Some of you are coming into some money - $600 to $1,200 that you'll get from the IRS as part of what the newspapers are calling an economic stimulus package.

The idea is that many folks will spend that money. The added spurt of spending will trickle through the economy and make things OK again in theory.

I'm a patrotic guy. So today I'll help you spend your government windfall on high tech gadgets and gizmos.

The easy way out would be to buy a new computer. These days you can get a nice one for $1,200 or an completely adequate one for $600. But, unless your home computer no longer can do what needs doing, I'd advise against it. There are better ways to spend your money.

For instance, it would be smarter to spend part of that money on a black and white laser printer. Ink jet printers consume those expensive cartridges so fast that it's possible to spend an amount equivalent to the cost of the printer in just two or three months of
ink purchases.

Laser printers produce a black and white page at a fraction of the cost. Even with heavy use, cartridges often last months. At the cost of gas these days, eliminating extra trips to the office supply store can add to the savings.

C-net, a site I really trust, lists its top five black and white laser printers at this address: http://reviews.cnet.com/4370-3155_7-146-105.html?tag=lnav. Many of you will recoup the cost of the laser in just a few months. Once you own a laser, you can reserve your ink
jet printer for printing photographs and documents that need to be in color and use the laser for everything else.

You can spend as little as $100 to $200 on a very nice laser printer. That means we have money left. So lets keep shopping.

One of the most satisfactory purchases I've made in the past few years was for a wide-screen LCD monitor. The wide screen lets me put two documents side-by-side on the screen. And the text is easy to read on a large screen. Unlike old CRT monitors, these screens are lighter and - as a bonus - use just a fraction of the electricity.

I've had good luck with screens made by View Sonic, Dell, Sony and HP. Get a screen that's 20-inches or even larger to reap the full benefits. Even in the 21- to 22-inch range, you'll just pay $200 to $300. I promise, switching to a nice screen is like sending your eyeballs on vacation.

You'll notice that even if you followed my advice and purchased a $200 laser printer and a $300 monitor, there's still money left to spend.

So lets be a little crazy and buy something fun. Many of you have HDTV sets now. But not all of you have sound systems to match. Adding a five-speaker sound system makes an enormous difference, especially when watching movies.

Consider a system that uses wireless speakers. In many homes, it's hard to run speaker wires invisibly.

Many systems add a DVD player to the system. If you already own a DVD player, look for a system without one. Here's my thinking on that. The standard for DVD movies is shifting to high definition discs using the Blu-ray format. But I think prices for Blu-ray players will dive over the next year. So you can save money by avoiding that expense.

You'll pay anywhere from $200 to $600 or more for a system that includes speakers, a separate sub-woofer for movie theater-like bass, and a amplifier. Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Denon and Bose all make systems that sound great. Spend some time listening and then decide
how much you'd like to spend.

I'm going to run of space before you run out of money. And there's still so much shopping left to do. So have fun looking at GPS systems for your car, digital cameras, game consoles, fancy cellphones and the like.

And hold your head proud while you spend your money - you're a high tech patriot.