Wanted to share some of the great deals I’ve been blogging about on WalletPop.com!
Get 20 percent off and free shipping at Old Navy, The Gap, Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta. Today only!
Cash rebates for Cyber Monday really bring down your bill.
Get a coupon code to get $75 worth of E.L.F. make up for less than $20.
Snag a discount of 30 percent off the Entertainment Book.
Plus, check my blog on WalletPop this afternoon for a $5 off Rite Aid coupon.
Shop through Cashbaq.com and get automatic cash rebates on top of some amazing Cyber Monday sales. Never used an automatic rebate site? Read how they work in this earlier post.
Canvas People ($6 cash back) : Free 8×10 canvas portrait of your favorite photo. Just pay $14.95 for S/H.
Year-long subscription to Southern Living (25% cash back) : Only $5! Expires 12/1.
BOGO and Free S/H on ScoopFree Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Boxes (5% cash back) : Buy one for a gift and get one for yourself for Free! Expires 11/30.
eBags (8% cash back) : 25% off any item. Expires 11/30.
Real Simple Magazine Subscription (25% cash back) : Only $5! Expires 12/1.
Macy’s (3% cash back) : Extra 25% off clearance items and Free shipping on $75 or more with code CYBER. Expires 11/30.
Overstock.com (5% cash back) : Storewide Free shipping and big markdowns on jewelry, watches, household goods, toys and more! Expires 11/30.
New York & Company (5% cash back) : 50% off everything and Free shipping on any order with code 4136. Expires 11/30.
Dancing Deer Baking Co. (5% cash back) : 25% off all of their yummy cookies, brownies, cakes and gift baskets with code SAVE25. Expires 11/30.
Aeropostale (3% cash back) : 50-70% off storewide. Free shipping on $75 or more. Expires 11/30.
Yves Rocher (10% cash back) : 20% off any order with code DISCOUNT20. Over 100 gifts and stocking stuffers starting at just $1! Expires 12/2.
Plus…
Liz Claiborne – 50% off & Free S/H on everything (2% cash back)
Betsey Johnson – 40% off everything (4% cash back)
Ann Taylor – 40% off everything (3% cash back)
eDressMe – 30% off everything (5% cash back)
Lucky Brand Jeans – 30% off everything (3% cash back)
Arden B – 30% off everything (3% cash back)
Ann Taylor Loft – 30% off everything (3% cash back)
Chinese Laundry – 25% off everything (10% cash back)
Famous Footwear – 20% off and Free shipping (10% cash back)
Cost Plus World Market – 20% off everything (3% cash back)
Virgin America is getting in on the Cyber Monday action with a flight sale that has a lot of $39 one way fares. Book by Dec. 8 and travel between Dec. 3 and May 23, 2010. A few of these fares have gone on sale for about $10 less, but these are still great prices. If you make your reservation over the phone it costs an extra $15. Your first checked bag is $20 on Virgin America.
$39: SF-Vegas, SF-LA, SF-Orange County, SF-SD, SF-Seattle
$69: LA-Seattle
$109: LA-Boston, SF-Boston, SF-D.C., LA-D.C., SF-Ft. Lauderdale, LA-Ft. Lauderdale, LA-NY, SF-NY, Vegas-NY
Caveats: Some blackout dates apply, including Dec. 18-19, Dec. 26-27, Jan. 1, Jan 3, Feb. 12, and Feb. 15. Must be purchased three days in advance of travel.
What does BankVibe.com have that other sites don’t? A really savvy blog that goes out of its way to show you which banking deals to take advantage of.
You can practically make money by reading this site. Here are a few recent posts to show you what I mean:
- National City Checking Account Bonus: $300!
- Earn 6.0% APY with the best Rewards Checking Account!
- Great balance transfer credit: Platinum Rewards Visa
- PerkStreet Financial: $50 sign up bonus for online checking account!
- Chase Bank’s business checking account bonus: $100!
In addition to filtering out a lot of the crappier offers out there, you can search the site for a bunch of stuff like FDIC insured securities, highest yielding CDs and accounts, popular deals, CD rates by state, and the best deals site wide.
So basically the site is ground zero if you have a few dollars (or a few thousand) to invest in a CD, are looking for a new credit card or savings account, or want to earn interest on your checking account. Plus, BankVibe is easy on the eyes because it’s so well organized!
This is paid content. Interested in buying a sponsored post? Read my Advertise page.
Here are the best deals posted on my other site, BargainBabeLA.com. This week the prize goes to Adventure Girl (again!) for sharing so many awesome deals. Thanks for making BargainBabeLA.com the best resource for saving money in Los Angeles.
