Last night, we decided to go to a town near us that has not one, but two stores that are closing. Both chains have totally different circumstances, but what is happening at each store is the same. The first is of course, Linens N’ Things, which is completely going out of businesses - so all stores are liquidating as well as their website. The second store is Circuit City, and while they aren’t going out of business, they are closing a lot of their stores. Either way, both locations we went to had huge “Everything Must Go” signs, and a lot of sale signs all over.

Before I tell you about what we found, I will say that I didn’t plan on buying anything. What happens when a store liquidates is that another company takes it over, and takes care of the actual liquidation. So another company comes in, (usually) inflates all of the prices, and then slowly puts things on sale. So when the first “Everything Must Go” signs go up, things are 10% off, maybe 20% off…and then slowly as time goes on, it gets more and more until either there is nothing left to sell, or the store is going to close in a day or two, and then things are finally 80% or 90% off.

Well, Linens N’ Things had announced over a month ago that they were closing, so we did have some hopes that things would have some lower prices, figuring it would be closing soon. Circuit City on the other hand didn’t announce that long ago, so we expected higher prices.

What we found was that both stores pretty much had 20% off of everything. What did that mean to actual prices of items? Well, at Linens N’ Things, with a coupon you can get 20% off of everything any day of the week. Plus, some of these prices were higher than when Linens N’ Things was in charge, so it wasn’t that great of a deal. As for Circuit City? We weren’t excited there either. Just to give you an example, we had looked at some DVDs, and they were $24.00 each. We’re talking about movies that had been on DVD for a few months already. So even with the 20% off, it was still more than we would pay for a DVD almost anywhere else.

Don’t get me wrong. You can definitely find good deals when stores are going out of business, you just have to wait until the price is actually lower than you can find somewhere else. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re getting a great price just because everything is marked down and “Everything Must Go”. As time goes on, the prices of the items left will drop, and they will be good deals. In another few weeks, we might take another trip over to see how things are going, and to see if there are any good deals yet.

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If you like Amazon as much as we do, one thing you’ll know is that you can get free shipping if you spend at least $25.00. That’s great, but sometimes the item you want isn’t quite $25.00, and you don’t want to have to buy something else just to get over the limit. What you might not know, is that Amazon has a program called “Amazon Prime” that will give you free shipping no matter how big or small your order is.

Amazon Prime actually has another benefit as well. Not only does it not matter how small your order is, but your free shipping will be free 2-day shipping! So now not only will you save money on almost everything (since Amazon usually has the lowest prices…) but you’ll also get your items a lot faster, and you won’t have to pay for anything.

This will come in handy if you need to buy something, but need it that week. Before you’d have to either pay more and go to a store nearby, or pay more to have Amazon ship it out sooner. Now you can pay less, and still get it sooner! If you have Amazon Prime and 2-day shipping isn’t good enough, for $3.99 you can get overnight shipping. This is still less than regular shipping for most places.

The best part about Amazon Prime is that right now you can get a free trial. You’ll get 1-month of Amazon Prime for free, where you’ll be able to get free 2-day shipping no matter how small your order is! I recommend trying it. You’ll really enjoy how quickly you’ll get your products!

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I recently got the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois out of the library, and decided to try it. I had tried making bread once before, but it was such a pain and was so time consuming, I didn’t think I would ever try it again. Once I heard about this book though, I knew I had to try it.

First off, there is no kneading, or anything else complicated. It took me less than 5 minutes to mix up the ingredients with a wooden spoon, and put it in the fridge overnight. The next day all I had to do was take some of the dough out of the fridge, let it sit for 40 min, and then cook it. It couldn’t have been easier.

One of the big questions is…was it any good? I was shocked. It tasted REALLY good. I was really excited! I loved having the bread, and to know that I have enough dough for 3 more loaves sitting in my fridge makes me happy!

The next question is - how does the cost compare with buying a loaf of bread at the store? Well, I can’t exactly compare it since this is more of a nice bread you’d get at a bread store instead of a loaf of white bread, but let’s try to compare them anyway. At the store, you can spend anywhere from $1.00 - $4.00 for a loaf of bread. With the ingredients used in this loaf, a plain regular loaf of bread cost me about $0.55 a loaf. Granted, the loaf is a little bit smaller than a regular loaf..but it tasted really great. Plus, you know exactly what is in it since you made it yourself. Which also means you can add additional ingredients if you like a special type of bread.

