I've always wanted comment numbering in my Blogger blogs (I'm stubborn and lazy so I don't want to switch to another platform) but I was having a bit of a hard time figuring it out. After about an hour of trying a variety of codes, some of which could've possibly been outdated, I finally figured it out!
If anyone else is using Blogger and would like to have comment numbering, check out this tutorial. If it doesn't work after going through the tutorial, scroll down to his response to Sarah B.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Walmart's customer service
I know it's rarely cool to admit that one likes Walmart, but I'm going to do it anyway: I like Walmart. I'm fortunate that the Walmarts by me are fairly new or newly remodeled, so they're clean, well managed, and organized. They're also in a good area so the people who work and shop there aren't what you'd typically see on People of Walmart. It's actually a nice and pleasant place to shop.
About 2 weeks ago, I had to replace my laptop's cooling pad after my husband ninja kicked it in his sleep and broke the leg stand off. I can't say I've had a tremendous amount of luck with that particular cooling pad, but it's the best deal for the buck so I keep resorting to it. I've had maybe 5 of them in the past 2-3 years. I think most of them died due to dog hair. One died because something (read: hair tie I think) slipped into the fan and burned it out. I ordered a new one off of Walmart.com. I've been using it for about weeks and this morning, when I went to fire up my laptop, the cooling pad sounded like something was caught in it, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I sprayed it clean with canned air. I shook it to see if there was any rattling. Nada. I plugged it back in, and putter, putter, putter, poof, dead. My laptop runs hot...like Arizona desert hot, so I desperately need a cooling pad for it. I looked up my order online and realized that it's only 2 weeks old, so I could pretty much definitely take it back to Walmart. I had 2 options:
I could buy a new one in the store (they cost about $10 more in store) and swap it out with the broken one then return it.
Or I could not mess with karma, be honest, and see what they could do for me.
I opted to not mess with karma and called my local Walmart and briefly explained my situation involving an online order. I was promptly forwarded to an Assistant Manager named Kirk. I explained my situation to him in detail, and he did explain that an exchange between online purchases for an in store item is typically not done because of inventory, price, overhead, and just the fact that most stores don't really treat their online presence the same as their in store presence. In fact, some store's online presence is managed and operated independently or outsourced so it's treated completely separate from their brick and mortar stores. Because online stores lack the overhead that brick and mortar stores do, their prices are cheaper and physical stores do not honor online prices for this reason. (Target does the same thing.) Kirk put me on hold to do some research on my matter and to see what he could do for me. After a bit of a wait, he came back on the phone to inform me that he'll make an exception to the rule and get me taken care of. He said to go ahead and bring the broken cooling pad in and as long as they have the identical thing in stock, he'll take care of me and get it exchanged. He explained that normally, they'd send it back to Walmart.com and issue a refund so that I can purchase another one...which normally would've been fine but I needed a cooling pad now because my laptop runs soooo hot.
I half expected the exchange to be a huge hassle but true to word, Kirk the Assistant Manager took care of me and my dilemma. For that I am truly happy and felt I got great customer service. That makes me want to continue to shop with Walmart and don't mind admitting that I like them.
About 2 weeks ago, I had to replace my laptop's cooling pad after my husband ninja kicked it in his sleep and broke the leg stand off. I can't say I've had a tremendous amount of luck with that particular cooling pad, but it's the best deal for the buck so I keep resorting to it. I've had maybe 5 of them in the past 2-3 years. I think most of them died due to dog hair. One died because something (read: hair tie I think) slipped into the fan and burned it out. I ordered a new one off of Walmart.com. I've been using it for about weeks and this morning, when I went to fire up my laptop, the cooling pad sounded like something was caught in it, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I sprayed it clean with canned air. I shook it to see if there was any rattling. Nada. I plugged it back in, and putter, putter, putter, poof, dead. My laptop runs hot...like Arizona desert hot, so I desperately need a cooling pad for it. I looked up my order online and realized that it's only 2 weeks old, so I could pretty much definitely take it back to Walmart. I had 2 options:
I could buy a new one in the store (they cost about $10 more in store) and swap it out with the broken one then return it.
