Saving Freak

Sears is running three sales at once with a 12-hour sale, a 4 day sale and their red hot deals.  Also use code “SEARS5OFF50″ to get $5 off of any order over $50.   Check below for in store coupon.

Home Depot has up to 25% off many items in its July 4th Savings Event

RedBox has a free DVD rental using code “”7HE79B”

Shoetrader takes an extra 50% off site wide even on clearance items using code “943638″

There are a bunch of printable coupons that would be great for your sales and food over the weekend.

A.C. Moore: Receive 50% off your entire custom framing order. (Expires July 4.)

Banana Republic Factory Stores: Take 40% off storewide, plus an extra 20% off purchases of $100 or more via this printable coupon.

Bass: Take 40% off any single item. (Expires July 8.)

Bath & Body Works: In-store only, receive a free anti-bacterial foaming hand sanitizer (a $4 value) with any purchase. (Expires July 5.)

Bebe: Spend $100 or more in-store or online and receive 15% off your purchase. (Offer valid at Bebe, 2B Bebe, Bebe Sport, and Bebe.com. Ends July 6.)

Best Buy: Take 10% off select in-store items. Certain brands are excluded and select categories carry a minimum purchasing requirement. (Expires July 6.)

Big 5 Sporting Goods: Receive $5 off purchases of $25 or more. (Expires July 7 at 9 pm.)

BJ’s Wholesale Club: Activate this pass and receive a free 60-day trial membership. (Expires July 6.)

Carter’s: Spend $50 or more and get $10 off via this printable coupon. (Expires July 31.)

Express: Online or in-store, Express takes $15 off for every $60 you spend via coupon code “7262″. Maximum discount is $60 off. (Expires July 5.)

Gap: Take 20% off in-store purchases of $75 or more. (Expires July 9.)

GolfSmith.com: Save 15% off golf balls, Pro-Line clubs, pre-owned clubs, GPS receivers, and rangefinders. Plus, get 25% off everything else. (Expires July 5.)

Harbor Freight USA: Get 15% off your entire purhcase with no minimum. Or, get 20% off any single item via this coupon. Update: Better yet, get 20% off one item. (Deals expire July 6.)

Izod: Tale 20% off your entire purchase. (Expires July 3.)

Meijer: Take between $3 to $20 off select online (via code “bucks09″) or in-store purchases. (Expires July 4.)

Office Depot: Online or in-store, Office Depot takes $20 off purchases of $75 or more. Use coupon code “11189658 for online purchases. (Expires July 11.)

PetSmart: For in-store purchases only, PetSmart takes $5 off orders of $25 or more. (Expires July 25.)

Sports Authority: In-store or online, take $10 off purchases of $50 or more (use code “TSAUABP” for online purchases). Or take $25 off purchases of $100 or more (use code “TSAXDRD” for online purchases.) (Expires July 4.)

Timberland: In-store only, take 30% off your entire purchase. (Expires July 6.)

Toys “R” Us: Take $5 off baby purchases of $25 or more when you shop online (via code 929932) or in-store. Coupon also applies to Babies “R” Us. Not applicable toward diapers, netbooks, Apple iPods, and other merchandise. (Expires July 4.)

The Vitamin Shoppe: In-store only, take 20% off your entire purchase. (Expires August 31.)

Food & Drink
Bertucci’s: Get $5 off any food order of $25 or more. (Expires July 31.)

Blockbuster: At participating Blockbuster stores, buy one 20-oz. Coca-Cola product and get another one for free.

Boston Market: At participating Boston Markets, take $3 off any $6 or more purchase. Not valid with $5 Favorites.

Carl’s Jr.: Buy a medium combo meal and get a free upgrade to large. (Expires September 1.)

Del Taco: At participating Del Taco restaurants, get a free breakfast Taco del Carbon with any breakfast meal purchase.

ING Direct: In select cities, receive a free cup of coffee for stopping by any ING branch.

Jamba Juice: Buy one smoothie, get one free. (Expires July 12.)

Longhorn Steakhouse: Get $5 off your purchase of $25 or more. (Expires July 12.)

Quiznos: At participating Quiznos stores, when you purchase one sub sandwich and a regular fountain drink, you get a second sub sandwich for free. (Expires July 11.)

