Tips to save time and or money

1) http://www.zennioptical.com/: I rave about this site. I purchase my glasses and Corinne's here. Yes, prescription lenses are included. After shipping, I paid $12.95 for mine, and about $27 for Corinne's, which are titanium and flexible to the point you could wring them out. I am dead serious about the pricing, and we received them in about 2 weeks (except when they got caught in customs...though I doubt there were any weapons of mass destruction in my glasses). Customer service requires about a 5-10 minute wait, but is good service.

Tip: You'll need your prescription (you can't get it over the phone with HIPAA, so you'd have to pick it up or have it faxed), and your pupillary distance from an optometrist, who uses a machine. I measured my own and am satisfied--they tell you how on zennioptical.com--but it was nearly impossible with Corinne and ended up affecting her vision (her optometrist was generous enough to use the machine and still let us save the $170 of getting the glasses there, but ask gently, of course).

Also, I have a wide face, so the measurements of the width of the glasses were important to me (they give all of them to you in millimeters). Might want to have your old glasses handy to test the length of the temples, etc. I mean, it's not foolproof; it's ordering online. But to me, if I spent an extra $13 in saving $170, I was okay with that!

2) Printer ink cartridges: I just saved a bundle at http://www.inkredibleinkz.com/. It’s 1-3 day shipping (free with orders over $25), satisfaction guaranteed, and I paid $20 for 5 cartridges—2 black, three color! I usually pay $40+. Beats running to Office Depot!

3) Microsoft has some tools called Power Toys that are developed by Microsoft but not supported by them, but they’re really helpful. I’ve downloaded their image resizer, and it’s a whole lot easier to use photos from my digital camera.