This is a guest blog post by bargain hubby.
Keeping your tires inflated saves you money – and you don’t even have to pay for the air! For every 3 PSI your car tires are low, you burn 1 percent more fuel and add 10 percent more wear to your tires, claims an article at Edmunds.com! The article also includes instructions and a video on how to pump up your car tires.
This doesn’t just apply to your car. Yesterday I was biking (in a hurry of course) and realized my tires were way too flat. The flat tires were slowing me down and tiring me out. I decided to pull into a gas station and pump up my tires, begrudgingly willing to spend seventy five cents to do it.
I lucked out. There was someone topping off the air in his car. It was clear he does this frequently as he jumped quickly from tire to tire with his digital air gauge. He finished well before the timer ran out and handed the hose to me to work on my tires.
“You know, they’ll often turn if on for free if you go ask, ” he told me. After I’d finished with my tires, I thanked him again for sharing his air. That’s when he said, “They have to provide the air for free to customers. You could go in and [lie to] tell them you got gas. But stealing air just doesn’t seem right.”
I biked off to my appointment, and arrived on time. The time spent adding the air was offset by my increased speed going up the mile long hill to my destination.
Later I checked his facts. AB-531 was passed in California in 1999, which requires that gas stations must provide the air and water machines free to customers. Since they can still charge “non-customers”, they’re unlikely to tell you that you have free access. This is one time it pays to ask!
I have not seen this big of a discount at Restaurant.com for a looooooong time. Get 90 percent off their gift certificates with code NINETY. At full price a $25 cert is $10, so with this coupon code a $25 cert is just $1. Yowza!
Perhaps it is time to stock up for yourself or get a head start on your Christmas shopping? Expires Sept. 13, 2009.
The certificates last for a year, but check the fine print because some have unusual redemption rules.
Join the Peetniks loyalty program this week and get a free pound of Uzuri African blend coffee. Membership is free.
Joining the program means getting Peet’s coffee regularly shipped to your home or business in increments of 1-10 weeks, you chose. You need to order at least two pounds every delivery and you can chose between four grinds or get whole beans.
If you join the program shipping is 50 percent off, which means you can save up to $40 a year.
The only downside is being regularly charged for coffee. You can adjust the delivery if you go on vacation or find you need more/less coffee, however.
Not too shabby!
I was at the doctor’s last week for my annual check up and she asked me if I wanted a flu shot. Already? Jeez louise. I decided to wait until October, but I am a big advocate of getting the flu shot after I came down with influenza and strep at the same time two winters ago.
For those of us who don’t have access to a free shot, here is what people are charging.
Costco has the best price for the flu shot at $20 a pop; the pneumonia shot is $35. You can find a vaccination event at Costco here.
Walgreens is giving flu shots for $25, a slight drop from last year’s standard $30 charge. A benefit of the recession!
Rite aid has the flu shot for $30 and the pneumonia shot for $45.
Wal-Mart has select flu vaccination events. You can check for one near you.
If you are unemployed and uninsured, you can get a free flu shot.
My doctor is charging $28 plus co-pay, a drop from last year. What is your doctor charging?
CVS is charging $30 and have them available without an appointment at MinuteClinic locations inside certain CVS’s. Most MinuteClinic locations are open seven days a week and offer evening hours. On September 15th, more than 9,000 flu shot clinic events will be held in select CVS’s. Call 1-888-FLU-SHOT or go to CVS to find a list of vaccination locations.
Still looking for a place to get a flu shot? Try FindAFluShot.com, which lists clinics by proximity to your zip code. Unfortunately, the listings don’t include prices so you’ll have to make some calls.
Caveats: some states or pharmacies may have restrictions on who can get the flu shot. Ask ahead of time to avoid headaches. No pun intended!
Thanks, Laurie!
A friend who is a savvy bargain hunter and an amazing personal shopper (seriously, I would pay this girl to help me find clothes) recently discovered an incredible deal right below her nose.I wanted to share this story with you because there are probably a lot of misinformed people out there, like I was prior to last Friday afternoon, and this could potentially save people some serious cash.
Where to start? I have IBS…which manifests itself daily if I’m eating anything other than rice or oatmeal, in a very painful call for attention. Because of this, I take (anti-spasmodic) pills to eat pretty much every meal. I had to up my dosage on my own a few months ago because one wasn’t doing the trick–DR is fine with this, but my insurance will only cover 120 pills every 30 days. I take a minimum of 6 pills a day, you do the math.
