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Off the Beaten Path Black Friday-ish Deals

November 22, 2017 by Lazy Man Leave a Comment

Remember when Black Friday was fun and didn’t mean risking life and/or limbs? Maybe not, but somewhere around 15-20 years that was truly the case. I remember shopping with my mother to get an eMachines computer with her. There was still crowd back then, but everyone got most of their deals.

Damn I’m old!

Over the last several years, I’ve instituted the no-hassle Black Friday plan. The idea is to avoid the Best Buys and the Wal-Marts and focus on the easy wins. The closest I come to any of those stores is Staples. That’s because state laws prevent them from opening on Thanksgiving and there’s one close to me. I can usually stay up until midnight and be one of the few people there.

Unfortunately, Staples doesn’t have too many deals that are exciting to me. Others may find a few nice laptop choices, a great Dell monitor or two, and an 8TB hard drive for $150. The hard drive is tempting, but I’m going to try to get by longer with what I have. If I can get by another year, it will probably be $99 next Black Friday.

There are two items that I’m saving for Friday’s article. You’ll have to check back then to find out why.

So here’s what I’m looking at this year:

Note: Some of these links may pay me a small commission if you decide to buy from them. It won’t change your price though.

Amazon’s 10″ Fire for $99

CNET lies and calls this the best tablet deal in history. The truth is that the HP TouchPad for $99 liquidation was the best tablet deal in history. This is still a great deal. I have a 8″ Fire that went largely unused until recently. I pulled it out because I realized Amazon had Scratch Jr. in their Appplication HeadquarterWarehousePlaceOfPurchasing.

How good is it? Here’s CNET’s review.

I will spend another $50 to get the bargain Windows laptop deal below instead. This is based on my situation of being able to take advantage of the military-only deal and already having a Fire Tablet. Most people aren’t in my unique situation and might want to consider this.

Powerful Laptop Deal (Intel 8th Generation)

I’m finding a ton of laptop deals this holiday season. I’m going to highlight a couple as examples. There’s no need to bust any doors for the deals I’m seeing.

My Dell XPS with 4GB of memory is probably going to revolt by not letting me post this article. A little more than two years ago, I bought had some buyers remorse for only getting 4GB of memory. The store didn’t stock the 8GB version and it would have been a lot more money, because they bundled it with a larger hard drive. I didn’t want to wait for days or pay an additional hefty fee for overnight shipping.

I spent $800 on what I considered the best available option during my time of need.

Today, for the same $800, this Lenovo IdeaPad is a stacked 14″ ultraportable laptop. You get the new 8th generation i7-8550U processor (Passmark 8016). As Laptop Mag’s review noted, “If you’re shopping for a laptop and there’s a model with 8th Gen Core available in your price range, you should definitely prioritize it.” I’m not a gamer, but there is a dedicated graphics card too and all the latest ports (including Thunderbolt). The rest of the laptop is solid with 8GB of memory, a full HD screen, and a very fast solid state hard drive (SSD).

Similarly, this 15″ HP ENVY x360 can be configured to be around the same price with a little more memory, at a little more size and weight. I’ve grown accustomed to the lightweight laptops, so the Lenovo above is more interesting to me. My wife, on the other hand, really likes numeric keypads, so this would be a better fit for her (but extreme overkill for what she does).

We all know technology moves quickly, but either one is a tempting upgrade. I’d be upgrading from a 5th generation Core i5-5200U (3497 Passmark), that lousy 4GB memory, and a tiny 128GB SSD. That’s doubling or more in all those key areas. (I’m sure the SSD is much faster.)

I’m going to try to resist and wait for the next cycle. However, if you are in the market for a new laptop, I’d jump on these now. I think prices will only go up after the holiday season before they float back down throughout 2018.

MoviePass

I haven’t written about MoviePass yet, but it’s gotten a lot of buzz elsewhere.

MoviePass is an all-you-can watch cinema plan. When it was getting its buzz a couple of months ago, it was $10/mo. for unlimited movies per month (well limited to one per day). So if you wanted to live at the movie theater you could get your cost down to under a dollar.

Their deal now is $90 for an annual pass. That’s ~$7 a month, plus a small processing fee. So if you can see yourself going once a month (or more knowing that it’s essentially free), then this is a good deal.

I’m considering it, but I’m not sure if I have the time to take in a bunch of movies.

Old Navy For Jeans

(This is the most boring item, trust me.)

Old Navy is starting their Black Friday on Colorless Wednesday.

Their jeans are 50% off. I need to replenish my jeans. Sure, the jeans at Old Navy seem to only last a couple of years, but for around $20 I can live with that.

