Tag Archives: I Can’t Believe It!

Birthday Freebies

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One of the many mailing lists to which I belong is Deal Seeking Mom.  Most of the time I just breeze through ’cause I’ve already gotten the stuff listed, but today there was a link to AuntieAnne’s Very Important Pretzel-lover club.  You enter name, birthday and email and they send an email for a free pretzel of your choice on your birthday.   Register your friends and family using your email and notices will only go to you.  Click here to register.  PS.  I did the picture large ’cause it looked so yummy!

JCPenny kids camcorder – update

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This product is no longer available online.  Michelle says she went to the Yorktown store this evening (12/1) and saw it priced at $39.99 – they wouldn’t reduce the price to $9.99.  Hey, Michelle, want to buy a camcorder for 20 bucks?

Saw on MUM that a reader commented about this great deal on a digital camcorder for kids for $9.99.  Could not read any current reviews on it (detailed reviews were from 2007), only a couple of stars (which is bullshit, because what someone else perceives as a problem – my 5-year-old destroyed it in a couple of hours – may not have any relevance to me at all).

but i digress… The camera was not available online, but showed it was available at all the local stores, so DH, PITA and I popped over to Yorktown to check them out (well, DH stayed in the car:  hurry up, OK, I don’t want to wait here all night and don’t start talking to people!)ahem, again i digress… We couldn’t see the camera in the store, so asked at customer service (even showed them the camera on the front page of their web site).  They checked in the back and found they had all been put out on display.  And there they were for $39.99!  ON SALE!  DOWN FROM $69.99!  long story short, they gave me two for $9.99 each.  Took them home, put in the AAA batteries and DH took a few shots (it’s both a still and camcorder) to check it out.  He’s a professional photographer, so his opinions are more valid (read “pickier”) than a lay person’s.

My opinion?  Honestly, it’s pretty cute.  DH says the picture quality would be very good outdoors – with indoor lighting the colors were slightly “green” but not that bad.  It uses an SD card, so depending on how large a capacity card you put in is how long you can record.  This is a picture I took with my iPhone of a screen shot.I’m glad I got the two, ’cause I have an out-of-state 6 year old niece who’s gonna be real surprised!

Sobe wtf contest – Update the 2nd don’t phone

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12/2 – got 3 more coupons in today’s mail! Just got off the phone with Sobe and learned the following:  they are aware of the snafu and are in the process of mailing out replacement coupons with apology.  The CS person I spoke with was not authorized to make an official statement, but said that the error only applied to a small batch.  Given the volume of complaints I’ve read, I’d say Pepsi’s concept of small is definitely different than mine.  So don’t phone, since they have the mailing info on file.  It took 15 minutes before a human even picked up.  I did suggest that Sobe change their voice prompts to 1) eliminate all instructions for playing the Sobe game and 2) add a message that Sobe is aware of the expiration coupon problem and will automatically be mailing out replacements.  ya think?

For those of you in the same boat (receiving expired coupons), I just received the following email:

Thank you for contacting us at SoBe Beverages.

We’re so sorry that you received an expired coupon as part of our SoBe® Heads or Tails™ promotion. If you’d call 1-800-316-0299, we’d be happy to send out a replacement with a later expiration date.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Max Jabbonsky
Consumer Relations Representative

012554248A

I suggest you all call and get replacements (press 0 to get to customer service).  At least they’re on top of replying to disgruntled consumers.  And don’t forget that this is actually a Pepsi company, so they can’t claim to be a small company overwhelmed by traffic…


Guess who just got two more Free Sobe coupons in today’s mail?  And guess what expiration date is on them?  I’ve already popped them an email phrasing it rather more politely, but since I’m not paranoid enough to think it only happened to me, they better have a contingency plan in place, ’cause I sure as hell am not going out in the cold for two free Sobes.  And what really pisses me off is that the rest came weeks ago, so I used them at CVS with my BOGO rain check.  So two = four, not no more…

$4.07 reasons why we love portable document formats

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Since it’s the holiday season, we should all find time to help the less fortunate:  that’s right, bring a basket of the fancy cat food to your elderly neighbors.

Ahem, looks like my flight of fancy just hit the O’Hare body scanners… damn, and I was looking forward to some invasive body searches.  Hey, I’m married, gotta get my action somewhere!

Hit a couple of PetSmarts and a Pet Supplies “Plus” to get the goodies in this picture.  The Pedigree dog food was being clearanced out at .34 each and I used BOGOs on the cat food.  Actually broke down and used a coupon on just two bags of biscuits (hoping to win a prize inside – PITA wouldn’t let me just open and check first – damned kids!)

Little Village (26th Street, Chicago)

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¡Hola!  DH decided he really needed a Maxwell Street Polish so off we went to Chicago on a frolicking detour.   Ate too much.  Next, a tour of Mexico, where we parked and I just had to run into the Wags to see if they had any Sinex – no shit, I did.  Well, they had some and I had rain checks and coupons but ran one test transaction and the RR didn’t print.  I had read it was a month-long RR, so was surprised, but at least I can drive there for my Sinex MM jones.

