Ok, I'm rattling on too much...been w/o good Internet contact over the holidays...now is fixed by Qwest & phone lines, too! Happy New Year! Jeanne S. Here is a link that might be useful: Target Birchwood Chalet

I have been to them all - Micheals, 2 Walmarts, BigLots, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar. I was looking mostly for Cookie type containers and dishes - also picked up those big 4" Christmas balls from Walmart - 6 in a package for $2.50. I have also been doing some online clearance shopping - mostly for rustic ornaments for my back porch woodsy/nature tree. As an extended family my sisters and I have decided to do all homemade gifts next year - kids are crafty also so I am getting some supplies in for all that stuff. Since I don't work and have the space I am setting up a craft room so anyone can come over and work on projects through-out the year - especially the children. Looking forward to getting back into crafting full time again. I have missed it due to some family deaths and illnesses and adjusting to a new life but it is time. I see some familiar faces from the Holiday forum so hopefully will fit in here also. Hope I haven't bored you with my rambling - but let me introduce myself - my name is Lynne and I am a craftaholic :) ..... Lynne

I've tried gift certificates, they certainly have advantages such as time savings and making decisions so much easier. However, for me they weren't money savers. Not to give and sometimes not to receive either. I tend to buy presents on big discounts, thus the actual amount I spend per person looks rather small on paper, and when given to someone else with the limitation of being able to spend it in just one store, it doesn't actually go that far. For example I can hunt around the stores and buy my sister a really nice jumper for perhaps £12.99, but if I give her a £12.99 gift certificate limited to just one store she won't be able to get a really nice jumper without adding at least another £10 to it. The certificates are often issued only by major retailers and most of them are quite expensive places to shop. The lower range of certificates such as £10 or even £20 will not entirely buy anything in many stores now. On the receiving end I don't mind certificates as I get to choose for myself, but often they mean going to places I wouldn't normally shop. This can be a positive thing, but other times it reaffirms why I don't shop there. Either I don't like the items or I don't like the prices. Prices shouldn't matter when you have a certificate, but often you have to make up the total price for an item with more money. I've had a few smaller certificates for £5 or £10 for shops, which I've been to only to discover that with the certificate the cost to me of any items I could use/want are only just starting to become average price, and honestly I haven't bought anything at average price for years. I almost never buy outside of sales. I live in a big city and have the internet, every day is sale day somewhere! Why be shopping anywhere else? I feel bad not using a certificate, but when it means I have to shop somewhere I find excessively expensive and I have to find the extra money to afford something, then it seems to be a bad financial choice. I have savings to build for university, I can't afford bad financial choices. I'll just pass the certificate on to someone else and hope they find a better use for it.