Free Three-Month Trial of Amazon Prime (Free Two-Day Shipping)

Amazon is a great place to shop, but sometimes the lowest prices create a dilemma: you have to order $25 or more to get free super saver shipping. So you may have to pass on a very low-priced item because the shipping outweighs the savings. Well, right now there's a way you can get three free months of Amazon Prime membership which entitles you to free 2nd-day shipping on items regardless of price (items sold by Amazon, not Marketplace items).

To sign up, click the following book as a Starting Point.

Then add the book to your cart using the "Add to cart with free 2-day shipping" button on the right of the page (if visible). [If the button is not visible, simply add the book to cart.]

Log in to your account, and sign up for free 3-month trial of Amazon Prime when prompted. [If the button was not visible in the previous step, in your cart at checkout switch it to "FREE Two-Day Shipping with a free trial of Amazon Prime" shipping; then sign up for the trial as prompted.]

Once sign up is completed, remove the book from your cart.

Click here, log in if prompted, and turn off automatic upgrade from your prime membership by clicking "Do Not Upgrade" button, and confirm your selection. This is important or you could be charged $79 in three months if you forget to cancel it.

The Amazon Prime membership should be active for three months and you should receive an e-mail confirming it.

12/17: Reminder, Free Shipping Day at a Lot of Internet Stores Today

Just saw a reminder in my e-mail box that FTD is having free shipping on their website today, which reminded me that it's the 17th, a mega free shipping day on the internet. A slew of vendors are participating, so you can get some bonus savings by combining great deals with free shipping. Those savings could really add up, particularly if you have a batch of items to buy to send to gift recipients around the country.

At this point, over 700 vendors are participating, and show delivery by Christmas Eve. To see the list of who's doing it, click here.

11/30 Cyber Monday- Amazon ($10 off $50 w/ Discover Card), Target ($7 off $70), Buy.com ($25 off on $100 w/ ebillme), Toys R Us($30 off $150 w/ Amex)

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, supposedly the Internet's answer to Black Friday. Many retailers will have special prices on all sorts of items, with deals starting often right at 6:00 a.m. Eastern (varies per retailer). In addition to some great prices on individual items, some of the big retailers are also adding extra savings depending on the size of purchase and how you pay. Some of the highlights include:

- Amazon.com: $10.00 off $50.00 using Discover Card
- Targetcom: $7.00 off $70.00
- Buy.com: $25.00 off $100.00 with ebillme
- Toysrus.com: $30.00 off $150.00 using American Express

To read an article about some of the details, click this link. For the Toys 'R' Us deal, click this link.

Black Friday -- Shopping Choices with On-Line Ads from Many Retailers

Friday morning (in some stores' cases, starting right at midnight) marks Black Friday, the traditional start to the Christmas shopping season. This has become a spectacle of long lines of people waiting many hours to get a really outstanding deal on a big-ticket item, but it's also a question of whether the savings are worth waiting hours in line in the cold (and sometimes the rain) with little guarantee you are there early enough to get something in stock. Some people are probably lining up as I write this (okay, probably not yet, but they will be there sometime during the day on Thanksgiving).

I haven't planned what I'll do yet this year (the Staples ad I saw didn't excite me with any special items), but I wanted to post a couple of websites you may want to check if you are even thinking about doing any special shopping that day.

A few years ago I went by one of the "big box" stores for an outstanding price on a computer but when I saw the line I knew I wouldn't stand a chance. I have avoided the biggest of the stores the last few years but concentrated on some smaller retailers that don't have the traditionally gigantic turnouts. A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I just had to be at a local Staples about 45 minutes before opening to be in line safely to get a great deal on a Navigon GPS reduced from $299.99 to $99.99 (with free lifetime traffic service included). While there there were plenty of other specials around, and not so many people that it was untenable. I also stopped at a nearby Ink Stop for some of their bargains before heading to a Home Depot where they had a power tool set reduced from $159.99 to $59.99 with a bonus free tool added.

