<p>I get an education discount just by being a board member- gotta have some perks in this gig 
( Apple also has refurb ipods sometimes- I haven’t had any problems with any refurbed stuff but stay away from refurbed printers)</p>
<p>taramom-
Your techbargains site just linked me to another great site for comparison shopping- pricegrabber.com Its like bizrate.com, but I like it better because it gives you the best bottom line, taking any s&h into consideration (you enter your zipcode and it’ll calculate it for you). Another great store/site is microcenter.com YOu can get some great deals.
Amateurs eh? Ha.</p>
<p>Pepsi recently had a promotion where you could get a free itunes song under the bottle cap (odds 1 in 3)</p>
<p>Kinda bored, today.
If you went out and bought the IPOD say ~ $200, then you would probably had to work ~$300 to net $200. How many hours did you have to work to get ~$300. </p>
<p>If you get 1% cash back or coupon, or premium, from Discover, or Citicard, then you would have to **spend $20,000. ** Or, you would have to work for $30,000 to net $20,000 to spend, to get a $200 item. Free?</p>
<p>If you SAVED $2000, and pay regular, small bills online that you would have also spent 2 x $0.37 for stamps to pay, and get a $200 item for that service…Your Return on Assets (ROA) is 10%, tax free. Your Return on Time (ROT) is, Zero. And at the end on 1 year, you get your $2000 back. There are very few things in this world that can get you 10%.</p>
<p>For my efforts, I’d much rather save $2000 plus $8.88 in stamps to get something I didn’t have to work for.</p>
<p>I pay kid’s college expenses this way. I least I get an additional gift, that I never got before.</p>
<p>Has anybody used the “fix” on the ipod website to get the darned thing to work with windows? It seems kind of long and involved. Is this a sign of things to come? Should I take it back while I can?</p>
<p>Re the shuffle: it has limited but very definite usefulness. It is so lightweight as to be nonexistent. It comes with a lanyard so you can put it around your neck and tuck it inside your shirt with just the headphone wires coming out. You can play the songs in order or at random. I have my exercise songs on it in order from warmup music to intense running music to warmdown music and when I run, I feel like I am running in a movie soundtrack :). I swear it makes me run faster. I love it!! When I get tired of a song or want to add or reorder songs, I just move them around on the playlist on the computer for the shuffle and connect it and it is updated in a second. Then my ipod has 20 times as many songs (and I have barely touched its memory capacity) and that is for non-exercise use.</p>
<p>itstoomuch-
Are you an actuary? an accountant? an MBA?? Scrooge? (jk) Yes, what you say is true, but you are missing one thing in all your calculations. Nowhere in your calculations to you show a response to the OP’s initial desire to buy a nice graduation gift for someone. Yes, you’ve saved all that money, but what gift are you getting the graduating student? A paper clip? A book on how to save and invest? A savings bond?? What???</p>
<p>I work hard for my money (<em>Donna Summer Disco song playing in the background</em>), and my h. and I consider ourselves very savvy investors/savers. We max out out 401K’s, Keogh’s, SEP’s etc. We set up 529 plans for the kids, cash in stock options at the best time (to minimize getting slammed with AMT) diversify our investments, etc. We drive 5 and 7 yr old cars respectively (that we paid for when new in full at the time of purchase, bought at minimum price with the help of the buying service at our credit union) etc etc etc. </p>
<p>My point is that by being very savvy shoppers and savers, we have more disposable cash available to do things like splurge on that nice graduation gift for others, or take a great, memorable family vacation (at the best possible price. Did that twice this year-- had wonderful times at both, and got phenomenal deals on both vacations.) The value back on the enjoyment, the pleasure, the good feeling gotten from being a good friend or parent is priceless. By stretching my dollars, I get a lot more benefit out of them. I was called “generous” twice this past week, which felt wonderful. And what goes around comes around. You can be generous with your time and money without being a spendthrift. </p>
<p>We have an on-line billpay service through our bank, free for nothing. I would never sign up for one that requires a minimum balance or has any strings attached. I am careful, but not miserly with my money. But I enjoy doing nice things for others too. When all is said and done, I would rather have a nice solid financial foundation and a great circle of friends to enjoy it with than be sitting in the corner alone counting my money. </p>
<p>Just my well invested $.02</p>
<p><em>EDIT</em> Forgot to mention-- I am sitting here with a Creative Nomad MuVo 64 mb mp3 player/usb flash drive that will likely be a gift to someone. (Its market value is about $45 or so). We got it free as part of a rebate on some speakers that my s bought. The speakers, with the rebates and such (which we always submit when available) cost him about $9 for what listed as $50 speakers, and they worked great in his dorm room. There are lots of ways to “save” money…</p>
<p>FYI, Archos offers a 20gb mp3 player that is both smaller and cheaper than the iPod Mini. 20gb is 3.3 times the capacity of the iPod Mini. Check it out [url=<a href=“http://archos.com/products/overview/gmini_xs200_tech_specs.html]HERE[/b][/i][/url”>http://archos.com/products/overview/gmini_xs200_tech_specs.html]HERE[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Personal Finance for Dummies.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad series,
Millionaire Next Door
7 Laws of Money
Susan Orman
Yahoo ads on my.yahoo
Sunday’s Newspaper Business Section
US News & World Report magazine.