Kohl’s Technology Deals

Kohl’s has some great technology deals. Yes, it is the typical door buster routine, but are people really busting down Kohl’s doors? I’m surprised the place is still in business. Besides the great prices on many top items, you also get $15 in Kohl’s Cash for every $50 you spend. It should be called Kohl’s Kash, because it isn’t real money and can only be spent during a limited time in the future. As CNET’s Cheapskate points out: “[The Fitbit Blaze will] be priced at $150, which isn’t extraordinary — it was $140 on Prime Day — but it comes with $45 in Kohl’s Cash.”

So, presuming that you can find a use for $45 at Kohl’s (which I always can), it is like a $105 Fitbit Blaze.

The Kohl’s Cash is for all items in the store not just a few door busters. So as long as you find some things you like, it’s almost like getting an additional 30% off. (Not really, but kinda, right?)

RiteAid – Yes RiteAid

RiteAid has buy one get one free for “As Seen on TV” items. We’re looking at Snuggie Tails for the kids as well as the Magic Tracks. They also have a buy one, get two cereal deal. That may be interesting if they don’t jack up the prices to $5 a box (which they probably will).

These are the kinds of deals I like. I don’t expect a lot of people to be waiting forming a line to pick up these deals.

In other news, I’m thinking of including the “As Seen on TV” logo on Lazy Man and Money. I’ve looked at my website on my TV connected to a computer through an HDMI cable. If everyone else does misleading marketing I can too, right?

Military Bargain Laptop Deal

The Navy base near me is posting a special $148 Asus 14″ Intel Apollo 32GB Notebook. That’s so vague that it could be worth anywhere between $100 or $350 depending on the missing information. It also says it is a savings of $72. I did a little sleuthing and I think it is an Asus R417NA-RS01-BL which just rolls off the tongue. Some of that missing information would be Intel Celeron N3350, 32GB storage, 4GB memory. NewEgg sells it for $242 and the reviews are good (and helpful)!

I have two main uses for this Asus:

1. The main use will be for my kids to play with ABC Mouse, PBS Kids, and Scratch Jr. This is much better than giving them Daddy’s computer.

2. In a pinch, it could be Daddy’s computer. Two and a half years ago, I was able to work on $100 computer that was less powerful than this. It was an emergency situation and it wasn’t great, but it did the job.

It’s worth noting that the 4GB of memory in this computer is the same as what I have in my Dell XPS right now. Yes, I’m very bitter.

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving. I won’t bore you by being another blogger giving thanks for family, friends, and health, even though it’s all true.

Instead, I’d like to give a special thanks. I’d like to thank the lawyers who have helped me serve you. Over the last 11 years, there have been more than 11 million of you. When a company, in my opinion, isn’t operating in a way that serves you the consumer, I have called them out on it. I’ve never seen a company care unless Google’s algorithm decides my criticism is important for you to read. When that happens the lawsuits come because these companies are just protecting their reputation.

So I’d like to give thanks to Blish and Cavangh for representing me on writing my RainSoft Review on my family’s opinion of our personal experience. The case is still on-going, so I won’t comment on it.

Similarly, I’d like to give thanks to Mateo Fowler who stood up for me and my opinion of Le-Vel Thrive. We won as the courts ruled (by my understanding) that it was too frivolous to even be considered. The court even sanctioned Le-Vel for their actions.

Finally Joshua Koltun did an amazing job helping with the LifeVantage case. I wish that I wasn’t limited by the personal expense that further litigation would have entailed.

We’re finally winning the war against MLM as more and more law firms are realizing that the courts have ruled that these are pyramid schemes time and time again. There are some MLMs that have been sued several times this year.

Double Deal Monday!

July 24, 2017 by Lazy Man 2 Comments

Regular readers know that I rarely post twice in the same day. The only thing that happens less often is me posting about a deal. There are a lot of deals out there and so many deal sites do a much better rounding them up than I ever could.

However, today I’m going for a daily double as I’m going to do both those rare things. Fittingly, I have two deals to share.

The first deal is one you might have already seen. Amazon has put their Echo on sale for $130. However if you add two of them to your cart and use promo code “ECHO2PACK”, they should come up at $160. That’s only for today (7/24/2017), so if you are reading this on some other day… sorry… but move on to the second deal that is available all week.