Or I could not mess with karma, be honest, and see what they could do for me.
I opted to not mess with karma and called my local Walmart and briefly explained my situation involving an online order. I was promptly forwarded to an Assistant Manager named Kirk. I explained my situation to him in detail, and he did explain that an exchange between online purchases for an in store item is typically not done because of inventory, price, overhead, and just the fact that most stores don't really treat their online presence the same as their in store presence. In fact, some store's online presence is managed and operated independently or outsourced so it's treated completely separate from their brick and mortar stores. Because online stores lack the overhead that brick and mortar stores do, their prices are cheaper and physical stores do not honor online prices for this reason. (Target does the same thing.) Kirk put me on hold to do some research on my matter and to see what he could do for me. After a bit of a wait, he came back on the phone to inform me that he'll make an exception to the rule and get me taken care of. He said to go ahead and bring the broken cooling pad in and as long as they have the identical thing in stock, he'll take care of me and get it exchanged. He explained that normally, they'd send it back to Walmart.com and issue a refund so that I can purchase another one...which normally would've been fine but I needed a cooling pad now because my laptop runs soooo hot.
I half expected the exchange to be a huge hassle but true to word, Kirk the Assistant Manager took care of me and my dilemma. For that I am truly happy and felt I got great customer service. That makes me want to continue to shop with Walmart and don't mind admitting that I like them.
Get your grill on
Memorial Day often marks the unofficial start of summer. I don't know about where you are, but where I am, the heat is already on and I have absolutely no desire to fire up the oven to cook inside and heat up the house even more. Thus, this comes in handy:
Martha Stewart's Free Summer Grilling eCookbook
Enjoy!
Martha Stewart's Free Summer Grilling eCookbook
Enjoy!
Free bacteria
It's true. Kids love bacteria and germs. Which is why I ordered one of these for my kiddo. You can score a free one too here!
Happy Memorial Day
Happy Memorial Day.
Thank you to the men and women who have fought and continue to fight for our country.
Cold Stone - 20% off
Cold Stone Creamery is celebrating E!'s 20th anniversary with a 20% off coupon good through June 30, 2010.
Feel free to thank me, though I'm sure your thighs may be cussing me out. :p
Feel free to thank me, though I'm sure your thighs may be cussing me out. :p
Tip - recipes & print jobs
I used to eat out a lot. I admit it, I was lazy. In fact, I once justified my excessive dining out habits by saying and convincing myself that eating out costs just as much as cooking at home once you factor in water usage, electricity/gas, and the energy it takes to clean up afterward.
I'll wait while you laugh at me. :)
Now I know better though. I cook at home now. A lot. I enjoy it now. Not only is it cheaper...much cheaper, but I can better manage what's in my food...including that stray dog hair, but hey at least I know where it's from, right? ;)
One thing that comes with cooking at home are recipes. I love collecting recipes and trying new recipes because I have a luxurious tastes when it comes to food. I love to eat gourmet, and I actually don't mind cooking gourmet...as long as I have a recipe to follow. I have hundreds of recipes saved...at last count, over 500 of them. Now if I were to print each one out, many of which are at least two pages long, that would take two reams of paper and a LOT of ink...things that costs money. Not to mention my printed recipes tends to walk off. Here's what I've come up with to save and organize my recipes:
CutePDF
CutePDF is a program that allows you to print things to a .pdf format and save them on your computer rather than printing it out on paper. I .pdf all my recipes then organize them into folders based on their main ingredient, course, or cuisine. And of course, I back them up periodically, off site, especially since our external hard drive containing hundreds more of my favorite recipes died. :( That was a very very sad day for me.
