Lazy Man and Money

Three Things I Often Buy on Amazon Subscribe and Save

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This week we had a major financial event. Today was going to be my first chance to write about it. Unfortunately, I was so focused on the event, I only have time for a quicker article. I also like to end the week on lighter, fluffier post.

Here are some items that I get most (or all) months from Amazon Subscrible and Save. They are affiliate links, so if you choose to buy them I may earn a commission. That disclosure aside, I buy all these products (that’s the point of this post obviously), so I feel it’s more than fair to recommend them.

KIND Bar Minis, Variety Pack (30 count)

My kids gravitate to junk food. That’s almost all they’ll eat. However, they eat these Kind bars as if they were candy. And is a way they kind of are. We might have to start ordering two of these to get us through the month.

The only downside is that these are mostly nut-based, so we can’t pack them in the kids’ school lunches.

HIPPEAS Organic Chickpea Puffs (48 ounces)

My wife started buying these at the store for the kids. I wouldn’t have bought them because they are super expensive. The kids love them, they are healthy (at least much as a “puff” can be), and they can go to school.

Buying in bulk and with the 15% Subscribe and Save discount makes it more manageable. They each bring about an ounce and a half, so two kids eat 3 ounces a day. That’s 16 days, enough to get us through most months.

Orajel Jurassic World Anticavity Fluoride Toothpaste – Berry Blast Flavor

My kids will only use one kind of toothpaste and this is it. It’s hard to find, so I’m happy that Amazon carries it. I probably don’t need to get it as often as I do, but I’m nervous they’ll stop making it someday. At a price of around $2.50 it’s a great filler item to get up to 5 items for 15% off.

Caffeine Pills (250 tablets)

I’m adding this last one as a bonus. I don’t have to buy these very often. I use a pill splitter to make a 200mg pill a 100mg pill. For a little more than $10, I have around 500 days of caffeine. That’s two cents a day in caffeine costs. How Much is Your Caffeine Costing You?

Now it’s your turn. I can use a few ideas to get to the five items to unlock the 15% Subscribe and Save this month. What are some items that you buy on Amazon most months?

The Best Prime Day Android Phone Deals

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Yesterday, I wrote about a number of Prime Day deals, many of them are still running today (7/16). However, today I’d like to focus on just the Android deals as I researched exactly what upgrade was right for me.

One of the biggest problems was that there were so many deals and so many choices. With everything 30-40% off, these are the cheapest these phones have been – perhaps by $200 or more in some cases.

Since I don’t know you, I can’t really say which is the right phone for you. However, there’s a phone at almost any budget, so if you are a Prime member with an old Android phone it’s probably the best time to upgrade.

The best phones have gone up in price, but the cheaper phones above have gotten more and more capable at low prices. The bargain hunter in me wants to go with a cheap phone, because I’m a no-frills kind of guy. That’s one of the things that helps me b so frugal. However, since so many use their phones so often it makes sense to spend more for a better experience.

Without further ado…

The Best Prime Day Android Phone Deals

Starter Android Phone – Moto G6 ($110 – save $130)

If I were buying a first phone for my kids or maybe a senior citizen. My wife does so well with the previous generation of this phone (that she paid over $220 for) that she doesn’t feel the need to upgrade. So certainly this phone is useful for the Average Jane as well.

I compared my current phone’s processor, a 2015 Moto X Pure and found it to be about the same as the Moto G6. My phone also has almost the same 3GB of RAM as this G6. Of course, I’m looking to upgrade my phone, but certainly $110 phone can do a lot.

Best Overall Deal – Moto G7 ($200 – save $90)

The Moto G7 is probably the phone I should get. It is a faster processor and has 4GB of RAM. It’s essentially what you’d expect from a phone that’s a generation newer. It would be a noticeable upgrade for me. The camera won’t win any Instagram awards, but I think smartphone cameras have been amazing for years. Of course, I remember digital cameras that took floppy disks.

Best High-End Deal – LG V35 ThinQ ($400 – save $500)

This was going to be the Samsung S9 at $350, but it appears to be sold out. It may come back in stock, so give that link a check. Update: It’s back in stock! Last year’s $800-ish flagship phone at a $350 is often a good deal. You can still get a S9+ for around $450, but I feel that’s a different price point than what I wanted for this.

Instead, we’ll go with the LG V35 for $400. It has last year’s fastest processor (SnapDragon 845) and plenty of RAM (6 GB+). CNET’s review calls it a “worthy Galaxy S9 Plus competitor doesn’t quite get there”. That’s appropriate, because the price is slotted right between the expired S9 and the still available S9+.

Best Gaming Phone – Razer Phone 2

It has the best processor that was available last year and 8GB of RAM, but the display is what sets this apart. With a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s supposed to be the best for fast-pace gaming. I only catch Pokemon and match gems, so this phone isn’t for me.