Get Direct TV for $30 a month with a $100 gift card, shared by The Unethical Man
Free foreign films and dessert in Arcadia, shared by AdventureGirl
Get 10-20 percent off on Black Friday at Beadniks, shared by viwlpaige
Virgin America and Southwest are having Thanksgiving fare sales, shared by AdventureGirl
Select cashmere is 2-for-1 at Banana Republic this Black Friday, shared by viwlpaige
Shopaholic sample sale everything $30 or less, shared by bargainbabe
Shoppers uneasy with prices on some items. “Electronics appear to be the early winner this Black Friday, with discounters doing well early and door-busters bringing in big crowds. At higher-end department stores, the crowds were thinner and consumers seemed to be more interested in buying less expensive items.” (Wall Street Journal)
A reporter says retailers will do well this holiday season, if a crammed Walmart is any indication. “They came by truck, by van and even by taxi. But they all came for the deals. Hordes of shoppers descended upon Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, on Friday in hopes of securing some of the early deals of the holiday shopping season.” (CNNMoney.com)
Shoppers turned out but weren’t buying like crazy as in years past. ” U.S. consumers kicked off the holiday shopping season on Friday, with a strong turnout for early-morning bargains, though many said they were being more selective about what they buy and paring back what they spend.” (Reuters)
Some stores see massive sales. “Cecilia Auth came to Toys R Us at 4 a.m. Friday with one item on her list: a Star Wars All Terrain Tactical Enforcer for her 7-year-old son. But when she got to the toy store on Pulaski Highway in Rosedale, she was so impressed by the deals she walked out with a shopping cart full of toys — presents for her son, daughter, two nieces and a neighbor.” (Baltimore Sun)
This is a guest post by Nicole of Nicole’s Nickels, a great coupon blog that I’ve been a fan of for awhile. I interviewed Nicole months ago about how to make money as a mystery shopper. Now she’s back with advice on how to make money doing online surveys.
If you’re looking for ways to earn some extra money each month from the comfort of your own home, online surveys may be just the thing for you! I have been doing surveys for over a year now and earn approximately $100 per month. It’s certainly not enough for me to retire but it is my gas money that I don’t have to worry about!
I love that I can sit in my pjs or while I watch TV and earn money. You can also get product tests from doing surveys where they send you not yet released products to report back about. There are a lot of survey sites out there and I am signed up with over 30. I only blog about the ones I have had no issues with.
Before signing up with your first survey company, get a new separate email address for surveys only (I use gmail). I don’t get any spam in my surveys email account but I do get a lot of survey invites which could clog your inbox. All of the survey companies I blog about are completely free to sign up for. Remember, they are paying YOU for YOUR opinions!
Many surveys are looking for people that fall into certain demographics so you won’t qualify for every survey you do. I qualify for approximately half of all surveys I attempt. Don’t get hung up on why you’re not qualifying, it’s just the way it is.
Each survey company handles payment differently. Some pay in cash while others may pay in merchandise. Read the terms and conditions as you sign up to make sure you understand how you’ll be paid and if there is a minimum amount to be paid. I make an effort to redeem every month so I can maximize my monthly earnings.
Here are 6 survey companies I recommend:
My Survey
HCD Surveys
Ipsos-I-Say
Opinion Outpost
Global Test Market
Toluna USA
To read more about the survey companies I am signed up with, check out the survey page on my blog, Nicole’s Nickels.
Affordable. Zany. Laugh-inducing. That’s how the presents at Taylor gifts strike me. The online gift shop has all kinds of unique gag gifts (singing toilet paper), uber practical gifts (magnetic tool armband), and thoughtful presents (pet watering top). Either way, you’ll be able to find something for someone on your list.
You can search for gifts by personality type, category, price, and more. The gift suggestion tab has a section for gifts under $10 and you can click on a tab that shows the most popular gifts. One cool present the gift finder recommended is a $12 mini-pinball machine that shoots out a gift drawer (where you can stash cash, a gift card, or tickets) when the recipient lands a ball in a specific hole. What a fun way to give a gift card!
The clearance section has gifts up to 90 percent off with dozens of presents priced at $.99-$3. Hello gift basket!
Even the regular prices for their unusual gifts are tres affordable. On the site I saw:
- A jumbo car band-aid for $7
- World’s smallest jigsaw puzzle for $10
- A mouse trap cheese board for $10
- A racing granny wind up toy for $13
- A leopard Snuggie for $15
I think you’ll find some interesting gifts that you’ve never heard of before on TaylorGifts.com.
This is paid content. Interested in buying a sponsored post? Read my Advertise page.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and gets lots to eat. I’m making pies with my Mom and looking forward to my family’s pre-turkey football game. See you all next week!
