Cats and Coupons

With the holidays approaching people are shopping for friends and loved ones. I work outside of the home as well as inside the home. At the end of the day the last thing I want to do is pack everyone into the car and go to a store to fight crowds and wait on lines. So for the past seven or eight years I have done the majority of my shopping online. One of my favorite stores is Amazon. I can shop for anywhere from two to eight people all on one site. I always check out Amazon books, toys and housewares before shopping anywhere else. They’ve also got a great bargain and clearance section. I compare prices using their site and they offer free shipping on lots of items.

How can you not love online shopping? I click, I pay, I open the door and take them from the delivery guy. It’s definitely my favorite way to shop! What do you think of online shopping?

I have a bunch of membership tags on my key chain. Some are for stores here, one’s for a store in Florida when we go to Walt Disney World and yet another is for a store in upstate New York when we go camping every summer. It’d be great not to worry about carrying all of them all of the tine. I’d love to see all grocery stores use one common club card. They could still run their sales and people would still be able to take advantage of specials, but it would make it easier on the customer. But since that day isn’t likely to happen soon, a site like Just One Club Card is a useful one for people like me.

Just One Club Card allows people to enter card membership numbers for up to eight stores. It’s free to use. After you enter your numbers you print a new card that contains the numbers for all of the ones you entered, allowing you to carry only one card to all stores. He’s even made it possible to add in pet store cards, and other stores. The guy that thought of this had a great idea!

 I am not a shoe lover. I despise shoe shopping because my feet are big and I can never find styles that I like that fit. I will be needing a pair of boots for the winter and will almost certainly have to shop online. With it getting colder here I’m starting to see people wearing their UGGs. I’ve always thought that Uggs look pretty warm and comfortable. The ones I like are shorter and have no zipper, I believe from their website they’re called the Short and the Mini. How easy are they to put on? I saw a new style with a zipper called the UGG Knightsbridge that has a zipper but they’re too tall and I don’t like them. Are they comfortable and durable enough to justify the expensive price? Also I have another question. Are UGGs comfortable and durable enough to justify the expensive price?I’d love to hear your replies, they might help me make my decision.

When I went to the grocery store last week I noticed banners all over the Marty’s Shoes store windows saying they were selling everything and going out of business. I have never found anything in my size in there, but know they did have some good bargains. I went past again this past Friday and the stock is dwindling. Now is the time you’re likely to find really good bargains so if you have a Marty’s Shoes near you go take a look. I checked the martyshoes.com website and it says they’re not selling because they’er liquidating and that they’ll be back in November.

This is a question for dog owners. I know they make Halloween costumes for dogs. I noticed a bunch of them in the local party store yesterday as well as some in Target. Their costumes were just clothing, there were no words on them. This week I came across an online store that carried funny t-shirts for dogs. I found myself wondering exactly who is supposed to be seeing these shirts and reading them besides the owner?

Do you receive a lot of catalogs at home that you no longer need, no longer want or never requested in the first place? I always get a little mad about the ones I didn’t request or buy from, because that’s how I know someone bought a mailing list. Catalog Choice is a free service designed to help people cut down on the amount of catalogs that they receive that they don’t want. It’s very good for your garbage and recycling piles and it’s great for the ecology. Users can create a free account. There’s a list of catalogs that work with Catalog Choice, so you mark in your profile which you want to receive and which you don’t. Not all catalogs are on the list, so it might not stop all of the unwanted catalogs you receive but it could help make a dent. Why do we even need catalogs anymore since we have the internet? Everyone knows that by the time a catalog arrives it’s out of date. I can find a better deal online for everything from CAT5e cables to zippers. Are there any catalogs you absolutely can’t do without?

Lots of people know that there are certain things I do by phone or online. Buying dog food is one of those things. We buy the big bag. I couldn’t stand buying it locally. What a pain (literally, in the shoulders and back) to have to pick up the huge bag in the store, get it into the cart, get it out of the cart, get it into my truck, get it out of my truck and get it into the house. So we started ordering from a couple of places online. One of the first places we ever used was PetFoodDirect.com. They have categories for dogs, cats, birds, fish and other small animals. They carry a HUGE selection of products including food, treats, toys, accessories, grooming, health, travel and training. They probably sell products from every brand you’ve ever heard of and some from brands you’ve never heard of. They have a free shipping section and a red tag sale section as well. The one tip I have for them is to order at least a week in advance, because they seem to have a delay of several days in getting orders out. They ship from Pennsylvania and I’m right next door in New Jersey and it still takes 4-5 days for us to get an order. In comparison to your local store, prices at PetfoodDirect range from less expensive to the same price. Each month they draw a name from contest entries and the winner receives free pet food for a year. To enter all you have to do is give your email, zip code and type of pet. By doing this you’re saying it’s ok to receive their email coupons, which offer discounts on your next order, usually between 13-22% off. If you shop smart you could save enough every order to cover the cost of an online trading transaction. Happy shopping!

