A good sense of humor is always good. It gives you a reason to relax and even fuels your creativity and productivity.

Therefore it’s cool if you have plenty of funny gadgets around your home interior: they may keep your family members and friends in a good mood throughout the day.

But sometimes you just want to say “Enough is enough”.

This post is all about that “extreme humor” that can be used to turn your daily bathroom procedures into real fun: 10 funniest and gross bathroom gadgets:

1. Electric bath duck

Please don’t use this one; only store to amuse your guests:

2. Serial Killer / Psycho shower curtain

If you are a fan of those scary movies where all most terrible things happen in the shower, this “psycho” shower curtain should appeal to you:

3. Blood bath mat

A cool companion to the aforementioned shower curtain to create a most complete interior design:

4. Disgusting soap dispenser

Push on the nose, and you will get an opportunity to wash your hands with the green stuff that gets out of the nostrils:

5. Handsoap

Ever wanted to wash your hands with, well, hands? These would not look as odd to me, be it hands of an adult person… But babies!

6. Dog-end towel holder

If you think that stuffing a towel into this Dog-End butt is funny, this towel holder is right for you!

7. Excited man wall hook

Like the dog-end towel holder wasn’t enough! The both hooks will surely bring a whole lots of smiles for all members of your family and random friends who’ll come to visit.

8. Face / Butt towels

If you want to remember which part of the towel rubbed which part of your body, this towel will be your favorite one:

9. HELP! drain stopper

This drain stopper is a must-have if you plan to buy handsoap mentioned above:

10. Pet vomit toothpaste

These “Toothpaste Heads” claim to make teeth brushing more fun but I really doubt they do:

We’ve seen already how much help Twitter may be when it comes to online shopping:

Twitter is a great way to research the seller’s reputation, find new deals and ask for unbiased opinion. Besides, you can reach plenty of brands providing alternative customer support on Twitter.

And here are 5 more Twitter-based tools that will help you with daily shopping: 5 fun Twitter bots:

1. Buy it Later:

Buy it Later is the Twitter bot that The bot requires a FireFox addon to work properly. So here how it works:

• Install the FireFox addon;
• Follow BuyItLater on Twitter;
• Go to any item page on Amazon and click “Buy later” button;
• The tool then checks Amazon for updates every minute;
• If the item price and/or availability changes, the bot alerts you via Twitter DM or email.

2. TinyMassive

TinyMassive is a nice Twitter bot that helps you quickly find out what’s the lowers price for the given product. Here’s it how it works:

• Tweet your product search to @tinymassive
• The bot will reply with the Tweet containing: the minimum price found and the link to the product search results.

3. Track This

Track this is the fun Twitter bot that will track your online purchases while they are being delivered to you:

• Register at the site and follow the bot;
• Enter a tracking number and a nickname for a package;
• The site will continually monitor the package and each time the package changes location you’ll be getting a Twitter DM.

4. MindMeTo

MindMeTo is a simple Twitter reminder that will remind you of your planned purchases:

• Follow mindmeto on Twitter and wait for the bot to follow you back.
• @ or DM the bot what you want to remember to buy (e.g. d mindmeto buy some milk tomorrow);
• At the scheduled time, the bot will send you a private direct message to “buy some milk”.

5. MultiMap

MultiMap twitter bot helps you find any store nearby. Here’s how it works:

• Add the bot to friends;
• Send it the DM containing your current location + the shopping facility, e.g. Closest shopping to Tampa, FL (the syntax is described here).

We spend plenty of time online chatting with our virtual friends on Myspace or Facebook, tweeting, digging, etc.

In fact, we spend so much time online that it is sometimes hard to believe there’s an “actual” word where these networks do not exist.

However the virtual reality is growing fast and we have less time for the “offline” life – this is even reflected in the clothes we wear.

