Archives for October 2015

TiVO Roamio Over-the-Air HD DVR with LifeTime Service for $300

If you watch a lot of over-the-air (OTA) HD television and want a solid DVR for it, and you are comfortable you’ll be happy with TiVO in the long term, there’s a new offer at Amazon, with Lifetime TiVO service, for $300 you can get the TiVo Roamio OTA HD DVR. This is a pretty good deal by TiVo standards.

You buy the DVR on its own for $50, but you have to pay $15/mo to get the TiVo service (program guide and all their other helpful features). The difference between the two is $250. Divide that by $15, and that means you come ahead with the “Lifetime Service” after 17~ months. That’s less than 1.5 years – as long as you live at a place where you have over-the-air antenna reception.

IMPORTANT: for whatever reason, activation is not straightforward for this promotion. If you want to avoid hassle and frustration, TiVo’s Support page has detailed instructions on how to set it up and configure it.

October 4, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With:

Oct 4-10: Buy $25 Google Play Gift Card, Get 500 Plenti Points

Google Play gift cards get nowhere near the discounts the iTunes Gift Cards get. So it’s a bit of a mini-event when there is a discount on the Play cards. One of the most consistent places to find a good deal is Rite Aid in combination with the Plenti rewards. This promotion returns every few weeks, so it can keep you stocked up on a regular basis.

The offer is as before, you buy a $25 Google Play Gift card, and receive 500 Plenti points. One point is the equivalent of one penny when redeemed, so 500 points is $5. Effectively a 20% off discount, assuming you can naturally spend the Plenti points at Rite Aid or other participating providers (if all else fails, you can use your Plenti points to pay for gas at Mobil-Exxon gas stations).

This offer is limit two for the week, so if you want to max-out, you pay and get $50 in Google Play credit, and have 1000 Plenti points for future use. That’s $10 to spend in the future at RiteAid or other participating providers.

October 3, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , , ,

Oct 4-10: The Staples Mastercard MoneyMaker offer is back

The Mastercard offer is back at Staples, running October 4-10 in 2015. You buy $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards, and receive a $20 Staples Gift Card via Easy Rebate. This is a moneymaker if you are able to get to $300 with two (or one) Mastercard gift cards.

The activation fee is $7 for the $200 and $6 for the $100. So you pay $313 at checkout, then submit the EasyRebate, and about 4-5 weeks later, you receive a $20 Staples plastic gift card. That’s a 2.33% return on investment with a one month vesting period. Can your investment adviser guarantee that? 🙂

spls_mastercard_moneymaker

With Staples tightening the screws on how you can use Staples Rewards (cannot be used on sale/rebate/promotional items, but thankfully can still be used on clearance items), Gift Cards, either of the plastic variety or of the eBay/PayPal or CashStar variety become a more versatile tool for the Staples aficionado 🙂

October 3, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

Refurbished Motorola Droid 3 XT862 for $30 [Verizon]

If you are fond of older Droid-branded headphones, but still 4G LTE, and you feel comfortable with seller-refurbished smartphones, eBay seller “Grab Wireless” (99.3%) is offering the seller-refurbished Motorola Droid 3 XT862 (Verizon obviously, 16GB on-board, 4G LTE) for $30 with free shipping with a limit of 50 per customer. Over 300 units got sold so far from this listing. No contract obviously 🙂

The seller is offering a 30-day money-back guarantee but obviously no warranty.

October 2, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , ,

Kindle First for October 2015: pick one out of six options

Another month is in the books, and October 2015 is here. For the whole month, from the 1st until the last day, if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can select one FREE e-book from a choice of six. All are pre-release books that will become available to the general public on November 1st. But as a Prime member, you can pick one of those six, and start reading it right now.

If you are not a Prime member, you can pick one as well, but you have to pay $2 for it. So without further delay, here are the six options:

  • “The Mentor” by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli, Aaron Maines in Mystery
  • “Life and Other Near-Death Experiences” by Camille Pagán in Contemporary Fiction
  • “This Is the Night” by Jonah C. Sirott in Literary Fiction
  • “Here & There” by Joshua V. Scher in Experimental Fiction
  • “Infinity Lost (The Infinity Trilogy Book 1)” by S. Harrison in Scifi Thrillers
  • “The Concealed (The Lakewood Series Book 1)” by Sarah Kleck, Michael Osmann, Audrey Deyman in Romantic Fantasy

Since you have until October 30th to make a pick, if you are not certain yet, you can wait for a few more days and monitor their reviews. In general, other things equal, the reviews can help you sift through potential gems and help you avoid potential disasters.

You can find links to all these selections at the Kindle First page. The selections at that page change every month.

October 1, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,