MS Money.
NPR
Business Week magazine
A tax program.
FAFSA & Profile.
Wall Street Journal
Public Library for most of the material listed above.
and Older Brother to a lessor extent.</p>
<p>I just find it more efficient to use money to make money or its substitutes, than to just work for money. But I also work for money. We also use the airline credit card to rack up airmiles even though it is only a moderately successful program for us.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I still have the IPOD, $2000, no debt, and still have the ability to donate or to buy something else. We are also 100% EFC but with a moderate institutional scholarship. </p>
<p>Nice Gift for HS graduation? Hard to say. I’ve been in High Tech and kinda down on technology gifts-they are obsolete too quickly and breds envy amongst friends. The gifts that has worked for our son are the ones that were the simpliest and the most functional: Like socks-everytime he wears them he remembers where they came from and walk in them (double meanings)</p>
<p>Its-
You should add “Bottom Line” newsletter to your reading list. It has had some handy dandy tips on several fronts. My older s. read it in 1999 (he was 13) and invested in Qualcomm when it was at like 30something in the stockmarket. </p>
<p>I also like “The millionaire next door”. Mentioned it here on CC a while back. However, I do think we actually splurged and bought it-- didn’t check it out of the library. Probably bought it at either the discount bookstore, the used bookstore or Costco/Sams warehouses.</p>
<p>I haven’t found the airline cards to be too helpful. I prefer cards that let me put the $$ towards whatever I want. I don’t know what part of the country you are in, but for those of you who have access to Airtran, with their frequent flier program, it is very easy and quick to earn free flights-- Four round trip flights and you have a freebie. Also, they frequently have deals on their website that give you extra points for buying online, paying with Amex, renting with Hertz or something.</p>
<p>Its-
You sound like my h. He spends lots of time with his nose in a book or discussing with his 97 yr old father the advantages and disadvantages of different investment houses. (When possible, he uses the USAA services). We enjoy hearing NPR play “happy days are here again” rather than “stormy weather” to signal a good day in the market.</p>
<p>We, too, qualify for nothing when it comes to need-based $$. We pay full freight for college and private school (our choice to send them private). S. did get several merit scholarships (applied or was nominated for all but the NMF $$), but it doesn’t add up to a lot in the scheme of things. He turned down a lot of $$$$ and chose the school he preferred. We are glad that we could manage that.</p>
<p>We both come from middle class working families and have earned/saved our funds. However, there would be nothing wrong with marrying rich!!! That’s the best investment plan of all :)</p>
<p><em>EDIT</em> Please tell me you were kidding when you said you give socks as a gift.</p>
<p>jym626 & itstoomuch,
I’m a little bit of both of you. I used to work in high tech also and hated to buy anything high tech. Garden seeds on sales is my best splurge and my best therapy. I also read a lot of these books you mentioned, however I borrowed most of them from the library(no shelf space). I’m working more than 40 hours now so no time to do a lot of these frugal ideas but I understand completely when you said you need to earn $2 to get $1 for spending, therefore I’m somewhat frugal when it comes to spending.
I did get 2 splendid trips out of my free mileage, but the hotel was killing me.
<em>EDIT</em> My mother-in-law gives socks for gift(lol).</p>
<p>Else encouragement for them: Backpacks for boys. Bikini’s for girls. Breadcrumbs for All at 18.</p>
<p>itstoomuch: Another route for spending OPM (other people’s money). We have DiscoverCard (1% cash back on all) and an AT&T Universal Rewards Card (5% on groceries/drugstores/gas, 1% on everything else). Both without annual fees. My H does not have a company-issued credit card so he puts all his company expenses (T&E) on these 2 cards. He is reimbused and we get the rebate. I also like getting to keep the airline miles even though the company bought the ticket.</p>
<p>buy.com has the iPod Photo 60GB on sale for 409.99 shipped free.
<a href=“Online Coupons & Cash Back | Shop 3,500 Stores with Rakuten”>Online Coupons & Cash Back | Shop 3,500 Stores with Rakuten;
And there’s a $15 off coupon for first time buyers.
<a href=“Online Coupons & Cash Back | Shop 3,500 Stores with Rakuten”>Online Coupons & Cash Back | Shop 3,500 Stores with Rakuten;
<p>Also, apple.com has a $30 off $300 coupon, with free shipping.
See <a href=“http://www.techbargains.com%5B/url%5D”>www.techbargains.com</a> (scroll down the middle column) for the coupon code.</p>