I have been paying out of pocket for this…it’s about $40, which isn’t bad, considering it’s the difference between a great meal and just eating oatmeal 3 times a day. But $40 adds up. My DR suggested I try Costco for the prescription and said 120 pills should run about $30-40. I figured if that was the going rate, I would just be lazy and keep paying CVS. He wrote me a paper prescription anyway, should I ever want to try Costco.
I decided to call Costco, for s—s and giggles, to see how much they charged. The nice Costco pharmacy girl looked it up and said, “Seven twenty-three”.
“Excuse me, can you repeat that? I think you just said seven, as in DOLLARS, but I want to make sure you didn’t say seventy?”
“Nope, SEVEN DOLLARS AND TWENTY THREE CENTS”.
“WHAT?! Are you joking? I’ve been paying CVS $40 for that prescription!”
“Yeah, we get that a lot. Are you a Costco memeber?”
“No, I’m not.”
“That’s fine, but if you were the scrip would cost FIVE DOLLARS”.
“I think I can swing the $7. I’ll be RIGHT over.”
Click.
So I dropped off my prescription and didn’t even bother giving them my insurance card because my scrip plan is $10…and, well, $7 is better than that! I waited 30 minutes (in the book section…i could spend a whole day there!)…and got my scrip for $7.
I realize this is way long for the conclusion here, but I’ve probably paid out of pocket for that scrip at least 5-6 times since I started having to do that in April. Which means I have given CVS approximately $240…when I could have saved $198 if I’d gone to Costco in the first place.
CVS NO MORE!!
The moral: for people who don’t have prescription plans or who have to pay out of pocket for some meds, chances are it’s cheaper at Costco.
Also, you DO NOT have to be a Costco member in order to get prescriptions there! I’m thinking this might be a little known fact. Or that I am the last idiot to know.
The only problem is if you are waiting around for your scrip(s) and killing time walking around the store seeing all the good deals on food, clothes, booze, books, etc…that prescription might cost you an additional $50-$100 for the membership and the cost of whatever it is you’ve found while waiting that you just HAVE TO BUY, because you cannot buy anything without the card…just prescriptions.THE END.
(sorry for the novel)
You can win two tickets to Next to Normal or Mamma Mia on Broadway in New York City by signing up for my free emails. If you are not near NYC you can also win a 3-pack of reusable Joey Totes! (I’ve been using them for the past month and they are super light and durable.)
The Next to Norma tickets are for Nov. 2 and I’m not sure when the Mamma Mia tickets are for. Show tickets run anywhere from $60 to $120 so you are saving a bundle!
The show tickets are courtesy of Season of Savings, Broadway’s twice-annual special edition Playbill that has discounts and deals for numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, hotels and other New York City attractions.
You can win whether you are a new reader or an existing reader! The giveaway ends Sept. 14 so sign up for my daily OR weekly emails today!
Get 15 percent off all used books today only at Better World Books, a for-profit organization that collects and sells books online to benefit literacy initiatives in the U.S. and abroad. The sale is in celebration of International Literacy Day. Use code 4Literacy at checkout.
Used titles include The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet for $7, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for $4.50 and Green Eggs and Ham for $4. Check out their bargain bin, where 5 used books are $15.
Find popular books by looking at Oprah’s book club, Amazon best sellers, and bargain best sellers. Perhaps you will find some early Christmas presents!
Better World Books conducts book drives on 1,800 college campuses and collects discards from more than 1,800 libraries. The company has raised $7 million for its non-profit literacy, library and college partners, donated over 1.3 million college textbooks and diverted more than 25 million pounds of books from landfills, according to a press release. Read more about Better World Books.
Have a great Labor Day weekend! See you Tuesday.
~ Julia
aka Bargain Babe
You may have noticed a few more ads, in the form of sponsored posts, have been appearing on BargainBabe.com. I know reader Brandon saw it because he left this comment.
Yep, I am officially done with your blog.
I guess I should call him an ex-reader.
I don’t see anything wrong with ads – as long as they are marked as paid content. I know many bloggers don’t mark paid content or paid product reviews, but I do. This kind of transparency is important to me as a journalist and blogger. The Ethics policy on my About page says
I do not accept money from any business or manufacturer to blog about their product on BargainBabe.com. If I write about a restaurant, retailer, Web site or product it is because I believe there is a good deal to be had. I sell sponsored posts and advertising on the site and participate in referral programs, however, because I gotta pay my bills. Paid content is always identified.
I haven’t done much with referral programs, but that is about to change. I’ve recently joined two referral programs. Basically, the way it works is that they send me special deals. I post the best ones and if you click through and buy something, you are supporting the blog. (I get a teeny tiny percentage of the sale, like a finder’s fee.)