I'll wait while you laugh at me. :)
Now I know better though. I cook at home now. A lot. I enjoy it now. Not only is it cheaper...much cheaper, but I can better manage what's in my food...including that stray dog hair, but hey at least I know where it's from, right? ;)
One thing that comes with cooking at home are recipes. I love collecting recipes and trying new recipes because I have a luxurious tastes when it comes to food. I love to eat gourmet, and I actually don't mind cooking gourmet...as long as I have a recipe to follow. I have hundreds of recipes saved...at last count, over 500 of them. Now if I were to print each one out, many of which are at least two pages long, that would take two reams of paper and a LOT of ink...things that costs money. Not to mention my printed recipes tends to walk off. Here's what I've come up with to save and organize my recipes:
CutePDF
CutePDF is a program that allows you to print things to a .pdf format and save them on your computer rather than printing it out on paper. I .pdf all my recipes then organize them into folders based on their main ingredient, course, or cuisine. And of course, I back them up periodically, off site, especially since our external hard drive containing hundreds more of my favorite recipes died. :( That was a very very sad day for me.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Lego VIP Rewards
A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to the Lego store to attend an event. While there, we got suckered into buying a couple of sets of Legos for the kids (read: for me) and joined their VIP program. I knew about the program and thought I'd previously joined, but I guess not since I couldn't find my VIP card and they couldn't find me in their system. I went back today to get a card and to get my points credited. (They told me that I could bring my card in along with my receipt to have them credit it the next time I was in, and since I apparently didn't have a card, they just gave me one.) I'd purchased 2 Lego sets which came to about $75. (Dang those things are expensive!) So I started off with 75 points in my account. For registering the VIP card online (which you must do in order to redeem your rewards), they gave me 25 points. That right there was enough for me to get $5 off my next Lego purchase. However, they gave me a card inviting me to take a survey about the Lego event we went to, and the survey was worth 10 points. Add today's purchase, and we've racked up a good amount of points. Boy those points add up!
If you have a Lego fanatic in the family or know one, and if you have a Lego Store in your area, it's a good idea to purchase your Legos in a Lego Store. Here's why: you can only get VIP points when you purchase your Legos through their brick & mortar store or online store. I just recently noticed that not even mass merchandisers like Walmart and Target have cheaper prices. Their prices were pretty much identical to the Lego Store, so my guess is that Lego sets a firm retail price for their products. At that point, why not shop at the Lego Store and get points so you can get a discount? But that is not to say you shouldn't keep an eye out for sales, ads and promos. :)
Shopping & homework
I went and took advantage of the Stride Rite 25% off sale today at an outlet mall. I have to be honest, just a few weeks ago, I'd stocked up on a few pairs of shoes for my kids for Fall. I was annoyed that not even a month later I'm met with a 25% off coupon that's good in the outlets too, which is very rare. Outlets are often excluded from coupons. Out of the 3 pairs of shoes I bought then, only one was returnable. Two pairs were off their "Back Wall" clearance and the sale was final. I intended to take the one pair back to return them and either buy them back with my coupon or replace them with a different pair. So I'm standing waiting for the cashier (who all of a sudden disappeared in the middle of my return transaction) and I got a little impatient so I started looking around. I found the exact same pair of Marvel Heroes White/Black sneakers I was returning, on the shelf and I looked at the price. When I first bought them on May 15, they were $9.99 without any sort of coupon or discounts. In fact, I only bought them because they were so cheap. Now those same exact pairs of shoes are $19.99!!! That's proof that stores do indeed inflate their prices to match and compensate for any promos they have going on. That is one heck of an inflation...the price doubled, all because of a 25% coupon. If I were to return those shoes that I paid $9.99 for and buy them back at $19.99, even with my 25% off coupon, I would be paying $14.99 instead of the $9.99 I originally paid. I would be over paying by $5! That annoyed me. The cashier was back and started processing my return when I came to this revelation and I immediately told her to stop the transaction, that I was keeping the shoes.
Admittedly, their coupon promo did work on me. I walked out of there buying 2 more pairs of shoes for my kids...but at a steal. I bought them each another pair of all leather upper sneakers that were $14.99 for future wear. (My experience tells me that that is a very good price for Stride Rite shoes.) Here's how the deal went down:
$14.99 x 2 = $29.98 (the original price of one pair of these sneaks were $29.99)
Here's where I got a lil ninja. :)
The last time I bought shoes there, my receipt had a survey for me to fill out for $5 off my next purchase. I asked the cashier if I could apply that to my order along with my 25% off coupon. She said, "yes." WOOT!
