Mavis Beacon Typing Deluxe 17 Free-After-Rebate (plus Free Shipping)

Until we all have talking computers, keyboard typing skills are a must. I confess I'm a little slow at typing some of these blog posts because I never learned to type and I sort of hunt-and-peck. Now I can hunt-and-peck quickly but it's still hunting and pecking.

I am going to try and change that by ordering some software I just found for free. Maybe you'd be interested too, for yourself or your children. The software is Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Deluxe 17. Mavis Beacon is one of the more recognized names in typing software.

It's on sale now for $31.00 and there is a $31.00 rebate on purchases until December 2nd... but order soon, since free software offers can sell out. When you get to checkout, be sure to change shipping from standard to budget and the shipping cost will be free.

Hopefully I can get my typing skills going and maybe report on more deals faster and faster as time goes on. If you want to check out the software, click here: Mavis Beacon Typing 17 Deluxe.

Aquazone 2 Oceans of the World: Free-After Rebate (with Free Shipping too)

Maybe you're captivated with oceans and marine life. Maybe you'd like to give your children an educational tool to learn about fish and the sea. Or maybe you're just like the idea of having your computer screen become a grand aquarium looking into the oceans! This could spark your interest...

Right now Buy.com is selling Aquazone 2 Oceans of the World software free-after-rebate (specially priced at $28.00 with a $28.00 rebate). And on top of that, you get free budget shipping -- what could be better? This rebate is valid for purchases made by December 2nd.

Sometimes these free-after-rebate offers sell out before the end of the rebate period, so I would check this out quickly, so you may want to hurry.

The info about the software says that it brings four of the world’s grandest ocean environments to your PC! "Skim the reefs of a warm tropical sea, cruise the currents of a cool blue ocean, bob under the ice caps of the arctic, and trawl along the darkest of marine trenches. Choose from forty-five species of fish, whales, manatees, manta rays, sea turtles, jellyfish, dolphins, sharks, seals, and more. Aquazone is so vibrant, so life-like, you will swear it’s real!"

To get the free shipping, you need to change the shipping from 'standard' to 'budget' when you're at checkout. I've ordered several items before with their budget shipping and gotten it within days anyway.

If you're interested in seeing more information or buying this, click here: Aquazone 2 - Oceans of the World

Entertaining and educational software for free... sounds like a winning combination!

Transfer Music from Your iPod for Free with Software that's Free-After-Rebate

You've got your iPod loaded with music, and you want to move it to a PC to back up your files (after all, you've paid a pretty penny at iTunes, no?) Or maybe you want to move it to another iPod...

Right now, CompUSA has a free-after-rebate offer on AvanQuest's TransferMyMusic software. The regular price is $29.99 but they have three rebates (yes, three) totalling $30.00 so the net comes out to be free. What's more is that shipping is free as well... a nice piece of the puzzle.

The rebates (2 mail-in to the manufacturer and 1 e-rebate to CompUSA) expire December 1st. When doing this, make sure the correct proof-of-purchase goes with the right rebate (UPC for one, boxtop for the other).

Here's the link.

The software lets you transfer files to another iPOd or to a PC to back them up for protection, and you can move your whole library or select by artist, album, genre, playlist etc. It also allows you to transfer movies off your video iPod to watch on your PC if so desired.

So if you have an iPod and could use some file transfer flexibility, why not get it for free, and have some more money left to buy more music?

Ebates Double Cash Back Today Only (starts at 1:00 pm EST)

As part of Cyber Monday, eBates is offering double cash back on all purchases made through their web portal into participating stores.

This is on top of savings you can get from the sales at stores themselves (as well as the PayPal cash back if the store is participating in that).

For example, if you went to Dell via eBates, normally you would get 2% back but today you would get a 4% cash back bonus. Then if you pay with PayPal, you would get 20% back through them! If you ordered a Zune 30GB brown MP3/Video player through Dell E&A on sale at $100 from $200 regular price, you would see the $100 charge in your checkout, but your eBates account would be boosted by $4 when the transaction processes and your PayPal balance would have $20 restored at the end of January. Meaning the net cost comes down to $76.

Today would be a great day to cash in your $20 popcorn certificate from Dale and Thomas that I wrote about a few weeks ago. Their eBates 11% cash back would be 22% on an order placed later today!

A nice way of combining sales offers. It's valid from 1:00 pm today till 2:59 am November 27th.

If you haven't registered for eBates yet, you can do so clicking this link. Your account would start with a $5 balance even before you've shopped for anything!

So starting in 15 minutes, why not let eBates reward you for your shopping savvy?

Cyber Monday -- A Few Nice Deals, But...