Today’s t-shirt collection is dedicated to all social media and web 2.0 users who already can’t live without social networking:

1. “I Submitted to Digg but All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt”

2. “I’ll Google Your Yahoo”

3. “You Look Better on MySpace”

4. “You Are So off My Buddy List”

5. Anonymous Twitter T-Shirt

Source

6. “I am Huge on Twitter”

7. “Tom is not My Friend”

Who doesn’t know Tom of MySpace (who has recently joined Facebook by the way):

8. “I Have More Friends Than You (on Myspace)”

9. The Original Search Engine

10. “I Am Your Web Mistress – You Must Submit”

Source

Same idea for men:

So you don’t want to spend money but you still want some new staff. The desire is quite understandable but sounds unrealistic.

Well, actually, this is quite possible; and here are two ways to get something for free:

1. Free Offers

Ok, we have previously said that there’s nothing absolutely free under the sun but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be a smart freebie hunter.

Why is it such a great idea?

• You become a smarter shopper (taking advantage of many free offers, you try a lot of products and can compare their quality, prices, etc. You are also quick at learning about and trying new products and their benefits);
• You learn to save (freebies are often offered along with coupons. By becoming a smart freebie hunter, you also learn to find and take advantage of good timely deals).

Example?

ListFreeSamples is one of the best examples: it has a clear interface and structure: freebies are sorted into various categories like make-up, pet supplies, clothes, etc:

2. Do-It-Yourself

Has it ever occurred to you that you can make plenty of things you buy at home? Yes, this takes much time but why not spend less time watching TV and sitting in front of the community (twittering) and use it to make something valuable?

Why is it such a great idea?

The three best things about DIY is that:

1. It is free;
2. It is fun (especially if you take the opportunity to spend some valuable time with your family doing things together);
3. It is eco-friendly (because you recycle old stuff).

Example?

This blog I stumbled across recently lists an overwhelming number of DIY gadgets made from total waste, take these DIY iPhone docks and stands or this zipped plastic bottle box as examples. The resource has been a constant source of inspiration to me!

3. To Conclude: Avoid Scams

Getting something for free is always nice but for one important things: many scammers take advantage of the fact that people love free stuff. Therefore you should be aware of the fact that there is much scam in the freebie area.

Whenever you are offered something for free, make sure to research if the offer is valid.

Considering you have received an offer by email, here’s a quick infographic for you to make sure the offer is valid:

If in the end you arrived to “Give it a try” box, you may also consider running a quick search in Google to learn more about the free offer provider.

So feel safe when hunting for free stuff – good luck!

Let’s face it: We all know that most infomercial products don’t live up to the hype. In fact, many of them are just well-packed scams trying to get your $20. And because we know this, we tend to ignore all As Seen On TV products because we assume none of them work.

But despite the screaming pitchman and the too-good-to-be-true testimonials, some infomercial products actually work. To help you make well-informed buying decisions, I’ve come up with a list of some of the best-performing infomercial products.

• Fasta Pasta—Like its name implies, Fasta Pasta is designed to help you cook pasta faster and easier. You simply measure the pasta, add water, and cook it in the microwave. In many instances, Fasta Pasta cooks pasta twice as fast as it’d take if you were to boil it on the stove top. And believe it or not, most pasta actually tastes pretty good when you cook it with Fasta Pasta. For the most part, there’s no stirring with Fasta Pasta, and you don’t have to clean a lot of dishes or worry about your water boiling over. At under $15, this is a pretty good deal.

• Snuggie for Dogs—Okay, so you probably remember the Snuggie craze from last year, and you might be rolling your eyes at the thought of a dog wearing a Snuggie but hear me out. For small dogs that aren’t built to withstand the cold, I think the doggie Snuggie is the perfect solution. It’s much easier to put on your dog than a typical sweater, and it doesn’t seem to itch my dog like other sweaters.