Yay! The last day of the Bargain Babe Gift Guide is here. I’m looking forward to getting back to my normal money-savings tips. A bit ironic that I’m closing the gift guide with gifts when you are NOT on a budget. Mostly this is for all of us to ohh and ahh over, then head to Target to budget shop.
A pint-sized computer known as a netbook is a great gift for any one who craves being connected. Prices range from $200-$600 for the top of the line. Not sure how to pick out the right netbook for you? Check out my netbook buying guide.
I’m an iPhone devotee and I make no bones about it. Some say the Android Google phone is gaining steam, but do you really want a phone that croaks “droid!” every time you turn it on? The best feature is that the iPhone is so intuitive there’s no need to read the manual. Plus, new apps make it possible to read books on it so no need to invest in a Kindle. $99-$499. Buy it!
J.Crew’s cashmwere sweaters are renown for their quality and comfort. Expect to pay upwards of $100 or more unless you get one on sale. Also check Nordstrom’s, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s for sales. Buy it!
A set of fancy olive oil and fig-infused balsamic vinegar is a super versatile gift that works for relatives, distant friends or family, your boss, or even a neighbor. The two tall Italian glass bottles come tucked into a sturdy cardboard box with packaging that oozes luxury. Two 200ml bottles are $40 from Global Gardens in Santa Barbara. Buy it!
Whether you are shopping Black Friday in person, online, or are saying “no thank you” to the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, I know you’re curious what’s going on. The folks at WalletPop.com, a major personal finance site that I blog for, has lots of info.
Seasoned Black Friday shoppers know that the best way to save during this all-important shopping day is to plot out a course of action ahead of time. That means knowing what you want and where to get it — at the lowest possible price, of course. Black Friday shopping guide: Best places to buy
Have you ever shopped online through a “cash back” site? The main ones are ExtraBux, eBates, and Cashbaq. The way it works is you register for free at one of these sites, then click through to the retailer of your choice. They track what you purchase and send you a check a few weeks later with a percentage of your purchase. Cash back rebate deals on Black Friday
The ads are in! While this info is gathered in a lot of places, we thought you might like a handy list of where you can find the actual circulars from your favorite stores. So peruse away! Black Friday 2009: The ads are in, and here’s where to find them
Even though many stores are trying to keep their Cyber Monday sales under wraps until after Black Friday we found several places to go looking for the best bargains on Cyber Monday. Where to find Cyber Monday deals.
The ramp up to Black Friday has been more energetic this year than any I can remember. There’s a near insatiable thirst for discounts and door busters and retailers are more than willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy that thirst. Say hi to Mom and Pop: Shop local on Black Friday.
Experts are predicting 76.9 million people are going to shop on Black Friday, which means safety will be an issue. You probably remember last year a Walmart employee was trampled to death in the rush? I called expert shopper Suzanne O’Connor of BargainsLA.com for advice to stay safe in big crowds. Be safe on Black Friday (BargainBabe).
Lonely Planet’s 1000 Ultimate Experiences book is an annotated guide to amazing photos taken around the world. Perfect for world and armchair travelers. Here’s what the book says about the Khan al-khalili market in Egypt. “Go to the Street of the Tentmakers for something completely different: it’s a market within the market. It’s also Cairo’s last remaining medieval covered market, where tentmakers craft beautifully ornate tents.” Buy it!
Got a relative that just loves to talk about money? The Habitudes card game is great for anyone interested in money. Use the cards to spark discussions about your attutides and beliefs about money. If someone isn’t already big on saving, it’s not going to turn them around. There is also a teen version if you want a tool to talk to your kid about money. Amazon has it for $15. Buy it!
The USA book is another winner from Lonely Planet. Take a journey through America through photographs that capture our country’s beautiful landscapes and cultural oddities. Prepare to get sucked into reading about each state’s cuisine, people and legends. Amazon has it for $23.39 (orig. $40). Buy it!
Make customized stamps with your child’s artwork through ArtStamps.com. Just scan the artwork, save it as a jpeg on your desktop and the web site will talk you through the process. A book of 10 stamps is $15 ($1.50 per) or 20 stamps are $25 ($1.25 per). Buy it!
The super soft Pacific Pashmina from Target comes in purple, cream, black and grey. It’s a very adaptable gift for relatives you may not know very well. Just include a gift receipt and you’re good to go. You can’t beat the $20 price tag! Buy it!
See also: gifts of wine and booze and gifts for the chef.