So -
$29.98 - 5 = $24.98
24.98 - 25% (6.245) = $18.73
Yes! I scored two pairs of good quality Stride Rite sneakers for my kiddos for under $20. That's cheaper than what I would pay at Walmart or Target and these shoes are better quality.
Then, onto the Lego store. I had to go into the Lego store to get some VIP points credited from my last visit there. I kind of half expected a bit of a fight to deal with retro credits but it was taken care of no problem whatsoever. Being that I was with my husband, in a Lego store, there was no way I could've walked out of there without buying something so I scoured around for something cheap. Then I came upon this:
Admittedly, their coupon promo did work on me. I walked out of there buying 2 more pairs of shoes for my kids...but at a steal. I bought them each another pair of all leather upper sneakers that were $14.99 for future wear. (My experience tells me that that is a very good price for Stride Rite shoes.) Here's how the deal went down:
$14.99 x 2 = $29.98 (the original price of one pair of these sneaks were $29.99)
Here's where I got a lil ninja. :)
The last time I bought shoes there, my receipt had a survey for me to fill out for $5 off my next purchase. I asked the cashier if I could apply that to my order along with my 25% off coupon. She said, "yes." WOOT!
So -
$29.98 - 5 = $24.98
24.98 - 25% (6.245) = $18.73
Yes! I scored two pairs of good quality Stride Rite sneakers for my kiddos for under $20. That's cheaper than what I would pay at Walmart or Target and these shoes are better quality.
Then, onto the Lego store. I had to go into the Lego store to get some VIP points credited from my last visit there. I kind of half expected a bit of a fight to deal with retro credits but it was taken care of no problem whatsoever. Being that I was with my husband, in a Lego store, there was no way I could've walked out of there without buying something so I scoured around for something cheap. Then I came upon this:
Yep, that's right. Star Wars Lego on mark down all because the box had a dent on it. The pieces inside are perfectly fine, but I saved myself a little money by picking a box that's less than perfect over a perfect box. Besides, my kids would destroy the boxes when we got home anyway so why pay more for it?
Moral of the story here is, stores do mark up their prices to go with their promos. Do your homework. Don't judge a book by its cover. A little imperfection can save you money.
Happy shopping and hope you're enjoying the Memorial Day sales going on out there. Shop wisely.
Mailbox love - Sara Lee Toy Story 3 promo
About a month ago I read about a Toy Story 3 lunch box promo from Couponing to Disney. We went out and bought tons of bread...10 loaves/packs of bread, to be exact. We love bread, don't get me wrong, but I thought it would take us forever to eat it up. We took the bread out of their packaging, stuffed them into some freezer Ziploc bags, threw them in the freezer to keep and I sent the UPCs off for two lunch boxes for my kids. Now, about a month later, the lunch boxes have finally arrived! They weren't kidding when they said 4-8 weeks for delivery. :)
So here it is. Here's the lunch boxes we received:
I'm quite impressed, actually. The lunchboxes are huge! They're big enough to fit a 32 oz Nalgene bottle with tons of room for other stuff. The funny part is, the lunchbox is supposed to light up. See that red dot over Buzz Lightyear's left side of his chest? That's a protruding button of sorts, but it's a light. All of us thought that you're supposed to press the red dot to get it to light up. There's even a little sticker that points to it (which we removed.) We pressed and pressed and pressed and couldn't get the darn thing to light up. It took a 2 yr old to press right above the red dot to get it to light up and that's how we figured it out. *sigh*
Well, at least we got our lunchboxes now. The kids love them! It was a good deal...bread for free lunchboxes and I didn't even have to pay shipping. They had tumblers and plates as part of the offer too but I wasn't interested in those. To those of you who may be concerned about the safety of the products in the promo, the lunchbox is made by a company called Zak. Here's the link to their website regarding product safety. I'm assuming that the tumblers and plates are made by them too, but since we didn't order those, I cannot say for sure.
Oh and as for the bread...all but one pack of hamburger buns are gone. Yup, we ate 9 loaves of bread in a month. Good grief!
