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I recently had the pleasure of using Amazon Prime free for one month.  Amazon Prime is a new feature, original, and  exclusive to Amazon.com.  With Amazon Prime, anything you buy from Amazon will receive free 2-day shipping. You can also elect to upgrade to next-day shipping for only $3.99.  The items include only merchandise sold by Amazon.com, not by their 3rd party merchants who have their own shipping charges.  Also, there is no minimum order .  You get free 2-day shipping on anything whether it costs 10 cents or 10 dollars.

Amazon Prime Link

I snagged the free trial last month and it’s been fantastic.  Free 2-day shipping makes shopping online even better than ever.  If I ever needed little items that local stores mark up, like HDMI cables or certain electronics, I first check Amazon because I love the free 2-day shipping.  Part of the downside to shopping online is the wait between when your order is placed and when it arrives at your door.  Amazon Prime virtually eliminates that wait.

Just last week, Hurricane Ike winds came through Louisville, KY and left over 300,000 people without electricity, including me.  After 3 days, I got fed up with no electricity and looked for a solution.  I ended up ordering an 800 watt power inverter that I could hook up to my car and power the basic entertainment needs (LCD monitor, laptop, Xbox 360, etc).  Knowing that I had Amazon Prime at my disposal, I chose the upgraded next-day shipping for $3.99.  The next day, I came home and found the inverter at my doorstep.  Having Prime was a godsend because there were no local places with generators, and every local electronics store had power inverters which were massively marked up.  The Prime membership saved my sanity!

Use the link below to sign up for a free 1 month trial. The deadline to grab your free trial is October 31st .  Also, make sure to disable the auto-renew if you don’t want to continue your Prime membership after the trial period has ended.  This keeps you from being billed the $79 annual fee.

Amazon Prime Link

If you have ever paid MSRP or full retail price on an expensive item at a local store, you know how much it can hurt your wallet. Unknown to the general population, there are many techniques that you can use to ensure that you won’t be ripped off again. Below are some tips that I personally use on a daily basis.

1. Buy online! Retail stores often mark prices upwards of 50-100% higher than what you would find online. This is to make up for the costs associated with actually selling them item. 
2. Visit the Slickdeals.net homepage and Hot Deals forum. This is a very active site with new deals posted every minute. 
3. Visit the Fatwallet.com Hot Deals forum. This site is very similar to Slickdeals.net; just another place for more options and opinions. 
4. Use Craigslist.org. Craigslist is a classified ads site which includes all popular cities within the US and then some. These classified listings are posted by other individuals hoping to sell their goods. Usually, you can find good deals somewhat similar to eBay. The upside is, you don’t have to wait for shipping and you have the opportunity to check the item before you buy. 
5. Utilize eBay for hard to find goods. Say you are looking for a car part and the Autozone charges and arm and a leg. Short of going to the junk yard, try searching for the part on eBay. You may be able to find the part used in good condition, which will drive the price down even further. 
6. Use online, printable coupons. Many people do not know about online coupons. These coupons can be printed off from your personal printer and can then be used at your local store. Wow-Coupons is a great start and has many coupons for many popular stores. Also, Slickdeals and Fatwallet users often post when there are good coupons floating around on the internet. For example, it is not rare to find a $10 off $25 printable coupon for Office Depot or Staples. That’s just one example, but there are many more. Also, if you are looking for big coupons 
7. Excercise the use of competitor’s coupons. A $20 off $75 coupon for Staples can also be used at Office Depot and Office Max. This is because of their “competitor coupon” policy which states that they will recognize other big name store coupons. You can also do this at different stores not limited to the above. People have reported being able to use a 10% off Circuit City coupon at Best Buy and vice versa. 
8. Price Match! If you buy an LCD monitor for $200 from Best Buy and 2 weeks later, the price drops to $150, or a competitor (like Circuity City) has the same monitor on sale for $150. All you have to do is take your reciept to Best Buy and tell them that the price has dropped while presenting proof (like an advertisement). Best Buy will then refund 110% of the difference. The difference between the two prices ($200 - $150) is $50. 110% of $50 is $52.50, which is what you will be refunded. Most online and local retailers have a price match policy in place, but they differ from store to store so be sure to check. 

Examples of deals I have recently found:

Circuit City (Jan 08) - 50″ Plasma - $700 out the door, no rebates needed (see my post here)
Foot Locker (May 08) - Puma Boston Kids Shoes - $7 a pair out the door, retails at $44.99
Target (June 08) - Target PAID me (that’s right, PAID ME) $8.30 to take away 10 Gillette Fusion Razors. (see thread on Slickdeals)

Reputable Online Retailers

Amazon.com
Buy.com
Newegg.com

After reading this Fatwallet thread , I rushed out to Circuit City. A 50″ Plasma for $700? I’M IN! Originally, the TV was on sale for $999, but there was a $300 discount for signing up with Direct TV at Circuit City. I signed up for Direct TV and was scheduled an install date at the store. The thing is, your service hasn’t been activated yet and you won’t be charged until they do so. Knowing that, as soon as I got home, I called Direct TV and canceled I still got the discount and left with a very good deal!

Some people may be dissuaded by the brand name, “Element”. Most consumers don’t realize that some seemingly generic televisions contain the same parts as the “better” brands. As a result, they go out and buy a Samsung or LG thinking they’re getting the best. They probably are, but is the $1000 difference worth minimal to no improvement? Especially if the generics are using the same/similar parts. For example, Element is owned by the Petters Group who also owns Polaroid. The Petters Group simply rebrands the Polaroid TVs as Element TVs. They may look different, but the internals are the same, thus the picture quality (which really matters) remains on the same level as the Polaroid counterparts. Although we know Polaroid for their cameras, I’ve read that they also make very good TVs, one person even said the quality was on par with his Sharp TV.

My point is, do your research and you will find very good deals.

Old Envision 32″ LCD

New Element 50″ Plasma

Many of you are thinking, “Yeah, right. Nothing is free!” That is true, to an extent. To get free games, I completed offers at yourfree360games.com That website and many others (yourfreeiphone.com, 360elite4free.com, yourfreeistuff.com, and more) are all run by the same company, Transcendent Innovations (http://www.trainn.org) Their program is completely legit and I have received (2) $100 Best Buy gift cards in lieu of the games because they were out of stock at the time and offered me the cards. Read this thread from Slickdeals.net for reviews from people who have actually completed this process.

Once you sign up for an account, you will be presented with various offers to complete. For example, the offers I chose were Stamps.com, At Home Rewards, Simply You, and Privacy Matters. I chose those specific offers because they were the fastest and easiest to do. All the offers except Stamps.com requires a $1 payment per offer, but c’mon now, $1 is nothing. Once you’re signed up for the trial offers, make sure to stay signed up for the required period and cancel before the trial offer ends.

A quick look at the website shows that the offers have changed. Some offers require you to pay for a premium membership or the like, so make sure you read the descriptions and make your choices wisely. Also, all of trainn.org’s sister sites operate in the same way, so if you don’t want 360 games, there are other options. Either way, they’re legit and gave me some free money! Now just 4 more months until the government gives us all free money!