Is it too early to get your hands dirty and plant something? Depends on where you live. If you are starting to plan your spring or summer garden and live in California, consider buying your plants at OSH.
OSH gives store credit for plants bought from them that have died with the receipt. When I returned a dead plant the salesperson did not blink an eye before pulling out a black plastic bag and instructing me to dump the remains.
Live outside the Golden State? Perhaps a regional chain has a similar policy. It never hurts to ask.
Here is a recommendation for the best garden store in Chicago. Here a top rated garden store in Baltimore. Citysearch provides a roundup of garden stores in Seattle.
More gardening posts:
How a garden can save you $500
Reader tips on recession gardens
What are you doing for fun that is cheap this weekend? I am going on a bike ride with friends (free!) and am hosting a potluck BBQ (~$15).
My little sister is going to take advantage of the $1 pool table at the local bowling alley. All the other tables are $10 per hour, but she knows of this one table that is super cheap.
Other cheap thrill ideas:
Enjoy St. Patty’s Day parades and events
Go to a book reading
Attend a gallery opening
See a drive-in movie (often cheaper than regular movies)
Go to an indoor public pool
What’s your cheap thrill this weekend?
Thanks, Sarah and Stormy!
Victoria’s Secret currently has a promotion where you get a gift card with an unknown value every time you make a purchase of $10 or more.
The value of the card will be revealed April 7 and can be $10, $50, $100 or $500. Seems like a no brainer for small purchases. The mystery card is good until May 10, 2009 and are accepted in stores, over the phone (800-888-8200) and online, but not at outlets.
I do not know how long they are giving out these gift cards. Find a Victoria’s Secret near you.
Caveats: one card redeemed per customer, per transaction. Not valid with any other discount or offer.
A loyal reader named Glenn writes in with this story:
Hi Julia. I’m sure that you remember the $100 promotion WaMu was offering not too long ago. I don’t know if you decided to give their offer a try, but I did. Guess what? I collected my $100 bonus today and closed out my accounts. I didn’t write any checks, use the ATM, or make any withdrawals of any kind during the promotion phase. Basically, I just put the money and the accounts out of mind. That was my plan from the very beginning. Keep the money there long enough to earn the $100 bonus then take the money and run.
I opened my account back on January 8. The day before yesterday, I received my checking account statement in the mail showing me that the $100 bonus was deposited into my checking account back on February 11. That’s a full 8 weeks faster than the 12 weeks I was anticipating. Did any of your other readers inform you that they got their bonus money?
And I won’t forget to report the $100 on my 2009 tax returns. Keep up the good work.
Glenn
Has a friend or family member asked you for a loan recently? Lending money to friends and family is becoming more common, but there are pitfalls.
Watch this 5:41 video from MSNBC for tips on how to turn down the loan, offer other types of help, or create a contract for the loan.
Google is making an enemy out of the telecommunication industry, but if it means offering free services to consumers, I’m okay with it. Google Voice, a rival to Skype (owned by eBay) and traditional phone companies, lets you synch your phone numbers so that your work, cell, and home phone ring simultaneously. You can call one voicemail number to check all your messages and get a transcript of your messages.
The service is an expansion of a company called GrandCentral that Google purchased in 2007. Existing GrandCentral users will get access to Google Voice first. The rest of us can jump on the bandwagon in a few weeks.
I’ll update the blog when Google Voice becomes widely available. For more details, read a NY Times story about Google Voice.
Shop It To Me, an online site that recommends clothes based on your style and preferences, now recommends clothing that is on sale.
To access the site you have to register, unfortunately. But joining is free. Shop It To Me emails their recommendations with pictures so you can scroll through their suggestions fairly quickly.
Sign up to receive emails about clothing for women, men, boys, or girls. Chose which brands you like from almost 600 choices, tell it your sizes, and which type of clothing you want to get emails about.
You share your name, email, year of birth, zip code and which day(s) of the week you want to receive emails from them. Once you log in you can access their sale recommendations.
If you are buying anything, get the lowest price by using one of 20 price trackers reviewed by CNET. I highlighted a few interesting ones below, though I encourage you to read about all 20 in the original article.
Amazon Price Watch (aka NukePrice.com)
“Amazon Price Watch may sound like it’s only Amazon.com prices, but it actually works with around 100 online retailers. You can have it watch the price of something by dropping its link into the service’s Web form, or by installing a browser add-on that lets you start tracking from the retailer’s site. Along with price-watching tools, it’s also got a deals finder and a “filler items” tool that will help you find low-priced items to add to your Amazon order to get free shipping.”
EDealInfo
“EDealInfo may not be the prettiest site of the bunch, but it’s got a simple and powerful way to build a deal alert without too many specifics. For example, you can keep track of an entire genre of products for price drops, like all digital cameras from a certain retailer, or group of retailers. It’s also registration-free.”
NetHaggler
“NetHaggler is a service designed to let users band together to get a lower price from a retailer by buying a single product as a group. It also has a price tracking feature that lets you bookmark items you’d be interested in buying for a certain price. Its system will then send you an alert either if your product falls within the price you’ve set, or if it’s been able to haggle down the price by bulk buying with other users.”
ShoppingNotes
“ShoppingNotes is one of the simplest tools on this list. There’s no sign-up, you just give the site the product page URL (or URLs as a group) and your e-mail address. It then sends you an e-mail if the price goes down. Besides its main site there’s a bookmarklet you can add to your browser to begin watching a price from any site you’re on.”
