Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Time Shares Have Been Good to Us!

I've got another great timeshare story! A friend of ours has a timeshare at Disney and received a mailing from them letting her know that if she could get her friends to spend a 1/2 hour on the phone with them talking about their latest offerings, she would receive a $25 Disney gift card (which is only good at the Disney properties) and so would her friend.

So, my husband and I each called Disney. My friend received two $25 gift cards. My husband and I each received a $25 gift card which my friend bought from us. So, she made $50 and we made $50!

Not a bad deal...and in the end, the marketing folks at Disney hadn't prepared all the materials they needed for this promotion, so it literally took 5 minutes on the phone with the Disney people to get this!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Another Way to Save on Prescriptions

It would appear that my cholesterol is not as good as I'd like it to be. I've been on cholesterol meds for a while now and although it's better, it's not good enough. The doctor explained something about particle sizes and drew little things on the tissue on his exam table...while all the while I worried what this next problem was going to cost me!
He wanted me to take a new medication in addition to the cholesterol meds I'm already on, so my first question was "is there a generic for it?", my second question was "is it on the Walmart $4 list?". Unfortunately the answer to both questions was "no". But, my doctor gave me a brochure about the drug and in it was a card that allowed me to get this new prescription for $5/month for the first year instead of the $60 it would normally cost. All I had to do was call the number on the card to active the membership, and answer a few questions about my medical conditions, which they said would remain confidential. Then I took the card to the pharmacy and sure enough...$5!
So, this is a savings of $55/month or a total of $660 for the year.
It definitely pays to talk to your doctor and explore all of your options!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Take a look around the house...I bet you have things you're not using too!

My husband and I are both pack-rats! Which has worked out to be a good thing for us in the end. I'm also an organization freak, so every once in a while when I can't take the clutter anymore, we go through the house and clean out. I've been in "organize" mode for a while now, so we've been finding things that we bought for projects and never used. Still in the original packaging, still with the price tags on them, still in the original bag. Just never used.
Most stores will take these things back, regardless of how long ago you purchased them, but won't give you cash. They'll give you a store credit. Well, I guess that's better than having the un-needed item cluttering up your house, but it still doesn't give me any extra cash.
Then came the brainwave...just because I don't need the credit in that particular store, doesn't mean that someone I know can't use it. My most recent example: we returned fertilizer and grass seed to Home Depot and had a $72.00 credit. We have no home improvement projects on the horizon, but my friend Donna is re-doing her bathroom and her husband is constantly at Home Depot. I gave the credit to Donna, she gave me $72 cash and I was a happy camper!
It definitely pays to think "outside the box"!

Monday, November 9, 2009

A&P Policy

Last week my husband went to A&P to buy some ground beef for a recipe he was making. The circular said it was on sale for $1.99 per pound, but when he got to the register, it rang up as $2.99 per pound. Confused, he spoke to the cashier who called over the manager. Apparently the circular price was correct but someone in the store had neglected to mark the new price on the product. The best part? They gave it to him for free!
The next day, he realized that he needed more ground beef, so he went back and had the same experience a second time. When the manager came over he asked about the procedures, and found out that A&P has a policy that states that they'll give you any product marked incorrectly, for free, if it's under $10.00.
So...we got $19.o0 of ground beef for free!!! Love those little-known store policies!