Shoney’s: Receive a free kid’s meal including a drink and dessert with the purchase of any adult meal.

Waffle House: Order any Value Meal and get free large hashbrowns. (Expires September 1.)

Wienerschnitzel: Receive a free iced coffee with any purchase. (Expires August 1.)

White Castle: Receive one free White Castle slider. (Expires July 12.)

With the down economy most Americans are choosing to stay in their current homes instead of moving.  The Census Bureau finds that only 11% of Americans moved last year down from the normal 20%, According to the San Francisco Chronicle.

With almost a 50% drop in the number of people moving the moving industry is an a major slump.  Also there are so many more ways to move than there have been in the past.  Now instead of just the two options of having someone do everything for you you have the options of having someone pack everything for you and you drive it yourself or you pack everything into a portable storage unit and have the company move it for you.

There are a few things to remember in each of these scenarios:

Do-It-Yourself - remember the day of the week, time of the month and other various factors influence the cost of truck rentals.  So make sure you check multiple dates that you can be flexible on.

Paying Someone Else - If you are having someone pack, move, or do it all for you make sure you get a binding estimate of the costs.  A simple estimate will not hold up if they jack up the price on you at the last minute. Also, buy replacement value insurance (not from the moving company) so that if anything breaks it will be replaced.   The levels of liability to the company were set back in the 1930’s and have not been updated for inflation.  Finally, videotape all your possessions before you start packing so that there are no disputes in case something goes missing.

You may want to check out Moving.org, the website for the American Moving and Storage Association, to get estimates from reputable sources.

If you are moving I hope your move goes well and with as little headache as possible.

Found a great CVS Extra Bucks deal that ends today.  Go to CVS and find the Style Science Lens Cleaning Cloths (near sunglasses or prescription glasses).  These cloths are $0.99 a piece and qualify for an extra bucks deal.  So you need to buy two of them and then $10 in extra bucks will print out on the receipt.  This is $8 in free money.  This is one of the best hidden deals I have ever seen from CVS.

As many of you know Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) is one of my favorite days of the year.  Many time I will put off purchases for thing that I really want with the prospect of purchasing them so much cheaper on Black Friday.  Being a techno junkie this means I am usually looking for a deal on some gadget.

For BF 2008 I picked up a nice little digital camera but did not really do a usual BF run because I was with my wife in Boston, MA visiting her grandparents.  Things should be a little more normal this year so I have started looking for what items I expect to be at amazing lows this year.  I will update this list from time to time as well as reveal my full BF strategy once I know what stores are offering the best deals.

What deals I am looking at right now:

Netbooks - these are the newest most portable edition of the laptop.  I purchased one last year for $300 (to check it out click here).  I expect the price to be down to $100 for a functional netbook and $200 for a top of the line.

Televisions - LCD and Plasma technology is on it way out as the OLED screens start to take over.  This means this BF should present a great deal on both the plasma and LCD television.  Personally I think there will be a 42″ TV in the $300-$400.

HD Camcorders - Consumer level HD camcorders are still in their infancy but should be full blast come BF.  Expect the camcorders you can get right now to be 25-40% less than they are right now.

Dollar stores are seen by many as cheap alternatives to better quality products.  This perception is not without some merit, but the truth is there are a lot of great deals you can find at a dollar store.  The three biggest chains are Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree.  Of the three Dollar tree is the only true everything is a dollar store.  The other two have a majority of their products priced at a dollar but also have many others that are priced higher.

The statistics for these stores pretty much mirrors Wal-Mart who has seen almost double digit gains in year over year sales.  The really astounding numbers are the number of new stores they are opening in the next year.  Dollar General is looking to add 450 new stores and Dollar Tree has plans to open 235 new stores.

This is astounding growth in a down economy and it shows that many Americans have found these stores to be a great deal.

I am leaving for vacation shortly but plan on doing a more in depth study of how much you can save at these locations using a combination of their sales flyers and coupons.  How rowdy could it get?  So far I have seen some really amazing deals flying out due to coupon use at these stores.

The slow down in the economy has hit some businesses harder than others.  So to stay competitive some of the major retailers that were previously considered a splurge option are reducing prices and changing philosophies to compete on the basis of necessities instead of wants.  The two biggest changes have come from Target and Starbucks.

