Nothing like winter-weather-induced cabin fever to get your home decorating juices flowing. Spurred on by your utter contempt for everything you currently own, these inexpensive living room decorating tips will keep both your local donation center and bank account happy. Once you’ve charitably pilfered your goods away, keep reading to shop for some creative albeit budget-friendly decoration upgrades.

Carry About Vase

Toss your grandmothers keepsakes that you never wanted anyway. Replace them with these Carry Around Vases, sold as one but worth buying a couple extra. Adding height and reflective surfaces to your living room is a quick and simple way to open up the room.  These will do wonders for your coffee table or curio cabinets. Pop in a trio of wild flowers or start a miniature succulent garden to capitalize on their airy, clean appearance.

Check Prices on All Modern

Olivia + Poppy Simoney Peonies Floral and Botanical Peel and Stick Wallpaper Roll

It’s not for commitment phobes, wallpaper that is. So this gorgeous Olivia + Poppy peel + stick is a great starter version for those interested in upgrading their living room without the responsibility or expense. This type of inexpensive decoration works for dorm rooms, apartments, rentals, and small spaces. With a super sharp pair of scissors and a couple extra ounces of patience, a steady hand and weekend are all you need to master this temporary, impactful upgrade.

Check Prices on Perigold

Tucson Console Table

High on stuff but low on funds? This Tucson Console Table slides behind your sofa and gives your Roku remote, library book, Kindle, cell phone, tablet, wine glass, and growler a resting place for the evening while you Netflix and chill without the clutter. For less than the cost of a night out on the town, this gives you just one more excuse to stay in. #treatyoself

Check Prices on Target

Sunnydaze Decor Zen Ventless Bio Ethanol Tabletop Fireplace

If your recent outdoor Tinder date went as well as you expected, there’s a chance your going to want to bring them over for a glass of wine by the fireplace. But as luck would have it, your condo didn’t come with a fireplace. Or washer and dryer, but that’s another issue entirely. This sweet little tabletop fireplace brings some zen to your den on the cheap, firing up the night in a safe but affordable kind of way.

Check Hayneedle for Prices

BelleBotanica Watercolor Herbs Print Set No. 1

There is something so elegant and ethereal about this print set from BelleBotanica. It’s simple. It’s clean. It’s quick. Pick up some 5×7 inch frames from Hobby Lobby on the super cheap to square out your new art gallery. Bonus points to the weekend warrior that also plants some of these varietals on their back porch for a true upgrade.

Check Prices on Etsy

Litex Brushed Nickel Mesh Min Pendant Shade

Here’s a bright idea! Replace all the lamp shades on the pendant lights suspended from the ceiling above the coffee table in your living room! This inexpensive upgrade will make the whole room shine in a brand new way! The brushed nickel mesh also helps to give your living space a more masculine feel, which works well in conjunction with the more flowerly items seen earlier in this post.

Check Prices on Bed, Bath, & Beyond

6 Inexpensive Items to Upgrade Your Living Room this Weekend

Clocking in just shy of 4,000 pieces, this $250 LEGO set is a replica of the McAllister home from the 1990 Christmas classic Home Alone and will be available in time for the holidays this year (likely to sell out quickly).

In addition to the rebuild of the McAllister home, you will get five minifigs; Kevin, his mom Kate, Old Man Marley and the two robbers, Harry & Marv. The LEGO set recreates all of Kevin’s classic booby traps like the tarantula, iron smacking Marv in the face, Harry’s burnt hair and many more.

In addition, it includes the backyard treehouse which Kevin used to escape the robbers as well as Harry & Marv’s van. The set is split into 24 bags which allows you to build in the order of the film’s plotline. The home includes all 4 floors of the home, including the attic and basement. It also comes with batteries in order to run the areas with lights, like the furnace.

