It was March when we started studying Florida properties on Zillow, we were both surprised at how affordable things seemed compared to California. When we learned that Florida has no state income tax we really felt compelled to look harder.

I have had a love affair with Florida ever since my parents took our family there for vacation in 1960. In the 80's my company started providing installation and repair service for small cruise ships all over the state. Mary had only visited Florida once in her life on a whirlwind two-day business trip, she spent all her time in a ballroom listening to company meetings and got to see none of the natural beauty except for the ocean at sundown. It was finally time for her to really experience the Sunshine State first hand.

Our first Florida trip in 2014 took us to Key Largo where we saw incredible fish and birds. We swam in the warm ocean waters and ate real fresh seafood for dinner. From there we drove up the East Coast and spent four days at the Melbourne Hilton right on the ocean. While there we contacted a realtor and began looking at properties in the area. The trip ended with us spending a couple of days in St Augustine and finally departing from Jacksonville International airport. We packed a lot into a little over a week.

The following month we were back in Melbourne Florida again, Mary had business there and I looked at ten more properties. We returned one more time the following month which was now August of 2014. We found a gorgeous custom built home with 10 foot ceilings and a two acre backyard that seemed to fit our needs. Our agent put in our offer but it was 15 minutes too late, the home sold for cash to a lottery winner.

Back at home in California we compiled a list of over 150 properties based on lot size, location, cost and other factors. We made one more trip a month later, this time I looked at 14 more properties. Our agent was so helpful, he grew to understand the exact kind of unique place we were looking for. With four trips under my belt I was getting tired of the journey flying from LAX to Orlando and then driving to Melbourne. It was almost October, winter was coming on and the holidays would be upon us shortly.

Back home in California we decided to quit looking, at least take a break, the travel was taking a toll on us both. We decided to restart our search the following April. Mary said that would work best with her work too so we agreed, stop looking. One evening a couple of days later Mary said "look what I found on Zillow". There it was, 5 acres with all the amenities we'd been looking for and only 12 minutes away from Mary's future work location. We looked at each other, grinned and simultaneously said "Call Troy" (our Florida real estate agent).

He looked at the property for us the next day (Friday) and called us around noon, "Mark it's exactly what you've been looking for". We quickly booked me a plane trip to Melbourne on Monday and I got a chance to see the property Tuesday morning. Troy made me look at eight more properties, one even included a private island which was really cool, but at the end of the day we wrote a contract on what would become our home in Paradise. We closed on it on December 4th, 2014 and got our Florida drivers licenses on December 31st. No more California income tax for us.

We are not a normal couple. We don't have much furniture but we have A LOT of recording studio and musical instrument equipment, 18,015 pounds of it to be exact (it got weighed during our move). The logistics of moving all this expensive fragile equipment is another whole story. Suffice to say here, we got it all to Florida with only a couple of minor casualties. Our California home sold on May 5, we had five offers the first week the property was on the market, it sold for $13,000 over our asking price.

While living in California we learned to shop for things online because driving on over-crowded freeways in LA is such a rotten experience. Why drive when UPS or FedEx or USPS will bring an item right to your front door. We honed our shopping skills to include all sorts of things, from tools to electronic parts, tuna to toilet paper, guitars and guitar strings, plants and fertilizer. It was and is an addictive way to get the stuff you want for the lowest price delivered right to your door.

People ask us all the time "where did you get that"? We started a blog so we could easily point friends, then the list grew and grew and here we are today. We sincerely hope that our links help you gain back time you would have spent driving around buying stuff. Here you will find unique, delicious and healthful food items you won't find in stores. Or maybe you just like saving money, how about toilet paper for half off the store price? Guitar strings for less than half the store price. And even if it's the same price as in the store, wouldn't it be great if 50 pound bags of dog food magically appear at your front door, who likes lugging that home?

Enjoy our links and let us know how it works for you :-)

Tell him Mary and Mark sent you!