There are a couple of websites that have posted the Black Friday ads for a variety of stores. You can figure out which retailers are nearby. My feeling is that the really big-ticket items (such as big-screen TVs) will only go to those brave enough to spend upwards of three hours or more in line. If that's a crucial item for your shopping list, then maybe it's worth the time and aggravation -- it can probably be more enjoyable if you bring a friend or two and some supplies to stay warm and fed while you wait.

But look through the list of stores and an idea of alternatives may pop in your head. Maybe you can find some smaller shops with some great deals that morning. If you have a chance, you may want to scout out the store to figure out where they normally have certain items, although often there will be special displays added for that morning. Every location or retailer will have their own way of going about things, and maybe speaking to a manager or customer service may give you a clue, so when the doors open you know where to head.

Remember too, that on-line retailers don't want to get left out, so they have their own Cyber Monday right after that weekend.

But to take a look at the various deals in stores on Black Friday, here are two sites showing Black Friday Ads:
BlackFridayAds.com
BlackFriday.info

Free Shipping Day from Hundreds of On-Line Merchants December 17th

Here's one to bookmark for those of you who do some Christmas shopping on-line (or get to that date and realize you need another item or two to finish up). Thanks to Allie for sending this deal out to me. A large group of retailers will be offering free shipping on December 17th, with delivery by Christmas Eve.

At this point there are over 300 participating companies and more may be added by that date. Names such as Aéropostale, Borders, Macy's, Musicians Friend, New York & Co., PetSmart, The Body Shop and Toys 'R' Us are just a few of the vendors.

To check out the offer and see if your favorite retailer(s) are participating, click this link.

Website to Track Airfare Specials for Specific Itinerary and Dates

I post a bunch of deals on airfare specials -- they cover certain periods and certain routes. Taking advantage of them means having some flexibility to travel when you find a good fare. But sometimes people have a trip planned well in advance for certain dates, and the question is how to find the best fare. If there is plenty of lead time, chances are there may be a fare special or two in the interim. But who has the time to keep checking all the time?

Well, thanks to a note in Real Simple magazine, there's a website called Yapta.com which helps solve that problem. You enter the itinerary you're traveling and the departure/return dates. And you will receive an alert whenever the fare drops. So if cost is a factor in whether you can afford the vacation, this may tell you when that window of opportunity opens.

The website service is free. To check it out, click this link.

A Chance to Try Out Shopping Strategies -- Travel Savings Accomplished

If you've been reading my blog from the start, you know that besides posting great deals, I also made some posts on shopping strategies to find better deals while you shop. Last night I got to test some of those strategies to try and get a nicer travel deal for my wife.

Here's a quick recap. Luisa has a business conference coming up in Maui (oh, that's tough!). The rate the conference organizers had arranged at the hotel was $250 a night. Over the weekend we were checking airfares and the best we were finding was about $780 with taxes arriving midday on a Sunday and departing late on Thursday. One of the flight options was her preferred frequent flyer account carrier. So the deal had been looking at being in the range of $1,780 plus hotel taxes (about 13%) making it about $1,910.

One of the earlier things we did was check with AAA rates for the hotel -- I couldn't imagine that the special conference rate wasn't better than that, but lo and behold it wasn't. Triple A at that hotel was $212 a night, which would save $152 in hotel room costs (and about $20 in tax). We didn't book it right away since that was a regular AAA rate and we could get back to it. We also had held off on the airfare hoping to see if a sale to Hawaii opened up.