Also, that was just me buying the ingredients at my local grocery store.  If I decide I’m going to start making bread more (which I probably will), I might get the yeast and flour at Costco, which I’m sure will save me a lot  more money.

One of the things I really liked was the size of the bread. Every single time I buy a loaf of bread, I always end up wasting at least part of it. There is no way 2 of us can go through a whole loaf before it goes bad. Here, I have up to 2 weeks to make and the 4 loaves, and this way it works out perfectly.

I will note that depending on what you have in your house, you will need to buy a few items if you don’t bake often.  You’ll need a pizza peel and a baking stone.  I got both of them together for $15.00 and then 20% off at Bed Bath and Beyond, and it worked well for me.

So from an economical standpoint…is it better to make your own bread, or just buy it? I’d say there really isn’t too much of a difference, especially if you just buy what’s cheapest. But if you like being able to control exactly what is in your bread, and you enjoy making homemade items, then this book is really for you! I really can’t stress enough how easy it was. I look forward to trying a few of the other recipes before I return the book.

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Sometimes, buying the floor model can save you a LOT of money. I can understand why for certain things you would want to make sure the item you buy is in the box, has all of the manuals, is brand new, and has no scratches or dents, but sometimes that just isn’t important.

Take for example a small stereo. We were looking to buy one for our house. Our house was built with speakers in the ceiling of each room, and was set up so that all we needed was a portable stereo that we could hook up, and we would get great music in each room.

The problem is, with the one we had since we moved into the house, you could only play the radio or 1 cd at a time. Since the stereo is kept high up in our laundry room, it was very inconvenient to get to, so we decided to get a new one that would play mp3’s, and have a better remote than ours did.

Since this was definitely a want, and not a need, we weren’t willing to spend more than $100.00 on it. So, we went to Best Buy to take a look at what they had. They had a few different choices, but one in particular caught our eye. The Panasonic SC-EN37 Micro System had side speakers that we could easily take off and connect the wires to our system, so that was most important to us. It plays mp3’s, so that was great as well. It even would play an iPod, so although we don’t have one now, if we got one in the future, it would be perfect.

What was even better, was that it was normally $129.99, but was on clearance for $79.99. That was a great price, so we were excited. Of course, because we like to shop around, we then went home and did some research online, finding out that first - it is a good product, and second - that WAS indeed the best price around. So this past weekend, we went back to Best Buy to pick it up.

Guess what? They were all sold out, and only had the floor model left. Since it looked in good shape, and we could see that it worked, that didn’t bother us. We did ask if we took the floor model, what kind of discount we could get off of it…and this is where I was shocked. The sales woman told us we would get it for $39.99. Talk about excited! We were told that there was no box or instructions, but let’s face it…it’s a simple stereo, we didn’t need instructions, and if we really did, I’m sure we could find them online. We didn’t care about not having a box. It was worth the $40.00 savings not to get a box!

So we ended up getting a really nice new sound system for our house for $39.99, regularly $129.99.

So while getting the floor model might not sound ideal, if you really want a certain model, but don’t want to pay the full price, it’s a great way to save a little bit of money! Usually the store will be willing to negotiate as well, so you might get an even better deal. It’s definitely worth checking out!

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Barnes & Noble has 30% off selected books in the Dummies series. You know the books they’re talking about.  The ones that start “Calculus for Dummies”, or “Crocheting for Dummies” etc.  They have them on almost every subject.  Well, on top of the 30% off selected books in the series, they have a rebate where you can get $5.00 back for each book you buy.

This means a Dummies book that is originally $19.99 will be $8.99 when all is said and done, so you will end up saving over 50%! The good news is that you can do multiple rebates. The rebate form states that you need to do an individual rebate form for each book, but does not limit the number you can do.

This deal is going on through April 1st.

I would like to mention this though. The name might be a little “off-putting”…but these are definitely great books if you are a beginner in a certain subject. They are thorough, and will help you learn the basics about something. So don’t let the name turn you off.

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The Disney Outlet has just marked down a whole bunch of items, making some of them up to 80% Off.

Take for example the Mickey Throw Pillow on the left, once $39.95, now $2.99. We have a few similar pillows that we really like, although we paid $4.99 for them about 7-8 months ago.

They have PJ Pals (pajamas for kids) that are $3.99, a Cars CD Player for $19.99, and a lot more.

