At first, I thought this was just a regular online shopping site.
Let it load….thats when it gets interesting!
17
May
At first, I thought this was just a regular online shopping site.
Let it load….thats when it gets interesting!
15
May
You can’t always avoid the cost of convenience, but a little planning ahead will save you a lot
Things always seem to be expensive exactly when you need them. A bikini in May? Zero percent off. A tank of gas before your Saturday errands? Not cheap. That January vacation in the
But by planning ahead — which doesn’t require more time, just better use of your time — you can get great deals. Wait for the right day or month and invest time in making purchases instead of shopping on the fly, and you’ll see the annual savings start to add up.
Save Money on Groceries, Gas
Save $840
Redeem weekly
The estimated average weekly grocery bill for an American household is $90, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a food retailer and wholesaler trade association in Washington, D.C. By using a store’s discount card, you can shave about 18 percent off that cost. Another way to keep the register from ringing: Don’t bring the kids, who may ask for treats you weren’t planning on buying. You can also save by stocking up on coupons. www.couponcart.com or CoolSavings (www.coolsavings.com), and shop on double-coupon days if your grocer has them. Avoid buying prepared and packaged goods. For example, Consumer Reports found that two pounds of carrots cost $1.29, compared with $7.16 for the same amount of precut carrot sticks. Finally, stock up on freezable foods after their peak times. Gary Foreman, publisher of the Dollar Stretcher website (www.thedollarstretcher.com), notes that prices for turkeys are slashed after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Save $240
Redeem on Tuesdays
An American family with one car and one SUV or minivan consumes about 1,200 gallons of gas each year, according to the Federal Highway Administration. At any time, however, the price of a gallon of gas can vary by as much as 20 cents within a metropolitan area, says Brad Proctor, founder of GasPriceWatch, a consumer-advocacy website. To get the best bargain, avoid buying gas on weekends, when most people travel or run errands and gas stations raise prices accordingly. (Tip: Plan to take care of errands all at once instead of making extra trips.) Also, stay away from stations on toll highways, which charge high prices to their captive customers. To find the lowest price near your home or job on a given day, go to www.gaspricewatch.com or GasBuddy (www.gasbuddy.com) and enter your home or work ZIP code. These sites bring together volunteer “price spotters” (GasPriceWatch has 110,000) who regularly update the sites with prices at local stations. If you can stick to pumping once a week, says Proctor, you can often find the best prices on Tuesdays.
Save Money on Books, Health Club, Consumer Electronics
Save $100
Redeem anytime
The average American book-buying household purchases about 19 books a year, according to the Chicago-based industry research company Ipsos BookTrends, spending $176 in the process. To trim your family’s bill, wait for the paperback (which typically comes out six to nine months after the hardcover, at about half the price), or check sites like Powell’s Books (www.powells.com), Strand Book Store (www.strandbooks.com), www.amazon.com, and www.overstock.com for used and overstock books. If you buy a lot, consider an annual membership card from a chain like Barnes & Noble ($25) or Books-A-Million ($10), which will give you 10 percent off most in-store purchases. Remember, though, that you have to spend plenty of money on books annually (at least $250 at Barnes & Noble and $100 at Books-A-Million) to break even. Of course, the library offers the best deal: It’s free, as long as you remember to return the book before those 20-cents-a-day fines start piling up.
Save $149
Redeem at the end of the month
There are only so many “Two weeks free!” coupons out there, and eventually you’ll have to pay for the gym. The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), an industry group located in
Save $750 on a laptop computer
Redeem when a discount is offered
There is no set yearly schedule for sales on computers and consumer electronics, says Glenn Cunningham, director of the electronics store at Amazon.com. Instead, these items go on sale when manufacturers introduce a new version or need to sell a lot quickly to impress investors, says Tim Storm, president of FatWallet, a website that tracks consumer-goods prices. Last October, for example, computer maker Dell offered a one-day promotion that cut the prices of some laptops by 50 percent ($750) a few weeks before it was due to make a financial report to Wall Street. To take advantage of these sudden, deep discounts, decide exactly what you want to buy, then go to a site like www.SlickDeals.net, www.fatwallet.com, or TechBargains (www.techbargains.com), where you can check for the day’s latest discounts. The latter two sites let you set up free e-mail alerts that tell you when a specific item — or something in a general category, such as “Dell laptop” — has gone on sale.
