I am a sucker. This is no secret. I can’t watch the shop at home channels because I will end up in the poor house. If you’re a sucker like me or if you’re just curious if the product is as good as it sounds, here is a buying guide for the five most popular products sold on TV.

Most of the time whatever I buy never works like it does on TV, with the exception of a couple of things. I'll get to that in a minute.

Shake Weight

We have all seen the ridiculous commercial for it and it claims to sculpt your arms in just six minutes per day by shaking this thing around. The workout on the DVD actually takes nine minutes which isn’t too bad. Most importantly, though, two of my friends have it and they say it works. However, if you’re not willing to spend $24.95 plus shipping on the Shake Weight, you can always buy dumbbells. A test conducted with a group of people who worked out with two and a half pound dumbbells for 30 minutes a day, three days a week actually had better results.


Sham Wow

Remember Vince from the Slap Chop commercials? Well, he and his headset are back hawking a towel that’s supposed to absorb 12 times its weight in liquids, plus it’s supposed to be good for cleaning electronics like TVs and computer monitors. The good news is that ShamWow actually holds 13 times its weight in liquids, but the bad news is that it loses its absorbency after just a few washings. My parents own this and they love it! Tests show, though it was good for cleaning electronics, overall a regular towel worked just fine for most spills. Don't tell my Dad though. He's mesmerized.


NuWave Oven

It’s only worth paying $150 for if you don’t have a regular oven. The NuWave Oven does cook your food faster, mostly because you don’t have to preheat it, but it dries out your food and it’s no good if you want to reheat stuff. It doesn’t cook pizzas, though so I won't be buying it.


George Foreman Grill

I own this. I'm not going to lie, the George Foreman Grill is great when it's raining or too cold to grill and you're craving grilled food. It's basically dummy proof. I've made chicken, burgers, and kebabs on it. When you're done cooking and it's unplugged, stick a soaking wet paper towel between the plates and let it sit there while you're eating. When you go to clean up, the mess literally just wipes away. Totally worth it.


Wen by Chaz Dean

I am so mean to my hair. Between washing, coloring and heat styling, I would beat the snot out of my hair. I would try deep conditioning treatments once per week and sometimes twice per week because my hair had gotten so dry. No matter what I did, it didn't work. One day I asked a friend what she used on her hair and she told me she used Wen. I immediately ordered some and haven't regretted it once.

Have You Bought Anything off TV?

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