Here’s the link to check out the set at Lego.com. It has a release date of November 1st and will likely sell out quickly as resellers will put it on eBay. You can check out pictures of the set below:

Shut Up and Take My Money: LEGO Home Alone House

Releasing on August 1st, 2021 from the LEGO Ideas collection, the LEGO Seinfeld set (21238) is a recreation of Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment in the classic 90’s sitcom. Clocking in at 1326 pieces, the apartment design includes the living room, bookshelf, kitchen area and hallway leading to the back bedroom.

The set also comes with Jerry’s stand-up stage, typically used to start an episode as well as minifigs for Jerry, Elaine, George, Kramer and Newman. Other fun additions include Frank Costanza’s Festivus pole, George’s fishing rod to catch a marble rye, Elaine’s goldfish from the lost car episode, and pretzels for Kramer’s ill-fated acting career.

The set includes stage lighting as well, to give the set the appearance of a sitcom set rather than a real apartment. There are Easter eggs hidden all over the apartment as well like a muffin top, the Commando 8 air conditioner, a Prognosis Negative videotape and a painting of Uncle Leo.

As with all current LEGO sets, the LEGO Seinfeld set includes step-by-step instructions for builders, ideal for anyone new to LEGOs. The model measures 5.5 in. high, 13 in. wide and 7 in. deep, which works for most shelf space.

The set will officially go on sale on August 1 for $79.99, but LEGO VIP customers can get early access to the set on July 21, 2021. You can see full details about the set here: LINK (and more images of the set below)

Shut Up and Take My Money: LEGO Seinfeld

Playing off the nostalgia of growing up in the late Eighties / early Nineties, Target is selling an exclusive electronic gizmo that puts an old, familiar game in the palm of your hand.

The handheld Oregon Trail game puts you back in that covered wagon making your away across America in search of a new life in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, circa 1848.

Sure, you could find any number of flash emulators to play this game for free on the Web. But this $25 device comes with ridiculous size buttons, the same found on those enormous keyboards from the decade of Sony Walkmans, Talking Alf and the Back to the Future franchise.

Similar to the 80’s version, you can name all the members of your party; ideal for the tombstones when they inevitably die of dysentery. You can also hunt for food using the directional pad and curse at the game when it only lets you bring back 25 pounds of the 1,000 pound bear you just shot. Speaking of hunting, this version of Oregon trail is more similar to the MS-DOS version than the Apple II, specifically because you can free walk around the hunting map.

The handheld Oregon Trail game is sold exclusively at Target for a price of $25. You can find it online as well as in-store (and likely eBay once the retailer sells out of the production run).

Shut Up And Take My Money: Handheld Oregon Trail Game

One of the biggest drawbacks when transitioning to a smart lock is being forced into the limited design options of the smart lock creator. Level Lock aims to change this, by installing the smart lock tech in the internal mechanism of a deadbolt as opposed to the outer lock hardware.

Level Lock replaces the deadbolt hardware installed within the door, thus you have the flexibility to install any type of turn-lock on the interior of the door and key / button lock for the outside of the door. It effectively hides the fact that the door has smart locking capabilities, since all the tech is hidden inside the door.

The device is powered by a single CR2 battery which is rated for 12 months of use. Connecting via Bluetooth to your smartphone, the Level Lock app allows you to lock and unlock your door as well as receive notifications and track the battery life of the lock. For remote access, it is limited to Apple HomeKit Hub. The company is likely to add more compatible devices in the future.

For those with a finicky landlord, this could be an ideal option for renters in apartment buildings, since you can keep the outside door hardware. Of course, you will have to pay the steep price. The Level Lock has a $229 MSRP, somewhat higher than smart locks from companies like August and Wyze.

The Level Lock comes in two sizes 2 and 3/8 inch backset (60mm) as well as 2 and 3/4 inch (70mm). You can check out a video of the Level Lock below:

Shut Up and Take My Money: Level Lock Smart Lock

Launching in early August, LEGO has created a new building set that recreates the design of Nintendo’s original gaming console, the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.

