Bargain Quest

Worth 5 Free Blockbuster rentals or many other options… Slickdeals is abuzz with MyCokeRewards codes for 100 pts, 50 pts, 25 pts, 10 pts, 5 pts, and 3 pts. Total 193 points - enough for 5 Blockbuster rentals (36pts each), which is my choice, but plenty of other possibilities like Kodak items and Coke brand products. It’s very popular, so don’t expect it to last long.

The Festival of Frugality has been posted over at Stingy Students. I’m a sucker for the theme - Food Network Chef categories. Yum!

My submission (Saving 50% on Prescription Drugs) falls into Sandra Lee’s domain (”parenting or things around the household”). Meh. I actually have one of her cookbooks but I really don’t care for her show. I’d much rather be with Alton, Tony or Ina…

(By the way, I did finally receive that free Anthony Bourdain book I registered for)

There’s plenty to read, but here’s two entries I appreciated to get you started:
“10 Ways to Get Free Plants for Your Garden” at Personal Finance Advice
“The Fine Line of Frugality” at My Financial Journey

For almost 2 weeks now, I’ve been working off and on to switch Bargain Quest to the WordPress platform.

Previously, I was using Quick Blog. Haven’t heard of it? I’m not surprised. It’s GoDaddy’s blog system that I fell into by default when I started my blog in July. (That’s where Richmondbargains.com is registered) I picked it over Blogger because it was the easiest way I knew to have my blog on my own domain. I was young and silly.

To be fair, Quick Blog was very convenient. It looked professional and was easy to use. Godaddy also charged me $3 a month to use it. What really drove me nuts was the inability to customize anything beyond a few colors. The default font color for my posts was grey, so I had to recode every single post to a readable black and maroon.

Quick Blog’s biggest limitation for me is the fact that it’s not widely used. Unlike Blogger, WordPress and other popular options, no one designs extra plugins and functionalities for it, and when you want to leave, no other program has an automated process to import the content from Quick Blog format!

Having to move the blog was inevitable anyway. I’m in the process of setting up the main Richmond Bargains site as well and didn’t want to host it with GoDaddy. So redirecting the nameservers to a new host was going to hamper or prevent further public access to the blog in its Quickblog incarnation.

The good news:
-I got 90% of my posts over. The formatting isn’t perfect and graphics are missing, but the content is there. (My very first posts for the month of July are having to be added by hand.)

The bad news:
-Old comments are gone. I don’t think there is/was any way to bring them over, because Wordpress doesn’t have an import option specific to Quickblog. Eventually, I’d like to go back and edit posts to include the comments made. In the meantime, please comment away on new subjects or go back and repost if you thought something was important to say.
-Some previous feed and all email subscriptions have ceased. Sorry! If you were receiving automatic Bargain Quest updates, you may have to rejoin. I think RSS is functioning now, but I’m still working to get an email subscription plugin. Keep checking back!

It’s fun, albeit slightly nerve-wracking, to be able to mess with the “guts” of the blog. Most of the time I have no idea what I’m doing, but I enjoy the challenge, even though the first few days on Wordpress were harder than anticipated. I couldn’t save new posts OR delete old ones (more of a Wordpress glitch). That problem is partially patched.

Since I’m doing all this reconfiguring anyway, if there are any features you think I should add, please let me know. And if you’re a Wordpress guru who has any helpful suggestions, I’d love to hear ‘em. Leave a comment or email me at richmondbargains at hotmail dot com.

Somebody hit the bargain jackpot…

From Yahoo News: A rare, 184-year-old copy of the Declaration of Independence found by a bargain hunter at a Nashville thrift shop is being valued by experts at about 100,000 times the $2.48 purchase price.

Michael Sparks, a music equipment technician, is selling the document in an auction March 22nd at Raynors’ Historical Collectible Auctions in Burlington, North Carolina. The opening bid is $125,000 and appraisers have estimated it could sell for nearly twice that.

Sparks found his bargain last March while browsing at Music City Thrift Shop in Nashville. When he asked the price on a yellowed, shellacked, rolled-up document, the clerk marked it at $2.48.

It turned out to be an “official copy” of the Declaration of Independence — one of 200 commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820.

He didn’t know he had such a valuable piece until doing some online research and then having appraisers at Raynors’ offer an opinion.

(I’m having flashbacks to National Treasure when they’re running around DC and Philadelphia with the real Declaration.)

To make a long story long: My doctor wrote me a generic prescription, and I took it to Kroger to get filled as usual. There I found out that this particular drug isn’t covered by my insurance. Instead of my normal $10 co-pay, the pharmacist told me the medicine would cost me $32. Confronted with a substantially higher-than-anticipated cost and not needing the medicine right away, I said I’d wait to get it some other time. I didn’t have any expectation of being able to find the drug for more than a few dollars cheaper anywhere else, but since $32 was regular price, I also wasn’t losing anything by delaying.

