Tag Archives: money

Ebates

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Have any of you used the web page Ebates.com?

I’ve been using it off and on for about a year. I use it when I think of it. Sometimes I’m shopping and find the item I want and forget to go to Ebates first. That’s my mistake. There are so many stores in Ebates that chances are you’ll find the same store you just searched there.

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I’ll give you an example. I like to buy diabetic crew socks. They are so comfy but they can be expensive and hard to find. I used to get them a Walmart but they haven’t had them the last couple of times I looked.  I tried my local CVS store and struck out too. Anyway, Saturday I had a list of things I was going to try to find but before I went out in the cold to shop I decided to search the internet one more time.

I found some rather expensive diabetic socks…$9.99 for 1 pair. Walgreen’s online also had diabetic socks. They were $5.49 for 1 pair. Armed with that information I moved over to the Ebates site and entered “Diabetic socks” and bingo, there they were. I placed my order through Ebates. That particular order carried a 2% rebate. That goes on my account.

In about a month I’ll get a check in the mail for all the rebates I’ve earned since the last check. I think they send it monthly but I really haven’t paid that much attention. The cost to me was the same whether I ordered direct or went through Ebates so why not go for the rebate?

But what I really want to mention is that I also ordered from another store. I ordered some slippers. They have a hard sole so they were not inexpensive. I got an email from Ebates Customer Service saying they had tracked me to the store but did not receive the order from the store. That was a surprise. They asked me to send them a copy of my order receipt. I followed their instructions and copy/pasted the info in the form.

Believe it or not I got an email right back explaining that they still didn’t have the order from the store but that with my documentation they were adding my rebate to my account. If they did not get the order from the store , they would follow up with the store! WOW, a pro-active customer service department.

Big-fat-check

I’ve always enjoyed getting Ebates emails saying “Your Big Fat Check is on the way” and opening the mail to find a check waiting even if it’s only $9 or $10 but throw in this customer service and I think I will make an effort to use the website more often.

Have any of you had any experience with them?

How much does it Cost?

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Ever wonder what it would cost to give every gift from the  song, The Twelve Days of Christmas?

12-Days

Every year someone manages to figure it out. This year (2013) according to PNC Wealth Management the cost breaks down as follows:

— Partridge, $15;

— Pear tree, $189.99;

Partridge_in_a_Pear_Tree

— Two turtle doves, $125;

turtle dove

— Three French hens, $165;

threefrench hens

— Four calling birds (canaries), $519.96;

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— Five gold rings, $750;

5goldrings

— Six geese a-laying, $210;

6-geese-a-laying-clipart

— Seven swans a-swimming, $7,000;

seven-swans-a-swimming-carol-frances-arthur

— Eight maids a-milking, $58;

8maids

— Nine ladies dancing (per performance), $6,294;

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— 10 lords a-leaping (per performance), $4,767;

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— 11 pipers piping (per performance), $2,562;

Pipers

— 12 drummers drumming (per performance), $2,776;

12drummers

Wow! But I don’t know about those Maids a Milking… $58.00 seems a little low even at minimum wage.

Equine Affaire

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I finally got myself out the door to DO SOMETHING. I’ve been sitting at home watching my pennies because we are in the last quarter of the year and I have a bunch of annual bills that come due. I was in pretty good shape with money in the bank to cover  them but my car had other ideas.thCAB792DQ

After several pricey repairs my formerly comfortable bank balance is back to it’s normal level of no reserve. At least I got one of the 3 bills paid (2 more to go ) and my mechanic says my car should last at least until I hit 300,000 miles.

flyingmoney-0603a

My former job had overtime during the holidays so I usually worked the extra to plug the shortfall but my new job doesn’t have that. Don’t get me wrong, I love not having to “kill myself” and my new job pays about the same as my old job…just no OT which is hitting my purse strings now.

That said I have been playing the hermit, trying not to drive too much (Gas), making a grocery list and sticking to it, cutting coupons etc.; being a good budget minded person (Not my normal way of operating). But eventually that had to give and it did in a sort of big way.

I kept seeing an add on Facebook for Equine Affaire. It was being held at the fairgrounds in Springfield where they hold the “Big E”, Eastern States Exposition . The Big E is a very Big deal out here in the east even though I still haven’t been but a Horsey event… well I might be interested in that so I counted my pennies and bought a ticket for the day and since I was going to be out there anyway…I bought a box seat to the Fantasia Show that evening. (At that point I had no idea what the show would be like but I figured in for a penny in for a pound)

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I hadn’t been to a horse show in years and never to one like this. I took over 400 pictures. Not all are worth the paper it would take to print them but there are a few “keepers”. The photography part was challenging because everything was indoors and I was trying not to use the flash. (More on that later). It took me quite awhile to “sort of” figure it out. I never did get the result I wanted but I had fun and over the next few days I want to share my experience and some of the pictures (not all 400).

horse show 007 copy

I was pretty amazed. When I pulled into the parking “field” (Only $5.00 for the whole day) one of the attendants said the event had sold over 6000 tickets each day. (A 4 day run!) (That’s $30,000 per day in parking fees only) There were cars from all over… New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Canada, Georgia, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and of course, Massachusetts.

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So welcome to Equine Affaire!