Want Not

Here’s a little shout-out to my local peeps: Tomorrow morning (October 30th, 2008), tune in to hear my chat with Kevin and Taylor of 104.7 The Fish at 8:10. Why? Thrifty Thursday, of course!

We’re talking Christmas shopping, Amazon Prime, the importance of a gift closet, and I swear to you that I told them they were pretty, but for some reason that part got edited out. I wonder why.

Many thanks to the kind folks at The Fish for having me, and I hope some of you will be able to tune in for the segment. (Alternatively, it looks like they offer live streaming on the web site, though I’m having trouble getting it to work at the moment….)

Just a heads up—if you got in on the Gevalia deal, I’ve been reading in some forums that their system is not the greatest and many folks had their orders canceled without notification. I had received a confirmation email but nothing else, so I went ahead and called this morning to check on my order status.

My shiny new toaster oven has been shipped and should be here tomorrow. Huzzah! But I didn’t get any sort of shipping notice, so do call if you’re wondering what’s happening with your order.

You know I’m a great big geek, right? That’s not news.

So you’ll understand when I tell you that I may have squealed out loud when I discovered that Want Not was picked by Macworld as a site they love for smart shopping. Awwww, Macworld! I didn’t know you cared!

This is really an honor. Thanks so, so much!

You know that I am all about finding the best deals while you sit in the comfort of your own home (preferably in your pajamas, natch).

But sometimes, there’s simply nothing better than rooting around the right store, at the right time, for that special bargain.

Yesterday my husband and I went to Macy’s to find him a sports coat for an upcoming event. I’d been scouring the sales online (with no luck) and we’d been to a few other stores. Well, Macy’s had a rack of blazers for $19.99. For that price, we went ahead and picked up two—one that was originally $325 and one that was $400. $735 worth of jackets for $40. Not bad.

What was your best deal lately?

I’m putting it in “Bragging on a deal” because it feels like bragging, but several of you asked me to let you know about this, so here I am letting you know.

Remember that time I went to New York City? Well, the segment I taped with NBC is supposed to air this morning on the Today Show. I was told “during the 10:00 hour, probably around 10:10.”

I’m a little nervous. Will the magic of editing render me eloquent and beautiful? Or twitchy and bizarre? Tune in to find out! The funny part is that I’m volunteering at school today, so I won’t even be home to watch it; I’m taping it to watch later on, when my husband can sit with me and hold my hand and tell me that I did fine, regardless of what fool thing comes flying out of my mouth on national television.

Edited to add: The clip is available here. Six hours of taping, 10 seconds of screen time, edited to make us all look like vapid ninnies. I am taking small comfort in the fact that Kathie Lee whasthername didn’t even know how to pronounce the NBC correspondent’s name.

It’s been a while since I asked folks to offer up the deals they scored recently. Whether it’s something you got through a tip here—in which case, yay, and also, feel free to compliment me—or something great you scored on your own, let’s bask in the glory of the almighty bargain together.

I have two goodies from last week to share (and not much else, because I have cut way back on my shopping this month): I used the coupon linked here to get a new house plant for $.40 from Lowe’s (here my husband interrupts to point out that technically, he bought the plant, and then I counter with the declaration that not only did I get a cheap plant, I didn’t even have to step foot in Lowe’s to do it!); and a quick trip to Target to check out the toy clearance yielded this hydrogen car kit for just $19 (and Santa doesn’t have to shop for my son next year).

You?

Something folks often ask me is whether I routinely go to the sorts of “bargain extremes” which I post about here in my everyday life. And the answer, of course, is yes. (It’s a sickness. And I’m okay with that.)

Last night I bought myself a pair of shoes. Remember the Piperlime deal where any purchase got a $20 gift code? I’d bought a $10 gift card. And last night I used my $30 towards a $60 pair of shoes that was marked down to $46. Pretty good, right?

… except then, I pricematched those shoes to the listing at Amazon, where they’re currently only $32. After pricematch, I spent around $3 for them yesterday. Even factoring in my original $10, I still got my $60 shoes for $13. Now, this took time and Piperlime’s pricematching system has nothing on the ease of using Zappos, but I’m willing to do that for the savings, because I am ill. Heh.

And speaking of my illness, I thought now would be a good time to thank you all again for giving Want Not a second-place finish in the Blogger’s Choice Awards for 2007, and mention that voting for 2008 is now open, so if you are so moved, maybe we can lock up first place this time. In our fabulous, cheap shoes, natch.