Clocking in at 2,646 LEGO pieces, the set includes a lifesize console with opening door, a Super Mario Bros cartridge that fits inside the LEGO console, and a NES gamepad with working buttons. Similar to the original NES, the cartridge slot pushes down into the machine to lock the game into place.

In addition, the build includes a retro, 1980’s style, mini-television on a small stand. The television has dials on the right side for changing the channel, switching between UHF & VHF, along with knobs for brightness and contrast control. There’s even an antenna on top.

After completing the build, you can turn the crank on the side of the television to move a vertical, treadmill-style rotating band that simulates Mario’s first level within the game.

Interestingly, the new set is also compatible with Mario figurine in the Adventures of Mario Starter Kit (also shipping in early August). If you plug that Bluetooth-enabled Mario figurine on top of the television, it will produce sound effects, visuals and music from the classic video game.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a LEGO set without a steep price tag to entry. The LEGO Super Mario Nintendo Entertainment Center will cost $229.99 when it launches on August 1. In addition, the LEGO Adventures of Mario Starter Kit will cost $59.99. The LEGO NES is rated for builders age 18 and up while the Starter kit is rated for ages 6 and older.

You can watch a video of the LEGO build below:

Shut Up and Take My Money: LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System

On February 4th, Nvidia has pushed their cloud gaming service live to the public, exiting an extensive beta period. Called GeForce Now, it’s designed to allow gamers access to extremely high end gaming machines via streaming.

Basically, Nvidia connects to your existing gaming libraries, on services like Steam & Epic, and allows you to play cloud-based copies of those games via GeForce Now

This could be a particularly inexpensive solution for people that have an older PC or Macs, unable to push high-end graphic performance. The service also works on Nvidia Shield devices as well as Android devices (with 2GB with Android 5.0 (L) or later).

At launch, Nvidia is offering two tiers, a free-to-play option and a $5-a-month Founders edition. The 1st tier is limited to 1-hour sessions and you have to wait in a queue to connect. The Founders level offers a priority queue as well as sessions up to 6 hours as well as RTX (ray tracing) activated.

Of course, the quality of your stream is going to be highly dependent on the bandwidth you pay for. For instance, streaming at the highest bitrate at 1080p and 60 frames per second will require a 50 Mbps download speed. And if you have monthly data caps with your ISP, you could quickly hit your cap as that setting streams 15 GB of data per hour.

Of course, you can scale down data use with Nvidia’s preset data profiles. You also have the option of scaling up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second. Be aware that anyone else on your network could potentially reduce the quality of your gaming stream if using other services like Netflix.

With high-end gaming PC’s potentially costing in the thousands (depending on how much you sink into your monitor / gaming cards), Geforce Now could be a bargain option for someone that simply can’t afford to upgrade for new, advanced games like CyberPunk 2077.

You can sign up for the free tier here. Just FYI, the Founders edition does come with a 90-day free trial. You can play for the first 90 days before being charged. Check out the video below to see GeForce Now on multiple platforms:

Shut Up and Take My Money: Geforce Now Cloud Gaming Service

Announced this week for a September 20 launch date, the Nintendo Switch Lite is a less expensive version of the popular Nintendo Switch that sacrifices size and TV docking for a reduction in MSRP.

Starting at $199 (as opposed to the $299 price point of the full-sized Switch), the Switch Lite screen size is 5.5-inches rather than 6.2-inches and the controllers on the left & right side of the screen are not detachable.

On the positive side, the battery life is supposedly more robust than the original Switch. The Switch Lite will last three to seven hours, depending on the game. That’s 30 minutes longer than the original and Nintendo claims players will get 4 hours of Zelda on the Switch Lite as opposed to three hours.

The resolution on the 5.5-inch screen is identical to the original, 720p. That may end up looking sharper than the original model, the same number of pixels packed into a smaller space. Nintendo ditched the four-button d-pad on the left controller for a more traditional d-pad.