• Oxiclean—When you think of Oxiclean, you probably think of the late Billy Mays screaming about how this product gets any stain out of clothes in the wash. Well, it appears Billy was telling the truth, because millions of people swear by Oxiclean. I’ve used it on a few occasions, and it has gotten the stains out while being gentle to the clothing. If you have kids who like to make a mess on their clothes, you should consider trying Oxiclean.

Tips for Buying Infomercial Products

Whether you want to buy the products listed above or some other infomercial products, you should always proceed with caution and common sense. Here are a few tips you should follow when buying infomercial products. These could help you save a lot of money and headaches.

• Read online reviews—Never trust the pitchman or the “real life customers” who claim the product works wonders. Always do your research before buying. I recommend hitting the internet to look for reviews submitted by real users. When reading customer reviews, never take any single opinion too seriously. Instead, read a lot of reviews so you can get an idea of the general consensus.

• Make sure you understand the return policy—A lot of infomercial products claim to come with money back guarantees, but there’s always restrictions and a lot of fine print. Before buying, always make sure you fully understand the return policy so you don’t have problems later on should the product not work.

• Beware of shipping and handling costs—While the $19.95 price point seems attractive, it usually doesn’t tell the full story. Many infomercial products come with exorbitant shipping and handling costs that can milk another $10-$20 out of you. Pay attention to the fine print before buying!

• Try to find the product in a local store—A lot of infomercial products are now available in local grocery and department stores. There are a couple of advantages of purchasing these products at a local store rather than over the phone. First, you eliminate the costs of shipping and handling. Second, you can simply return the product for a full refund at the store if it doesn’t work, rather than dealing with trying to get your money back over the phone.

Which infomercial products have you had success with? Share your favorites by leaving a comment.

Piggy bank is a great way to save some money.

The best thing about it is that you don’t notice how you accumulate plenty of money – you just insert change in it whenever you remember to and on some day you have plenty of it accumulated.

If you don’t focus on accumulating plenty of money and just do that randomly, the process becomes even easier and stress-free.

Here are top 10 creative piggy banks that will make money accumulating even more fun!

1. His / Her Bank

This is such a smart idea: when ever a coin gets to “his” budget, it inevitable ends up in “her” budget:

2. Bank Face

I am not sure what the actual idea is behind it: but this is quite funny – whenever you tuck a coin into it, the face actually moves the way it looks like it “eats” the coin. Definitely, to see the face move again and again you will be sure to spend a lot of money before this stops being funny:

3. Coin Bank Room Divider

Besides being a good storage facility for your saved money, this actually looks good and will fit your interior. Besides, when you have nothing to do, you can kill an idle hour counting how much money you have collected so far:

4. Grenade Piggy Bank

5. Bomb Bank

Similar to the previous one but a bomb:

6. Darth Vader Bank

There’s some really cool symbolism here: hiding money in pure evil:

7. Spend/Save Coin Bank

“The unpredictable pivoting tray collects, deflects and randomly deposits coins into either the ‘Save’ or ‘Spend’ section. It’s a win, win!”

8. Golden Egg Coin Bank

Inspired by the fable of the Goose with the Golden Egg by Aesop:

9. Financial Crisis Piggy

Not sure how much money it can store but it definitely rocks!

10. Coin Lamp

The idea behind this coin bank is simply genius: if you want to put the light on, feed it a coin – a great incentive to put some coins daily:

Managing your household budget is harder than it may seem: you need to take into account so many things, calculate all your (possible) expenses and (if you are smart and frugal) save something for the future.

Things become even harder if you run a (large) family where everyone has his own needs and you have to think for all of your family members.

Various people have different tricks – this post offers only one possible solution getting money management help from free online tools that are designed to make your lives easier. Here are the 5 most usable of basic free online budgeting tools:

1. Buxfer

Buxfer is a handy utility that will be helping you manage your monthly budget.

Monitoring: Set spending limits per category and stay within those limits by monitoring your expenses and getting real-time alerts on your mobile device.

Reminders: Get email reminders when your bills are due.

