Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



You are here: Home / Archives for Shopping / Gifts

Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals!

by

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends and readers! I hope that you are enjoying this day and are having a great meal! I’m sure many of you are stuffed full of turkey! (mmmm Turkey!)

I got an email last night from eCost and they are having some amazing Black Friday sales! I mean, how would you like to get a Nintendo Wii for only $99? See what I mean by amazing deals? That Wii would make a great Christmas gift wouldn’t it, and at that price it wouldn’t break your budget either!

Here’s what the eCOST newsletter said:

Shop eCOST.com for outrageous Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers. eCost has one Nintendo Wii available at $99 on Black Friday between 2AM EST to 4AM EST. On Cyber Monday the Navigon 2100 will be available at $29*, Look for the Outrageous Deal Icon to get that Deal in Bargain Countdown.

*Please note that the Nintendo Wii ($99) and Navigon ($29) are available in limited quantity.

Oh and don’t think that you have to live in the US to take advantage of these amazing deals. eCOST ships worldwide!

Here are some direct links to some of eCost’s Outrageous bargains!

eCOST.com Holiday Gift Guide- Ideas to help you get the right gift at the lowest prices
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Hot Deals

Nextar 7″ Digital Photo Frame – Black ( N7-202 ) $29 (Save $60)
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Samsung T220 22″ Widescreen LCD Monitor ( LS22TWHSUV/ZA ) $189.99 (Save $50)
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Westinghouse 26″ LCD HDTV w/DVD and Dual HDMI ( SK-26H590D ) $299 (Save $80)
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Telesteps 12.5ft Telescoping Ladder – ( 1205 ) $79. (Save $170)
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Navigon 5100 GPS Navigator w/ FREE Real-Time Traffic (10000130) $89 (Save $70)
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

HP Evo D510 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 Desktop PC ( 470057-015 ) $149 (Save 50%)
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Black Friday Deals. Outrageous offers! iPod for $45
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Cyber Monday Deals. Outrageous Offers! GPS for $49
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Platinum Premium: Get Free Shipping on next 4 orders & exclusive offers
Offer Ends: 11/28/08

Ongoing Offers:

Rebate Center eCost: Search Hundreds of Rebates by Manufacturer Name or Product Category

Bargain Countdown eCost: Limited Time offers at rock bottom prices
Dates: Ongoing. Items change hourly

Free Shipping eCost: Free Shipping and Exclusive Offers with Platinum Premium Membership
Dates: Ongoing Promotion

I don’t think I’ve ever put so many sales links in one post before … but they just have some great deals. I couldn’t help it! Besides, wouldn’t you rather shop online rather than staying up all night waiting outside a store waiting for it to open in the morning to get at all those big sales. I mean, you can shop and get bargains while in the comfort of your home. Forget the crowds!





Gift ideas for teens?

by

After I wrote that post about wanting to get started on my Christmas shopping early this year, Chris and I had a little talk about what we’re going to do for Christmas this year – present wise, I mean.

Over the last few years our families on both sides have pretty much agreed not to exchange presents between the adults. Why? Well, everyone has children (except us) and we’re all established in our homes. We don’t really need presents. Oh they’re nice, but when you already have most everything you need or want you don’t really need to get Christmas presents.

So for the last few years we’ve all just been getting presents, for the most part, for the kids in the family. That’s still a lot of gifts to get! Between Chris and I we have 17 nephews and nieces, plus two on my side have kids of their own so add three more to the list (oh and add our two god-children as well!) If we were also buying for each of the adults individually we could add another 20 gifts to the Christmas list that we’d need to buy! So I guess we cut it in half … but it’s still a lot of gifts to buy.

Most of our nephews and nieces are in their teens and I find teens the hardest to buy for each year. Most of them don’t really need anything in particular. I mean they all have iPods, game players, closets full of clothes … so what do you get for a teen that already has everything?

As I said earlier I’m keeping my open for anything that’s on sale that might make a good gift. I think for at least half of the kids I’m leaning towards getting newly released DVD’s, music CD’s, and perhaps some popular games. I just need to find out what they already have (what games and game players, dvds and music) and what others are planning on getting them so they don’t end up getting two or more of something.

I spent some time this evening looking at the DVD section at Buy.com. There are a lot of great movies that have just been released on DVD and there’s a section there where you can pre-order DVDs that will soon be released like The Dark Knight , Mama Mia, Indiana Jones the Kingdom Crystal Skull, Step Brothers and many other movies. I figure that if I order some movies that are only being released at the end of November or in early December there’ll be little chance that the kids I get them for will already have these movies.

Of course, for some of the kids I might just buy them gift certificates. I’m fairly sure some of the teenage girls might like a gift certificate for one of their favorite clothing stores.