Last night it looked at first that waiting on the airfare had backfired a bit, as some of the flight choices had dried up. There were still flight on the dates, but the mid-afternoon arrival on her preferred airline was gone. We did some searching and found the fare for a later arrival (still the right date) but an extra layover. Oops. But since flights were drying up, we figured it was time. But to get the best deal we still used a bit of strategy. We were checking sites and looked at Priceline which offered a few more options than we could find elsewhere. Once I saw that, I used a cashback portal to get to Priceline. In this case it was fatwallet.com. Their deal would get you back 3% of what you spent (ebates was at 2% for this one). So with that cashback, the net would drop down to about $757 -- at least a bit better. Their site also showed that you could cancel within 24 hours with no penalty and seeing that seats were drying up we made that reservation.

We did another travel search through kayak and found that CheapTickets.com and United still had tickets priced at $778. Because the times we had found on Luisa's preferred carrier were no longer the ideal ones, we did a search on CheapTickets and United still had flights that would get her to Maui in the early afternoon and leave a bit later the last day, with one less layover in each direction. Much easier travel and better times. Fatwallet offered 1-3% cashback at CheapTickets. But then came a nice surprise, as we checked buying the hotel together with airfare. All the other sites we had checked for the hotel were showing $250 or more per night (Priceline had had a total of over $2,000 for a flight and hotel. But CheapTickets was offering the United flights plus the hotel for $1,559, including all taxes and fees. Even with the AAA rate added to the best airfare we could find, our previous best would have been $1,715 (4 nights at $212 plus 13% tax, plus the post-fatwallet airfare of $757). So this one looked like a no-brainer. The savings were worth more than the frequent flyer miles on her preferred carrier would have been, plus the reduction in changing planes in both directions... but wait, there was more.

I remembered my old advice (even I forget sometimes) to always check for coupon codes before buying something. So I did a quick google search for CheapTickets coupon codes and found a code valid now for the right travel period that gave $50 off a booking of 4 nights or more. I entered that code and voilá! The price droped to $1,509. With a fatwallet cashback of 1%-3% (their site doesn't show what qualifies for what level), the final net for flights and hotel comes down to the range of $1,464 to $1,494. That's over $400 in savings off the original hotel rate we were given with the best airfare we had found.

Before we booked, we contacted Priceline and canceled, and they held up their end, no cancellation fee within 24 hours as promised on their reservation.

And that's the tale of this shopping adventure, where a little digging (and a little luck) got some pretty hefty results. I went to sleep with a smile.

Free Carfax® Report

If you are shopping for a used car and want a bit more background on its history, getting a Carfax® report has long been recommended. If you happen to have a car you'll be selling soon, it can also be a good selling point to produce one for buyers that shows the car's excellent history.

Rght now, Carfax® is offering to let you get a Carfax® report totally free. A single report normally costs $29.99 so this is a nice bit of savings.

To cehck it out and request a report, click this link.

Free Copy of The Teen Girl’s Gotta-Have-It Guide to Money

For any girl trying to learn how to deal with financial issues and how to handle money (besides all the savings ideas posted here), there's a free copy available of a book filled with information, education and tips. It's called The Teen Girl’s Gotta-Have-It Guide to Money offered at practicalmoneyskills.com. It's packed with advice and innovative ideas for helping girls manage their money wisely.

For girls and everyone else too, you can visit the Practical Money Skills website weekly for tips, advice and articles on how to budget your money, be a better saver, and improve your money skills.

To request the free book (I don't think you have to be a teen girl to get it), click here.

One-Year Subscription to SmartMoney Magazine $5.00

If you're a reader of this blog, then using your money wisely is certainly of interest to you. Here's a nice deal on a magazine packed with information and ideas on making, investing and using your money wisely. Amazon.com right now is selling an annual subscription to SmartMoney magazine for just $5.00. That's 88$ off the individual issue cover price of $42.00.

This magazine comes from the editors of The Wall Street Journal, so it has financial advice that you can use. There's information not only on areas of financial strategies but also on ways to make your money go further.

Some articles in past issues have included:
- "Save 50% on Everything"
- "Retire Early"
- "The Best Plasma TVs, Sofas and Spas for Your Home"
- "Cruise Spies"
- "Retire Happy"

They have the kind of information that could save you many times more than the low cost of a subscription. To check it out, click the link below.