Charts and graphs: Foresee your financial future and meet your financial goals with help of various visualization tools:

Accessibility: Access Buxfer with your Blackberry, iPhone, SMS, email, Twitter, Facebook, iGoogle, Netvibes and more.

2. ClearCheckbook

ClearCheckbook is an extremely easy way to track your spending, set a budget, and organize your finance.

Plan and save: Set your spending limits and when you would like them to reset and the tool willl track everything for you.
Moreover, go back and look at previous months limits and how close to your limit you came.

Compare: Get visualized data on all your history and stats for easier management and comparison:

Scheduling: Set and schedule your transactions (including recurring transactions) and get notified when your payments are due.

3. MoneyTrackin

MoneyTrackin is a free online tool allowing you to track all your expenses and income without effort:

Manage: Log all your transactions (expenses/income) and tag them to organize them better. Grab visualized reports and summaries of your spendings:

Discuss: Share tips with other users and take advantage of the community knowledge to save money.

4. Wesabe

Wesabe is a free money management utility that combines easy-to-use budgeting tools with a thriving community of people anonymously sharing ideas and advice to help everyone get more value for their money.

Manage and Compare: Set spending targets and track how close you are to the limit:

Share: Discuss your money issues, saving tips, etc:

5. PearBudget

PearBudget is an easy-to-use, almost free ($3 per month) budgeting tool allowing to manage your spendings.

Step 1: Select the categories you want to use in your budget;

Step 2: Drag each category to the appropriate column: monthly expenses (like groceries or rent) versus irregular expenses (like car maintenance or property taxes)

Step 3: Set the amount of money you plan to spend on each category;

Step 4: Set your planned monthly income;

Get your budget and summary of your budget:

Smart shopping means buying only what you really need, finding the lowest price possible and never paying more than the thing is worth.

Buying certain stuff used is a smart idea: for example, many people choose to buy or borrow kids’ stuff from their friends and relatives (because children grow fast and they don’t want to spend much money on the things they will need no longer than 6 months or so).

But saving does have its limits as well. Here are 5 things you better not buy used:

1. Used Shoes

People may want to buy used shows for various reason: they may want save on footwear they don’t need often or even happen to need it only once (like wedding shoes for example) or they may just love vintage style overall.

Here are some reasons why you should avoid buying used shoes:

1. Think about many bacteria and fungal infections that might be found there;
2. Shoes tend to mold to feet of people who wear them for some time; shoes worn by someone else have been adjusted to their feet and will unlikely to mold to your feet.

2. Used Mattress

The problem with a used mattress is that you don’t know who used it before and you are never sure you cleaned it well: a mattress has many layers and it can be stuffed with extra material – so you never know how deep someone else’s bacteria got.

Of course, people may say that you still sleep on used mattresses in the hotels or whenever you spend a night out of your home, but do you feel safe there? Do you want to feel the same way when sleeping at your own home?

Cleaning a used mattress may take you some serious effort: the best way to ensure the mattress is clean of any germs and insects is to hire a professional which is expensive and results in you saving nothing.

Besides, mattresses aren’t meant to last forever. The best ones are normally intended to be used no more than 10 years – so by buying an already used one you have a good chance to get yours expire in a couple of years.

3. Used Underwear

Maybe you like expensive designer underwear that you can’t afford but that reason is not enough to justify wearing another person’s underwear no matter how hard you tried to clean it.

Underwear is meant to be something intimate and personal, you don’t want to imagine who wore it before you, do you?

4. Used Cosmetics

It is funny to think anyone ever wants to sell used cosmetics but yes, they do. Even eBay, the huge stock of various (sometimes really weird) staff, prohibits selling used cosmetics:

Used cosmetics present some serious health and safety concerns because the products and applicators used to apply them often come into direct contact with the body.

