With the holidays approaching, I’ve been on the prowl for some good deals. Although I try to make most of my purchases with gift cards, I do like using ShopDiscover (when you make the purchase with your Discover Card, you get cash back), UPromise, and Ebates. The basic idea with all of these sites is that you shop online through their affiliate link and earn money back. It’s great when you’re making a large purchase, and even small purchases add up over time. Anyhow, I just received an e-mail from Ebates – if you use this link you can...
Frugal Spending
Our temporary computer compromise
Well, our Dell is still dead. Because we had to deplete our emergency fund to pay for truck repairs, we’re not comfortable with buying a new computer before restoring our savings. In addition, there is a good chance that we are going to have to make a trip home this month for family reasons, and we haven’t saved up for that yet. However, we do have some data that we need to get off the old computer, and we currently don’t have the required hard drive space on the Mac. So we decided to compromise. We purchased an external...
We’re blessed
It was an interesting weekend, to say the least… On Friday evening, our tv and light started turning on and off on their own, as if possessed. Upon investigation, we found that a switch that is used to turn on that particular outlet was extremely hot and making popping noises. This didn’t seem good. After cutting the circuit and letting things cool down, we took the switch out of the wall. It looked like it was from 1950 (when the house was built) and smelled awful. Ironically, we smelled this earlier in the week, but thought it was the...
Ding Dong, the Dell is dead
It’s almost official. We decided not to extend our warranty on our Dell Inspiron 9100 (from 4 years to 5 years) because of the cost. It would have been about $350, and we had just gotten a new hard drive, DVD drive, and motherboard while it was still under the 4-year warranty. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe the CPU could die? That’s a possibility. At least, that’s what the error code said yesterday. I reseated the CPU in a lame attempt that it might have been knocked loose. This process took a little over an hour and countless...
Frugal idea – exchange services
I am really happy – I just got myself some “free” babysitting! I have a neighbor who is studying for a math exam she needs to pass for teaching, and I offered to tutor her. She’s got the concepts down, but just needs some help with test-taking strategies and finding some ways to solve the problems a little faster. For me, it’s been some time since I have tutored math, and I have forgotten how much I enjoy it. When my neighbor insisted on paying me, I felt that it wasn’t fair to charge an hourly rate, since we...
I got a hotel room for under $10
…and it’s for a whole night! Wisebread posted about the Super 8 promotion, where you can book a room for $8.88 if you’re one of the first 800 people to make a reservation after 8PM EST. This promotion lasts through August 15th, and I can verify firsthand that it works. We were able to book a room for our Arizona trip – we’ll be staying in Sedona for one night, and had budgeted $70 for a hotel room (rooms in Sedona go for anywhere between $100 – $150, and we were going to split the cost with our friends). ...
Back from camping
We’re back from a weekend camping trip. It was a lot of fun, even though we got rained on for a whole night and part of a day. Trying to keep a 2-year-old contained in a tent while waiting for a storm to pass was challenging, but somewhat manageable. I have made a mental note to bring more books/toys in the event of rain (we try to keep it simple, but in this case having more than a dump truck and 2 books would have made life better)! In general, I love camping because it is so simple, and...
Get $10 from Amazon with free month of Amazon Prime
I was on Slickdeals.net this weekend, and came across this offer. Basically, through 7/28, if you have never signed up for Amazon Prime before, you can use this link to get $10 off your next Amazon order when you sign up for a free one month trial of Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime allows for unlimited two-day free shipping and no minimum order size. This is a good deal because you can use your $10 credit and still get free shipping (usually you need $25 to qualify for free super-saver shipping). Cancelling Amazon Prime before the free month is up...
My Coupon Conundrum
These days, I know that many people are trying to do everything that they can to save money (myself included). Clipping coupons from the Sunday paper is one popular method of pinching pennies, but I am beginning to wonder if it is the best for me. When I go to the grocery store, I usually pick up veggies and fruits, grains (rice, pasta, bread) and dairy. I allocate $5 for junk food (cookies, chips, ice cream), and $25 for stocking up on items that are on sale (oatmeal, canned goods, etc). I’ve stocked up on a lot of the...
A fun and frugal weekend
After traveling last weekend, everyone was ready to take it easy. We wanted to get out and enjoy nature this weekend, and were thinking about taking a short trip (less than 2 hours) to a state park. However, on Friday evening, we pulled out our atlas, and found a nature center that was only 15 miles away! We decided to head over there on Saturday morning, and had a lot of fun. If it hadn’t been for the humidity, we would have stayed longer (our bassett hound is a trooper, but she doesn’t do well in high heat combined...
Recent Comments