Target- This competitor to Wal-Mart has taken a big hit because it has positioned itself as the more upscale super center.  With people focusing solely on price these days Target needed to find a way to get more people into its doors.  Their answer has been to add mini marts to all the stores that did not already have a grocery section.  This means you can buy frozen foods and non-perishable groceries but no fresh produce.  The move should provide a little more traffic into their stores.  If you are cutting coupons you can get the weekly list for Target for free from Couponmom.com

Starbucks- With McDonald’s finally rolling out the low cost McCafe, and every other restaurant taking a shot at the king of coffee , the Seattle superstar has seen an erosion in traffic and profits.  Starbucks (or as I have heard a friend call them ThreeBucks) has been forced to cut the price of its iced coffee to $1.95 to compete.  The taste testers say that if you are getting anything with syrup mixed in then Starbucks is the place to go, but if you want an equally bad cup of coffee then just take your pick.

I expect to see many more of the mid level retailers and restaurants continue to make concessions on their product offerings so that people will come through their doors.  So keep your eyes peeled for coupons and sales coming our way.

Restaurant.com has 60% off its already discounted gift certificates using code “DINING”

American Eagle has up to 60% off in its clearance section plus get an extra 15% off using code “89756012″

Express cuts 40% off a selection of men’s dress shirts when you buy 3 or more.

Under Armor has 46% to 59% off in its outlet section.

Itunes free single of the week is Red Light by David Nail

6PM.com has up to 70% off on swimwear and winter products

Joann.com, an arts and craft store, has 40% off using code “MAYA940″

Shoes.com has 15% off with no minimum using code “JUNE15″

JC Penney has $10 off of $10 using code “GR8DAD”

All of the current technology televisions are about to drop in price.  New technology gets the better of the old with the introduction of the organic led television.  These televisions are going to be razor thin and able to deliver a picture quality we have never seen before.  The biggest advancement is that they do not require a back light so the already small casings you see on LCD and Plasma televisions will be unnecessary.  These televisions started coming to market a little over a year ago but were so expensive that they were not even worth mentioning.  As the competition rises and the prices start to fall they will force the older technologies out of the market.  The best explanation I found for these new televisions was made about a year ago so the pricing of products is off, but the information is great.

Samsung, Sony and a bunch of others are already showing the OLED in 60″ varieties.  This means that early adopters and people with large amounts of disposable income will be snatching up the OLED and pulling out of the plasma and LCD market.  Also, with the downturn in the economy, people are not purchasing televisions as quickly as they were.  This means that demand for current technology televisions is plummeting and prices should follow.

One of the real downsides to programs that allow you to earn free stuff is that they tend to not be able to sustain their business model.  Swagbucks is proving to be an exception.  After using Swagbucks for ten months they have been very reliable in delivering free gift cards to me for using them as a search engine instead of Google.  What has also been a good sign is that they continue to improve their website and have new ways to earn.

Now you can earn extra Swagbucks by shopping through their portal (get a 2% return) or exchanging your cell phones and video game equipment.  Remember that a swagbuck is only worth about 10 cents so make sure you cannot get a better deal by selling it yourself.

Since July I have personally earned 317 swagbucks.  That equates to seven $5 Amazon.com gift cards.  I have to admit I was not as deliberate at the beginning  as I am now at using this program but I am now seeing about one gift card every five weeks just for doing searches I am going to do anyway.   This is why Swagbucks has continued to be a part of my favorite programs.  You can sign up for Swagbucks here

Restaurant.com has 70% of it already discounted gift certificates using code “TASTY”.  That makes a $25 gift certificate $3.

Gamefly has 50% off of  its pre-played games with prices starting at $5.99 on xbox360, Wii, PS3, PS2, and DS games. (click on link for gamefly store on right hand side).

Amazon.com has up to 80% off men’s and women’s designer shoes.

JC Penney has 40% off original price plus an extra 10% off the sale price using code “BSOTS9″

Banana Republic has 25% off a $100 order using code “SUMMER”

ColdWater Creek has 30% off with no minimum using code “WKH4849″

Shoes.com has 20% off with no minimum using code “SALE” (some brands excluded)