The $160 price for 2 is $80 a piece (that kind of math is why they pay me the big bucks). I got mine when they first came out taking advantage of the special promo to nab one at $99. For the first time since then, it seems Amazon is making them available cheaper (albeit only if you buy in a little bulk). If you have a big home that can make two of them then great. If not, you can probably put the one you don’t need on Ebay and get around $80 back. If you can’t get $80 back, then the real deal is just to wait and pick up a new one on Ebay for $75. Oh and if you use my Echo link, I may make a few dollars from Amazon at no cost to you.

The second deal is from Aldi. If you don’t have that chain of grocery stores near you, you have my sympathies. Also, you might still want to read on, I predict there might be a flood of these on Ebay.

Aldi has a Crofton Expandable Salad Storage Box and a Crofton Expandable Bento Box each for $3.99. What are these things? Crofton is an Aldi-owned brand. In this case it looks like Crofton bought a bunch of product from Cool Gear and stuck a new label on it… oh and GREATLY lowered the price.

For example, the *cough* Crofton Salad Storage Box looks exactly like this Cool Gear one. Same color and everything. You could pay $13.02 for that product which everyone seems to love, but I’d rather pay $3.99 for something with a different label.

The *cough* Crofton Bento Box looks exactly like this Cool Gear one. There aren’t as many reviews on this one, but if you are at Aldi, you get to hold it in your hand and try it out. I did and may have bought one or two (or maybe not if my wife is reading this). Again, I’d rather pay $3.99 than $15.

What I like best about these is that the middle is a freezer tray. They claim it will keep your food cold for 4 hours, which should be long enough to get to work or for a kid’s lunch. They are both dishwasher safe (top shelf only) and microwave safe (just in case you are the type to microwave your salad).

I’m trying to be more conscious of how much single use plastic I use. I’m hoping that the Bento Box will help me send the kids to school with a lot less wrapping to throw out. We’ll see if it works out.

Three Deal Friday

December 19, 2016 by Lazy Man 2 Comments

I wasn’t going to write an article today, but I simply can’t resist. I don’t like to feed consumerism, but if you were in the market for any of these things you can save some good money today.

I believe the deals are just for today, so don’t wait too long.

Get Echo Dot for $30It seems like Amazon is trying to get these in every house to prevent Google Home from gaining a foothold. They’ve been aggressively cutting the prices of Alexa hardware. I have to wonder if they can get lower.
You’ll have to follow the instructions from CNET, which gives you a couple of hoops to jump through, but they are easy. I reviewed the first generation Echo Dot and found it interesting at $80. At $30, it’s a no-brainer.
A $50 Microsoft Full Windows Tablet or A $60 oneThese are 8″ Full HD (1920×1080) screens with an expansion slot. I splurged on the $60 one for the slightly better chip and slightly faster SSD. They run full Windows 10 and also have a Micro HDMI out, which means that you could use this to stream Netflix to a big television or monitor… which is what I plan to do.
Don’t expect to run a lot of apps or to set any kind of speed records. The reason it’s so cheap is that the licensing agreement for Windows is free on such terrible hardware. Normally they’ll set you back $130 or $150, so saving $80 or $90 is significant.
Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Professional Grade Carpet Cleaner Machine for $285With nearly 3000 reviews of averaging 4.7 stars, people love this machine. Typically it runs $400 and it rarely goes on any kind of significant sale according to to Camel Camel Camel.
We have a steam cleaner already, but I don’t think it’s as good this one. We use it a lot with our dog sitting business. I’m really trying to restrain myself from upgrading.

What do you think? Any of these deals look good to you?

Save Nearly 50% on the Most Revolutionary Product in Years

September 15, 2016 by Lazy Man Leave a Comment

I usually try to stay away from clickbait titles. They always seem disappointing. However, I don’t know how you can be disappointed with this.

Yesterday, Amazon announced that it is releasing the 2nd Generation Echo Dot. The big news is that the price went from $90 to a penny shy of $50. And if you buy 5, you’ll get one free. (Hat tip to sister site Alexa/Echo.

That explains the 50% off part… but what about the “revolutionary” part.

Let me start by explaining what the Amazon Echo is… and then I’ll explain why the Echo Dot is better.

Amazon has a digital personal assistant like Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. Amazon calls her Alexa. That’s not very unique, but digital personal assistants are arguably revolutionary. Amazon Echo is a microphone/speaker that is sitting and waiting for you to activate it by simply saying, “Alexa.” The difference is that you don’t have to find a phone, navigate an app, press a button, or anything. I can continue typing this sentence while I ask Alexa to play music Jack Johnson. It works from across the room (unless there’s a television on, or other significant outside noise).