Last year was the first time I heard the term Cyber-Monday, about which I heard after-the-fact. It's the Monday after Black Friday when on-line retailers were trying to do their equivalent of Black Friday and offer exceptional deals on-line to boost sales. Today is Cyber-Monday, and while retailers are offering Cyber one-day specials, it's tough for many to outdo what they did on Black Friday. After all, many retailer on Black Friday also offered their specials on-line that day as well.


I have checked out some sites and whether the deals are any special basically comes down to whether you are looking for the items they placed on special. It's not necessarily anything amazing across-the-board.

Probably the standout I saw so far was Home Depot cutting a price for a 2-person corner whirlpool bath from $1,169 down to $599 including shipping. Here's the Home Depot link.

Walmart is going to be offering special items each day this week. Here's a link to their Cyber Monday specials. If you know someone into action figures like Star Wars or Spiderman, the 4-for-$20 bundle may be of interest.

(Word is that the Leapster LeapFrog TV Learning System will be half-price at $25 on Wednesday of this week.)

Other vendors have specials going on, like Zales, Ace Hardware, Circuit City, Staples and many others, so it's a day to surf (even if it's cold where I'm sitting)...

The PayPal cashback offer at many dealers is also worth noting (see previous post I just updated), and don't forget to see about using eBates and getting even more cash back (see the link in the left column if you're not yet registered for eBates).

PayPal Promotion for Extra Savings -- Especially Monday November 26th

Update Nov 26th -- a number of other vendors have added the PayPal 20% promotion to their sites, and most are probably for today only. I had mentioned Toys 'R' Us but also: Dell, Barnes & Noble, hp, Newegg, eBags, eToys, Guess, Overstock (for $100+ purchases), SkyMall, Ritz Camera, SmartBargains, Blue Nile, EA, Eastbay... this 20% back is separate from any savings you get at the stores, so you can combine this with other deals and get even more of a bargain. The maximum you can get back to PayPal for all your purchases is $50 and it is supposed to credit back into myour account by January 31st.


I saw an e-mail that Toys 'R' Us is having a Cyber-Monday promotion tomorrow with some special prices where they are having some special prices but are also offering an extra 20% cash back if you use PayPal to pay.

For those of you who've never used PayPal, it's a service where you can send payments to anyone with an e-mail account, but can also make payments directly to participating stores. It largely gained traction as a payment system a lot of people used for ebay transactions. When you register for PayPal, you can link it to a bank account as well as to credit card(s). The transactions are secure, and you end up not putting your credit card info into the hands of every store where you shop -- the store/recipient only gets the PayPal info, not how you made the payment into PayPal.

OK, enough basic info about PayPal... here's the savings. I only saw the special offer as far as Toys 'R' Us, but PayPal has this extra promotion going on with other on-line vendors. For example, if you shop at FTD.com and pay with PayPal, you also get an extra 20% back. With drugstore.com, it's $10 back on a $50+ order plus free shipping. Toys 'R' Us is advertising this specifically for their special sale November 26th. Each vendor has their own promo deal with PayPal.

These savings are yours just for using PayPal, so it's extra money back into your pocket for using your credit card with PayPal instead of using your credit card directly into the vendor's checkout process.

Here's a link to the PayPal promotion page showing the various deals they have with different vendors. Their program lasts until December 10th but the specific promotions with stores may be limited only for the period chosen by that on-line store (i.e. Toys 'R' Us may be limited to tomorrow only). You get charged the full amount at checkout, and the money gets credited back into your PayPal account sometime in January.

If you were shopping with one of these places and going to pay on-line anyway, why not let PayPal be the intermediary and claim some extra savings?

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2GB MP3 Player $34.99 in Red, Pink or Black!

Best Buy is offering their Black Friday price online for these MP3 players right now. Yesterday you had to go to the store and wait on line to get one at $34.99, but now you can order them for shipment (about $7) or order them to be picked up in the store.

These 2GB units get good reviews, and the choice of colors can make them a great little gift idea with the Holidays coming up.

I'm not sure how long this special price will stay, so if you're interested, I'd check on this quickly.
Here's the link.

A great price... music to my ears!

2GB SD Card $3.99 After Rebates w/ Free Shipping

I checked this earlier and it was out of stock online this morning, but it's back to being available, so I wanted to post it -- anyone who bought a camera or digital frame might be interested.

ClubIT.com has an A-DATA 2GB SD Card available for $19.99 with two rebates combining for $16. That makes the final net a nice, low $3.99. Particularly nice with the free FedEx ground shipping.

Here's the link.

The rebate is good till November 26th, but I'd hurry on this one since who knows how long the new stock will last.

