For the shopping week of March 15 to 21 (2015), at Staples brick and mortar stores (not their website), per their weekly ad, if you spend $250 or more in VISA Gift Card, you will receive a $20 VISA Gift Card by mail after you submit an Easy Rebate. Since VISA gift cards have an activation fee, this offer makes sense if you are able to find a combination of gift cards with activation fees under $20. The promotion is one per customer during this weekly promotional period. Check store or ad for more details.
Sign-Up for Chase Freedom Q2 2015 Rewards opens 3/15/15
If you have a Chase Freedom credit card with the rotating 5% reward categories, mark your calendars and your ToDo lists. You can sign up for the 2nd Quarter promotions starting on Sunday 3/15/15. The new categories go live on 4/1/15 until 6/30/15, and they are very nice as well, they cover Restaurants, Bed Bath and Beyond, Overstock.com and H&M. The usual limits apply, you earn 5% on up to $1500 in purchases, so the maximum rewards is going to be $75. For purchases over $1500 in these categories during the quarter, you will earn the usual 1%.
Here’s a screenshot of the reminder:
3.5oz Twinings Prince Of Wales Loose Leaf Tea (Tin) for $5
It’s Tea Time again, especially if you are planning to place an order of $25 or more from Amazon (regardless of Prime status). The 3.5 oz Twinings Prince Of Wales Loose Leaf Tea in a Tin Can is on sale for just under $5 per tin. You can buy as many as you like, so you can get to the $25+ limit with six tins of this.
It is also available through the Subscribe and Save program, for an additional 5% to 15% discount (higher discount if you have five or more items arriving during the same month with Subscribe and Save).
This tea is doing well in customer reviews over there, it averages 4.6 out of 5 based on 29 of them. This is 100g of tea, which is roughly 3.53 oz.
Free TV Pilot: A&E’s The Returned (HD, no commercials)
A brand new TV series, The Returned, that premiered on A&E on Monday 3/9/15 is offering, for a limited time only, the pilot episode for FREE, in HD, and without commercials at Amazon Instant Video. Please note this will be free only for a few days after it premieres. After that, it will sell just like any other online episode ($2 SD, $3 HD).
Points of Confusion
- this is an American-made version of the French TV series “The Returned”, which aired on The Sundance Channel in 2013
- the A&E TV series is NOT related to the book The Returned by Jason Mott. Mott’s book is the basis of the ABC TV series “Resurrection”
Nokia Lumia 635 for $50 (prepaid, no contract, four carriers)
If you are looking for an affordable way to explore Windows Phone without getting tied into a contract or transferring your phone number, Best Buy has a nice sale of the Nokia Lumia 635 for $50. No contract, you can use it as a Wifi-only device. This is available in four different prepaid configurations, T-Mobile Prepaid, AT&T Go Phone, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Some of these options are also price-matched at Amazon.
[DEAD] Roku 3 drops to $77 (new condition)
As of 3/17/15, the price is $90. However, the price has been jumping around recently, so it may drop again. With the good old Apple TV dropping under $70, and the Roku 3 being two years old (see Wikipedia for timeline and feature comparison), there’s bound to be price volatility.
Regardless, if you can’t wait for the new condition price to go on sale again, you can get it certified refurbished for $73.
NOTE: with the HBO Now announcement with a three month Apple exclusive in terms of streaming boxes, and no published plans yet (see FAQs) for other boxes, it may be a tricky decision to figure out what to do. On the other hand, from a cord cutter perspective, buying a streaming box costs less than one month of a cable TV subscription, perhaps even half if you got hogtied into a “Triple Play” in order to get a decent price initially when you signed up. But that’s a story for another day…
Want to be a cord cutter and at the same time support smaller independent companies instead of big cable and big corporate? The current Roku flagship, the Roku 3, is on sale for $77 (was $85.50) with free shipping at Amazon.com by Amazon actual.
Among other features, it has wired Ethernet connection (in addition to Wifi), microSD slot for extra storage, and USB input for personal content. Its remote control has a headphone input, another nice feature.
Price updated on 3/17/15.
Sign up for Discover Q2 5% rewards: Restaurants and Movies
It is March 2015 and this means, among many other things, it is time to sign up for the Discover Q2 5% Rewards! The promotion runs April 1st until June 30th (the usual three months, per calendar quarter), but sign up begins one month before the offer goes live. And the Q2 offers are really good, Restaurants and Movies!
The usual terms apply, up to $1500 in purchases per credit card earn 5% reward, with a maximum bonus for the quarter of $75 in rewards. The fineprint of the promotion describes the eligible places as follows:
LG Flex (32GB, Unlocked GSM) for $250 [3G AT&T only!]
If you are flex-screen curious but don’t want to get hog-tied with a 2yr contract, among the latest eBay Deals, you can find the new condition LG Flex (32GB, Unlocked GSM) for $250 (was $200) with free shipping, no contract, by eBay seller “mobilepros1” (97.4%), with a limit of five per buyer. This is a great deal if you are planning to use it as a Wifi-only device.