This week I got to try a relatively new service called eBillme. eBillme is a service that lets you pay for online shopping purchases using your bank account. This is the ideal type of service for people that don’t have a credit card. It’s free to use and easy to set up. I decided to give it a test drive on an order I was placing with TigerDirect so I could see what it was all about.

As we discovered on our weekend in Wildwood, it’d be quite useful to have a pair of earphones to use on the laptop when trying to watch a movie in a less than quiet room. I placed three items in my cart and chose the eBillme option at checkout. A screen appeared asking me to confirm that I used online banking, understood I had to pay for my order and that it would take 1-3 days for my bank to process the payment. I was then given an order confirmation screen and instructions on how to set up eBillme in my online banking. I then logged into my bank, as usual, and paid eBillme the amount due on my order. That’s it. It was very easy to use. If you don’t have a credit card this might be an option you want to consider next time you shop online. Right now it looks like it’s accepted at 15 different well known sites and I’d guess there’ll be more added as the service gains recognition.

Today I was surfing the web, mainly looking at funny cat pictures a la icanhascheezburger. In my travels I came across several really odd pet products. Cat owners, would you buy a talking stuffed gefilte fish? How silly. I’d sooner buy a box of new pocket watches. Dog owners, would you buy a screaming or howling stuffed musical ghost? Do you need a dog stroller? A dog umbrella? What about a product to freeze dog poop? What about a pet cellphone collar? What about a backpack that attaches to your dog and catches his poop? There is some crazy stuff out there. Have you seen any other weird pet products? I haven’t seen anything stranger than the ones I just listed.

One of the things I pay close attention to is regular prices and sale prices. When something is on sale all of the time I won’t pay retail for it. Why? I think that even when something is on sale it’s still possible to make a profit on it, just not as much as when it’s regular price. so when I see something on sale all of the time then I know they have lots of profit margin on that item and I’ll try to never buy it at full price again. One example is carpet. I used to work in a carpet store and there’s a lot of profit margin on carpet. Another example is soda. Nationwide brands go on sale here every other week. So I won’t buy them if they aren’t on sale. Some markets have changed over the years and become ultra competitive. An item that used to have a lot of profit margin is desktop and laptop memory, but the market is very competitive now so all of the major players keep their prices pretty low. So, when you’re getting ready to make a purchase spend time comparing prices and you won’t be sorry afterwards.

I can’t use this coupon, but maybe one of you can. I got an email today for 25% off of purchases made at The Top Secret. Not knowing what it was I went to the site, where I was greeted by a login area for members only. Curious, I did a little more reading and learned that The Top Secret is an invitation only website that offers sample sales. According to the email they’re currently having a handbag sale on 06/12-06/13/08. So, if any of you are members of The Top Secret and you purchase a handbag, enter the code “SECRET” when you checkout and you should receive $25 off your purchase. Since I’m not a member, I’d appreciate it if somebody would leave me a comment on what else they have going on there if you can.

There’s a good time and a bad time to buy many items. Any item that can’t be used regularly year round should be bought in it’s off season. For example, buy snow skiing equipment at the end of winter. Buy patio furniture after the beginning of fall. This works for clothing too, if you’re willing to buy several seasons ahead. Shop clothing clearance racks for clothes for your children for next year. It’s all in the timing. I truly believe that you don’t have to pay full price for most things.

My middle youngest brother mentioned to me recently that he bought some fitness equipment, one of those all in one gyms they show on television. I must start by saying he isn’t out of shape, he’s underweight and you can see his ribs, so I don’t know what he was thinking when he got it. But I got to thinking that the shipping on those things must cost a small fortune. Why would you not find a comparable machine locally? I can’t see myself in a situation where I’d have something huge and heavy shipped. I always consider shipping costs when buying something over the internet. And, for all major purchases I almost always buy in person. Are there certain items you wouldn’t have shipped?

Many companies sell products by mail. For many of them it makes a lot of sense and is safe. What I’m not sure of the safety of is buying certain health products by mail. I thought of this because in the last couple of weeks I have seen a number of places selling diet aids like Anoretix by mail. I could be wrong, but it seems like a product that can really help someone lose pounds within hours ought to be given under doctor’s supervision. Do you think it’s safe to sell anything by mail, or do you think some limits should be set?