ZingSale
“ZingSale is one of the prettiest sites on this list and, like the others, is set up to let you quickly put together a list of items you want to track for price drops. It’s got a fast and smart search engine, with a very deep level of categorization, which can help narrow down your searches. And its e-mails lead directly to the retailer that’s selling it at the lowest price.”
Thanks, Ellyn!
Customers of The Gas Company may be eligible for a 20% discount on their gas bill through a program called CARE. To qualify you or a person in your household must receive benefits from Medi-Cal, Food Stamps, TANF, Women, Infant & Children (WIC), Healthy Families Category A & B, or LIHEAP.
Or you can qualify if your income is less than $30,500 for up to two people in the home, $35,800 for up to three people, $43,200 for four, $50,600 for five, or $58,000 for six. For each additional household member add $7,400.
If you apply and are accepted the discount starts within 90 days. For details and an application, download this form. (It is a pdf so give it time to open.) For applications in Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese or large print English, go to this page and look for the appropriate link.
Thanks, Tina!
A friend recently found out he is getting a $13,535 tax refund. Wow!!!
I could not persuade him to invest in Bargain Babe, so he has the pleasant burden of deciding what to do with his wad. He is considering refinancing, socking it away, or splurging on a long trip to hike the Inca Trail in Peru.
Hubby and I don’t expect to get a tax refund, but if we did it would go straight to savings.
What are your plans for your tax return – or are you expecting to write a check to Uncle Sam? Share your two cents by leaving a comment.
The Sunday NY Times Week in Review section published reader poems about the economic downturn. Here is a sampling. Contribute one by leaving a comment.
Those of us who’ve lost it all,
Thought not about the cost at all.
Those of us who are content,
Gave thought to every single cent.
- John Duvall, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
And:
The new recession
when rich folks must shop Costco
to save on Chanel.
- Maya Leland, Kaneohe, Hawaii
And:
I worked 50 years since I was 16
Saw visions ahead of the American dream
Saved and I saved, no splurges in sight
Bought an apt at the market’s height
Maxed my IRA and 401 too
Put it in blue chips, not CDOs like you
I dreamed of Paris and Venice and Rome
But I’ll be staying a lot closer to home
While all the bankers enjoyed their spree
Financed by naive ones like you and like me
- Barbara Roston, New York, N.Y.
And:
OK
401K
40.1K
4.01K
.401K
.0401K
NOT OK
-Gerald Duffy, Portsmouth, N.H.
And finally:
Last weekend
i wanted to buy something
spend a grand or two.
But then I remembered what the TV said
about the future
about tomorrow
about how I may not have a job.
So I sat by the window
and watched
the snow fall instead.
- Thomas Bernard Marblo, Charlotte, N.C.
A Pasadena stationery and card store named Carmody & Co. is selling many cards for $1, including those for birthdays, weddings, new babies, new homes, and many more. Calenders are 25% off and you can get 10% off most everything in the store when you mention Bargain Babe.
Carmody makes custom invitations and sells fine stationery. They have unique invitations and cards for just about every type of occasion, including sweet 16, Mardi Gras, and Ladies night. Carmody carries products made by Vera Wang, Kate Spade, Sweet Pea Designs and Crane & Co.
Caveats: the 10% off does not apply to Crane and William Arthur book orders and Swarovski crystal jewelry.
Visit them at 121 E Union St. in Pasadena. 626-795-2924.
If my earlier post about recession gardens did not convince you, here are 500 reasons why you should consider growing your own vegetables.
A 12 by 12 foot plot can yield a lot of food if you start early and plant a second round for another harvest late in the season, says a story in the Mar/Apr issue of AARP.
“You could grow as much as $500 worth of produce from the small plot described here – and have a great time doing it…You have nothing to lose but your lawn and the endless joy of mowing it.”
A few tips from the story:
- Aim for soil that has the consistency of crumbly chocolate cake
- Encourage worms and plant-nourishing bacteria to take residence in your garden
- Add compost containing leaving, grass clipping and vegetable scraps from your kitchen
- Keep beds soft and fluffy by not walking on them
- Budget about $150 to make a 6-foot-high fence around the garden to keep out deer and and rabbits
- Plan to spend about $50 on seeds to get started. They should last about three years
- Plant tall plants, like pole beans, on the north side to avoid shading other crops
- If you have children, grow strawberries, sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes, which are sweet enough to get them excited about vegetables
For a drawing of where to plant each crop and a list of 18 vegetables that are easy to grow scroll down on this page.
Thanks, Ellen!
If you read about Bargain Babe on NewParent.com, welcome! This blog is all about saving money every day because the little things in life – groceries, meals out, and clothes – really do add up.
If you like what you see, join my email list. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Join by March 23 and you are automatically eligible to win a $25 Starbucks gift card!
Thanks for for checking out Bargain Babe!
Get a free small fries and fountain drink today, March 10, 2009, at Jack in the Box. Print the coupon here.
Get a coupon for a free sandwich from Quiznos when you buy a drink and chips purchase. Get the coupon by signing up for their email list. Tell them your birthday and they will give you a free cookie on that day.
Get a buy one get one free coupon from Auntie Annie’s Pretzels when you sign up for their site. After you join they email you the coupon.
The link a reader sent me for a free roastburger at Arby’s is not working, unfortunately. Does anybody have a link to the latest coupon, which expires March 15, 2009?
Restaurant gift certificates worth $25 are on sale for $2 at Restaurant.com now until March 15, 2009. Use code MENU when checking out. Make sure to read the rules for redeeming the certs as they can be quite strict.
Thanks, Kelly and Paul!
