Posted on: April 9, 2009 by Matt
The area that I live in is cluttered with small antique shops and many of them offer a range of items from inexpensive to higher priced rare items. I tend to like to find time to browse through the shops and see what kind of deals I can muster up. Most recently on Sunday I was helping my sister move into an apartment over a small antique shop and I took a stroll through.
I was not looking for anything in particular but when I walked by the jewelry case I noticed a decent looking silver ring with multiple colored stones in it. The price tag was set to $9.90. I figured it was probably glass or plastic set into the ring but upon further inspection noted that it was not plastic and was probably a material worth more the $10 they were asking (the silver in the ring was 925 sterling, easily worth more than $10). I asked them to hold it and opted to take the ring as a surprise gift for my girlfriend as she has been looking for a multi gem stoned ring.
She was pretty excited when I gave her the surprise gift and even more surprised at the cost. She is a bit of a jewelry nut (makes her own and such) and immediately began inspecting. She was not certain of the exact make up but noted that the “stones” looked like they were probably crystals of some sort if not the actual gem stones they appeared to be. All said and done - I was pretty happy with my surprise find.
I used to associate antique shops with over priced junk from another era but really enjoy walking through and finding what kind of deals I can find (occasionally leaving pleasantly surprised). Have any of you had any surprising finds at antique shops? What kind of deals have you picked up?
Posted on: December 8, 2008 by Matt
It seems like it has been forever since I have had a chance to post with any regularity. I am hoping to get back in the swing of things this week and back to my usual daily posts. Right now it looks like work is going to slow down as I am getting in the swing of things and the dust is starting to settle from our move. I still have a bit of unpacking to do but I think that most of the family is getting there.
Anyway - over the weekend we picked up our Christmas tree for the year. I had thought about going up to my grandmother’s land (where I grew up) and hunting one down myself for free but time was not on my side. We stopped in at a pretty nice tree lot (they had a fair amount of space to set up, not like the urban style fit 1 million trees in 25 square feet lots you sometimes see). I was hoping to get away for under $40 (which I managed to do at $35 for a really nice tree) but was surprised to see that the majority of trees were closer to $50. In fact my girlfriend’s four year old son was helping me and the first tree he ran up to was not priced visibly - when we asked we were told it was $50. I convinced him that we should look around a bit more for the “best tree ever”. As it turns out we found it and the tree was the best ever due to the fact that it had “a red tag on top”. It seems that everything related to the holidays is just getting more and more expensive (and showing up earlier) every year.
We got the tree and decorated it yesterday and spent an entire day as a family fun, holiday decorating day. It was a blast and easily worth the $35 cost of the tree and I would have paid $50 for the day we had if it came down to it. I guess I just can not believe how much everything costs - I mean to pay $50 for something that you are going to keep a couple of weeks (maybe) and then throw out? Seems a little silly to me but I guess the market is there.
How about you? Anyone out there pick up a tree yet? How much did you end up paying for your perfect Christmas tree?
Posted on: October 22, 2008 by Matt
I have been reading a lot lately about the number of people that use pharmacy shopping to get some really good deals including a number of free after rebate (FAR) items. My girlfriend loves shopping at Walgreens due to the selection of interesting and fun cosmetic products and the politeness of the people that work there (at the Walgreen we visit everyone is really polite and friendly). We also find that the store is generally cleaner and easier to navigate than other pharmacy stores in the area. The only problem I have been able to identify so far is that the nearest Walgreens for us is about 15 or 20 miles away in New Hampshire; we generally stop in when we are headed in that direction.
Normally our little shopping trips to Walgreens involve getting a handful of items that are needed around the house and browsing. However our last trip may have changed the way that we shop at Walgreens a bit and may have also addicted us to the monthly sale and rebate items.
Our trip started out normally, I followed my girlfriend around so we could talk and joke while looking at all the cosmetics. I then decided to go up and grab a weekly sale flyer and the monthly rebate booklet. I proceeded to go compare prices on batteries that we needed and peruse the ads. When I caught back up with my girlfriend and asked her “How would you like to get some free foundation?” she looked back at me with curiosity. I opened the rebate booklet and reviewed the details of the FAR items and informed her that I had read online that we could actually make a little money on these items by getting the rebate on a gift card.
She was sold and pretty darn excited about the prospect of having a Walgreens gift card and some free (actually paid to get) some of the stuff on a monthly basis! We spent a good portion of the car ride home discussing how the program works and deciding that the gift card would be hers to spend on a monthly basis while I would keep up on the monthly ads and rebates and file for the rebates.
While my little shopping trip may seem like old news to a number of readers I am excited and view the trip as a success for several reasons:
- My girlfriend has questioned rebate items in the past: On a previous trip to Walgreens I noted some body wash that was free after rebate. When I pointed it out she commented “Who really sends those in anyway.” I replied that I did and she shrugged and commented on how it seems like a waste of time and the company always finds something wrong with the rebate anyway. After this trip and explaining how we can process them online I think that she has changed her tune.