1 GB Flash Drive $1.20 After Rebate w/ Free Shipping

Well, it's a fun day and there are really many great deals flying around thanks to the Black Friday competition. The big draws for electronics (at least judging by my local Staples) were digital picture frames and GPS units. I'm going to check out the Navigon 2100T which Staples had for $99.99 this morning (you had to be in line pretty early or be lucky with on-line ordering), which also includes a lifetime traffic monitoring feature that is normally $99 by itself. Will see if it the features deliver.

Anyway, many of the big stores have their best deals gone within minutes, although they still have good offers the next couple of days. But I wanted to focus on other little items that might be of interest...

I was checking out a site called ClubIT as I'd heard they had a 2GB SD card for $3.99 after rebate but it shows as sold out. But I ran across this nice little flash drive with 1GB memory which is available for $12.20 but with two rebates that total $11.00, bringing the final cost down to $1.20 -- with FREE FedEx Ground Shipping.

The rebates are valid for purchases through November 26th.

These little devices are handy for moving files around and some of the digital picture frames can also use them to show more photos than the memory of the frame itself would allow.

Here's the link.

So if you're looking for one of these items, $1.20 makes it almost a no-brainer...

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's not much more to say than to be thankful for those around you, those who've touched your lives, and for those who've passed on, for having had them in your life.

It's the people, and the time we can spend with each other, that mark the true treasures in our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Black Friday... So Many Deals, But 5:00 am?

Well, the annual temptation is here... Black Friday, when retailers whip out ridiculously low prices on items and have their doors open as early as 5:00 am to get shoppers in their doors.

Three problems... who wants to get up at 4:30 am to get to the stores? (or start waiting there late on Thursday night) because: problem two: long lines! I tried to get to a Black Friday opening at Best Buy a few years back, arriving half an hour before opening, only to find that the parking lot was full and there were several hundred people on line. Which leads to problem three: will they have any items left by the time you reach the sales associates? The stores have limited quantities on items and don't write rainchecks, so you may have gotten up early and waited in line only to go home empty-handed (or more to the store's wishes, home with some other items you bought to make the trip worthwhile).

You will have to make a judgment for yourself about whether saving those extra bucks are worth the time and trouble. Probably the younger you are, the more apt you are to be willing to get there super-early for a spot near the front of the line...

But with all the internet shopping options, coupons, deals and such, you can still find many of the same items for not terribly much more than the Black Friday specials.

If you are tempted to see what's available on Black Friday, one enterprising person actually compiled a list of what's special at each store, even denoting the special Doorbusters that are sure to go first. If you want to check out that list, here is a link.

If not, keep looking here for other ways to get deals.

For example, one store is offering the Mio C220 GPS for $99.99 on Black Friday. A friend of mine recently asked about a Mio GPS (I bought a Mio C310X early in the year, which has been replaced by these new models), and I was able to find a way that he could get it for about $130 net. Obviously not as great a deal as $99.99, but not much worse, plus he's guaranteed to get it and he can sleep late on Friday.

I suggested: "First, click on ebates and register to join. They will ask for some basic info, like name, address, e-mail. When you join, you get a $5 credit into your account.

Once you're registered, look in the ebates list of stores (a drop-down list in a box near the top right of their page) and click on Buy.com.

You will see a window briefly saying that an ebates tracking ticket has been opened. Then the buy.com site will open up.

In the search box on buy.com, enter Mio C220 and it should take you to that product page. Right now they are selling it for $147.95. Add it to your shopping cart.

When you buy it this way, not only do you get the lower price, but you will also get a 2% credit into your ebates account (about 2.95). So ebates will soon send you a check for $7.95, making the net cost $140.00.

You can also do one more thing: at checkout, you can select to pay by Google checkout. That's another thing you would have to register for, and give them your info as well as the credit card info. Google checkout would also give you a $10 credit for the first time you use it, meaning the final cost would drop another $10. So the final net to you could be as low as $130."

So the Black Friday conundrum remains... how hot is that deal to make you get out of bed early and wait on line hopefully...

Luxor Las Vegas $59 a Night Plus Bonuses

If you are traveling to Vegas between now and the end of the year, you could stay at the Luxor (the pyramid with the roof beam so bright it can be seen from the Space Shuttle) on certain nights for $59. And on top of that, they throw in some bonuses to make the deal more inviting.

The nights with special $59 pricing include: November 25-29 and December 3-4, 9-13, 16-20.

They also are offering rates of $69-$79 on December 2, 5, 21-27 and January 1-3, 10, 13-14.

Plus, if you want to upgrade your room to a suite, it's just $35 extra.