Later at home I remembered I’d just received in the mail a free membership card to a discount drug program, associated with my Citi Professional card. I checked and sure enough, the program website quoted a $14 price tag for the same drug from Kroger. On my next grocery shopping trip, I gave my discount card to the pharmacy and the prescription was filled for $14.

Presto! An almost effortless $18 saved.

Morals of this story:

1. Procrastination sometimes pays, at least when delaying a purchase allows you to better consider and research the options. Sometimes you have to jump on bargains or they’re gone; but if the situation isn’t urgent, as in this case, avoid being rushed into a purchase. Make sure you’re buying something you actually need and paying a competitive price for it.

2. For prescription drugs, particularly generics, look for alternative discounts to your usual insurance program. I don’t get many prescriptions, and just assumed the insurance rate was a good deal. I may have been wasting money for a while.

For instance, I discovered that another recent ($10) prescription would have cost
-$4 from Wal-Mart ($4 generic drug list), or
-$7.50 from Kroger with the Citi-affiliated discount program, or
-$4.50 from the hospital a mile from our house with the Citi-affiliated discount program. Overall, the prices quoted on the discount website were a couple bucks cheaper if filled at the hospital instead of drug/grocery stores. Is this standard? Do hospitals charge less for drugs?

This is a new bargain arena for me, so please share if you have any good money-saving tips for prescriptions!

Just returned from a stay in the Sunshine state, visiting in-laws at a rental house near Orlando. Most of my time was spent relaxing, reading, and going crazy with a Nikon D70 that someone was kind enough to loan me, but I did have a chance for one bargain adventure…

Little did I know before arriving Saturday that the rental house in Mt. Dora was only a mile from purportedly the largest antique/farmers/flea market in Florida - Renninger’s. And of course, that weekend happened to be one of the famous Antiques Extravanganzas during which approx. 1200-1400 vendors congregated to hawk their wares. My in-laws enjoy shopping more than my husband, so I got to accompany them on an excursion. Here are a few photos…

The white blobs way in the distance are still vendor tents. The second photo is taken from the same hilltop spot, just turned 90 degrees to my left. (The permanent flea market structure is actually behind me.)

I have very little experience with flea markets, so I did more observing than shopping. Furniture was off-limits anyway, because anything I bought had to fit in my suitcase for the flight home. However, I did pick up 2 leather belts (2 for $5 from a huge selection) and a couple of used books (O’Henry $3 and Plato $2).

“Everything but the kitchen sink” - I didn’t see them, but I’m certain there were at least a dozen kitchen sinks to be found somewhere in the melee. Our hour or two of browsing didn’t dent the amount of offerings to be perused.

Visually, I liked this booth of rusty old tools…

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Too bad there’s not a good flea market near me, because there seem to be plenty of potential deals if you have the time and energy to dig a little.

Let’s hear it for practicing self-control! I’m happy because I managed to resist a bargain yesterday. I could have bought 3 - 22oz Yankee Candle Housewarmer candles for $28 shipped, less than $10 apiece. (Discussion thread at Slickdeals). For Yankee Candles, that’s a steal. I got as far as entering my credit card info, rationalizing that they make great gifts (true) and I wouldn’t see them this cheap for a long time (also true)…

But then I was honest with myself - I didn’t need them. My husband’s mom just bought us a bunch of Housewarmers for Christmas, probably enough to last us several years. As far as making gifts, I already have a fair stash of generic presents and not too many occasions to use them, so again I don’t need more candles, however cheap. So no YC’s for me.

On a somewhat related topic, I’m reminded that the ease of online shopping is a blessing and a curse. Just a credit card number and poof, it’s yours. A painless way to accumulate years worth of painful bills.

I’m in the midst of an attempt to switch to WordPress, and things are getting ugly, literally and figuratively. Please bear with me while I muddle through and attempt to not throw my computer through the window!

I started using Restaurant.com about a year ago, and have been generally pleased with the deals I’ve received. If you’ve never tried Restaurant.com and aren’t sure what it’s all about, here are some basics to get you started (See end of post for the current promotion)…

3. Certificates are valid for one-time use, up to one year from purchase, and you can use one per month at the same restaurant. (Here are the basic terms and conditions for all certificates)

Here’s the current deal: Take 50% off your total with code SWEETHEART (valid through 2/10), plus get a free $10 certificate for every purchase you make though 2/14 (promotion details). Not too shabby!

Free & Chocolate. Two great words even better together