Publishing ads and participating in referral programs enables me to continue sharing good deals with you, so I hope you’ll take a look at them and click on them if they appeal to you!
Retail sales in fell 2 percent in August, which some people say is a good thing because the decline is smaller than in past months. Sales dropped at Target (3 percent), Abercrombie & Firtch (29 percent), and American Eagle (7 percent).
Sales increased at Old Navy (4 percent), TJ Maxx (5 percent), and Aeropostale (9 percent). Folks are hoping this means back to school sales will be strong this weekend.
I plan to do a bit of shopping this weekend for the $50 fashion challenge against SDBargainMama. Also, I’ve got a gift certificate at J.Crew to spend!
[poll id="38"]
Amazon’s Labor Day Sale has prices marked down up to 60% on 400 kitchen and home products.
Get a free MP3 download (worth up to $1.29) to celebrate Amazon getting their millionth Twitter follower. Details here.
Get 50% off one regular-priced item at Michael’s Sat and Sun Sept. 6-7, 2009. Or get 40% off one regular-priced item Tue through Saturday, Sept. 8-12, 2009. Coupons are good in store only. Some caveats. Print the coupons here.
The cash-back rebate site eBates has a few special back to school sales this weekend, including:
- 8% back at Old Navy
- 6% back at HP
- free shipping and 5% back from JC Penney and Textbooks.com
- 4% back at Office Max
Get 30% off clearance items at Aeropostale with code 30OFF, good through Sept. 7.
Six pairs of sandals, including ones by UGG and Born, are 50% off at The Walking Company (so you know they will be comfortable) this weekend. Note the final sale items are not returnable.
Get 15% off at Shoes.com with code TAKE15, good through Sept. 14, 2009.
Thanks, Bobbi!
Get 40 percent off one regular-priced book at Borders now through Sept. 7, 2009. Print the coupon here. Some caveats.
Get 20 percent off all red dot clearance merchandise at Stein Mart now through Sept. 5, 2009. Print the coupon here.
Toys R Us’ Labor Day Sale starts tomorrow, Sept. 4 and runs through Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. Items vary by store and a second sale continues through Sept. 12. The Labor Day sale this weekend includes:
- $100 off the Graco Deco Collection 3-piece bundle, including Pack ‘N Play Play Yard, Silhouette Infant Swing and Quattro Tour Deluxe Travel System (orig $600, on sale for $500).
- buy one, get one half off all clearance nursery furniture, some caveats
- buy one, get one for $1 clearance clothing and shoes in store only, some caveats
More items on sale online.
Many more Americans are eligible for food stamps these days, says the WalletPop blog. The first step is checking if your household has more than $2,000 in assets, which disqualifies you.
But a lot of money doesn’t count toward this total, “including retirement and education savings, autos, tradesmen tools and farm machinery, the home you live in, other properties you own from which you get rent, and various other kinds of holdings,” Wallet Pop says.
The site gives three examples of folks who qualify (emphasis mine):
A person working at Starbucks 40 hours a week for $10 an hour, grossing roughly $1,600 a month, and sharing a house with a spouse earning $500 and two children, qualifies.
Two young musicians sharing an apartment and grossing less than $1,579 qualify.
A son or daughter living with a elderly parent who has high out-of-pocket medical expenses can qualify regardless of gross income, if the deductions drop the household net income to $903 or less.
If you qualify, how much grocery money do you get? Answers on the WalletPop blog.
WebbyPlanet.com makes discount shopping easy, with 100,000 coupon codes for over 15,000 stores, including Amazon, Dell, and Target.
You can search for coupons by category, new retailers added, about to expire, most popular, recently added, or in their special back to school section. You can also search for free coupons through their online discount shopping directory. Discover how much you can save on products!
When I checked the site I saw coupons for 20 percent off at the sporting goods store EastBay, 30 percent off at eDressMe, and 10 percent off at Barnes & Noble. There were also Dell coupons for 15 to 25 percent off laptops and other computers.
Since Webby Planet launched in 2006, it has helped more than 1 million shoppers save money through its online coupons. You could be the next one!
This is paid content. Interested in buying a sponsored post? Read my Advertise page.
Have you ever heard of something like this? EventLeftovers.com is a cool new site that lets you buy and sell new and gently used party supplies. It is for event professionals, brides, or anyone throwing a big party.
It is free to buy and list items. When something sells, Event Leftovers takes 4.5 percent of the sale price.
Event Leftovers is still building their party goods inventory but have items in these categories: decor, florals, catering supplies, paper goods, and beauty & fashion. A few more categories are empty so get listing!
Learn more about how the site works.
One last tidbit – the site was started by a BargainBabe.com reader!