- A number of the free after rebate products she will use: Not only are we making a small profit by purchasing some of the FAR items but they can also replace otherwise costly alternative brands.
- The gift cards will offset some cost of future trips: Like I said, she loves shopping at Walgreens. An free extra $20 per month will help us out financially.
- She is now excited about checking out rebate items: With her looking forward to the next month’s worth for FAR items from Walgreens (along with normal rebate items) I am hopeful that she will start to look at rebates for other items while shopping as well. I also think that knowing I will take the time to submit the rebates will encourage her to keep rebates as a viable saving method in mind.
Finally - the best part is that since our nearest Walgreens is in New Hampshire we do not have any sales tax on the purchases.
Posted on: October 21, 2008 by Matt
Throughout my day I tend to use several free pieces of software for various tasks and have also started using some of them on my home PC. I use some of the software to clean up machines, some to increase security and some to even keep my personal computer from getting all cluttered up. Here is a short list of some of the free software that I use and how I find it useful:
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2007: I could easily devote a whole post to using Virtual PC (VPC) and the many different applications I find for it. Currently I use VPC for the majority of my web browsing and anything related to my blog or completing offers on CashCrate. You do need an operating system available for install but it will run free versions of Linux if you do not have or want a Microsoft OS available.
- Ubuntu Linux: Need an operating system for your virtual PC? Here is a good place to get one for free. Download and use the ISO as an installation source for your VPC. Microsoft Virtual PC allows you to select an ISO image as your virtual CD drive so you can install without a CD.
- OpenOffice: Sick of paying Microsoft up to $300 to have a copy of Office? Well you do not have to anymore! Sun’s OpenOffice provides full compatibility with Microsoft Office formats and is a free download.
- ISO Recorder: One of the most useful utilities I have found. I often use this to create an image of a CD onto my hard drive. After the image is stored I can use a blank CD to restore the image or other tools like Daemon Tools Light to mount the image into a virtual CD ROM.
- Daemon Tools: Creates a new virtual CD-ROM drive that allows you to mount ISO images as CD’s. Very useful if you like to keep your software in ISO format in stead of on CD’s like I do.
- SysInternals: Sysinternals was recently purchased by Microsoft (well maybe it was more like a year ago) but the utilities that they have are extremely useful. There are utilities for processes, disk usage and even system recovery and maintenance (ERD Commander now known as Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset).
- ZoneAlarm: A free software firewall. I have not used this in a while so am not able to provide a lot of the merits. I have moved more in the direction of hardware firewalls.
- AVG AntiVirus: One of the many free antivirus software programs out there. I prefer this one to some of the others and generally find it does an adequate job.
- Ad-Aware: My first stop for spyware removal. Generally does a decent job of removing most basic spyware but some malware still manages to reinstall itself after removal but still worth an initial attempt.
I use most of this software on a weekly if not daily basis (ZoneAlarm being the exception) and find them all fairly useful. Plus they are all free - saving me money as well as my company and clients money when I am using them for work. If you have any questions or would like a more developed “how to” guide on any of the software listed - please just drop me a comment and let me know! I can then plan on getting together a future post on the software that has more depth.
Posted on: September 29, 2008 by Matt
For the past nine months or so my right ear has had some dry, flaky, itchy skin and has really been irritating. Now nine months (may have been longer even) is a pretty long amount of time to let a health problem continue on even if it is just a little annoying. The reason I let it all drag out so long is that my health insurance basically sucks. My yearly deductible is $2,000 that must be covered out of pocket before the insurance company steps in at all!
Considering the cost of health care today that may not seem like all that much but when you have to budget a few hundred dollars for every doctor’s visit (in an already tight budget) you may tend to just not go. I find that I will ignore a problem, try any and all homeopathic cures and / or just wait for it to get better before going to a doctor with my insurance as it is. I have had health insurance before where I paid a copay towards my deductible or a copay only and was much more willing to bite the bullet and see a professional.
While at the walk in clinic (due to not going to the doctor I do not have a normal doctor to visit) yesterday I was informed that the irritation is eczema and that it can easily be treated with a topical cream. I also had wax buildup flushed out of my ears (yuck!) and was told to not use q-tips ever again (ears are apparently self cleaning).
Of course I have not received my bill yet and I do not have any idea how much the hospital will be charging for my visit (scary). I will post an update once I receive the bill and let everyone know what is going on with it. The one upside was that when I stopped to get my prescription filled the insurance prescription coverage brought the cost of the cream down to $2.13. Not too bad and I managed to pick up a big can of Folgers coffee for $6 (compared to the $12 it normally costs).