So do you have teens on your shopping list? If so, what kinds of things are you thinking of getting them?

Shopping for the holidays and sticking to a budget

by

Does it seem like time is flying by faster than normal or is it just me? This month has gone by so quickly I can hardly believe that we’re near the end of November already. Before we know it Christmas will be here!

I often procrastinate when it comes to doing my Christmas shopping. This year I’m determined to get it all done before the 24th! I hope I can do it! I mean, I have a history of doing ALL of my Christmas shopping on the 24th! LOL So to get it done well before that date it’s going to be a challenge.

Another challenge this year will be finding quality gifts, yet spending as little as possible. No, I’m not cheap. I generally give nice gifts, however, this year we have virtually no spare cash.

We don’t have Black Friday here in Canada, so I can’t count on a major sales day before Christmas to help me keep my gift budget low, so my plan is to keep a close eye on Online stores and watch for items I’m interested in to go on sale.

Online stores like Buy.com often offer Free Shipping on select items or items in certain categories, so if I do end up doing some of my shopping online I’ll be watching out for free shipping deals as that will also save quite a bit of money.

I’ve also bookmarked buy.com’s Holiday Superstore and I’ve been checking it every couple of days to see if they have any deals on items that I might want to give to friends or relatives as gifts. A lot of the items in that section are not only on sale for great prices, but they also come with free shipping as well! Now that’s a deal.

Have you already started shopping for the holidays? Are you watching your gift budget carefully this year?

A perfect gift for someone recovering from surgery in the hospital?

by

Chris was just talking to our friend J. She lives out of town with her husband, but in three weeks she’ll be in Toronto for open heart surgery! She’s had some heart problems for a while and it’s time to get them fixed before her problem gets worse.

When we talked to J’s husband earlier in the week we invited him to stay with us while his wife is in the hospital. He hadn’t even thought of where he might stay or even how much parking would cost if he spent most of the day in the hospital at his wife’s bedside.

We aren’t sure how long our friend will be in the hospital, but we do know she’ll be sedated and intubated for a few days after the surgery so that she can recover from the surgery better, so I expect she’ll be in the hospital for one to two weeks or longer. Can you imagine how much it would cost her husband to stay in a hotel and to park his car at the hospital on and off for two weeks? Or to drive back and forth from where they live (two hours from Toronto)? Yeah, so he’ll save a LOT of money if he stays with us!

Anyway … I know what being in the hospital is like. It’s noisy, it’s boring and if you aren’t feeling well it’s even worse. It’s nice to have friends and relatives drop in, but that can make you even more tired. So I was trying to think of something that we could get our friend so that she could pass the time in the hospital.

I just visited Buy.com to check out their weekly sale page, but I didn’t find anything that might be appropriate for someone recovering from surgery in the hospital. Then I had a great idea. Why not get her a portable DVD player? I was looking at the Philips DCP750 and it looks like it has all the features she’d need.

Now I just have to secretly find out if she has a portable DVD player and if she’d be allowed to use it while she’s in the hospital. I’m pretty sure that once she’s out of Intensive Care she’d probably be allowed to use it. It would certainly be a great way to pass the time and both she and her husband could spend time watching movies on the DVD player.

Does that sound like a good gift for someone spending a couple of weeks in the hospital? Any other ideas?

I Can’t believe it’s just about time to start shopping for Christmas presents

by

Do you ever watch American Dad? It’s on, on Sunday nights and the season premiere was on last night. Chris and I taped the show last night on our PVR so we’re just watching it now.

We both love that show, its so funny! It’s definitely not for people that have young kids around though!

We were just thinking that a DVD or two of past American Dad seasons might make a great gift for Chris’ brother. Whenever he comes from Chicago for a visit he always has a good time watching some of the TV shows that he normally doesn’t watch at home when his kids are around.

I’m sure he’d love the show. I found the American Dad Vol 3 DVD at Buy.com. It’s a pretty good price and it would make a great Christmas gift.

Wow, I’m thinking about Christmas already … well I guess with September coming to a close it’s only natural to start thinking about one of the biggest days of the year and along with that what gifts we should get our friends and relatives. I guess that’s all the more reason to keep an eye on the sale at Buy.com. If I can save some money and still get some great gifts for people that would be wonderful.

I hate to ask, but have you started shopping for Christmas yet? I’m usually a notoriously late shopper.

Meta

Search this site

Tags

blog blogs camera Canada Chris computer crohns dinner dog Family flower flowers Food friends funny garden Gardening Green Thumb Sunday Health and Fitness Health Fitness and Beauty holiday home Home and Lifestyle house husband IBD Inflammatory bowel disease Internet Music neighbors pain photo photos plants puppy Shopping sick sleep spring Toronto TV Video visit website Wordless Wednesday