by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer

Like beauty, value is in the eye of the beholder.

In other words: what one person sees as value, another person may not. Value, as I understand it, is a cost-to-worth relationship, and I can only tell you what I perceive as having value in Home purchases. It should be no surprise that bundles make up the majority of the best values on Home, as combined items sell for less in a pack than they do purchased separately. You may not want every item in a bundle, but when you like most of the items included, they can be quite a bargain.

Following are the items that I consider are the best value for the past month, and I’ll tell you why I think so for each item or package. This isn’t a list of my favorite things for the month, and they’re not always the least expensive item(s), either.

Note: I don’t number the items as this is not meant to be a top value to least value list; these are just my top choices for the month overall. I don’t include free items and I also don’t try to choose one of each type of item, such as estate, locomotion, furniture pack, clothing item, etc. If I had, this would have been a somewhat different list.

nDreams’ The Best of nDreams 2013 Bundle for $34.99. We all have are own opinion of what is the “best” that each developer makes; I consider this bundle more of a sampler of what nDreams had to offer last year, but there are a lot of outstanding items in this pack and it’s a great savings. Here’s your chance to pick up a large selection of items from one of our best and most prolific developers at a bargain price; these 25 items would total $94.25 if purchased separately – and that’s more than 60% off. You may have bought some of these items already, but it still could be a bargain, depending on what you purchased.

nDreams’ LMO – nDreams Lifestyle Bundle for $6.99. When I realized all that this bundle contained I wondered if it was another mis-priced item. These nine locomotions would cost $22.41 if purchased separately, which means the bundle is about 69% off. Of course, no discount is a bargain unless you like the items being sold, but these are some original and outstanding locomotions that you’ll very likely enjoy using. Even if the guys don’t use the two beauty items, the bundle is still a savings for them.

Lockwood’s Classic Miniskirt Value Pack for $1.49.  Ladies: If you haven’t bought this miniskirt bundle yet, stop reading and go buy it now. Even if you already own some of these colors, this eight-item bundle is still a great bargain. The original colors in this pack of black, white, red and petal pink were (and are) sold for $.99 each. The new colors of jade green, purple, brown and a floral print on a black background are being sold for $.49 each. That means these items would cost almost $6.00 ($5.92) if purchased separately. These are your basic and essential skirts to mix and match with your tops, shoes or boots, and accessories to make your own unique look.

VEEMEE’s Strut – Leggings – Bundle Volume 1 for $6.49.  Again for the ladies… If you love leggings with skirts or shorts; and boots or shoes, then this pack is definitely for you. Not only is it a great savings (almost half-off the total if the items were purchased separately) to buy the 12-piece bundle, it’s a lot of really great fashion to wear. Coupled with a sweater or warm-looking top, this is the perfect look for winter indoors.

VEEMEE’s Mini Vehicles – Military – Bundle for $6.49. Guys, this bundle is for you. (Of course any of you militant ladies might like to pick it up too!) Here’s another bundle that is almost half off from the total if purchased separately and it has four innovative locomotions besides. For $2.99 you can pick up any one of these: Attack Chopper,  Fighter Jet,  Tank, or APC, but if you want at least two of them, why not pick up the whole bundle for about another $.50?

Lockwood’s Chinese New Year Prosperous Wall Decoration or Chinese New Year Lucky Lantern Arch for $0.99 each.  While these items would look festive in almost any estate in Home, they are perfect for the Chinese-themed personal spaces, of course. If you own the Summer with Sunflowers Blooming space or the Plum Tree Pavilion Apartment or the Mahjong Apartment be sure to pick them up. The wall decoration is one item made from two bright red banners which have characters that say “Happy New Year” and “Wishing You Prosperity” and two smaller signs on either side that have the character for “Blessing”. The arch has is gold with four small signs with the character for “blessing” and eight red lanterns hung from it. In ancient China, red symbolized good fortune and joy.

VEEMEE’s Winter Activities Pack (for Male or Female) for $ 2.99.  By now we all probably have a lot of locomotions in our inventories – especially dances – and we may not even be very interested in purchasing many more of them. Still, every now and then a special pack comes along that’s hard to resist. This new five-animation bundle definitely falls into that category. With Winter still all around us and several new snow-covered personal estates, you’ll enjoy sliding, slipping, making snow angels, and two other activities.

JAM Games’ Mega Kitchen Bundle for $4.99. Do you love kitchens in your estates? If so, this bundle is for you. Purchased separately, it would cost a total of $8.97 for the three kitchen sets in this bundle. This is about a 45% discount. Each $2.99 set contains five $.99 items, which would be $4.95, purchased separately, and this is about a 40% discount. So the mega bundle is about 66% off from the total of $14.85 for 15 items priced at $.99 each. Or in simpler terms, you can buy one set for just under $3.00 or you can buy all three sets for just under $5.00.

Kovok’s Raven Culture I Bundle (male or female) for $2.49. These great bundles are a definite must for Goth lovers or even those who’d like to try out the look for the first time. Not only are they stylish, they are a great bargain at this price for five items, including a hairstyle. The guys can add claws, sunglasses, and piercings, while the ladies can add long nails, sunglasses, and spider earrings to complete the look for $.99 each item. Let’s welcome and support a new Home developer.

Sony’s Temple of Fratos – Free.  (I know I said I don’t include free items, but this is an exception.) January was the month to finish up your required challenges, accumulate the 4500 necessary points, and earn your new personal space from Sony. While these challenge-earned spaces seem to run on the small side (and the temple is no exception) these estates are little jewels and it’s easy to fill them with the 100 furniture slot limitation (unlike larger spaces). Sony has a selection of items in the Ancient Greek line that would look very good here and the exterior can easily be filled with trees, statuary, and additional fountains.

Although this past January was a five-Wednesday month, new content was only offered on four of them (as the first Wednesday of the month was New Year’s Day) and the first week had very few new items. This didn’t make it harder to choose ten items and/or bundles for my top ten list, however, because our top three producing developers were very busy making new content for us.

As always, I recommend that you shop carefully and preview any items or spaces that you intend to purchase, if possible. Don’t rush to own something and end up being an unhappy customer.

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