The bonuses include:
- $20 dining credit for Steakhouse/Fusia
- $10 beverage credit at FLIGHT
- $25 spa services credit
- $10 in free play for new Players Club sign-up
- 2-for-1 admission to IMAX
- 2-for-1 spa admission
- $300 in discount shopping certificates to Mandalay Place

Here's the link.

A nice little temptation for Sin City...

Fujitronic Rice Cooker $29.99 After $40 Rebates

Cooking perfect rice is one of those things that can make a meal just right. Maybe you've got your system down pat and I've figured out a way to do it but it always involves keeping an eye on the clock, the heat and such. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do the rice and forget about it so you could concentrate on the other parts of preparing the meal?

Fujitronics has a 10-cup capacity electric rice cooker (big enough for parties), which not only cooks the rice, but keeps it moist and warm after it's done cooking. The unit sells for $69.99 but right now Buy.com has two rebates of $20 apiece that bring the final cost down to $29.99. And the shipping to your door is free.

Here's the link.

The rebates are good for purchases until November 25th.

If this would be a nice addition to your kitchen, wouldn't it be nicer with $40 back?

4GB USB Portable Drive $17.98 w/ Free Shipping

With the holidays coming up, you may be traveling and may want to take along plenty of photos to share with families and friends. Wouldn't it be nice to have a small drive to store your photo files and bring them along to plug into a computer when you arrive?

Right now Staples is offering the I/O Magic 4GB Gigabank Portable Drive reduced from $69.98 to $49.98. And on top of that, there's a $32.00 rebate available for purchases made until December 1st, which brings the final total down to $17.98.

And Staples is offering free shipping on all orders from now through Christmas.

Here's the link.

4GB for $18... boggles the mind when you consider where we were with computer memory just a few years ago!

Scene-It DVD Game - Friends TV Series $1.99

Circuit City is selling the Friends edition of the Scene-It DVD Game for $1.99 right now. It's not available for shipping, but you can order it on-line and pick it up at your local store if they have it in stock. The price is $1.99 which is very low for the game... Circuit City's site shows it as $4.85 regular price, but Target is showing this game going for $29.00!

Here's the link to Circuit City.

You enter your zip code to see what stores near you have them in stock. Hopefully you can pick some up and maybe have a few extra gifts to give your TV-watching friends!

Crayola Color Explosion Glow Board $9.99 at Amazon

Amazon.com is selling an electronic drawing easel with neon markers for kids at $9.99 from its regular price of $36.99. It looks like it might be a nice little gift for the young artists in the family.

It's eligible for free shipping if you order three (or combine it in an Amazon order for other items to total over $25).

The weird thing is, that if you were to click on the item itself at Amazon for all the information and details about the item, the price shows as $36.99 from one of their associated vendors. But if you click on the others available link, it brings you to the page with all the sources, and the first on the list (at the $9.99 price) is Amazon itself.

Here's the link with the Amazon $9.99 price.

Here's the link to the product information page with the $36.99 seller.

Order it from Amazon, and save.

Free 6-in-1 Kobalt Screwdriver

An extra screwdriver can always come in handy. Sometimes there are those small jobs that just need a quick fix and you don't want to trudge all the way to the toolbox to search for the right kind of screwdriver.

So how about a 6-in-1 screwdriver you can get for free? It would be handy to keep in a utility drawer in your kitchen for those small jobs. The screwdriver is made by Kobalt, and you get a coupon to get one free when you register for their contest. They e-mail you the coupon and you pick up your free screwdriver at Lowes. The coupon expires December 1st.

Here's the link.

Free is good.

Movie Fans: 376 DVDs on Sale at $3.99 Each at J&R.com -- TV Show DVDs also on Sale

If you're a movie fan and would like to add some films to your personal vault, this offer may be worth a gander...

J&R.com is offering a big selection of DVDs at way-low prices -- they have 376 films available at $3.99 each. These aren't just old, uninteresting movies you wouldn't want, there are some great selections like To Catch a Thief, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Catch Me If You Can, and many more.

Here's the link for the $3.99 movie selections.

They also have a ton of other movies and TV seasons available on sale in other low price ranges, so it can be worth looking to see if your favorites are there. Seasons of NYPD Blue are available at $12.99 and Monk Seasons are available at $15.99 for instance.

Here is the Black Friday pre-sale link. Many pages have "See More $... DVD" at the top of the list and that can open up even more to check out (that's how you get to the listing of 376 DVDs at 3.99).

The prices are for Black Friday but you can order them now for shipping on November 23rd! It's a great way to get those special prices without waiting in those long lines on Friday. They have a limit of 2 of any title.

Stocking stuffers, gifts galore? Start popping the popcorn and enjoy!