Free One-Day Sam's Club® Pass with No Upcharge

Those warehouse clubs like Costco®, BJ's® and Sam's Club® are famous for having great savings, especially if you have a large family and need to buy items in bulk. They also often have great savings on electronics and things for the home, which may make sense regardless of whether or not you have a large family. Those savings, however, need to be weighed against the cost of club memberships. If you don't shop there often enough, the membership cost can eat away most or all of any savings you might find.

Sometime these clubs offer short-term passes to allow non-members to shop there, which gives people a chance to check them out and see if it's worth joining. However, those passes often carry with them a surcharge when you shop -- you don't get the lowest member price, you might pay 10% more. So while you are saving some off the retail price or what you might find in nearby stores, it's not quite as big a savings.

But here's a pass for one day of shopping at Sam's Club® with no upcharge. So you pay whatever the member discounted price is, and get all the savings benefits. This one-day membership pass is valid until May 25th and it needs to be activated at the Membership Desk.

If you're looking for a big ticket electronics item (i.e. a big TV or some appliances) this may be a great way to get a super-low price and not add the cost of a one-year membership. Of course, if you like what you see while you shop there and figure you'll save more the next year than the cost of the annual fee, you can always join the club.

To get your pass to take to your nearest Sam's Club®, click this link.

Free 60-Day Pass at BJ's Warehouse Club

One way people have found to save money on a lot of household expenses is to join a Warehouse Club such as Costco, BJ's or Sam's Club. They offer a variety of savings on all sorts of items from electronics and furniture to groceries -- the food savings are usually better for larger families since the items are typically sold in large bulk sizes.

These clubs can offer savings advantages but you need to shop there with some frequency to make sure your savings make the membership fee worth it.

But right now, if you're not a member but would like to check it out and see if the savings, quality and selection would make it right for you, BJ's is offering a 60-day trial membership pass for free. The coupon for the free pass has to be activated by July 6th.

To check it out and see if BJ's would make sense for you, click here to print out your coupon and bring it in to your nearest BJ's.

Article on How People Are Saving Up to $50/Day in Their Budgets

In addition to finding good prices on deals, I know that people are also interested in strategies they can use to save money. It's a good idea at any time, but especially important at times like these. I came across an article by Kiplinger.com via yahoo.com about three families or individuals who adopted a variety of strategies to trim their budgets and ended up saving as much as $50 a day.

There are a variety of ideas, and not all of them would apply to every reader (i.e. mortgage refinancing is only for homeowners in certain circumstances), but there may be a number of strategies mentioned that readers could apply and find some savings.

Rather than paraphrase it, here's a link to the article -- it's probably a five-minute read, and could result in some idea that you could easily adopt in your own circumstances to make your money go further.

Thinking About Shopping the Circuit City or Linens-N-Things Liquidations? Watch This News Report -- The New Prices May Be Higher than Before!

With all the news about Circuit City going out of business, people may be tempted to go there or to Linens-N-Things for the liquidation sale. Sounds great, like prices are being slashed left and right. But you may want to watch this report from ABC News about how liquidators jack the prices back up before they start taking discounts -- so the deals may be worse than you could've gotten in the first place.

Entertainment Books at 35% Off

If you've ever used the Entertainment Book, you know it can be a great source of savings. You can use them to get great deals on local restaurants, plus an assortment of day-to-day services, entertainment outlets and more. Plus, when you travel, you can also use a book for your destination city to get the same great deals on restaurants and make a vacation more affordable and enjoyable.

The earlier in a year when you have a book, the more deals you can squeeze in, and get more bang for your buck. And right now, just starting out a new year there's an offer that lets you get 35% off the cost of Entertainment Books already!

They have books covering all the big, popular cities but also many regional areas as well, so people living virtually anywhere can take advantage.

