Prudent and Practical

November 4, 2009

Early Christmas Shopping Deals

Filed under: saving money — Tags: bargains, Black Friday, discounts, free, holidays, online, sales, save money, saving money, shopping — K @ 11:59 PM

It’s that time of year again!  The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are gradually getting posted as we eagerly wait to see how good or bad the discounts are this year.  For those who may not know, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.  It’s a day when many businesses make a profit and are in the black.  It’s also a day when greed takes over many people and bad things can happen.  Cyber Monday is the online version of Black Friday happening the Monday after Thanksgiving when people go back to work and apparently spend the day shopping online…

Going from personal experience, when the economy is good, there are a lot of freebies and awesome discounts.  When the economy isn’t great, the deals aren’t great either.  However, this year many businesses are taking part in online pre-Black Friday sales and not waiting until Thanksgiving weekend.  I’ve looked through some of the deals and so far there isn’t anything that has sparked my interest.  I’d love a new digital SLR camera, but the deals I’ve seen for both the pre-sales and Black Friday aren’t good enough to warrant a purchase.  See the below links for posted Black Friday ads and the pre-Black Friday sales that are happening right now!

Do you have a favorite Black Friday site you go to? Mine is GottaDeal which shows bargains all year long on a forum, but also has a Black Friday site that lists the Black Friday ads as they come out.  The following ads are currently listed:

  1. Gander Mountain
  2. Gymboree
  3. Half Price Books
  4. Harbor Freight
  5. Kmart
  6. Lowe’s
  7. Old Navy
  8. Sears
  9. Tanger Outlets

“Become” also has a Black Friday deals area.  One thing I like about their site is that you can click on a general item you’re interested in purchasing, such as digital cameras, and they’ll show you every store that has that item on Black Friday.

Many of the following stores have been in the news because of their early deals, so I’ll summarize what they’re offering for you here.

CVS and CVS Holiday

  • Offering weekly deals.

Kmart

Kohls

  • Power Hour pricing on November 6 and 7 (this Friday and Saturday).  There will be many deals and stores will be open until midnight.
  • Redeem Kohl’s Cash and Pick-Your-Day savings.
  • Save 20% on toys already marked 10-40% off.

Sears

  • Every Friday at 5pm through Saturday morning – “Black Friday Now” features weekly deals through Christmas.
  • Every Saturday 7am-12noon – doorbuster deals
  • Offering a credit for any November-release book you have purchased through Amazon.com, Target.com, or Walmart.com.  Use the credit on a purchase over $45 at Sears.com.

Target

Toys ‘R Us

Vistaprint

  • 50% off 2010 calendars, holiday Cards and many holiday products
  • Free shipping on orders over $50
  • Up to 50% off custom photo gifts

Walmart

  • 100 toys for $10 each through the holiday season.
  • Popular books will be selling for $8.98.
  • 2 for $30 specials on Nintendo Wii games.
  • Saturday (11/7/2009) – pre-Black Friday sale.  Hot deals include a Sharp 42″ LCD HDTV for $498 and an Xbox 360 System with free $100 Gift Card for $199.
  • Walmart.com has also started a “Deal of the Day” where they will be selling one item each day at a Black Friday-level price. Today’s deal is a 32″ LCD HDTV for just $298 with free in-store pickup.

Do you participate in Black Friday?  Why or why not?  What’s the best deal you’ve found? Is there anything you have your eye on this year?

August 31, 2009

SKIL RAS900 Router Table Giveaway!

Filed under: fun — Tags: giveaways, home improvement, online — K @ 4:43 PM

I JUST saw that Ethan over at One Project Closer has reviewed the SKIL RAS900 Router Table and now SKIL is giving a brand new one away to one lucky winner!

THIS ENDS AT 11:59PM EST TONIGHT!  So get your butt over there and enter!

complicated route 1 300x155 150x77 photo SKIL RAS900 Router Table Giveaway!

Here’s a little bit about the router from the One Project Closer web site:

This is the One Project Closer August 2009 Giveaway!

SKIL is giving one lucky OPC reader a brand new RAS900 Smart Design Router Table – a $150 value!

On the heels of their recent lithium ion drill driver combo release, SKIL is back at it with two brand new offerings in the woodworking / capentry department: the RAS800 and RAS900 Smart Design Router Tables (official site).