The Echo is probably best at playing music, but it is also very good at home automation stuff. I can control my Nest thermostat upstairs while I’m downstairs, without a computer, tablet, or phone. You can order a pizza from Domino’s with it. You can have Uber send you a car. You can play Choose Your Own Adventure games. I even use Amazon Echo to teach my kids spelling and math.

The Echo is so popular that it’s become Amazon’s next billion dollar business. And as I hinted at above, I even started contact me.)

I feel that’s enough about Amazon Echo, but you want to know more you can read my original Amazon Echo review and my revisited Amazon Echo review.

Now, to tie all this together, I have to explain what an Echo Dot is and why that’s even better than an Amazon Echo. An Echo Dot is a very small Amazon Echo… about the size of a hockey puck, but thicker. It has a very small speaker that isn’t great, but it has Bluetooth and an audio out port. This makes it ideal for hooking up to a set of speakers or your stereo. This way you aren’t tied to the Echo’s speaker (though I think it’s great, some audiophiles may disagree).

Perhaps the best part is the price. An Amazon Echo will set you back $180, and it very rarely goes on sale. The Echo Dot is less than $50. So you can pair with speakers you already have. I paid the original $90 price for the Echo Dot and paired them with a deal I found on these bookshelf speakers. However, I could have paired it with my Oontz Angle Bluetooth Speaker. If you bought those two, it would be less than $80… less than half price of the regular Echo.

So why did Amazon drop the price nearly in half just five months after releasing it? My guess is that it is afraid of Google Home, which Google’s upcoming version of the Echo. Apple is rumored to be getting into the game as well. I think Amazon’s plan is to get Alexa everywhere first.

Imagine if Amazon invented $50 tablets before anyone else had released a tablet. Would people pay $400 or $500 for an Samsung Galaxy Tab or an Apple iPad? Maybe, but it might also be difficult to market it at that price.

I think it’s a great plan. I’m honestly considering getting the 6-pack, adding a couple more to the house, giving them as Christmas gifts, or using them as giveaways on the site. I’m tempted to go full-out Oprah: “You get an Echo Dot. You get an Echo Dot.”

What do you think? I realize that I’m more enthusiastic than most people about Amazon’s Alexa products (hence the other blog). Do “normal” people find this as amazing a deal as I do? Let me know in the comments.

Best Use of Less Than $100? (and Bonus Deals!)

July 8, 2016 by Lazy Man 1 Comment

I was reading the awesome email newsletter this week and Jim ended it with a great question:

What do you consider your most valuable under-$100 purchase of all time? The thing that has had the most impact in your life?

I cheated by naming two “most valuables.” For some reason, whenever Jim asks me for one thing, I come up with two. It only happens with his questions though. Here they are:

1. Dinner and drinks on the first date with my future wife. (Is it appropriate to give a shout out to my wife as we celebrated 9 years of marriage yesterday?)
2. The LazyManAndMoney.com domain name and hosting.

It’s a tremendous drop off to #3. I couldn’t even think of anything. Maybe rounding up my kids’ favorite toys and how they all helped them sleep, avoid meltdowns, learn the alphabet and all that stuff.

What’s your answer? Let me know in the comments… and onto the deals!

Deal Time!

For the next few days (at least until after Amazon Prime Day on July 12th) this blog is going to sound like it is sponsored by Amazon. And in a way it is since I’ll make a small commission if you buy any of the stuff I feature. That said, I’m probably in the top 10% of most frugal people and I’m buying a ton of this stuff.

I’m going to assume that all these deals require Amazon Prime. If you don’t have it, you can can use this link for a FREE trial. That will give you access to all these and the many other deals this is the best time to on Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon put up a bunch of HD movies for rental for 99 cents. Personally, I’m going to snag We’re The Millers. There are a lot of other classics like The Matrix and Shawshank Redemption… probably 3 or 4 dozen choices overall. I think the deal is limited to one movie.

The other thing that people are freaking out over is this Anker 20,000mAh Portable Charger that lists for $80, but is on sale for $27. I have a 14,000mAh one, but it doesn’t very fast like this one does. I’m thinking about whether it’s worth the money to upgrade. I may justify it by saying that it gives us more tablet/cell time if we have a blackout.

If you are an Amazon Echo owner, there are additional deals today. If you buy something through your Echo, you’ll save $10 on a purchase of $20 or more. However, they’ve also deeply discounted a few other products.

The catch is that you have to act TODAY.

I’m tempting to buy an Amazon Tap at nearly half price. You can read more about the Echo deals on my Alexa/Echo blog here. If you are interested in drones and/or cooking, it’s worth a look.