Best Flagship Prime Day Android Phone – Samsung S10 ($600) or LG G8 ($500)

I’m against spending $1000 a phone/mobile computer. (I want to stress the mobile computer part, because few people judge devices based on their ability to make phone calls.) Fortunately, this is a relatively recent phenomenon. You got my attention if it’s possible to a phone that’s nearly a thousand dollar value for $500-$600. That’s what Prime Day has.

I put two phones as winners because they are almost the same phones. Both have the best processor available, abundant memory (6GB or more), superb cameras, and extras like wireless charging and water proofing. The LG has some military-grade shock protection and Qualcomm’s QC 3.0. The Samsung S10 has a third camera, 8GM of RAM, and can charge other devices wirelessly.

In a lot of ways you could flip a coin between the two. However, review after review favored the Samsung S10. The LG G8 just wasn’t reviewed as much and most of the reviews said it was a great phone, but the gimmicky extras didn’t add much. Also most of the phones were looking at it as a $850 phone instead of a $500 phone. I tossed and turned for quite a long time on which phone I should go for.

This video comparison of the two phones helped:

Finally, I felt that the Samsung S10 would retain its resale or trade-in value better. In a few years, I should be able to still sell it for something and use that money to upgrade to the S13 (or whatever it is called then.) While writing this up and seeing that the S9 was sold out, I jumped on the S10 before it sold out too.

Prime Day: What I’m Buying

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Since I’m likely to be updating this article throughout the day, if you are reading this in your email, you might want to click on the live web version with the updates. The deals in this article apply to Amazon Prime members.

Amazon Prime Day

There are going to be approximately 1.34 billion articles written about Amazon Prime Day (today). One reason is that there really are some great deals. Another reason is that Amazon pays a referral fee, so writing about it can make a writer a few dollars if you decide to buy. (It doesn’t get more full disclosure than that, does it?)

I’m usually not one for the hype, but I’ve had my eye on some things for awhile. If I’m going to buy something anyway, I might as well take advantage of a sale, right?

What I’m Buying on Amazon Prime Day

A Gift Certificate to Myself

Amazon is offering a free $5 in promotional credit when you buy a $25 gift certificate. This deal probably won’t last long since it is essentially a free $5.

Let’s Go Eevee for the Nintendo Switch

I don’t have a Switch, but the kids love Pokemon and a Switch is likely in the mix for Christmas. They’ll need a game and Let’s Go Eevee is $30 – a 50% savings.

Upgrading an Echo Dot (2nd generation) to the new Echo Show 5 for under $25

The Echo Show 5 is Amazon’s latest attempt to perfect the Alexa alarm clock. It has a 5″ screen for video and better audio than a normal Echo Dot. Normally it is $90, but for Prime Day it’s on sale for $50. However, when you trade in another Echo device (such as the 2nd generation Echo Dot that I have lying around), you get 25% off a future Echo device. Amazon does that off the top, so it’s a $22.50 promotional credit. You also get $5 for the Echo Dot itself, but the real value is that promotional credit.

You have to take a little leap of faith in trading in the device for the promotional credit, but a number of people on Slickdeals, including myself, are making it work without a problem.

The math looks like:
$90 – original price
-$40 – Prime Day discount
-$22.50 – the 25% promo for the trade-in
-$5 – Credit for the 2nd generation Echo Dot
Total = $22.50

Sold Out A FireTV and Echo Dot for $12

Normally this bundle would cost you $75 or so, but it’s just $12 (probably a pricing mistake) with a discount that appears at checkout. Click here to buy. It will sell out quickly, so just buy if at all interested.

I think one could easily resell them on Ebay in a few weeks to make $30 or so.

Amazon Fire HD 10

I’ve long said, You Should Consider Buying an Amazon Fire HD 10, because when it’s $100 (the lowest it usually ever gets), it is the best computing bargain around. Even at full price it is a very good value. It’s almost impossible to find a 10″ full high-definition tablet for under $200. Of course one of the reasons why it is so cheap is so that Amazon can sell you stuff.

On Prime Day, the Fire HD 10 will be back to it’s lowest price of $100 (buy it now at that price. However, you can also buy 2 for $180 or $90 each (just add them to the cart). That’s the deal that I’m looking at. With two kids, our tablet is getting a lot of use. The kids tend to want to play at the same time (monkey see, monkey do). That means someone is stuck with our 5-year old Nexus 7. That was a good enough tablet for the time, but it’s noticeably slow nowadays. It seem like people on Ebay on are still willing to pay $75 for it, so to get half our money back (and nearly the price of a bigger, newer Kindle Fire) after all this time is a big win.

Some could (correctly) argue that the Fire HD 10 is nearly 2 years old and that it runs an even older version of Android. I’m sure that Amazon will update it a couple of months after I buy these. It seems like technology is always like that.

While I’m worried about the kids getting glued to the tablet too much, I feel it is somewhat inevitable. At least so far, they’ve been using our existing tablet for learning apps like ScratchJr, DuoLingo, and ABC Mouse. You’d think that maybe one tablet would be best so that they’d each have one. However, I’ve been customizing ours with the Google Play Store and I’m looking forward to having my own set of apps like Gmail and WordPress.