Save Money on Dry Cleaning, Commuting
Save $30 on drapes or $50 on bed linens
Redeem in January, July, or August
Americans spend nearly $7.8 billion on dry cleaning each year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, much of it for low-priced orders (like shirts) and must-haves (suits for work). For expensive projects, like drapes, which run about $200 in a typical cleaning order, or bed linens, which can cost several hundred dollars, it’s best to have them cleaned in January, July, or August. Those are slow times for cleaners, when many offer discounts of about 15 percent on large items, says Nora Nealis, executive director of the National Cleaners Association, an industry group in
Save $500
Redeem anytime
You can save 30 to 40 percent on public-transportation costs by signing up for an employer’s commuter-savings program, which lets you buy tickets or fares with money that’s deducted from your paycheck before it’s taxed, says Laura Wheeler, the consumer-trend expert at the industry group WageWorks Center for Commuter Studies, in San Mateo, California. Suggest one of these programs to your employer if it isn’t currently offered — it saves the company money, too. If you take public transportation often enough, it also might be smart to buy a monthly pass. To see if you should, divide the cost of the pass by the number of times you’ll use it; if that amount is lower than the cost of a single ticket, buy the pass. There are some public-transportation systems that sell discounted advance tickets. The
Save Money on Movies, Directory Assistance
Save $175 on movie tickets
Redeem anytime
Movie tickets cost Americans $9.5 billion in 2003, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners, a
Save $60
Redeem anytime
At up to $2.50 each, those calls to directory assistance can really inflate a telephone bill. In 2004 Americans called 411 an average of two times a month, says Kathleen Pierz, managing director of the Pierz Group, a directory-assistance consulting and research company based in
Save Money on Vacation,
Save $193 per person
Redeem between February and April
While many airlines tout last-minute fares, the simplest ways to get the best price are to book far ahead; travel during “shoulder” seasons (just before and after peak travel times); and reserve your hotel, flight, and car all at the same time. Only 5 to 10 percent of an airline’s seats are reserved for fre-quent fliers, so if you want to get restricted frequent-flier tickets — the ones that eat the fewest miles — you’d better book about 11 months before your trip, as that’s when the airlines load seats into their computers, says Tim Winship, founder of www.travelocity.com, a site that provides information on mileage award programs. If you are paying for your seats and are willing to risk bad weather, it’s much cheaper to travel to popular destinations during shoulder seasons and to book hotel and flights as a package. Kari Swartz, a travel expert at the travel site Expedia, says that customers who book a hotel-and-flight package to one of its top 50 domestic and international destinations save an average of $193 on what they would have paid had they booked these separately. Shoulder trips — February in Europe, April in the
Save $32
Redeem seasonally
The average American household spends about $64 on holiday cards and gift wrap each year, according to the market-research firm Business Trend Analysts, in
Save Money on Summer Camp, Mortgage, New Car
Save $320
Redeem in September
Four weeks at a typical sleepaway summer camp costs $3,200, and an average camp raises its price 5 to 10 percent a year, according to Jeff Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association, a New York City–based organization that offers guidance in choosing a camp. To lower your camp costs, lock in your rate the year before. For a month or two after the end of each summer session, many camps offer early-bird specials, letting you sign up for next year’s camp at this year’s prices. This deal typically applies to general summer camps but not to one-week specialty sports camps, says Eve Eifler, who runs TipsOnTripsAndCamps. com, a referral service that matches kids and camps. Some camps may even let you lock in a lifetime rate if you’re willing to commit to — and pay for — several years in advance.
Save $933 a year
Redeem Monthly
Sometimes it seems as if you’ll never pay off your mortgage. The typical American homeowner has about $70,000 left on it, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, and about a third owe more than $100,000. To cut down the number of years before you’re finally free of debt, make one extra mortgage payment each year, says Susan Jones, the author of The Money Rules: 50 Ways Savvy Women Can Make More, Save More, and Have More! (McGraw-Hill, $13). Instead of sending in a whole extra month, which can be difficult for many families, divide your monthly payment by 12, then add that small amount to each check you send to the bank. You’ll cut almost six years off a 30-year mortgage and save about $28,000 in interest on a $100,000 mortgage financed at 6.5 percent. To find out exactly how much you’ll save — and how much quicker you’ll own your home outright — use a mortgage calculator at a site such as www.bankrate.com.
