Getting a free month trial of Amazon Prime

I'd be totally on this if I didn't have it already but I definitely wanted to pass it on. 

Free month trial of Amazon Prime

What's so special about it, you may ask? Well, since I am a junkie when it comes to Amazon, I like its features: 

1) Unlimited Free 2-day shipping on millions of Amazon items

2) Overnight shipping upgrade at only $3.99/item

3) NO MINIMUM order

4) Share benefits with up to 4 household members

My favorite part of this is the no minimum order. In the past I would find myself searching for items to reach the $25 free shipping limit and half the time I'd be ordering something I really didn't need. So I really wasn't saving any money.

Now that I have Prime, I am a huge $5 per order person. I find a quick deal and I jump on it. This is especially true around Christmas where I am trying to find quick deals (for 17 other members of my family plus another 4 on my better half's side). Sometimes items at good deals run out quick.

So why am I telling you this? Simple, it's a way of trying out a great program for free. After that it is $79/year. If you don't like it, you don't pay for it. And you don't have to mark your calendar to make sure you cancel it in time. For one thing, Amazon will remind you that your free trial is coming to an end.

But the easiest way is this: After signing up (through my link if you'd please, helps support my site), you can go to YOUR ACCOUNT  and halfway down the page you'll see Subscriptions Management. Click on Manage Your Amazon Prime Membership and select the option to not renew automatically. You will still have full benefits until your trial ends and you won't have to worry about canceling.

But if you like it and use it, it's definitely worth it. So check it out.

Free month trial of Amazon Prime

The time has come to start cutting into the budget

I love baseball, I really do. So when it came down to the decision between MLB Extra Innings or NFL Sunday Direct, I thought it was a no-brainer. I was wrong and my better half won that battle.

I tried to justify it, it only costs less than $20/mo. over the course of a full year. But in the end, it makes more sense to trim that "extra" out of the budget, saving us just about $200/yr. 

So as the season winds down to its end, I will be saying goodbye to MLB Extra Innings. It'll be sad, but I will survive. 

This is just the beginning though, and I know much harder choices in trimming the budget are around the corner, on whether we need a land line, should we start feeding the cat scraps instead of food, that type of thing.

But for now, I will mourn my inevitable loss of live baseball from every park.

GO CUBS!!

Costs more but you get less

So I am standing in line at the BP gas station yesterday and look over at the "impulse" items. A big sign states that the King Size candy bars are just 99¢ each. King Size? The 3 Musketeer bar (now in mint) seems smaller than the "original" bars I bought as a kid...for 30¢! What is going on?

And it doesn't stop there. 

A jug of orange juice has risen in price and also reduced in size from 96 ounces to 89 ounces? 

Peanut butter is ounces less too, and a higher price.

Have you seen a Hershey bar lately? I didn't think they could make chocolate that thin.

And don't get me started on cereal, that's just wrong. 

There's a great article on CNNMoney, called "The incredible shrinking cereal box," (LINK). It outlines the growing trend of how companies are trying to offset the higher cost of food by shrinking products and not drawing a lot of attention. 

It's bad enough that food prices have gone through the roof but now we're getting less food. 

Online shopping

Okay, I admit it, I am an online shopper, through and through.

It might be that I don't have to deal with crowds, crabby salespeople and the people that insist on pulling out their checkbook after the sale is rung up and the cashier tells them the price.

It might be that I don't have to leave the house and the item is delivered right to my door.

Or it just might be that prices are so much better online in most cases.

Case in point: It was decided that we needed a waterproof camera for an upcoming trip (4 days away). So we head out to Ritz Camera and two hours later we have a camera in hand, for about $400 (it was a nice camera). Before opening it, I insisted that we check for comparison on Amazon.

And lo and behold, it was over $150 less, plus no tax. "But we leave in a couple days..." I was told. Now, if it had been ten bucks, even fifteen, I'd probably would have acquiesced. But we're talking about $175 here. So we ordered it online at Amazon and paid for overnight shipping and promptly returned the camera to Ritz. Time well spent.

Luckily for me, I so not have the instant gratification need first and foremost. True, I like to buy things and have them, but I am a realist too. I love books and I can spend hours in a bookstore perusing every section. But 99 times out of 100, I'll walk away with a list of titles and authors more than a book. Then I go online to Amazon and buy them there. Even if they were the same exact price, which they aren't, the tax savings alone makes it worth it.

So I admit it, I am hooked on online shopping and Amazon is my dealer.

Rebates, rebates...

