Archive for the 'Deals and Steals' Category

For all those who have procrastinated doing their taxes (like me) H&R Block and Travelocity are teaming up to offer a free download of their TaxCut Premium and Deduction Pro software.

Unfortunately it does not come with state tax forms or a free E-File, and both of these prices seem inflated compared to other offers. To add a state is $24.95 and it is $15.95 per E-File (so $31.90 to E-File both Fed and State). So if you plan on mailing in your Federal Taxes and doing your state taxes elsewhere (or live in a state with no tax) then this is a pretty good deal - or even if you just want to check your results against another program.

WARNING: Remember to remove the “Extended Download Protection” from your cart or it will cost you $5.99!

Download TaxCut Premium and DeductionPro

Well my area finally got some RedBox machines. For those of you who don’t know what RedBox is, they are DVD rental machines placed in select grocery stores and McDonalds. For $1 you can rent any movie in the machine for 1 night. 2 nights is only $2, and so on.

Certainly much cheaper than Blockbuster but the selection is limited. To see what is most likely in your local RedBox, or if there are any local RedBoxes visit www.redbox.com.

Also, there are quite a few free rental coupons out there for RedBox - simply punch the code in the machine and you will receive a movie free for a night. Inside RedBox has a running list of all free codes with user verifications:

Inside RedBox

The Love Gram is offering free love grams today. The concept is basically you enter your loved ones phone number and they call and play a voice telegram for them. Normally 99 cents each.

Apply promo code then hit send the love to skip entering your credit card information.

The Love Gram
Promo Code: SHARETHELOVE

PayPal is making a couple waves the last couple days. First, they are now offering a SecurID style key generator for your PayPal and Ebay accounts. Basically you get a little key chain that rotates numbers every 30 seconds that you use to login to the site instead of having a static password.

Could be an added security layer for power members who have thousands of dollars in transactions floating around, or if you are worried about someone hacking your Paypal account and emptying your bank account. There is a one time $5 fee for the key.

SIGN UP FOR A PAYPAY SECURITY KEY

Also, from now until March 31, 2007 PayPal is offering a $15 rebate off your next $30 purchase in the U.S. and Canada. This includes a lot of great stores like Newegg, Buy.com, Dell, and even EBay!

You have to register your email address at the link below to receive the rebate. The $15.00 rebate will be deposited into your PayPal account by May 28, 2007. Its only good on purchases, so trying to send your friend $30 isn’t going to work.

REGISTER FOR YOUR $15 OFF $30 PURCHASE HERE

For those of you who don’t know, XDrive is an online backup service offered by AOL. You can get 5GB of storage for FREE (or for $99 a year you get 50GB). They offer both a web based file upload system or a program that you install on your PC. Whats nice about XDrive is through their interface you can send a outbound fax for free with no advertisements and I’m going to show you how using the web interface.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now through February 19, 2007 get 12% off a single item at Bestbuy with this reward zone coupon. You have to be a reward zone member, which is free to sign up for. Only valid on certain products and a lot of exclusion apply, see the fine print below.

Offer valid through February 19, 2007.

Offer valid in the following categories: TVs & More: TVs $399 & up • DVD players and recorders • Tivo® and DIRECTV® hardware • receivers, speakers and home theater systems • shelf systems • home theater remote controls 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

Markdowns taken from regular prices with your Reward Zone® program membership.

Excludes Bose®, KEF®, JBL and Shure audio products; TVs 37″ & larger; DIRECTV® service; digital SLR cameras; Apple® products; satellite radio service; Cinema Systems; Sony XBR®; HP ink and paper; high-definition camcorders; Zune devices; digital music download cards and services; Roland, Boss & Edirol musical instruments; 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. Selection varies by store. Limit 1 offer per coupon, per household. Not good in combination with any other coupons or offers. Valid only at Best Buy stores in the U.S.A. Valid on in-stock items only. No rainchecks. No dealers. Coupon must be presented at time of purchase. No copies. No Cash Back. Cash value is 1/100th of 1 cent. Coupon valid through 2/19/07.

COUPON LINK

Staples has their 12% off instore purchase coupons up for Jan 20 - Jan 23. Just print it out and bring it to your local Staples store.

We’re giving you 12% off just about everything in-store* from January 20 – January 23. Print out this email and present it in the store to get your special savings.

*Offer good in Staples® stores in-stock inventory only. Excludes personal computers, laptops, build-to-order computers,gift cards, phone cards, and postage stamps. Price matching on competitor products will not be permitted. For your personal purchases only, not part of your corporate contract. No cash or credit back. Valid January 20 -23, 2007, only. Cannot be used with any other offer.

