Cats and Coupons

Some people feel that buying additional warranties aren’t worth it. I have found that it’s worth buying an additional warranty on any expensive purchase. We have bought one for every vehicle we’ve bought from a dealership since we married, and used every one. I follow the example my parents set for me. Buy the warranty if it’ll save you more than it will cost you to spend to replace the product and buy the warranty if it”ll be cheaper to buy it than hire a repairman. Most recently my parents flat panel tv in the den started having problems. The repairman came out to the house and said that he couldn’t repair it there and it’d need to be replaced so he took it right off of the tv wall mount and off to the shop. Soon after the tv was replaced with a brand new one, so it paid to have that warranty. Do you purchase additional warranties on expensive purchases? Have you ever had to use it? Have you ever wished you’d bought one after the fact?

Going back a couple of years we had to replace our old metal swing set. It had rusted and was falling apart. My oldest son wanted something big enough that his friends could play on. We wanted something that would last a while and be affordable. So off we went to look at and price swing sets. We looked locally and everything we wanted or liked was out of our price range. Unwilling to give up, I decided to search online to see who else in our area carried them. I had never considered buying one online. I was so surprised to find out that some really big manufacturers sell their wood swing sets online for mush less than you can buy them elsewhere. And they’ll ship them to you on a freight truck. We saved about $400 on the swing set and it’s still standing and in excellent shape. So, if you are considering getting a swing set I recommend doing a little surfing online. You might find what you’re looking for at a really nice price.

Want to save yourself some money in 2008? Of course you do. You can, if you win the contest that Elizabeth over at Table for Five is running. The winner will save themselves some money because they’ll be the recipient of a year’s supply of Orville Redenbacher’s Natural Popcorn AND a one year subscription to Netflix. We boy a box or two of microwave popcorn every week, so this would save us a bunch of money. If you want to enter the contest just write about it and then comment on her blog. That the short versions of the instructions of course, check her site for the full set. The winner will be selected on 01/05/08. I’m in. See you there!

For Christmas all of the guys (my father, husband, son and all brothers) each received a new Xmod radio controlled car. They all already had at least one but since they like racing them so much my Mom got them all another. One of my brothers loves playing with his so much that he has even put together a track at his house. Sometimes they like to add stuff to them and dress them up, so now I have to keep my eyes open for a Dodge Charger accessory or two as I think that’s the one my son got.

Do you like to play games on your computer? I’ve gotten hooked on hidden object games, thanks to my blogging pal Skeet. After buying one hidden object game and beating it, I knew I had to have more. Which is where the saving of the money comes in. I could go broke buying games at full price. So I joined the Big Fish Game Club. By signing up for the club, I am committing myself to making one purchase a month. In exchange for that commitment, Big Fish is discounting games down to $6.99 each. (There are two other plans at $9.99 per month and $7.99 per month, but the best discount is the one I got, and it saves a lot of money.) Generally games are about $19.99, so you save $13 each if you’re in the game club. So let’s do the math. I’ve committed to spending $83.88 over the course of one year, broken down into $6.99 increments each month. If you were buying the games full price, you’d spend $79.96 on four games alone. So after buying four games you’ve pretty much paid for the membership. Once you’ve met your committed number of games you can cancel. And if you want you can rejoin at any time with no minimum required. It’s a great deal worth checking out. But wait! That’s not all. For a couple of days more, Big Fish has made the deal even better. The ad on the Big Fish Games Home Page says that if members use a game credit between now and 12/14/07, they will be emailed a free game credit on 12/15/07. I also got an email saying the same thing. Go. Now. What are you waiting for? If you don’t want it for yourself, it’d make a great gift.

I have two brothers that really enjoy football. My youngest brother, the one in the Navy, loves the Giants. Another brother recently told me he liked the Saints, but I’ve always thought of him more as just liking the game in general. My youngest brother is really hoping the Giants will make it to the Superbowl. Yesterday both brothers were looking at tickets for an upcoming game, and they were saying how hard it was to get big clocks of tickets together. They had found a block of five for about $500 but before they could purchase them online they were gone. Being as he’s currently stationed in California, I bet that if the Giants do make it to the bowl that my little brother will be looking for some Superbowl tickets, because a trip to Phoenix from San Diego probably wouldn’t be too bad. I can only guess how much they will cost.

Well, since my son was in the er last night for hives and an acute allergic reaction, and the spots are out again, I will be cleaning, and hopefully not returning to the er. My husband went to work again, and I have my older son spending a good portion of the day with my parents, where he slept last night. My son will be on the couch all day, with exclusive use of the 56″ television. I have the Noggin channel on now, but I’m sure in no time at all he’ll walk over to the stereo cabinet where we keep his dvds and ask me to get a movie for him. I’ll bet the first movie he wants is Thomas The Train.