Both of SKIL’s router tables were designed for the junior and mid-level woodworker–someone who wants the capabilities of a router table without the usual $300-500+ price tag.  As a bonus, for those of us without much tool storage space, both tables fold to less than 10 inches high and store neatly on a workbench or garage shelf. For more information, check out the full SKIL Router Table Review.

You must live in the US or Canada to be eligible to enter.

June 23, 2009

Easy Ways to Reduce Unwanted Mail

Filed under: Featured — Tags: manage, online, random, reading — K @ 9:48 PM
NEW YORK - MAY 20: In this photo illustration...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

When I went to retrieve the mail today, I could hardly get it all out of the mailbox.  A small sample that I had requested had finally showed up, but that wasn’t the problem.  Five magazines and catalogs were jammed in there.  That’s enough.  I’m tired of getting coupons and offers that are enticing me to spend money on things I don’t need!  The ones that immediately come to mind are AmericanTV, Guitar Center, Home Decorator’s Collection, Country Curtains, and JCPenney.

I went to Catalog Choice and let these companies know that I don’t want their mailings.  They do the hard work for you and the service is free.  Currently there are 1,138 merchants that participate in the program.  If a company does not participate, Catalog Choice tells you know how to contact the company directly.

If you’re worried about missing out on your favorite products and deals, there’s also an option to search through a few iCatalogs – catalogs available on the Catalog Choice website.

So then what do you do about unwanted credit card offers?  These guys usually send you a postage-paid envelope.  I’ve read about someone who sends back the envelope with nothing in it or a note to stop sending mail.  Some companies will stop after you send back the first envelope, while others will take a few empty envelopes to get the point across.

So go check out the site.  Send back some envelopes.  Get rid of some mail so you don’t have to keep throwing it away and wasting your time reading it.

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April 22, 2009

Free Stuff? How Can I Mystery Shop Too?

Filed under: money — Tags: free, job, online, shopping — K @ 3:36 PM

How I Got Started & A Word of Caution

A while back, I stated that I would write an article about mystery shopping… so here it is!  Back in my early college days, I got an email that said something like, “Get paid to shop!”  I knew little about spam and scams at that time, so I paid a $20 fee to get started.  Although it was dumb of me to not only spend money I didn’t have, but I spent money on a company that I knew nothing about in attempt to make money.  When I got into their “portal,” it was a never ending list of surveys and complete-this-offer-to-mystery-shop.  But there were a couple real mystery shopping companies on that list and I was lucky enough to find them and write down their names.  Knowing I was scammed, I called the company to cancel my membership.  The line was constantly busy, even at off-peak times, so I called my credit card company.  I explained what happened and they reversed the charge – thank goodness!

(I tell you this little back story, not to scare you, but to let you know what happened to me.  Granted this is a very small incident compared to the cashier-check scams out there, but there are scams out there!  Don’t fall for them – listen to your intuition.  Don’t ever ever ever cash a cashier’s check or money order that was sent to you by someone you don’t know.  This scammers send you a check/money order.  You deposit the money into your own account and then send the majority of it back.  Time goes by and then your bank contacts you saying that you owe them hundreds or thousands of dollars for a fake check/MO.  Guess what?  When you contact the company you got the check/MO from, they are looooong gone and don’t exist anymore.  They have the money and leave you to pay up what is owed plus the fees.  Many scammers are also impersonating MSPs now too, so you need be cautious.)

Fast forward a few years to 2006, I hit my worst.  I quit school, my Mary Kay director quit, I was in a town one hour from any family and friends (except for D), and I had creditors calling me left and right.  Desperate, I found that little piece of paper with mystery shopping companies on it and started doing assignments.  Mystery shopping provided me with something to do with my time, a way to interact with people, and a way to make money.  I’ve been consistently mystery shopping since January 2006, but got more serious about it in June 2008.

April 19, 2009

Get Our Favorite Items at Our New Store

Filed under: General — Tags: bargains, discounts, online, sales, shopping — K @ 11:18 PM

Now you can find our favorite products at our new online Prudent and Practical Store.  We will continue to add new inventory.  Right now, we have listed some of our favorite household cleaning products.  In the near future, we will be adding our favorite kitchen and workshop tools as well as helpful books.  Now you don’t have to search everywhere trying to find the products we talk about on the blog!

Please visit The Prudent and Practical Store

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