Monday, November 21, 2005

More adventures in thrift

Expanding on Why pay more?:
  • Cheapskate Christmas: The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is a mecca of crazy deals. Two years ago, I scored a $35 karaoke machine, $15 DVD player, and $5 Simpsons Season 1 DVD at Best Buy. Now many stores offer below-cost prices to tempt early holiday shoppers. BFads.net tells where to go first.

  • Pitting one against the other: My credit card, for a $50 annual fee, gives flier miles for each dollar spent. Some competing cards are fee-less, so I called my card company up, said I was thinking of switching, and--hollaback--they refunded the annual fee and agreed to lower my interest rate. Even if you don't pay an annual fee, call and asking for a lower rate. I've read that you'll usually get some break.

  • Anatomy of a deal: Aquafresh Extreme Clean Toothpaste on sale for $2.00, down from $3.29. Sunday circular coupon: save $2.25 on two. And the store had a "try it free" rebate that refunds the original purchase price. Net: I made $1.54 off the transaction.
For those of you keeping score:
Andrew: 162
The System: 0

3 comments:

Greg Tito said...

I've heard that calling your cellphone provider and threatening to quit will get you more minutes, or make it cheaper.

How did Black Friday go for the deals? Did you buy me an Xbox 360?

Andrew said...

I got a 200 gig internal hard drive for $30 from Staples and Napoleon Dynamite for $8. Beyond that, I couldn't find anything for anyone, plus I had to work.

Greg Tito said...

200 gigs for $30! That's like .15 a gig!