Hobbies & Beauty Stuff
the Discount Diva
Hobbies & Beauty Stuff
Better Late Than Never
This past weekend one of the streets in my neighborhood hosted a stoop sale block party, where residents pulled out all of their unwanted wares to hawk on their stoops or front lawns. A whopping 30 houses on the block participated and I was ready to shop! The plan was to get up early, run a few errands and then be the first one there.
Of course, my plan completely backfired -- I woke up late and I didn't finish my errands until 4pm (the sale was ending at 5pm!). I managed to make it there just as most of the stoop sellers were packing up.
Being late turned out to be a good thing. As I sulked and gave puppy-dog eyes to the stoop sellers packing up their leftovers, I stumbled over a pair of Steve Madden black slingbacks sitting on the sidewalk with a sign that read "FREE" beside them. I picked them up to check out the size. Eight and a half -- that's my size! I shoved them in my bag and kept walking, with a little more pep in my step now. Then I came upon a corner house. The stoop seller was busy packing up, but I noticed there was one little table he hadn't gotten to yet and on it was a bunch of costume jewelry -- rings, chunky bracelets, and necklaces. The sign said $1, but when the homeowner saw me looking he yelled, "They're a penny now!" Score! I bought them all and it only cost me $0.50.
The moral of the story is this: A sale is not over until it's over.
A Clear Forecast for Flying
I get so worked up when I buy airline tickets. Mainly because this little voice in the back of my mind keeps saying "wait...wait...wait...maybe the ticket will be cheaper in 30 minutes...wait." Then, another voice says "buy it now!...quick...what are you waiting for?...if you don't buy this ticket right this second it will be $100 more in 30 minutes." The voices -- it's crazy, I know!
You can imagine the relief I felt after discovering Farecast.com, an airfare prediction engine that calculates whether the current price on plane tickets will increase, decrease or stay the same within the next week. And while the site spits out a ton of airfare data that tracks price fluctuations for time, day, etc., it also gives you the bottom line: "Buy Now. Fares will rise." Or, "Wait. Fares will drop." Short, sweet, and too the point -- that's all I need.
Book Smarts
I never appreciated classic literature when I was in high school or college. Back then I preferred to rush through the Cliff's Notes before a test rather than to relish the famed storytelling skills of Mark Twain, William Shakespeare and F. Scott Fitzgerald (just to name a few of the authors on my LONG high school reading list).
Well, with time comes change and I'm more interested than ever before in "The Classics" -- thanks, in part, to Bartleby.com, a website that publishes famed fiction, nonfiction and reference material free of charge.
Been wanting to read Pride and Prejudice since...well, since you didn't read it the first time? Here's your chance!
Calling All Techies
I am in awe of anyone who knows the difference between a woofer and a tweeter, what you do with a USB port and whether a gigabyte or megabyte is bigger.
As a token of my appreciation for you -- the tech buffs of the world who have talked me through countless blue screens and error messages -- I am sharing this Web site wonder: Woot.com. It's an online electronics store and community that unloads excess inventory of a daily single item at bargain basement prices. One day, it might be a home theater system; the next day, a digital camera. All products stay posted online until they sell out, or until 11:59 p.m. (CT), whichever happens first.
Music to My Ears
I could literally listen to Luther Vandross all day...and night. In the past, the only way to get my L.V. fix was to purchase a bunch of his songs from iTunes ($0.99 per tune) and then create tote-able CD's (about $10 for a pack of ten) that I could then bring to work. Kind of a hassle. Not to mention, the costs of all of those songs and CD's can (and did!) add up.
Enter Pandora.com, which gives my debit card and my computer's hard drive a break.
At Pandora.com you simply type in the name of your favorite artist or song and the ingenious site generates a FREE internet radio station that plays and plays all the Luther Vandross (or your favorite artist) that you can stand, along with other singers/songs with a similar sound.
Don't like a song that plays? Click "thumbs down," and Pandora.com will tweak the station to skip that and similar songs.
Pandora.com gets two thumbs up for instant gratification.
about the blogger
Ayren
Ayren Jackson-Cannady has yet to find a bargain or sale she didn’t like. It’s a good relationship for her wallet, but not so much for the dwindling closet space in the apartment that she shares with her husband, John and her cat, Shiny in Brooklyn, NY.
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