Staples Coupon Link

For those that don’t know, Upromise is a program where you earn money towards college by buying things you do anyways. Basically you link your credit card or grocery store card to your account and when it detects you have purchased an eligible item it gives you a % back in your account which you can transfer to a 529 plan or request a check. Things like Domino sugar, Kleenex, Old Spice deodorant, and thousands of other items - as well as restaurants on online stores.

It doesn’t cost you a thing, and there is nothing for you to do once you sign up and add your cards. I’ve had it for a few years now and have racked up about $50 in savings. Doesn’t seem like a lot but hey, free is free and it didn’t really take any effort.

Use promo code ‘BN5‘ to get $5 free for signing up!

Upromise - Turn your everyday spending into college savings

Yo It’s Me is offering a FREE $5 prepaid Mastercard just for filling out a form on their site.

Yo, Try it now for FREE!
For a limited time, we are releasing $5.00 Prepaid MasterCard’s – for free – to people who don’t already have a Yo Prepaid MasterCard. (One card per mailing address, please). There’s no catch – We just want as many people as possible to experience the excitement of Yo!

Use your free $5.00 Yo Prepaid MasterCard anywhere MasterCard is accepted – even online! Buy lunch, or a couple of cold ones. Rent a movie, or download some music! Try it, and you’ll see how having your own Yo Prepaid MasterCard is handy, fun, and easy!

If you love it (and we know you will), you’ll have an opportunity to sign up for a personalized, fully functional, and loadable Yo Prepaid MasterCard.

Available without a credit check or bank account, Yo Personalized Prepaid MasterCard® can be used with a PIN at ATMs, with a signature at stores, or for online or phone orders. It’s easy to load, easy to use, FDIC insured, and secure – and can even be used for direct deposit from your employer!

Sign Up Here

I just did it, hope it comes!

I wrote about Monoprice and their Ebay Store in my Why You Should Never Buy A Video Cable Instore article, but I just wanted to give everyone a real life example of how their products are cheaper if you can find what you are looking for.

I needed a 25ft Component Cable for a friend and checked Monoprice.com. Their run of the mill cable was $9.55 plus 7.63 shipping for a total of $17.18. So I decided to check their Ebay store to see if they had it. Low and behold they had it for $4.95 plus $6.95 shipping for a total of $11.90 - a $5.28 saving (over 30%).

So if you are going to order some cables from Monoprice it pays to check.

As a follow up to the popular Why You Should Never Buy Your Printer Cable Instore, here is some additional advice for overpriced store accessories. This is especially helpful if you have made the jump to HDTV over the holidays.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are a lot of sites up with information about the upcoming Black Friday sales. I subscribe to the RSS feed over at bfads.net so I know when a new ad has been posted. You can often find extensive discussion on individual stores over at the Fatwallet forums. There are few ads up now like Sears, K-Mart, Harbor Freight, and Best Buy.

Personally I will most likely go to Sears for a few items there, and possibly try to pick some other stuff up online. I will never step foot in Best Buy on Black Friday again, as the ones here consistently have 2 hour lines that day.

As previously posted I ordered 50 prints from PhotoWorks for free plus $3.85 shipping. The pictures came this weekend (pretty fast imo) and I just wanted to comment on the quality.

I would clasify it as ok. Not as bad as some of the posters over on FatWallet had made it sound in my batch, but not even close to the best quality I have received from online print shops. I would characterize the photos as being dull, the colors just didn’t seem to pop. It was worth it for the $3.85, but unless there was another increadible deal I wouldn’t order there again.

If you want to get some early Christmas shopping done Yankee Candle has a buy 1 get 1 free sale on select Housewarmer candles. To top it off there is a $15 off $45 coupon: CAT610A (expires 10/29).

Combining these 2 sales you can get 4 of the 22oz Housewarmer candle jars for under $10 each. These normally go for $22.99 each!

Just ordered 4 myself, total with tax was $38.50.

If you’re like me you have a bunch of digital camera pictures sitting around waiting for a deal to be printed. PhotoWorks has a bunch of coupons out including one for 50 free prints, plus shipping which was $3.85 for me. There is some questions on the quality from what I’ve seen, so I’ll let you guys know how they turn out. Depending on the quality I might try one of the free compact photo books as well.

Sign Up Here

Then use the following one of the following codes at the checkout:

50 Free Prints - Code: C688-38-5181-81 Exp: Oct-01-06

Free Compact Photo Book - Code: C440-38-5161-81 Exp: Oct-01-06