And starting with 35% off puts you that much ahead of the game at the start. To check out their books and see what's available, click the link below.

McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009 Free After Rebate with Free Shipping

As I've written before, virus protection software is something you can get free on a continuing basis if you time your purchases with rebate offers and sometimes buy the replacement to expiring products months ahead. Right now, Fry's is offering McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009 for $49.99 with free shipping. They have a $50.00 rebate on purchases made by December 18th, making it effectively free.

If you use McAfee for virus scanning, it's a great way to pick up the newer version without paying for the renewal fee. And if you use some other brand, it also gives you something you can use if your preferred brand comes out with a product rebate that relies on a competitive upgrade.

To check out this version of McAfee, click this link.

Turn Your Spare Change into $10 Extra at Coinstar -- $50 Worth of Spending for $40 of Coins!

A while back I blogged about Coinstar having a promotion entitling you to a bonus $10 gift certificate at amazon.com if you converted $40 of change into an amazon.com certificate there (so you got a total of $50 credit for $40 worth of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies -- even dollar coins). I took advantage of it and got my bonus certificate without any hassles.

Well, Coinstar has another promotion going, and this time it's not limited to amazon. Between now and December 7th, you can redeem $40 in coins for an e-certificate or prepaid gift card to use at one of several retailers, and you can send in your receipt for a bonus $10 gift card/certificate toward the same retailer.

The nice thing is that Coinstar doesn't charge any percentage fee when you redeem change into an e-certificate or prepaid card, so you get the full value of your spare change (if you convert it into cash, Coinstar charges a commission).

The stores/brands this year include: amazon, Starbucks, Circuit City, JC Penney, iTunes, Borders, Pier 1, Eddie Bauer, Cabela's, Disney Shopping, Old Navy, Lowes or AMC Movie Theatres. So you can pick the business where you think you'll get the biggest bang for your buck or the one you're sure you'll use most frequently.

The promotion is limited to one certificate/card per household.

This looks like a really great way to turn that bottle of spare change into some extra spending money. Or you can even use the gift card as one of your Christmas presents (and maybe use the bonus one as a gift to yourself). To check the details and conditions, or to look for a Coinstar location near you, click this link.

Extra Savings: Get Back 25% of Your Purchase at OfficeMax by Paying with PayPal

One way to help make your money go further is to capitalize on extra ways to combine savings from one program with savings from another. Examples can include coupons you find for department stores that you can apply to items which have already been discounted. Or programs by credit cards for extra savings at a store or a travel site.

With these kinds of offers, you can spend a bit of time searching for the best deals you can find at those stores for some initial savings and then use the second promotion to make the savings stand out.

Now until September 30th, you can receive an extra 25% back at OfficeMax by using PayPal to pay for your purchase. That's on top of any sale prices you might find looking at OfficeMax deals.

There's no minimum purchase amount to qualify, although OfficeMax offers free shipping once your order exceeds $50.00.

The maximum amount of PayPal cash-back you can receive under this program is $50.00, meaning an order (or orders) totaling $200.00 will reach that limit per PayPal account.

So let's say you find an item at OfficeMax that's reduced in price from $300.00 down to $200.00; you can pay with PayPal and after the cash-back, your net expenditure will have been just $150.00.

Not bad -- extra savings just for using a different method of payment!

Click this link for all the details and instructions on using this offer.

Yet Another $25 Off $75+ Staples Coupon Valid Today - A Way to Get Back More than You Spend...

This must be the week of Staples coupons for $25 off a $75+ purchase. They have yet another code available that knocks $25 off if your merchandise total is over $75. Today's code is 16071.

The code is valid for anything other than desktops or laptops, and can be used on-line or by phone. But hurry, it expires tonight at midnight.