Unlike the OG Switch, you won’t be able to connect the Switch Lite to a dock and play games on your HDTV. While you will be able to connect a Switch Pro controller or other joy-cons controllers to the Switch Lite, you will need to look for other ways to charge the controllers.

It will be available on September 20 in three colors (yellow, gray, and turquoise) for a MSRP of $199.99. There will also be a special edition (seen below) for the release of Pokémon Shield and Sword on November 8.  Check the launch video / pictures below for more information as well as Ben’s Buying Advice:

Ben’s Buying Advice

Deals on the original Nintendo Switch have fallen as low as $240 in the last 12 months with a typical discount in the 15% range. More bundles have appeared as well, usually including extras like 12-months of Nintendo Online or a bonus game.

Discounts on the Nintendo Switch Lite will likely be difficult to find during the first six months post-release. Look for store-wide coupons in November (related to Black Friday sales) that could reduce the price up to 10%. After the first six months, expect to see discounts similar to the sale price on the Nintendo 3DS XL, likely in the $175 price range.

Shut Up and Take My Money: Nintendo Switch Lite

While there’s always been a market for budget smartphones in the U.S., Google’s new contender for that market segment is likely going to be one of the most secure phones (as well an extremely good budget option for photographers).

The Google Pixel 3A smartphone was announced by Google this week, a less expensive version of the the Pixel 3. The 64GB base model starts at $399, a steep drop from Apple’s $749 “budget” option, the iPhone XR.

The  Pixel 3A includes one of the best features of the Pixel 3, the 12.2MP dual-pixel rear camera. That camera includes an impressive Night shot mode for taking pictures in dark lighting situations (without using flash), a depth editor & color pop selector, a portrait mode and unlimited photo storage with Google Photos.

The Pixel 3A comes in two screen sizes, 5.6-inch or 6-inch OLED models. It offers up to 30 hours of battery life as well as USB-C quick charging. It doesn’t not have wireless charging, but that would have been extremely unlikely at this price point.

Regarding specs, the phone is outfitted with a Snapdragon 670 processor, 4GB of RAM, active edge sensors, a headphone jack and Android 9.0 Pie (with a minimum of three years support on operating system updates).

You can find more information on Google’s site about the new phone here or watch the announcement video below:

Shut Up And Take My Money: Google Pixel 3A Smartphone

Announced recently, Google is attempting to perfect the ability to stream games into your home without having to invest lots of money into hardware.

Called Google Stadia, games will run on servers within Google’s data centers. Players will connect via a computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, smart TV, a dumb TV with an attached Chromecast; basically a video screen with an internet connection.

To play the game, users can use a thrid party controller or keyboard / mouse combo as well as Google’s own controller, designed specifically for the service. Google is aiming for streams up to 4K resolution as 60 frames per second, along with support for HDR and surround sound.

They also hope to scale to 8K resolution eventually at 120 frames per second. Of course, this will all be dependent on a users’s connection speed. Anyone with a slower download speed may be restricted to lower resolutions, like 1080p at 3o frames per second. Google didn’t not indicate if there would be pricing tiers for each resolution level.

It’s likely that Google is attempting to make a play for Twitch users and try to bring those folks to YouTube for publishing live streams. Hypothetically, a user would be able to watch someone play a game, then immediately shift over to playing the game themselves, assuming it’s included in a subscription model.

Of course, one of the biggest roadblocks could end up being data caps put in place by ISP companies. Streaming 4K video off Netflix eats up roughly 7GB to 10GB of bandwidth per hour. If Google Stadia’s video feeds require similar data usage, playing a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 from start to finish (roughly 50 hours) could eat up 350GB to 500GB of data, potentially half a 1TB monthly data cap.

Google did not announce when Stadia would launch (beyond stating 2019) nor release any information on pricing. It’s possible Google will release more information during the Google I/O 2019 conference at the end of May. Microsoft is also rumored to be making a leap into streaming gaming, likely announcing around E3 during early June 2019.

You can check out a video of Google Stadia announcement below:

Shut Up and Take My Money: Google Stadia