5. Used Tissue

OK, this is rather a joke. Hopefully, you never got an idea to buy a used tissue or toilet paper but it looks like some people do:

Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

We’re at that time of year where many homes are already decorated for the holidays. One of my favorite December activities is driving around, looking at all of the holiday displays, lights, and various Christmas decorations. But wow. There are some seriously tacky holiday homes out there!

I often drive by one particular house in the neighborhood, and I ask myself nearly every time — “What were they thinking?” It’s the epitome of tacky Christmas displays. If there’s a blow-up lawn display or holiday cut-out to be found, it’s on that lawn. And it’s a pretty big lawn at that. As much as their holiday decorating makes my eyes want to bleed I do have to give the homeowners some credit. Somehow the crazy little menagerie of reindeer, snowmen, and Santas (seriously, how many Santas does one person need on their lawn?) manages to survive every wind storm we get. One of these days I half expect to see Santa finally take off in his sleigh.

This local eyesore is pretty bad, but it’s far from alone. Tacky holiday decorations can be found pretty much anywhere. What’s the worst you’ve seen?

Here are some of my personal picks for the tackiest Christmas decorations and decorating styles:

1. Lawn Snow Globes

I really don’t know what it is that bothers me about lawn snow globes — those huge, plastic (maybe vinyl?) air-filled snow globes. I like holiday cartoons. I like color. I like most things you could consider “cute.” But these things leave me scratching my head. “Why?” I have to ask.

Maybe it’s that they look like they’re more hassle than they’re worth. Maybe I’ve just been overexposed to other gigantic air-filled lawn ornaments blowing in the wind. I don’t know. But they strike me as incredibly tacky. I don’t expect everyone to agree. In fact, I can understand how kids would be attracted to them, so one on a family lawn might not be so bad. But two? Three? Yep, I’ve seen it. Remember folks, you don’t need both size and quantity to impress the neighbors during the holidays.

Credit: Uncle Paul T Birdman (via Flickr)

2. Abnormal Nativity Scenes

Look. I’m not a religious person, but even I feel a little bit offended (or maybe a better word is “perplexed”) when I see crazy nativity scenes displayed. I’m not talking about a big plastic Mary and Joseph here either. I can overlook the somewhat cheesy. But some people seem to take it just a wee bit too far — adding an odd mix of characters, the nativity scene below is a perfect example.

Credit: zen (via Flickr)

3. Dark-Colored Christmas Lights

Okay. I’m somewhat biased here. I’ve always preferred a “classic” look around Christmas, especially opting for white lights over multi-colored ones. What I will say about colored lights is that I’m glad so many individual colors are available these days, because they do seem to contribute to more creative holiday decorating. However, there’s a particular type of colored lights that looks absolutely atrocious. The colors are so dark that they look like a better fit for a creepy Halloween display than one around the winter holidays. Take a look at the difference below between more traditional colored Christmas lights and these dark ones I’ve been seeing more of lately. I’m not sure if this is simply a new style or a particular brand of lights with the overly dark appearance. What do you think about them?

Traditional colored Christmas lights – Credit: jspad (via Flickr)

Dark colored Christmas lights – Credit: Aaron Landry (via Flickr)

4. Extremely Bright White Christmas Lights

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m seeing more of these extremely bright white lights this year too. They’re generally LED lights from what I’ve seen, that emit a stark white glow. What’s wrong with that? Well, when they’re overdone on a home, frankly they can be kind of blinding. But it’s more than that. Where’s the “warmth?” Traditional white holiday lights always had a warmer feel to them — more of a cream color than truly white. Again, I’m biased because I love those traditional white lights. But still….

Now don’t get me wrong. I think LED lights in general are a fantastic idea. Who wouldn’t want to save money and help the environment with LED lights? (You, in the back, put your hand down!) All I’m saying is that if we can get LED Christmas lights in various colors, why not figure out how to give us our good old fashioned “white” as well?