Save $4,300
Redeem in September or October
Buying used is almost always a better deal, but if you have to know that you’re a car’s first driver, buy new in the fall. Automakers release new models in September, so that’s when they generally slash prices on the previous year’s cars. You can save a lot of money by buying last year’s model, especially if the car has been extensively redesigned, says Phil Reed, the author of Strategies for Smart Car Buyers (Edmunds Publications, $15). When Ford rolled out its redesigned 2005 Mustang, the sticker price for the basic two-door coupe was about $25,700. At the time, savvy car-buyers could get the 2004 model, which had a sticker price of about $24,800, for about $20,500. You can save even more money by waiting until December and buying one of the last old models on the lot.
13
May
A father watched his young daughter playing in the garden.
He smiled as he reflected on how sweet and pure his little girl was..
Tears formed in his eyes as he thought about her seeing the wonders of nature through such innocent eyes.
Suddenly she just stopped and stared at the ground.
He went over to her to see what work of God had captured her attention.
He noticed she was looking at two spiders mating.
‘Daddy, what are those two spiders doing?’ she asked.
‘They’re mating,’ her father replied.
‘What do you call the spider on top?’ she asked.
‘That’s a Daddy Longlegs,’ her father answered..
‘So, the other one is a Mommy Longlegs?’ the little girl asked.
As his heart soared with the joy of such a cute and innocent question he replied, ‘No dear. Both of them are Daddy Longlegs.’
‘The little girl, looking a little puzzled, thought for a moment, then lifted her foot and stomped them flat…
‘Well, we’re not having any of that gay shit in our garden’ she said.
30
Apr
Dear Valued Customer:
SENSEO® COFFEE MAKER
Philips has identified a safety problem which affects a number of Senseo® coffee makers produced between July 2006 & November 2008. Philips is committed to the well-being of its consumers and has decided to voluntarily recall the affected Senseo® machines and offer a replacement unit.
Affected units can be identified by model type, manufacturing location and production date. Please refer to the information below. Only units that meet the criteria in all categories are under recall:
Models: HD7810, HD7811, HD7815, HD7820, HD7832 and HD7890.
Colors: Black, Blue, Silver, Red, White
Unaddressed calcification in the coffeemaker from use of hard or medium water, when combined with an external electrical fault, can lead to obstruction of the overpressure release system causing boilers to suddenly separate possibly leading to injury. Per year, the risk is less than three per million and there have been no reported cases in the United States.
Philips would like to advise consumers as follows:
1 Please look at the sticker on the base plate of your Senseo® machine to identify the model number, manufacturing location and production week.
2 Please visit www.senseoexchange.com or call the toll-free phone number 1-866-604-0051 to register your product and receive further instructions and how to receive a free replacement unit. We intend to replace affected units with the same model product.
We wish to thank you for your cooperation and apologize for any inconvenience.
Kind regards,
Philips Consumer Care
22
Apr
17
Apr
Thanks Wendy!
17
Apr
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with
their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When
they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to
school every morning
Uphill… barefoot…
BOTH ways
Yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,
there was no way in hell I was going to lay
a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard
I had it and how easy they’ve got it!
But now that… I’m over the ripe old age of
thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the
youth of today.
You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my
childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say
it but you kids today you
don’t know how good you’ve got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet.
If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the
library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write
somebody a letter, with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the
street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a
week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn’t care if our
parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of
all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! No
where was safe!
There were no MP3′ s or Napsters! You wanted to
steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store
and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off
the radio and the DJ’d usually talk over the beginning
and @#*% it all up!
There were no CD players! We had tape decks
in our car. We’d play our favorite tape and
“eject” it when finished and the tape would come
undone cause that’s how we rolled dig?
We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you
were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy
signal, that’s it!
And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could
be your school,
your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a
collections agent, you
just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your
chances, mister!
We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video
games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari
2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘asteroids’. Your
guy was a little square! You
actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no
multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever!
And you could never win. The game just kept getting
harder and harder and
faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out
what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You
had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons
on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We
had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled
l^&%*!
And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat
something up we had to use the stove … Imagine that!
That’s exactly what I’m talking about!
You kids today have got it too easy.
You’re spoiled. You guys wouldn’t have lasted
five minutes back in 1980 or before !
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
15
Apr
13
Apr