I’ll be shopping with my Amazon Prime card for another 6% back.

A New Cell Phone

My Moto X Pure is old 2015 technology and getting really slow. So slow that even my wife says that I shouldn’t “cheap out” and get something really good. I think the most I should spend on a cell phone is around $300.

It looks like there are going to be some deals on Pixels and Nokias, but from what I’ve seen it’s nothing too amazing. Since I’m writing this before the deals go live, I’m speculating on news leaks, but I think the sources are trustworthy. I’m not sure if I want to pull the trigger on a Pixel 3, when the Pixel 4 will be released in a couple of months – making the Pixel 3 likely much cheaper.

If I find a cell phone that’s worth pulling the trigger on, I’ll update this article.

Update:

Now that the smart phone deals are out, I’m more impressed than I thought I’d be. There are some excellent Samsung, Motorola, and this very tempting top of the line LG G8. I didn’t think I wanted a LG phone and $500 is more than I wanted to spend, but in the world of $1000 flagships, a $500 one seems like a good deal. I am heavily leaning towards this phone due to the latest SnapDragon 855 chipset and 6GB of RAM. It should future-proof me for a few years.

The Samsung S9 and S10 are both on sale. The S9 is $349 while the the S10 is $599. One could make the argument that I should spend another $100 to get the S10, but the LG G8 seems to be close to the same quality from all the reviews I’ve read.

A Moto G7 for $199 is extremely tempting too. The G7 would be an upgrade in every way, at $100 under my budget.

It looks like there’s a very good phone for almost any budget… $200 (Moto G7, $350 (Samsung S9), $500 (LG G8), $600 (Samsung S10).

What would you choose?

Something Else?

I’ll be going through my wishlist (which mostly includes STEM games for my kids) to see if there are any big bargains. If I find anything that’s particularly good, I’ll update this article. If you are reading this in the morning, you might want to give it a refresh in the evening.

One thing that I’m considering is waterproof Paperwhite for $85. It’s perfect for the lazy river at the Aruba Marriott and lowest price it has ever been. I just get the feeling that my wife would get more use out of it than I would. I’m a slow reader and don’t have a couple of months to read a book. I’ll probably jump on this as well since there is a 25% cash back when using an Amazon’s Prime Credit Card. For around $60, it seems worth the plunge.

Emergency Deals: Electronic Piano and Gimbal (Wed. Only)

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The internet has a lot of deals every day. There are only a few each year that I feel are worth sharing. This is one of those times and unfortunately you’ll have to act quickly. They are both today only. I’ll be typing quick to maximize the last few remaining hours of this deal.

FYI: I purchased both of these items myself today.

Electric Piano

I have been looking at an electric piano for quite awhile. I used to think they were like the synthesizers in the 80s. It seems like all the current reviews have them comparable to real pianos with professional standing by their quality.

I don’t know how to play a real piano and we don’t have room for a piano. However, I do have a 4 and 5 year old and piano lessons are in the future. However, here’s the deal:

Amazon has the Yamaha P71 88-Key Weighted Action Digital Piano as its Prime member Deal of the Day for $299. (Yes, you have to be Prime.) This is an Amazon exclusive product that is supposedly the same as the Yamaha P45 which seems to sell between $449 and $500.

So that’s a savings of around $150-$200 just to start. Next there’s a section on the Amazon page that says, “Speak with an Amazon Harmony associate to learn more and for discount codes on most brands excluding Bose.” I called them and they gave another 10% off of the regular price (a savings of $41). (Other people in internet forums did this as well, so it should be reliable). In addition, if you pay with an Amazon Prime card (which I think most Prime people should have), you’ll get an additional 10% cash back.

By the time all is said and done, it was $299-41, which is $258 and another $25 off due to cash back. It all comes to around $225, plus tax.

When all is said and done, it is about 50% off. The best price I’ve seen on any of these types of pianos is $300. I think this is a higher quality product at a nicely discounted price.

Gimbal

I didn’t know what a gimbal was until last Black Friday when I saw a lot of people freak out about a deal at Best Buy. It turns out this is a device that keeps cameras steady for making films. It has motors that balance and stabilize the camera. I need this because my hands are terrible in taking video.

This deal is on a gimbal for cell phones. A hat tip goes to the Cheapskate for finding this gimbal for $90:

YI Phone Gimbal 3-Axis Handheld Stabilizer

To get the price, you need to use promo code “YIGIMBAL” at checkout, which will take the price down by $40.

It still seems to me like $90 is a lot of money for what it is, but everywhere I look it seems that prices are usually more than $125.

There’s another kid-based angle with this one. While I’ll probably be using this more than anyone else in the family, there’s nothing that says my kids couldn’t give it a shot and make some movies themselves. Who knows, maybe one of them becomes the next Adam Goldberg.

We have an affiliate relationship with one or more of the companies linked in this article.

Save Nearly 50% on the Most Revolutionary Product in Years

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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.