PLEASE NOTE this does not work with T-Mobile! With AT&T, it only works on 3G. The 4G LTE bands are not compatible with US carriers. Check the listing details over there for more information.
This could make a fun Wifi-only device for the price, with a Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board, and such.
PRICE UPDATED in blog-post on 3/11/15.
Samsung Galaxy S3 (Sprint prepaid) for $180 [no contract]
Yes, Samsung just announced the brand new Galaxy S6 with all the latest fancy technology (but no microSD and no user-replaceable battery). But if you want to save and treasure the two aforementioned features, and you are willing to go prepaid or use it as a Wifi-only device, the Sprint Prepaid version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 goes for $180 (was $150), in new condition, at Amazon by Amazon actual with a limit of three per customer. No contract!
Note this can only be used on the new Sprint prepaid network. It cannot be used on the Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile networks. With up to 64GB via microSD (you can easily get them for under $30 these days), and 2GB RAM, and a boatload of accessories and hacks, this is not a bad deal for $150!
PRICE UPDATED in blog-post on 3/11/15.
Samsung SGH-T199 Prepaid Phone for $5 (T-Mobile)
If you are looking for a very simple prepaid phone with a SIM card, for example, to save your landline phone numbers from getting lost as you go mobile, the Samsung SGH-T199 for T-Mobile is currently on sale for just $5 at Fry’s Electronics (online or stores) and at 711 Stores (YMMV on availability).
If neither one of these options is available or convenient, you can get it for $10 instead at Best Buy and by Best Buy’s eBay store.
Certified Pre-Owned LG G3 for $320 with coupon (T-Mobile)
At T-Mobile’s website, you can purchase the certified pre-owned LG G3 smartphone, in the white color scheme, for around $320 when you enter coupon code G3CPODEAL over there. The coupon is $48 off. The phone’s price is $370 before the coupon. The coupon is a limited time offer with no expiration date mentioned in the promotion terms.
As with everything T-Mobile these days, there is no contract. You own the phone right away. But this is locked to T-Mobile.
Refurbished Galaxy Note 4 (N910A) for $480 [unlocked, GSM]
Note temptations! If you must have the latest Note 4, but don’t want to get hog-tied in a contract or pay the crazy new-condition no-contract price, there is the refurbished option, and right now, the featured eBay Deal of the day is the manufacturer refurbished Note 4 (GSM N910A) offered for $480 with free shipping, in either white or black, by eBay seller “QualityCellz” (99%). This is unlocked!
Per the listing, it says: “Unlocked) Opened for Unlocking- Great Deal – Great Condition. Samsung Warranty. Works with any GSM”. Nom-nom!
Seller refurbished Samsung Note 3 (unlocked) for $294 [big drop]
If you are comfortable with purchasing seller-refurbished unlocked smartphones, among the latest eBay Deals, you can get the B+ Stock seller-refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (N900), GSM, for $294 (was $400) with free shipping. It is only available in the white color scheme. The other color schemes sold out.
UPDATE (3/3/15): the price dropped from $400 to $294 since the original post in early February 2015.
Pay $80, Get $100 of Peet’s Coffee Gift Cards
If you like to shop at Peet’s Coffee stores or at their website, and you happen to be a Costco member, you can get a great deal, you pay $80 and receive $100 in Peet’s Gift Cards (five $20 gift cards). Free shipping.
If you are not a Costco member, you can still purchase them for the same price from the Costco website! UPDATE: there is NO non-member surcharge for these, you also pay $80 with free shipping!!!
This is an even better deal now. The Peets reload offer now is $1 off your drink purchase with a $20+ gift card purchase or reload. Previously (see the paragraph below) you get a free medium drink of your choice with a $25 reload. So after this development, the Costco deal becomes even better! On $100 spend, you pay $80 with the Costco gift cards versus $96 with the Peets reload discounts.
This promotion expired, see previous paragraph for the current situation. This is a great deal, since you have more flexibility. Without this offer, you get a free medium drink of your choice every time you load/reload $25 or more on a Peet’s gift card. Unless you use the free drink to get a very complicated drink (multiple syrups and extras), you are still better off with the Costco offer. Plus you don’t have to decide to get a more expensive drink at a reload – you can get it any time you like. Or maybe you don’t like those milky drinks and you mostly buy coffee or tea or beans.
Kindle First March 2015 selections are up: up to two free for Prime members
It is March 1st, and this means, among many other things, a new selection of Kindle First ebooks. If you are a Prime member, you can select two of the four choices for free, and read them right now! Everybody else has to wait until April 1st before they can buy them. March brings us a diverse selection of genres, as follows:
- “Helen of Sparta” by Amalia Carosella in Historical Fiction
- “The Gemini Effect” by Chuck Grossart in Science-Fiction Thriller
- “Younger” by Suzanne Munshower in Thriller
- “It Had to Be Him” by Tamra Baumann in Romance
You can find the monthly choices with more details, reviews, and excerpts (where available) at the Kindle First page. Happy reading!
PS: if you are not a Prime member, you can purchase up to two of these for $2 per e-book.
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