Just click on Disney Outlet on the left to be brought to all the new markdowns.
Here are a few other deals you can find on their site:

• Through tonight you can get 20% off spring break essentials with code FUN20.
• You can get 25% off Easter Essentials (no code is needed).
• You can also get $5.00 shipping if you spend at least $50.00 and use code SHIPFOR5.

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The Circuit City Outlet has quite a few items that are free after rebate, or very close to it. Here are just a few of the items:

• 3M Post-It Semi-Gloss Photo Paper - Free after a $7.99 rebate.
• Epson 5″ x 7″ StoryTeller Photo Book Creator - Free after a $14.96 rebate.
• 3M Post-It Adhesive Photo Paper - Free after a $4.99 rebate.
• …and a lot more

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Staples has their brand of wooden bookcases for 40% off. Shipping is free on all orders through February 23rd.   We bought a few of the 5-Shelf 72″ in oak a few years ago, and really like them.  They are filled with books, and are still standing strong, and look great.

Here are the sizes and colors available:

• 2-Shelf, 30″ in white/oak/cherry - $17.99, regularly $29.99.
• 3-Shelf, 48″ in white/oak/cherry - $23.99, regularly $39.99.
• 5-Shelf, 72″ in white/oak/cherry - $29.99, regularly $49.99.

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In the January 18th edition of the Dreamline Savings Newsletter, one of the electronics we had listed was the Sandisk Sansa e250 2GB MP3 Player. I thought it was such a great deal that I bought it myself!

The thing I like best is that it’s not just an mp3 player. It’s an mp3 player, video player, FM tuner, it records voice, it records FM Radio, it is expandable, and more. I absolutely love the size too. It’s so tiny, just about the size of a pack of gum! It makes it very easy to carry around, and if I wanted I could fit it in my pocket.

It’s recertified, but the one I got looks like it’s new (except it does say refurbished on the back.) The price I got it for is still available - $39.99 with free shipping, while the regular price is $199.99. I had ordered it on that Friday, and got it exactly one week later, so I was excited!

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to play with it, I can say I like it even more than I thought I would. It is very easy to use, and holds a lot of music!! I love the fact that I can record on the fly, so if I’m out and think of something I want to make sure I remember, I can record it right then and there with just the click of the button. While the video screen is small (since the whole product is), I don’t know if I’d always want to watch movies on it, but I bet it will come in handy while on a plane!

While I knew it came with an FM Tuner, I really didn’t expect it to be great. I mean, you know how hard it can be to get a good signal even from a good radio, so I didn’t expect much. So I was really surprised when I programmed in my favorite stations, and they all came in perfectly clear! I did not expect that at all.

I will be buying a 4GB micro-SD card so that I can have a total of 6GB of space, but I’m not in a hurry. I’ve already put most of my music on, and still have plenty of room. But it’s great to know that if I want to, I can and won’t have to buy a new system.

It’s funny, because before I bought it, I was really unsure if I would really use it…because I didn’t really NEED an mp3 player, but now that I have it, I’m so happy! I will definitely be using this a lot next month when I go on my vacation!

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There are two very good reasons you should always look at your receipts when you get them - both at stores and restaurants.

The first one is fairly obvious. You want to make sure you were charged what you should be. While you were most likely watching when items were rung up, if there are a bunch of items sometimes it can be hard to watch all of them. Plus, you want to make sure that only your items were rung up. Sometimes discounts can come off at the end…and you want to make sure you got those as well!

That isn’t the only reason you should always look at your receipt though. Lately, I have started seeing surveys showing up at the bottom of many of my receipts. While some have a message like “take our survey and enter to win x dollars”, I have seen a lot now stating that they will give you a percentage off your next purchase!

The last time I was at Bath & Body Works, at the bottom of my receipt it said that if I called a phone number and took a survey, I would get $10.00 off my next purchase of $30.00 or more. When I went to Old Navy over the weekend, I got a receipt that said if I did a survey with them in the next 5 days, I would get 10% off my next purchase. I don’t remember what restaurant, but recently I got one there too saying that if I took a survey, I would get a free appetizer the next time I ate there.

I don’t know about you, but I love getting discounts for things I am going to do anyway! It is definitely worth the 2 minutes of my time it takes to do the survey in order to get that discount.

So next time you get a receipt, take a closer look. Don’t only check the numbers, but see if there are any discounts for future purchases as well!

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