Traditional white lights – Credit: jpstanley (via Flickr)

Traditional white lights – Credit: Sister72 (via Flickr)

Bright white lights – Credit: Daedrius (via Flickr)

Bright white lights – Credit: bigtallguy (via Flickr)

5. Net Lights

To be fair, net holiday lights can be either a hit or miss. Sadly, most that I see are complete misses. What are they? They’re basically a square or rectangular net of lights. The concept is a good one — you can use a net to ensure uniformity in your rows of lights (neatness counts, right?). The “tacky” nature comes in when people toss a single net of lights over a bush or tree without covering it. You’re not supposed to know it’s a net being used! You’re supposed to use more than one if necessary to completely cover your hedge (or whatever you’re attempting to illuminate). I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. A lot of folks seem to disagree and be quite content with half-assed shrub coverage. More power to them.

Net lights – Credit: H-monk (via Flickr)

These are my five “favorite” holiday decorating disasters. What are yours?

Doesn’t Christmas in the recession seem more depressing than fun?

More often than not Christmas shopping and gifts budget is almost impossible to put under control.

So here’s a major treat for your heart: Christmas decorations, gifts and hacks that won’t cost you a penny. And what is more, they all actually look cool!

The tips listed there have three reasons to appeal to you: these things are (1) free, (2) eco-friendly and (3) totally re-usable. So let’s celebrate a green Christmas on a budget this year:

1. Christmas Tree

Glass Bottle Christmas Tree: Do you like drinking bier? Do you prefer glass bottles? Do you know that the fun never stops even when the bottle is empty? Here’s a great idea for you to recycle those green glass bottles into a glamorous tree:

Hard Drives Christmas Tree: This one should appeal to real computer geeks. “In total there are around 70 old SCSI hard drives, between 9gb and 18gb in size each”:

Plastic Bottles Christmas Tree: This hanging Christmas Tree is made of 300 recycled water bottles. The installation looks beautiful casting and reflecting beams of light and thus creating an eye-catching display:

Also be sure to check this post for numerous ideas of less impressive but still 100% eco-friendly Christmas Trees.

Recycled Christmas Decor

This cute snowman made of plastic cups would look great in your house and I am sure your kids will enjoy creating it:

Plastic Bottle Snow Flakes: The author of this artistic design offers to use it as a room divider or a curtain. I think these look like snow flakes and they will definitely contribute to your home Christmas spirit:

Christmas Wreaths

Stay-at-home moms should appreciate this Christmas wreath. It is made of white buttons and looks really nice:

This wreath consists of an old dead power source, an old mouse, an extra power cable, two CDs, and an extra fan cable (by the way, here’s another geeky wreath (and one more) for you if you like this one)…

Christmas Gifts

This “ship in a bottle” motif is a whimsical way to wish your beloved ones happy Christmas. I am sure the one who receives a message like this will never forget it. Wouldn’t you like to make this Christmas special?

This nice candle holder gift made from recycled CDs will take you no more than 10 minutes to create. Just take a couple of old CDs, microwave them for about 5 seconds and add cute candles:

Snow in a jar: all you need is to take a glass jar, attach pieces of a small plastic landscape (available at toy and novelty stores) and fill the jar with water and a sprinkle of glitter. Your kids will be impressed and inspired (oh btw, and here’s a similar concept you may be interested in):

Christmas Lights

Ping Pong LED lights: Has it ever occurred to you that you can turn Ping Pong balls into multi-color fairy lights? Follow these instructables and you will create one!

This “Candelabra” may be too much for your living room but it can be turned into an unforgivable Christmas decoration:

This glowing jar can be used all over the year but on Christmas it can make a killer holiday decoration (oh, and it can be a nice Christmas gift as well). Inside the Sun Jar is a highly efficient solar cell, a rechargeable battery and three low energy LED lamps.

To make these cool wine bottle lights you will need empty wine bottles, a string of Christmas lights, and a drill.

50 plastic cups and 100 multi-color mini-lights are needed to create one sparkle ball. But the result is well worth it: the color and lights effects are impressive: