Archive for the 'Deals and Steals' Category

There are a few “Friends and Family” sales coming up some stores that I thought may be of interest. Typically these sales involve a % off or sales on certain items if you have a printout of the invitation.

Sears
Sunday March 30th, 6-9pm

10% off almost everything in the store. All Kenmore Appliances will be 20% off along with an extra 10% vip savings so 28% off total.

For more information just visit www.sears.com/vip and click on the link that says “View all specials”.

Staples
April 20-26, 2008

Save 12% on almost everything. Offer valid on in-store purchases only. Excludes personal computers, laptops, gift cards, phone cards and
postage stamps.

You can check this Slickdeals thread for the 12% customer appreciation PDF and more thoughts on the sale.

I had posted before about the Windows Feedback Program where you could sign up with Microsoft to install tracking software on your computer. Unfortunately the offer is not open to new participants but I was able to get in as hopefully were a few other people who read us.

Well, I received an email from Microsoft today with some good news:

"This message is to notify you that your 3 months participation term has completed, and we are getting ready to ship your product. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. You will receive another email from us when shipments have gone out."

Microsoft is typically very generous with their products and does give out a lot of freebies if you keep an eye out. There have been rumors they are giving out free copies at the Microsoft Windows 2008 Launch Events if you missed out on this deal and want to give it a shot.

For all you coffee loving folks out there, Starbucks is set once again to offer free coffee to customers on Saturday March 15th 2008 from 10am to 12pm. A great way to cut down on your latte factor (for a day at least).

Here is the breakdown from past events:

Starbucks will host its Starbucks Coffee Break, inviting customers across the country to enjoy a complimentary cup of freshly brewed coffee. In stores and on street corners, from insulated brewing equipment and giant coffee backpacks, partners (employees) will pour tall (12-ounce) cups of coffee to surprise customers and delight commuters.

Get your sweetie some flowers this Valentines Day without breaking the bank. Aldis stores are having the same deal posted here last year. A dozen roses will only set you back $5.98 (or $2.99 per 6). However if you want the long stem variety those will set you back $16.99.

They also have an assorted flower bunch of 8-9 flowers for 2.99. This is actually what I got my wife last year as they looked really nice. I think you would be surprised with the quality of Aldis flowers, especially when considering everywhere else is going to be picked over and doubling their prices.

The scan of the advertisement for this week is below.

Aldi’s Store Locator

Eating out can be hard on your budget while on vacation. I recently traveled to Las Vegas and stopped at a few cheap restaurants along the way on the strip. With the takeover of the corporate supercasino the days of $3.99 buffets seem to be gone, however you can still find quite a few good deals if you try.

Cheap Steaks

Ellis Island Casino & Brewery - This is a place where the locals hang. The restaurant here offers a $6.99 steak special that comes with a salad, potato, vegetable, an 8oz steak, and one of their homebrew beers (or root beers). Its not on the menu though, so you have to know to ask for it. While the ambiance left a little something to be desired (unless you like 60s vegas nostalgia without actually trying for it) the service was excellent and the price hard to beat. The steak was not the greatest I ever had, but was the best $7 steak I ever had. They also have $1 microbrewed beers there as well. Its a block off the strip, behind Ballys… though a very long block… about a 10-15 min walk.

Mr. Lucky’s at the Hard Rock Hotel - A coffee shop atmosphere and a bit cleaner than you would expect from a cheap restaurant. They also offer an unadvertised Steak & Shrimp special for $7.77 which also includes steak, potatoes and salad. The steak here was also good for the price, and while the shrimp were a bit overcooked it was an enjoyable experience. Be warned the Hard Rock is not exactly on the strip, but a couple blocks off, a 20-25 minute walk.

Sherwood Forest Cafe at the Excalibur - This place offers a $7 strip steak special from 7pm to 7am. Unfortunately for us who plan ahead for the unadvertised specials this one is advertised, and is right on the strip, making it a mad house until midnight or so. I did not get to try this since the line to get in was about an hour so I decided to pass on it. Perhaps if you were hungry at midnight or later this would be a good choice, or had more patience than me.

If you travel downtown to Fremont Street via cab or rental car there are also some cheap eats which I did not partake in as well. The Plaza has a $9.99 Steak and Lobster special, as well as a $7.99 Prime Rib. There are plenty of other deals plastered around down there as well.

Please feel free to comment with any other Vegas deals!

Microsfot is currently running a campaign where you can get yourself a free copy of the $400 Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, Office 2007, or Microsoft Money Plus.

***UPDATE: This offer has ended.

The catch? You have to join their feedback program where you have to answer a few surveys and install a program on your computer where they can monitor your everyday actions for 3 months before you get your software. I’m sure to some giving up your privacy to big brother will not be worth it, but I decided to give it a shot - hopefully it will not be too bad.

Here are the requirements from Microsoft:

1. The survey feedback program. When you join the survey feedback program, you’ll be invited to take a survey on a regular schedule. If the survey arrives at a time where you are busy, you skip that one and take the next one instead. You will not receive more than a survey every two weeks.

2. The automated feedback program. When you choose to participate, most of the work is done behind the scenes, with no additional effort, time requirement, or inconvenience to you. Occasionally, we might send you an invitation to participate in a survey or another feedback program to get additional information about your use of computers but, in general, you only hear from us if we make significant changes to our data collection method or if we want to offer another feedback program to you that you might be interested in.

Join the Windows Feedback Program

Lowes is currently offering a $10 off $25 coupon through their fan website to kick off you fall project. I signed up and used this coupon today at my local Lowes so can verify it scans and works! Thats up to 40% off your next purchase so if you need something this coupon would certainly sweeten the deal.

Sign Up For $10 off $25 At Lowes

To introduce their new Halmark Saturdays greeting card line Walmart is offereing a free greeting card by mail. You get your choice of one of the following cards:

• Paper Doll
• Cat Head
• What Up Dog
• Monty

Just click on the link below, click the ‘free sample’ button, and put in your information.

FREE SAMPLE GREETING CARD

Cards That Make Our Boss Nervous

Our new Saturdays cards by Connections from Hallmark are quirky. Topical. Irreverent. The kind of funny that steps up to the line. Ripped from the gossip rags or the political talk shows. They’re even — sometimes — weird.

Now you have so many more ways to make someone laugh — on birthdays, special days, whenever. And not just a little chuckle. We’re talking milk-out-the-nose funny. (Don’t say you haven’t been warned.)

It’s your kind of comedy, and you’ll find it in the greeting card aisle at participating Wal-Mart stores.

CVS stores have Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal on sale this week for $1.99. There is a $2 printable coupon below that makes the cereal free.

Kashi Go Lean Crunch $2 Coupon

Just bought a box last night with this and it worked!

Basketball sneakers have always been something particular to me. They are the hardest clothing article for me personally to buy because it is so hard to tell at a store if they are going to fit, only once you’ve been running on the court for an hour or 2 can you really tell and by that time it is too late to return them. In the past I only have bought Nike sneakers because they were “cool” and what felt the best of my feet. However it seems over the last few years the price has gone up ridiculously (or maybe I am just getting cheaper) and the quality of the shoes has deteriorated. I only play 1 or 2 times a week and the Nike Shox that I most recently purchased have worn down after only about 3 months of use and are slightly uncomfortable.

So a while ago I read about the Knicks Stephon Marbury launching a line of affordable sneakers at Steve and Barry’s retail stores. They claimed to be made from the same materials and with the same quality as the $120 Nike sneakers for only $15 and I have to say I was intrigued. I set out to the store to try on a pair for myself.

Starbury Line of Shoes.

Unfortunately Steve and Barry’s is not a high tech store. They do not offer online ordering nor will they special order you sneakers - whatever they get in on the trucks is what they get in. And they don’t know ahead of time what is coming in on the trucks (or so the employees say) nor will they reserve it for you if what you want comes in. There is only 1 store in my area, which if I had to guess has about 500 pairs of the various Starbury styles in stock. However 98% of these are size 9 and 10s. If you are that size you can find 20 pairs of whatever style you want in stock. Unfortunately I am a size 13, which is almost impossible to find there. I went back many times over the course of the last 6 months to try to get the ones I wanted - Starbury IIs high tops in black/white. I never was able to find them in stock.

Finally this week I returned to find they had my size actually in stock in high tops, though it wasn’t the color I wanted. I gave in and bought them. I tried them out for the first time last night in a game and they worked very well. They were just as comfortable as my Nikes and did not give my feet any problems. The real test will be how well they hold up in 6 months time.

I wish Steven and Barry’s would make the process easier to get what you want. The whole point of these shoes is so they are accessible to lower income families right? What lower income family is going to make 25 trips to the store to get the shoes they want in their size.

It seems Deep Discount DVD is having their semi annual sale this month and they are offering a 20% off coupon.

This site usually has the best deals you can find anywhere on DVDs with just their regular prices, but the extra discount makes this scorching hot.The 20% coupon excludes preorders, but applies to all DVDs, HDDVDs, Blu-Rays, UMDs, Posters, Storage Accessories and the new Puzzles and Board Games categories.

Valid June 1 - June 17.

DeepDiscount.com

Coupon Codes (any should work):

• SUPERSALE
• DVDTALK
• USATODAY
• NYTIMES
• SUPERSALE
• PRICESEARCH
• ESPN
• LATIMES
• YAHOO
• PRICEGRABBER

Now through May 13, 2007 you can get 12% off a single item during your instore purchase at Best Buy. All you need is a free rewards zone membership to get the full 12%, otherwise if you do not have / want a membership you get 10% off.

Best Buy Coupon

Fine Print:

10% or 12% off any single item1 from the following categories:

TVs & More: TVs $399 and up • DVD players and recorders • TiVo® and DIRECTV® hardware • receivers, shelf systems,
speakers and home theater systems. Also valid at Magnolia Home Theater®.

Computer Accessories: DVD-RW drives • flash and external hard drives • notebook accessories • printers $149 & up •
scanners $99 & up • computer networking • computer speakers, mice and keyboards • PC cameras • PC gaming controllers •
digital recorders $99 & up • surge protectors • computer flash memory • computer cables • graphic and sound cards •
computer software • blank digital media and blank video media • ink cartridges • printer docks • paper

Cameras & Accessories: digital cameras $279 & up • digital camcorders $279 & up • digital camera accessories •
blank mini-DVD media • blank video media • camcorder accessories • camcorder batteries • blank camcorder media •
premium photo services

Music Players & Accessories: MP3 players and accessories • car audio • satellite radio hardware • musical instruments •
CD/DVD storage

Phones & Accessories: phone cards • cordless phones • answering machines • landline phone accessories • 2-way radios •
cellular phone accessories • pay-as-you-go phones

Appliances & More: major and small appliances • shavers • vacuums • microwaves • batteries • toys • mobile electronics •
navigation hardware

---

Excludes Zune® devices; Bose®; JBL and Shure MP3 player accessories;
DIRECTV® service; Blu-ray and HD DVD players; digital SLR cameras; Apple® products; the Dyson DC18; video game
hardware and accessories; satellite radio service; Cinema Systems; HP ink; high-definition camcorders; pay-as-yougo-
phone cards; cellular phones; Roland, Boss and Edirol musical instruments; digital music services and download
cards; special order, clearance, demo and open-box items; Gift Cards; taxes; Magnolia Home Theater products: Bose®,
SpeakerCraft®, Sonos, Vienna Acoustics, Tivoli Audio, MartinLogan, BDI furniture, installation services, Magnolia
Guaranteed Performance Agreement and special order merchandise

Best Buy Coupon

I’ve written in the past about the virtues of prepaid phones for those who do not use their cell phone for millions of minutes per month. My wife has her cell service through TMO to Go which is T-Mobiles service.

Currently your friendly local Target is running an excellent deal for TMO To Go. You get a $100 airtime card and a Nokia 6030 phone for $100 (basically getting the $40 phone for free). With the $100 card each minute is 10 cents and they do not expire for 1 year, so you will have 1000 minutes plus another 30 that come free with the phone.

Something to consider if T-Mobile has decent service in your area.

T-Mobile Coverage Map

For all you homeowners out there looking to spruce up your lawn this spring Discover has a coupon for $10 off $50 at Sears in the lawn and garden department.

Its valid until June 30th and you must use a Discover card when purchasing.

Sears $10 off $50 Coupon

If you are a coffee lover like myself then you will want to swing by your local Dunkin Donuts today (March 21st).

Dunkin’ Donuts wants to help customers put winter on ice. On Wednesday, March 21, the official first day of spring, Dunkin’ Donuts will host its first-ever all day, nationwide “Free Iced Coffee Day.”

For 24 hours on March 21, customers can visit any participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant in the country and receive a free 16 oz. cup of Dunkin’ Donuts’ premium iced coffee.

The fine print:

Offer good at participating locations. While supplies last. Offer good only Wednesday March 21, 2007. Cannot be combined with any offer. One free small 16oz iced coffee per person per visit. No purchase necessary. Beverage substitutions not available.

So get your caffeine fix for free!

Free Iced Coffee Day