Join us at Save Up for Black Friday tips (and more)
Remember how I told you that my coming to Save Up would have some benefits for all of you? The conference will be livestreaming later today, starting with a Q&A session at 11:00 am Eastern and moving on to a series of short Black Friday presentations at noon, Eastern. (I’ll be presenting on how to get your best online deals on Black Friday on things like clothing, shoes and toys.)
Did you miss it live? Here’s the recording (I’m the last of five presentations, but you should watch the whole thing):
Want Not loves WLS-TV ABC Chicago!
Whoops, so sorry I got it wrong, earlier—you have to understand that I usually spend the bulk of my days chatting with only my dog, and the flurry of people and events here in Chicago has fried my brain, a little. It was the lovely Leah Hope from WLS-TV with whom I chatted earlier today, and so if you’re not a Chicago native (or you missed it), here’s some of that good deal-lovin’ in action:
(You can also read the associated online piece here.)
As always, it’s a blast to get to talk about having more with less with anyone who will listen, and—also as always—I’m pleased that when I’m asked to do it in front of a camera, I don’t do anything too embarrassing or have something stuck in my teeth.
Thanks, WLS!
A quickie, while I’m on break
Y’all. I cannot wait to tell you more about this conference. I have found my people—everyone in this room can squeeze blood from a stone. It’s a beautiful thing.
Anyway, I was just checking Groupon really quickly and noticed that the Phoenix Groupon is $25 for $50 to Coldwater Creek, so you might want to snap that one up before it disappears.
Also, if any of you are here in Chicago, I should be part of a segment on Save Up on your local NBC ABC (whoops) news tonight. Just in case you want to see the extreme dorkitude that powers this site, in person.
Windy Friday
Gooooood morning! I’m here in Chicago for Save Up, and in a few minutes I’m headed off to a yoga class. Because I like to open a day of networking with my fellow frugals by pulling something in my groin. (Kidding! Hoping saying that out loud keeps it from happening!) Tomorrow you’ll have the chance to watch some of us in action (and I’ll have more information on that soon), but first, let’s take care of Friday.
Amazon’s Gold Box Deal today is a sweet 42-inch Panasonic Plasma TV that comes with a free bonus sound bar system. Why wait until Black Friday if you’re been eyeing a combo like this?
In the meantime, the Amazon Friday Sale continues to make me weep for days past, when you might scoop up a deal on pretzels right next to a great lamp and some mittens. Now I think they should rename it the “Coffee, Tea, Red Bull” sale. Or the Amazon Friday Beverage Sale. But there are a few deals to be had: Check out this 48-pack of GoGo Squeeze Applesauce; it comes down to just $25.50 with Subscribe & Save, which is a great price. Or—heads up, my gluten-free friends—get this 4-pack of Bob’s Red Mill GF Steel Cut Oats for about $13 after Subscribe & Save. Yum.
Today’s Target Daily Deals include a really nice Sonia Kashuk “Twist of Fate” makeup brush set, some $15 wrap dresses (who doesn’t love a wrap dress, I ask you), and some discounted electronics.
If it’s luxury you’re after, today, it’s a perfect time to skip on over to 6pm.com; they’re kicking off their “Luxe Weekend” with deep discounts on not just shoes, but clothing and accessories from some of the hottest I-could-never-afford-that brands, which you can now afford, thanks to them.
Did you know that Buy.com is already starting to release Black Friday Doorbusters? It’s true!
I’m off to go get smarter. I hope. Enjoy your Friday!
Healthy—if twisted—kids
Look; I don’t pretend to understand character vitamins for children. I guess the idea is that it makes them more palatable, yes? I am just a wee bit disturbed by the message it might send. (“Here, honey—just eat this character you love and it will keep you healthy. Sorry, Barney!”)
Regardless, we all do what we have to do to keep our kids healthy, right? Today if you check out the Disney vitamins at Soap.com, they’re buy one, get one free. Many of them also have an e-coupon available (though I think that will only apply to one), so between the two coupons you could stock up at a pretty good price. (I am slightly link impaired. That link includes Flintstones vitamins as well, which have the $1 off coupon but are not buy 1, get one.)
But I kind of want to be there when you’re explaining to the kids why it’s okay to eat princesses.
Back to shopping!
Okay, for those of you who aren’t mad at Amazon (or me), I hope you didn’t have much planned for today: It looks like they’re doing Lightning Deals in Clothing all day today.
It’s a good thing I’m going to be getting on a plane in a few hours, is all I’m sayin’.
In case you missed it last time
Were any of you lamenting missing out on this great Buy.com deal a week or so ago? It’s back! Get two complete Burt’s Bees Travel Kits for just $6 shipped. These make great stocking stuffers!
And yes, I find the inclusion of socks a bit weird. (Not that traveling with socks is weird, just that I don’t think of socks when I think Burt’s Bees.) But at this price, I’m willing to overlook it.
Happy Veteran’s Day from Family Christian
Happy Veteran’s Day! While I am happy to honor those who have fought for our country, I also like a good sale. I hope that isn’t too sacrilegious.
Today (November 11th) only, shop at Family Christian and use coupon code 123026301 for an additional 33% off one item. Now, Family Christian has run similar coupons in the past that carry brand exclusions, so I took the liberty of testing this code out—I’m happy to report that it seems to work, even on brands generally excluded from their sales, like Willow Tree. It works on sale items, too.
They have the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set in stock, by the way. The coupon drops it down to $20. Sweet!
The other kind of Bigfoot
You have less than an hour left to enter to win a Fisher Price Bigfoot, so if you haven’t gotten your comment in, hop to it.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to win a Bigfoot, but are a Bigfoot, this one is for you: Amongst its other daily deals today, 6pm.com is having a size and width blowout, meaning that all kinds of extended sizes and widths are available today for under $10 apiece. This is excellent news for those of you who are tall and/or, um, a bit more hefty-footed than the general population.
(Was that politically correct enough? You know I think you’re pretty no matter the size of your feet, right?)
A few words about Amazon and free speech
Several of you have emailed me about yesterday’s dust-up surrounding the discovery that Amazon is carrying a self-published Kindle book about pedophilia, and Amazon’s subsequent refusal to pull the book from its library. I was emailing folks back one by one when I realized it probably just makes more sense to say something here.
I want to be perfectly clear about this:
1) I am—like everyone else, I’m guessing—horrified by the book in question. I would be delighted if it was never available to anyone, anywhere.
2) That said, in this age of the Internet (and Amazon’s self-publishing platform), anyone can release anything to the masses without any sort of quality control.
3) And finally—and this is where, I suspect, I’m going to get into trouble—I do not support the vilification of Amazon over their refusal to pull this book. Amazon is refusing to participate in censorship, and as someone who writes for a living, I respect that.
I completely respect your right to decide for yourself that you don’t want to patronize Amazon because you feel differently, of course. But I’m just telling you how I feel about it.
Two more things:
1) I read an excerpt from the book and feel confident that the whackjob who wrote it is too far into his own mental illness to provide anything in the way of “helpful tips” to fellow pedophiles,
and
2) I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. This last point is not really anyone’s business, but I share it because I’m not open to anyone coming and yelling at me about how we need to “protect the children!” I get it, believe me. In my opinion, we protect the children by making our best possible decisions about where they go and who they’re with, and educating and empowering them about their own bodies and rights… not by storming Amazon’s gates with pitchforks in hand.
Again, I’m not here to change your mind, because you’re entitled to your opinion. I just wanted to clarify mine.
[Edited to add: Amazon has now pulled the book, citing violations of their TOS.]
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