More recalls for dangerous levels of lead in the news.
If you’ve already started shopping check any toys you bought.

Curious George plush dolls, by Marvel Toys of NY, are being recalled for excess lead in the surface paint. The toys came in five different models and sold from Dec. 2005 through August 2007.

Almost half a million toys made in China have been recalled for dangerous levels of lead. The toys include Pull Back Action Toy Cars, Dragster and Funny Car toys, Duck Family Collectable Wind Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, “Robot 2000″ collectible tin robot, Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top and “Big Red” Wagons.

Toys R Us recalled Elite Operations Command Patrol Center, Elite Operations Barracuda Helicopter, Elite Operations Super Rigs set and a three-pack of 8-inch figures, all sold at Toys R Us between July and October. Return them to any Toys “R” Us store for a full refund or store credit. All were recalled for lead contamination.

Mattel recalled 38,000 orange and yellow Go Diego Go! Animal Rescue Boats for excessive lead levels.

I’m not into online gambling. I’m actually not into gambling at all. But many people are really into it. If you’re one of the people that like online poker or any type of online gambling, you should check out the Pro 360 website. Pro 360 has been reviewing online casinos since 1997. Some of the factors they consider when reviewing are game experience, bonuses and trust score. The site is attractive and easy to navigate. In a sidebar on every page you can navigate by casino ratings. At the top of every page you can navigate by type of game. Each game is represented by a small image as well as its name. Click it and you are brought to a page which tells you a little about the game and then lists a chart of review summaries. The review summary chart immediately tells the visitor the name of the casino, the casino’s rank, is US players are permitted, maximum bonus, certificates, editor ratings, player ratings, and a link to the full review. The full reviews describe the casino, list the review scores, give contact details and show available bonuses. The site also offers a Tips section as well as a guide to online gambling designed for beginners. When you visit the site, if you decide to gamble at any of the casinos, good luck!

Two Christmases ago my dear friend gave me an ipod mini. I didn’t use it much right off, because I couldn’t use it where I worked. But when I started at my current job one year ago I found myself in a position to be able to use my ipod daily. A while back the battery started not holding a charge. It wouldn’t make it through an eight hour day. My solution was to get a clock radio with built in ipod charger. My logic was that I could charge the ipod when it needed it and I’d have a way to listen to local news and weather if I needed it. Well now even charging it doesn’t seem to help. Sometimes it won’t stay on an hour. I bought another battery for it on ebay, and am debating asking my father to try and replace the battery. It’ll be great if it works, but if it breaks during the switch I’ll be out an ipod. Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it?

Here’s a bunch of magazines that offer free subscriptions.

Kraft Food & Family
Nestle Everyday Eating
American Baby Magazine
Babytalk Magazine
Focus on the Family Magazine
Animal Times Magazine

Make a reservation for McCormick & Schmicks online through 09/30/07 and get a free $25 gift certificate

eCOST.com offers the Pharos Drive 135 GPS Navigation System, model no. PDR135, for $175 with a $40 mail-in rebate lowering it to $135. Deal ends October 12.

The Nintendo Wii play bundle is $349.95 at Gamestop and includes the following items:
Nintendo Wii system (system, remote controller, nunchuck, stand, sensor and Wii Sports)
Wii Memory SD 1.0GB
1 additional Wii Nunchuck Controller
Wii Play with Remote

From RealArcade.
Click to download the game Splash from RealArcade for free. Limited time offer.
I did download this. I didn’t like it much, but you might.

From Gamehouse.
Click to download the game Safari Island from Gamehouse for free.
(The checkout page used coupon code FSIEA. It required no credit card info.)
I did download this and I like it. It’s like Shanghai but better.

My youngest son loves Thomas the Train (and all the other trains too). I found some really good deals at the HIT Entertainment website. They had many things on clearance, as well as a lot on sale. They carry all the other popular characters as well, including Bob the Builder and Barney and others. The site was easy to navigate, with categories both my character and type of product. Placing an order online was easy and the order was delivered within a week via ground shipping. The shirt I originally ordered in size 6 ran out of stock after placing my order but before fulfilling it. I got an email confirmation of the order and noticed there was no shirt. I called, they were manually sending out emails about the item. The rep on the phone sent out the same shirt in the next size right away, and didn’t even suggest I’d need to pay shipping like some places would for a second box going out. I’ll definitely shop there again.
My son is wearing his new Thomas shirt to school today. He was so excited when he saw it this morning. He ran in and woke up his father to show him all the trains and tried to say their names.