In the present time, my cable company is using this method to convince me that I won’t have a happy life unless I have every channel known to man. Which is why my current cable bill is $1,370,533 per month.

Especially sunscreens. I’m a pale person, so I buy the highest SPF possible in all my beauty products, and keep lots of sunscreen on hand at all times. The question is, how long can I really keep this stuff, before it goes bad?

This, of course, brought me a new problem: How to get rid of my old TV. (In my community, if you try to throw out electronics, they tie you to the back of a hybrid car and drag you through the bicycle-choked streets all the way to the farmer’s market.)

When I actually bought a new TV, I was more thrifty. That’s because I love any opportunity to do research on the internet. And hey, it worked. My new TV and I are in blissful appliance love.

I’m a spring/fall person, for the simple reason that my look works better when I don’t appear to be dying of heat stroke. Also, my sunscreen budget goes up sharply as soon as the weather gets warm.

It’s time for me to toss out most of my sunscreen and summer makeup from last year, so I’m in the market for new beauty products. This doubles as my shopping list.

Picking the right sunscreen won’t help much if you don’t put it on correctly and frequently. This is the way to avoid those streaks and spots that make you look silly … and raise your risk of skin cancer.