online shopping

Have a pile of post-holiday cards now lining stocking after stocking? With a long weekend ahead of us, there's plenty of time to make use of the stack of $25 iTunes gift cards. Fill your downtime with an impromptu 2011 cinematic retrospective, by renting these six movies (all $4 per rental) that debuted this year.

• Apollo 18 — Why didn't NASA send more astronauts to the moon? The found footage-style film explores what really exists on our satellite.
• Super 8 — The charming tale of budding kid filmmakers in a 1970s small town takes a sci-fi twist with a crop of disappearances.
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes — The modern prequel to the classic film may have you wondering whose side you'd be on: human or ape.
• X-Men: First Class — The precursor to the X-Men saga reveals the creation and early days of our favorite superheroes.
• Cowboys & Aliens — Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford team up as fearsome cowboys to protect Earth and the Old West from alien takeover.
• Thor — By the hammer of Thor, this was one of the year's better superhero movies. Dazzling action scenes perfect for a comic book junkie.

Now consider yourself caught up on the year's sci-fi and superhero movies, with $1 to spare!

Source: Apple

Shopping is quickly moving to the mobile world, with stores offering deals on the go and only accessible via mobile devices. Now, consumers can get in on the draw of selling their own goods to a mobile world with the new shopping app Poshmark.

Forget the old days of dragging bags of unused clothes to thrift stores hoping your trash becomes someone else's treasure (and let's face it, those buyers are so picky); Poshmark turns the hassle of fashion resale into an easy digital experience all within the comfortable confines of an iPhone. Created by the same brains behind social fashion website Kaboodle, Poshmark came to life "so that anyone can easily convert their closet into a stylish boutique with their phones," according to founder and CEO Manish Chandra.

Based on virtual events called Posh Parties, app users can enter a specific party — designer accessories, for example — browse goods, interact with other guests, and list items from their own closets for sale. The experience gets even more social by sharing listings on Facebook and inviting friends to future Posh Parties.

Of course, the employees of the Poshmark marketplace are always on hand ensuring that transactions go smoothly, and that all home sellers and customers keep coming back to the app to score fellow fashionistas' finds.

Are visions of online shopping carts and free shipping coupons already dancing in your head? The advent of this year's holiday shopping spree is already on many retailers minds now that November is in full swing, and Amazon is enticing customers to get a jump start on the madness with their Black Friday Deals page.

Though Black Friday isn't until the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday follows the holiday weekend, Amazon's Black Friday Deals page is now hosting a countdown to Black Friday daily deals page. A little bit of everything from the retailer is on sale including electronics (of course), DVDs, video games, toys, magazines, and books. Select "lightning deals" are also being revealed throughout the day, and are up for grabs only for a limited time.

If you want to check off items on your holiday gift list early, stay up to date on each day's Black Friday deals through the iPhone app, Twitter, and Facebook.

We've given you a few tips on how to prevent yourself from going coupon-crazy, but I recently used one of the coupon resell sites for myself and to great success! For people who have a stash of old coupons from sites like PopSugar City, Groupon, and LivingSocial — CoupRecoup will be your new best friend. The site is pretty much the Craigslist for online coupons, and I actually managed to sell two coupons that were going to expire soon.

To hear how my transactions went, read on.