Talk about economic home decorating. Flair4All has dozens of different styles of removable wall decals that let teens show their personality. Perfect for their bedroom or dorm. Each $20 set has a few sheets of multiple sticky decals, which don’t leave behind sticky goop and re-stick if you peel them off. Themes include flowers, spots, butterflies, music, shapes, destinations, and messages. There are even sets of decals for guys and toddlers. Buy it!
Worried about your kid drinking from plastic water bottles? Get ‘em a personalized metal water bottle that plays into a passion of theirs. At theBottleShop.com you can choose from 15 colors, 20 categories of images, plus add a name or phrase to the bottle. The bottles are $11-$25, images and names are $3 each. Think of the possibilities! Buy it!
One of the most underrated electronic gadgets right now is the flip camera. No idea why they call it that, but it sure is fun. This flip camera is so easy to use you don’t have to read the manual, and lets teens make quick videos on the go. Low quality, yes, but very entertaining. Prices range from $100-200 depending on whether you get a 2GB, 4GB or 8GB flash drive. Amazon has a nice 8GB flip camera for $160. Buy it!
Teenagers want to get OUT of the house. So get them concert tickets – but don’t pay full price. Find discounts up to 50 percent off at Goldstar, where you can also buy gift certificates so they can choose themselves. Movie tickets are another great gift for teens who would really rather not be seen with you. Buy discounted movie passes through Costco or check with your HR department at work.
Dig this. Necklaces made of recycled vinyl records. How cool is that? There are five choices for what the necklace spells out, including “me,” “American Dream,” and “Role Model,” and “NYC.” You can also get one customized with your name. At $34-$36 they are not cheap, but I’m willing to pay a bit more for a unique gift. Aren’t you? Buy it!
Got a teen that likes to think? The card game Set gets your neurons firing. Set can be played with 1-6 players. The person who finds the most matching patterns in the deck wins. Set is a great present for anybody interested in math or patterns and can easily be simplified for young kids. Meant for ages 6 and up. Amazon has it for $9.68 (orig. $15). Buy it!
Loaded Questions is another fun game for teens who want to prove how much they know about each other. Players move ahead by correctly guessing how other players would answer questions. Sample questions include “What sport should cease to exist?” “Aside from smoking what habit to you hate?” and “What part of your body probably smells right now?” Amazon has it for $21.21 (orig $30). Buy it!
If you want to go lower: Buy an iTunes gift card in your price range.
One of the gadgets in the spotlight this holiday season is the netbook. Bargain Hubby was kind enough to write a guest post to explaining the products and deals so you can find the right mini-computer for you!
Last year was the year of the netbooks for early adopters. This is the year where they’ll get pushed on normal folks. Then next year they’ll be merged in with the rest of the laptops.
Even more so than with a normal computer or multipurpose laptop, the buyer and user of a netbook needs to know what they want to use the computer for so they can pick the correct optimization. Trade-offs are more obvious with netbooks than laptops.
Example: The netbook I had at the end of the summer turned out to have too slow of a video card and bad video drivers. This was worse under linux, but noticeable on windows. That particular netbook used a video card that was different from what the previous netbooks were using. That was a bad choice. On the plus side it was super quiet, very light, and had a monster of a huge 11.6-inch screen.
Factors to consider when buying a netbook:
0) Ergonomics
1) Manufacturer
2) Screen size
3) CPU speed
4) Battery life
5) Ram
6) Hard drive storage
Here are the trade offs:
Ergonomics: The different manufacturers have different ideas about what to do to make keyboards fit on tiny laptops. Scrunch some keys but make others big? Shrink the between-key space? It’s important to go type on one at the store or buy from a place with a good return policy. If you can’t type on it, you can’t do much with it.
Manufacturer: The big names in netbooks are Asus, Acer, Dell, Gateway, and HP. Gateway is owned by Acer, and they make machines with similar (identical?) cases, but with different computers inside based on different trade-offs. Asus was the first, with their EEEpc line. They still make nice machines. Dell had a really nice 9″ machine, but they stopped making it. All of these companies are in the 10-inch space. There are fewer in the 11.6-inch space. Mainly Acer and Gateway at this point. HP has announced a new machine that is in the same ballpark.
Screen size: The range of sizes for netbook screens started with 8- 9-inch screens, then manufacturers added the 10.1 and recently the 11.6. The 10.1 seems to be the popular sweet spot for most of the netbooks. The 8 and 9 have disappeared as too small. The 11.6 is almost too big think some people, that it isn’t as portable. Personally I wanted the extra screen display, the resolution on the 11.6 is higher than on the 10.1, 1366×768 v. 1024×600.basically a choice between 10.1 and 11.6, and video system.
CPU speed: there are a lot of strange names and acronyms for the special processors they put in these things.