So I went to Walgreens this morning, to cash in on my monthly rebate club and stock up a little. The EasySaver® Catalog is one of the simplest rebate clubs out there. Every four weeks, there is a new set of items and the previous month can be tallied up and submitted on one form. One stamp, that's it.

So today, while I didn't get everything in the free section, I got the following items:

Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste 4.2 oz., $3.79, rebate $3.79 + $1 off coupon = -$1.00
Chemistry Conditioner, $7.99, rebate $7.99 = FREE
Revlon Nail Color, $4.79, rebate $4.79 + $2 off coupon = -$2.00
(2) Pantene Pro-V Shampoo/Conditioner, $9.98, rebate $5.00 + $2 off coupon = $2.99
Pantene styling aid, $4.99, free with purchase of 2 Pantene shampoo/conditioner (coupon) = FREE
(4) bags of Halloween M&Ms (14 oz.), $12.00, rebate $5.00 = $7.00
Pro Health Mouthwash (500 ml), $4.49, register rewards $4.50 = $4.50 to use later.

So total is $48.03, minus $9.99 in coupons, minus $26.57 in rebates = $11.47 plus the $4.50 I can use later. Net for all items is $6.97.

In addition, if you choose to have your rebate sent to you in the form of a gift card, they will add 10%. I didn't include that in my calculation because the tax where I live is 10%. It's a wash for me.

All coupons used were in the last two weeks of the Sunday paper. Register rewards are money to be used at Walgreens at your next visit, which is good since I need to still buy a couple more items.

So head out to your local Walgreens and check it out. Just remember to send it in at the end of the month. The last day to purchase items for this month's rebate is September 27, 2008. All submitted rebates need to be postmarked by October 4, 2008. Keep a copy if you can.

I like free stuff

Okay, who doesn't like free stuff? I'm just like everyone else, save the amount of time I put into finding free stuff or maybe just a darn good deal. That's how I spend my mornings, surfing the Net, reading through papers, whatever I can get my hands on, just to find a good deal. And then I post it to my website, www.moneycents.net and call it a day. Well, not really. Then I have to actually work to pay the bills.

But I like to save that hard-earned money any way I can. I buy things, don't get me wrong, but I don't believe in paying full retail. Instead of only wavering between wanting and needing, I figure out how to spend the least amount of money. It takes time, I know, but I've realized more gains that way than working overtime. Plus, I have fun. And I get to pass that research on to others and they can benefit.

So what's today's free stuff, you may ask? Today I will be heading to Walgreens to buy some shampoo and conditioner for a deal and top it off with a coupon for a free styling aid. I love the rebate club there.

Rebates... nah, that's tomorrow's blog.

Prices are going up everywhere

So I get the mail yesterday and discover that my health insurance is going up again. I'm self-employed so I am self-insured. It already jumped over 15% in March due to an age bracket change (Happy Birthday to me) and now another 10% starting next month. Now I shouldn't really complain since my health insurance premium isn't horrible... still under $200 per month, though I predict that will change at some point next year or at least come close.

Self insured is an interesting way to be. It took a long time to figure it all out, being self-employed and all. I knew I had to have insurance, but didn't want to pay the $300-$400 everyone wanted for the "traditional insurance" with co-pays and prescription plans. I rarely go to the doctor if I can help it (those possible broken bones are a tough call) and I don't need to take monthly medication yet (knock on wood). So in 1999, I bought a hospital only policy, which was about $400+ per two months. It worked out, because in 2002 I came down with meningitis, hospitalizing me for nearly a week. If I hadn't had insurance, I would have been bankrupt. However, after a blood clot required me to end up on meds for three months, along with blood test after blood test, I got hit with nearly $7,500 in medical bills including my deductible. So after all that was said and done, I went in search of another policy. What I found intrigued me.

High-deductible policies: Where you pretty much pay up to the deducible in any given year and then covered completely after that. I decided that the meningitis was a fluke and that I could take the $5,000 policy. If I had had it back then, I would have only been out of pocket the $5,000, not the $7,500. And to top it off, it was half a premium than what I was currently paying. I thought I was set.

But then, I discovered another bonus, the Health Savings Account (HSA). This is a beautiful little account, allowing me to put in a set amount per year that I can use for medical expenses. The two main perks of this account are: 1) It's not a use-it-or-lose-it account, it can roll over year after year, and 2) the contribution is tax deducible.

So now I am paying a lesser premium, getting better insurance (BCBS), getting a tax deduction, and saving more for those unexpected medical expenses. What more can I ask for?

If you have any suggestions of questions, please feel free to comment.