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Archive for November, 2008

I went to Black Friday sale

November 29th, 2008 at 05:31 am

I was not going to bother, but DD woke up at 5 am and was getting ready to go. (She's 17, and she goes shopping by herself.) Noise she was making woke me up.

My last minute decision. I will go to Target and get a pink Dyson.

I was thinking about getting a dyson for two years, and my friend told me Target has one on Black Friday for $349 and giving $100 gift card back. So, final price $249.

OK, I'm convinced.

So, here I went, 6 in the morning to Target. Good thing I live 3 minutes away from the store.

When I went to the vacuum section, there was no pink Dyson in the shelf. So, I was like.... CRAP!! All this for nothing? Then, I overheard a girl talking to her friend "He is getting the last two Dyson from back." OK, I'd better stay here and wait.

As I peeked the warehouse area, the guy came out with a cart load of the product. Woohoo!! (Apparently, they had a lot more than two LOL) There were two other people grabbed the vacuum, too. I was glad I went there early.

I also opened the Target account and got extra $24 off, so the final price was $225.

I'm very happy! Of course, I vacuumed the entire house after I came home.


Mandarin orange festival

November 24th, 2008 at 01:23 am

I went to Mandarin orange festival yesterday. I found an admission discount coupon, $5 for two, in the newspaper, and we parked in the street. (That's a huge advantage of a small town.) So, $5 total to get in the festival for me & DD.

I bought a 10 lb. bag of mandarin oranges. Most of vendors priced 10 lb. bag for $15, but I found $13 a bag vendor. I also bought creamed honey with mandarin orange flavor (1 lb. tub) for $6, Teriyaki flavor beef jerky $7, and a jar of Mandarin Cranberry pepper jelly $7. They are all homemade, or I should say farm made, and very very yummy.

As I'm writing this, I'm drinking a cup of tea sweetened with mandarin orange flavored honey. I will make some warmed bre cheese with pepper jelly for dinner appetizer.


Today's spending

November 16th, 2008 at 04:33 am

Starbucks coffee $3.55

Walgreen's
$10/4 Special K cereal (got $2 catalina back)
$6/2 Kotex (used 2 $1/1 coupon and got $1 catalina back)
$6.99/2 laundry soap
Salt, frosting, baking soda
Used $5 off coupon and paid $18, and got $3 catalina back. No cash paid because I used my WG gift card.

DH & DD are at the band review tonight. So, I went to Whole Foods and bought myself a pack of sushi and a piece of cake. $13. Their sushi was ok, but the take out pleace near my house is better and cheaper. Oh well, I tried. I love the store, though. I want to try their noodles next time.

Took care of some bills

November 9th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

I sent a cashier's check to the travel agency. That was a big hit to my savings account.

Then, we got new tires and fixed brake of DD's truck. It came under estimation. Yuppie!! Still, it was a chunk of money, $862.

After I sent the cashier's check at the post office, I went to Old Navy. They had $1 scarves & hats (limit 6) sale, so I couldn't stop myself to go there. At 10 a.m., they had pretty good selection of colors, and I bought 5 scarves and 1 hat. I went back with DD around 11:30, and most of them were gone. I still managed to find some more and bought more. They will be a nice holiday gifts.

I also bought DD a winter jacket. The regular price was about $70, and it was 50% off, and I used 10% off code I got by filling out customer survey. The final price $31. Not too bad.

More expenses DD & dogs

November 6th, 2008 at 07:34 pm

We are sending a payment this weekend for DD's summer trip to Europe. $4,150. I thought I could take a break for saving up for her, then, we found out that her truck needs break work and new tires. Another $1000. Sigh....

It seems like I can never catch up.

It's Thursday, so I stopped by farmers' market as usual, and bought more Asian pears. DD loves them. And, we found that our dogs love them, too. My DH called me a couple of days ago and told me not to leave any food on the table. I was like....????? I didn't leave anything on the table but a couple of Asian pears in a bowl. We don't know how, but our dogs (two miniature dachshund) managed to get one of Asian pears out from the bowl, and apparently enjoyed it. I had no idea dogs like fruits!!

One of them is such a prince dog. He stopped eating a couple of weeks ago, and didn't eat almost three days. Of course, we were all worried and thinking about taking him to the vet. Then, it hit me.... it may be the dog food. I found a BOGO coupon for new dog food that are higher quality. Well, fillet mignon flavor to be specific. I bought several cans and totally forgot about it. My guess was he refuse to eat other "regular" kind after tasting fillet mignon. I still was not sure if this was the reason, but went to the store and bought it anyway and see if he would eat it.

Sure enough. As soon as we gave him a bowl of fillet mignon flavor dog food, he started eating. I mean, really good, and he emptied a bowl really fast. Gee.... I need to find more BOGO coupon for the dog food.





Stores are closing everywhere

November 4th, 2008 at 09:44 pm

There are many stores going out of business around here. Linens'n Things, Mervyns, Shoe Pavilion are the big stores that are running liquidation sales near my house. I noticed Pei Wei (cheaper version of PF Chang's) is closed, and a couple of neighborhood restaurants closed, too. I wonder who is going to be next.

By the way, I drove by AM/PM gas station and the cheapest gas was $2.36. Boy, what happened to the gas price? Did we drill any oil well somewhere? It goes to show you it was not the supply & demand problem but more of greed game people played.


Anyway, I read a news about declining car sales. GM and Ford are doing really bad. Even Toyota sales is waaay down, and they're running 0% financing which is unheard of. I drive a Toyota and it is at about 95K miles. I'm planning to keep is as long as I can. I used to have a small GM car that I bought brand new. It stopped going reverse after one week. I had to insist to get a loaner while they fixed the problem. Its dash board cracked within one year, and the lady at the dealership told me I had to pay $600 for it as it was not covered under warranty. I think I had it about 2 years and ignition switch went out. Then, we decided to switch to Toyota. My Rav4 is 2004 model and, like I said, has 95K on it and still going strong. I did have a problem with the car, though. It was consuming more oil than it was supposed to. Toyota dealer took my car in and gave me a loaner right away. No hassle. No question asked. I think my next car will be another Toyota.