So here it is. Here's the lunch boxes we received:
I'm quite impressed, actually. The lunchboxes are huge! They're big enough to fit a 32 oz Nalgene bottle with tons of room for other stuff. The funny part is, the lunchbox is supposed to light up. See that red dot over Buzz Lightyear's left side of his chest? That's a protruding button of sorts, but it's a light. All of us thought that you're supposed to press the red dot to get it to light up. There's even a little sticker that points to it (which we removed.) We pressed and pressed and pressed and couldn't get the darn thing to light up. It took a 2 yr old to press right above the red dot to get it to light up and that's how we figured it out. *sigh*
Well, at least we got our lunchboxes now. The kids love them! It was a good deal...bread for free lunchboxes and I didn't even have to pay shipping. They had tumblers and plates as part of the offer too but I wasn't interested in those. To those of you who may be concerned about the safety of the products in the promo, the lunchbox is made by a company called Zak. Here's the link to their website regarding product safety. I'm assuming that the tumblers and plates are made by them too, but since we didn't order those, I cannot say for sure.
Oh and as for the bread...all but one pack of hamburger buns are gone. Yup, we ate 9 loaves of bread in a month. Good grief!
50 Days of Disney Music
Disney Records is giving away 50 days of music (one a day) for free. You can download them via their Twitter or Facebook. Act fast though because you only have 24 hours to download that day's song. Unfortunately, you can't go back and download songs that were previously posted.
Today's song is "Polly Wolly Doodle" from the Country Bears Jamboree.
Today's song is "Polly Wolly Doodle" from the Country Bears Jamboree.
Stride Rite - 25% off - Outlets included!
Stride Rite is having their Friends & Family event with 25% off your entire purchase. The best part of this is that the coupon is good at outlets too!
If you prefer to shop online, use promo code FFMAY25.
Sale ends May 31, 2010.
If you prefer to shop online, use promo code FFMAY25.
Sale ends May 31, 2010.
3 hours + migraine later
I knew I desperately needed to reorganize the storage tubs of clothes I had stuffed in the closet. They were a mess. I knew there were clothing in there that I can use right now that I can't even access because of the mess. I also knew I didn't want to mess with the tubs now when it was 90 degrees of grumpy, sweltering heat. I knew all that. I even said I was going to reorganize everything come Fall when I had to swap out clothing again, but today, I caved. I desperately needed to find some long lost tank tops that I wasn't sure if I still had or if I'd donated to Haiti and I didn't even know where to start among the 3 massive bins of clothing. On a wild guess I just picked one and went with it. As luck would have it, the first bin contained the tank tops I was looking for, buried deep in the abyss of clothes I'd haphazardly thrown in there over the past 2-3 seasons. By that time, I'd have the entire contents of the giant tub, intended for several comforters, dumped out so I might as well go for broke and organize it. Long story short, three hours later, I'd purged and organized two large tubs of clothes, had a migraine, and saved myself over $30 by unearthing the tank tops I needed, plus some other stuff I thought I had but wasn't sure about. If you factor the uncertain articles of clothing in, I actually saved myself close to $50. $50, not factoring tax, divided by the 3 hours I put into it, I pretty much paid myself $16.67 an hour. Eh, not too shabby. :)
Now I just need to find the motivation to go through that last tub of clothes and purge some stuff.
Now I just need to find the motivation to go through that last tub of clothes and purge some stuff.
Revival
After a pretty lengthy hiatus (what is it...8 months almost 9 months?) to reevaluate what I want to do with this blog, and the direction I want to go, I think I've decided to revive it and take a different approach.
In the past 8 months I've done a lot of things along the line of money management and frugality. I've decided to not only just post about good deals, and reviews, but I'd like to use this blog as an opportunity to keep myself accountable in saving money and having monetary goals. Hopefully, it'll inspire someone else to be more frugal as well. A penny in your own pocket is better than a penny in someone else's pockets. So join me on my journey to save a few pennies.
In the past 8 months I've done a lot of things along the line of money management and frugality. I've decided to not only just post about good deals, and reviews, but I'd like to use this blog as an opportunity to keep myself accountable in saving money and having monetary goals. Hopefully, it'll inspire someone else to be more frugal as well. A penny in your own pocket is better than a penny in someone else's pockets. So join me on my journey to save a few pennies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)