Battery life: Typically “3 cell” vs “6 cell” battery. Bigger battery = more time between charges, but more battery to carry. About $50 or $100 between a 3 cell and 6 cell version of the same netbook. So consider how much time you want to spend away from an outlet. For me, that’s a big part of the netbook charm. Four or five hours of usage without plugging in is awesome, but it also add a good chunk of weight.
Ram: I’ve seen 2, 3, and 4Gig machines. If you get the 2 or 3, and want to upgrade, you’ll have to throw away some ram because there are only two slots and they are filled via (1+1, 1+2 and 2+2). That’s $20-$50 difference when buying the machine. Some of these machines use a “shared video memory” system, so the video system uses some of the main ram, and modern video cards use like 256-512M of ram. That’s a big chunk of a 2G machine. The atom machines max out at 2Gig of ram. The dual core cpu in the acer I bought maxes out at 4G.
Hard drive: Some of the early machines came with solid-state drives (SSD) that were silent and had no moving parts. But to save money they were slow SSDs. Seems that most of the larger netbooks (>9-inch screen) have switched back to mini hard drives. It’s common to see 100 or 200+ gig hard drives in the new netbooks. Whatever it comes with will seriously be more than enough. You shouldn’t be using a netbook for long term storage. Back it up at home and carry what you need.
Discounts: The previous generation of netbooks is still pretty solid, and some of them should be nicely discounted now that the new ones are out for win7. The win7 capable models are a bit pricier, so maybe the older ones won’t get super cheap? I have seen some good 10.1 deals at TigerDirect.com and other closeout resellers.
A good deal on a popular machine is the Acer 1410. This was an 11.6-inch model originally made for Europe and then imported to the states. Goes for $399 and comes in a variety of colors and is in stock to ship now.
This holiday season you should be able to find some deals on 10.1-inch models that have a 6 cell battery for under $300. Here’s a 10.1 deal I just saw:
Here’s a nice looking gateway from TigerDirect.com: Gateway EC1803u Notebook PC. You pay more to have such a small light body with a small screen so make sure that’s what you want before you pay a premium for it.
If you want the top of the line, get the Acer AS1810T. It is the first netbook to come out with an updated 11.6-inch screen (the largest size that is still in the netbook realm). It is updated with a “regular” cpu (chip/brain) instead of the traditional “Atom” cpu that was popular in last year’s netbooks. The atom is really low power, which is why it is popular in netbooks, but it is a bit *too* low of power to keep the wider audience of users happy. Surf the web, write in MS Word, sure. But heavy flash sites and flash games won’t fly. Neither will editing a movie. And definitely no Hulu.
By purchasing items from TigerDirect.com you support BargainBabe.com!
A homemade earring holder costs about $3 in materials and takes about 1.5 hours to put together (including going out and buying the supplies). If you make more than one, it takes about 15 minutes per additional earring holder. Directions here!
Grab a $10 frame at Target, Walmart or spend even less at a thrift store and turn your child’s best artwork into a sentimental gift for family and friends. Who doesn’t love to admire the creativity and optimism of young artists?
Fresh cookies! Share your baking talents with friends by making an assortment of treats. If you can find cookie tins at the 99 Cent Store or a thrift store, great. Otherwise, I like to wrap a stack of cookies in tissue paper (that I’ve saved from other presents), wrap again with clear plastic and secure with a ribbon. My favorite combos are lemon bars, peanut butter cookies, and sugar cookies. Making pies or a homemade dinner also works. Hit up the Joy of Cooking for reliable baking recipes.
A memory jar is an easy to make sentimental gift that really allows you to show how much you are about a friend or relative. Write down a few of your favorite memories of the person on a slip of paper and stash them in a jar. Tie with a ribbon and voila! A very touching gift. See how mine turned out!
A friend named Maggie shared another great idea for making about 25homemade gifts for less than $100.
Just a quick note for holiday gift giving. To save money on shopping last year, I decided I was going to make candles. Yep! So I went to Burbank to a store that actually sells everything you could ever need (and more) to make candles…wax, scents, coloring, jars, wicks, etc. There is definitely a chemistry to it, but everyone there was helpful and I got the materials I needed.
I also bought little plastic tops to go over the jars (like when you buy them in a store), and I had some cute labels that I wrote the scent and “made lovingly by maggie.” Then I tied a nice ribbon around them and handed them out! Everyone loved them and it was something different! I think I spent about $100 and I have at least 1/2 of everything leftover after making probably 20-30 candles last year (in 3-4 different scents!)
Anyway, just wanted to share that with you. If you can bake or are crafty there are definitely ways to save money on gifts!!