We also stopped at a panaderia (bakery) for …. stuff.  lots and lots and lots of … stuff.

Then, as if we didn’t have enough “stuff,” we stopped at the El Milagro tortilla “factory” and picked up 7 dozen tortillas for $2 and  $1.75 for a bag of the same chips they sell in whitepeoplesland for mucho dinero (I am fluent in food and money).

Oh, almost forgot the dozen tamales ($11) and the large container of pico de gallo.  Crap, just realized how much we spent – single-handedly floating the Little Village economy!

Why does BF shopping make me crazy(er)?

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Couldn’t figure out why today was such a bore.  Couldn’t see what all the hoopla was about.  Putting “Door Buster” and 60% off or more signs on everything doesn’t make it a deal.  My husband was talking on the way to the gym (and no, I was not going to work out, silly!  I just plop my fat ass in the steam room and cook the low-pressure way), about all the people on the news raving about what great deals they were getting.  He said that it’s the same thing I do day after day, and if people really wanted to save money they’d shop more like me.

That’s when it hit me that he was right (that in itself was a shocker, I’ll admit).  So that’s why the whole BF media blitz doesn’t work for me.  I prefer to shop during normal hours, in well-stocked stores, with clerks and cashiers readily available to answer questions and ring up sales in a timely fashion…none of which was happening today, bucky.

So tomorrow?  Hit another PetSmart or two, maybe a Hallmark store, possibly check out Target, but from now on, my deals are going to be made from the comfort of my own home (probably Amazon).  ’cause unless you’re running Black Friday shopping as a competitive sport, it ain’t worth it.

Battle-scarred warriers return home

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and don’t kid yourselves – there’s a war going on in the malls today!

Picked up my Kohl’s gift card at Jewel as planned, then drove over to get the razor.  Holy crap!  Had to park in a whole other parking lot and walk over.  People were circling around and around, looking for a closer spot…please, people, just park and walk over.  It’s not like the exercise is gonna kill you.  After finally deciding which razor to buy, realized I needed something to push me over the $50 mark for the Kohl’s Kash.  Picked up a pair of jeans for the PITA in the 80% clearance section.  The funny part is that she tried on these same jeans a few months ago, but they were only 60% off, so we put them back.  Got in line to pay at the lower level registers ’cause the upper ones had lines circling the room.  At least in the lower level I was in and out in only 20 minutes – insert sarcasm here, please…

Stopped at PetSmart to use those wonderful $5 coupons.  Ended up with 60 cans of the Pedigree .34 clearance food for……..  .30!

Next was the fourth circle of hell formerly known as Carsons.  Parked all the way over near the tour buses – not a good sign, either that I parked there or that someone considers a mall a destination bus trip.  shudder Well, I had about 11 of those $10 coupons, so thought I could at least get something – not.  Place was completely packed, you were unable to use the coupons on the door buster deals (and almost everything in the store was marked that way) and the tights and leggings I wanted had no prices on them or the display.  One sales clerk said they had no in-store price scanner, while a customer directed me to one.  Good training, there, Carsons.  Well, the tights were $18 and the leggings were $30.  I shit you not.  Put them down and walked over to Auntie Anne’s and got the free pretzel for the PITA (from that Freezooka a few weeks ago).  Then dropped off “stuff” to the West Suburban Humane Society in DG (stuff is what was placed in the PITA’s donation box at her school.  This is the second trip in a couple of weeks with her donations.

More Free Stuff

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If you can never get enough free stuff in the mail (cough* like me* cough), here’s a link for a sample of Vaseline Intensive Rescue (hope this guy sends for his real soon):

BF Shopping – ugh!

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Heading out shortly to pick up a few Black Friday “deals.”  First stop will be Jewel, since I’ve decided (finally!) to pick up a $100 Kohl’s gc and get the $20 Jewel cat.  Off to Kohl’s for an electric razor for DH (and Kohl’s Kash), then Carson’s to use the $10 off coupons from yesterday’s paper.  My only mandate is to keep the total as close to $10 as possible on regular-priced merchandise – can we say underwear for everyone?

by the way, the long schlong thong in the photo is BYOS (sausage)… And don’t forget to hit the PetSmarts around you with the $5 coupons; it only takes a minute and even if you don’t have a pet of your own, local shelters are always in need of food.

Another lead glass recall

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Why am I turning into an unofficial recall site?  Maybe because I’m pissed that almost every recall of products containing lead have one thing in common:  made in China.  Read today’s Trib article here.  While there are lead limits for children products, by categorizing character glasses as adult collectibles, they avoid those pesky government regulations, since adult glasses have no limit (and we all know how much adults just love their superman and wizard of oz glasses).  Smart, if swarmy.  My advice:  avoid Chinese-made products as much as possible.