If you're looking for an interesting way to maximize some savings, you can even end up with more back in your pocket than you spent, by purchasing a free-after-rebate item. If you have some anti-virus/firewall/internet security software on your PC, you can get McAfee Internet Security 3-user for $59.99 which actually qualifies you for $65 in total rebates ($35 from Staples and a $30 upgrader rebate from McAfee for prior users or users of competitive products). To get your order over $75 you can find a couple of other useful items that total over $15.01 -- I found a package of 50 slim CD cases on sale this week from $21.99 down to $8.99, along with some files folders for $6.99 I could use. I applied the coupon code and it brought the total down to $50.97 (plus local tax), with free delivery since it's over $50.

Now after I receive the $65 in rebates I will have gotten my next year's worth of internet protection, CD cases and folders for a net of minus $14.03.

Can't complain about this deal!

Have Your Gas Card? It Won't Make Gas Cheap, But at Least It'll Be Cheaper!

Well, we've all been watching the price of gas climb precipitously and we keep being told to brace for more. We can each have our own little strategies to try and minimize their impact, including bunching errands into single trips, not idling the car when we stop into the local shop for just a few minutes, stepping off the gas pedal nearing the crest of a hill so we can coast a bit on the downhill side...

One other step you can take is using a gasoline credit card. I wrote about this before, but in a conversation I had today I realized many people still don't realize the potential savings.

There are two kinds of card that give back on gas purchases -- first is the gasoline credit card, which is issued by that company and gives rebates for purchases at their stations. Those can be very handy if you have particular stations near your home/business where you would frequently stop for a fill-up. The other kind of card is a standard credit card with a rewards program that offers some larger savings for gas purchases.

I have two gasoline branded credit cards, Hess and Sunoco, which give percentage rebates when I purchase my gas at their stations. I have a bunch of Sunoco and Hess stations where I travel, so those two cards are usually all I need. And the savings aren't bad. The Hess card which gives me back 5% on all gas purchases at Hess stations (they even had an introductory period of a few months when the rebate was 10%). The 5% was nice enough a couple of years back when gas was around $2.00 a barrel and I was saving 10¢ a gallon -- at today's prices around $4.00 a gallon, I get back 20¢. Now that's not enough to make gas a bargain, but saving about $2.50 every fill-up takes at least a slight edge off.

The Sunoco card gives back 4%, which is also a pretty nice rebate back when I buy gas there(their intro offer was a $20 rebate).

The way these work is a rebate credited onto your credit card statement, which then gets applied against the following month's balance. So if you keep buying gas there, the rebates from prior purchase get applied against the new purchases you make.

My reason for Sunoco and Hess is that the stations are convenient at my location. Other companies also have similar branded cards, each with their own percentages and offers. To get the best savings would probably depend on the stations most convenient near you. After all, an extra percent savings wouldn't be worth it if you had to drive an extra 20 miles to get to a different company's pumps... you'd spend more in gas than the savings would be worth.

The number of cards you apply for is also a matter of personal preference, as far as how many different cards you want to carry while you drive. And it's important to pay off the balances of these cards every month so you don't pay any interest charges that would offset the savings. But certainly having a card that gets you back 4% or 5% of your gas purchases make it worth considering as an option.

Another way of saving which doesn't limit you to a particular brand of gas is a general credit card which offers a heightened rewards level for gasoline purchases. A general card with rewards gives you added flexibility of choice of gas station. The providers of these kinds of cards can vary, and their rewards programs would have different features. Usually the rewards are annual rather than rebates applied against the next month's bill as is done with the branded gasoline card.

Some providers offer special high rewards for gas/supermarket purchases for a short while but then scale them back to 1% later. But there are cards offered by both Discover and American Express Business which give you rewards of 5% of your gasoline purchases. To read more, check out this link at credit card forum.

So if you get one of these cards to use at gas stations and pay your bill in full every month (to avoid finance charges), you can get an effective 4%-5% reduction in how much gasoline hits your budget. And that's not an amount to sneeze at.